Long signup and wizard flow before first use pushed evaluator toward OpenBlocks → OpenBlocks
“It felt like ages before I could start clicking and playing around. I nearly gave up and left at least twice”
Budibase alternatives: where its users went, and why they left
Budibase (budibase.com) has 13 sourced reports on Friction, drawn from 69 public source threads (as of 2026-10-15), 3 of them describing a move away. This page reads them for one question: if you are leaving Budibase, what do its users say they moved to, and what pushed them out?
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Where Budibase users say they went
Switching reports that name a destination. A count is the number of reports naming it, not a market share: Friction only holds what people say in public.
| Named alternative | Reports naming it | Newest report |
|---|---|---|
| React | 2 | 2023 |
| Grist | 2 | 2022 |
| OpenBlocks | 1 | 2022 |
| Appsmith (compare) | 1 | 2022 |
In their words
No self-referencing relationships and weak CSV import updates, chose Grist → Grist
“it doesn't offer self-referencing table relationships and the CSV import process doesn't seem to support updates as cleanly as Grist”
Evaluated Budibase and Appsmith, rebuilt the tool in React in half the time → React
“I made no serious progress, then threw together what I had in mind in React in half the time”
What pushes people away from Budibase
The most-reported open problems, worst severity first. Each links to the item with its source.
Checkbox in table or repeater randomly selects the last checkbox too · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work · 2 people
“When saving a form an error, fieldname must be of type boolean, is shown for all checkbox fields not changed”
Seeding from Dev to Prod does not preserve row order · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work
“When seeding from Dev to Prod, there's no guarantee that the rows are populated in order”
SQL Server connector breaks with failover clustering · Integrations · Blocks work
“The SQL Server plugin is a little halfbaked. It doesn't work properly with failover clustering and I had to punch in the IP address”
Pagination missing in published app but works in design mode · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work
“Pagination not showing or completely hidden in published app, but it works perfectly fine in build mode”
Complexity ramps up quickly when connecting APIs instead of a database · API & developer experience · Blocks work
“The simple examples are simple, but the curve goes up quickly”
See all 13 themes for Budibase
Other low-code and internal tools tools on Friction, and what their users struggle with
Switching trades one set of problems for another. The same evidence, for each tool Friction covers in this category:
Appsmith
13 reports · 61 source threads · most-discussed area: UI & usability
NocoDB
13 reports · 80 source threads · most-discussed area: UI & usability
Counts and reports reflect people who post in public (developers and technical buyers are over-represented). A tool with fewer reports is not a better tool; it may only be discussed less. How the data is built.