Building app with only custom code

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Hi

I’m working on building an app for my college campus as part of my senior capstone. I have no code or web/app design experience so I’m learning as I go along.

I’m using Airtable as my database but a lot of the page load times are slow and laggy. I’m worried if the app is not super responsive and speedy it won’t get approved.

I noticed while playing around with custom code blocks that they load almost instantly. So my question is, can I build an app on softr using only custom code blocks and not use any data from a backend database?

Despite my lack of code experience, I’m sort of starting to get the hang of it with the help of chatgpt and online references.

My understanding is that using a backend like xano or supabase might speed things up on the app, but I’m on a bit of a tight timeframe and I’m not sure I have the time to learn to use those backends.

for some context, the app itself is not super complicated - just information on health/safety and medical emergencies. No login user data or anything like that.

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi @Alex03, you’re right about datasources - the speed and performance heavily depends on the backend you’re using. Something like Xano or Supabase is much more suited to heavy-use apps than project management tools like Airtable. That said, if you don’t need user logins you can always use Softr to build a static website. While you could built one with all custom code blocks, any sensitive data (like API keys) used in the code would be exposed in the front-end of the app.

I’d recommend pulling the trigger on learning Supabase or Xano as it will make your app much more scalable and give you some valuable skills to apply to any app you want to build, not just the current one!

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Thank you! I found an older post on here with custom code for a loading page which at least neatens up the UX. I’m definitely going to learn an SQL backend for any future projects.

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