The Citizen Coding Platform
Pros
- Minimal coding experience required. Javascript is a must-have, but the documentation is excellent, and once you're past the learning curve, it's great!
- Great WYSIWYG editor. It's easy to see the layout and still have deep control over what you're putting together.
- Excellent integrations with G Suite. There are methods built-in that allow you to easily authenticate and work with the G Suite APIs.
Cons
- Definitely not for beginners. App Maker certainly isn't usable by "everybody," but it's excellent for those who are willing to learn and get their hands dirty!
- Experienced developers will have issues. The target user is someone who doesn't want to (or know how to) use something like App Engine or Kubernetes. People with more experience will certainly see limitations and find it difficult to use to the fullest extent.
- Data sources can be iffy to manage. It used to be that App Maker would use a sheet or "Drive table" as a data source, but it now requires a GCP data source like CloudSQL.
Return on Investment
- We have seen a reduction in time spent on manual processes by being able to automate functions in Google Sheets, take input with special functionality, and have App Maker do the work for us.
- We have seen the internal development queue decrease, which allows us to focus on larger projects that couldn't be handled by App Maker.
- We have seen ownership and process improvements increase in certain departments, as they are able to get to work themselves.
Alternatives Considered
Heroku Platform, Wix and Envoy
Other Software Used
Certify, RingCentral, Google Voice, Spanning Backup for G Suite, BetterCloud, ThinkHR Learn, Google Hire