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by Dave3of5 1105 days ago
Body validation is too simple, for example I want the be able to configure the min max from the DB or interdependent validation i.e. if you pass in and Id and a search string I want to return an error.

The DB Query editor is too simple requiring the user to manually create sql queries rather than visually build them.

The DB editor doesn't allow foreign keys and complex DB relationships to be defined visually as well.

The response editor is also not powerful enough. For example I want to send back links (HATEOAS Style) to the objects just created. I also want to send the object just created back in the response.

There is no Authorization only Authentication.

To be honest this isn't really that useful other than very simple Apis that have no real logic in them.

Pricing on Actions is an insane pricing strategy. The pricing looks too high to be reasonable. Even a simple Api would cost me a lot with the pricing strategy.

I see the UI component is coming soon. Without a way to build a nice UI to connect to my Api this isn't really a low code solution.

No details on hosting on this either. Is my api hosted in the US/Europe/Asia. This will make a big difference to most as I don't want long roundtrip times on my UI.

If I'm going to build my next big thing on a Platform I need confidence that the company won't shut down next week and my app is toast. Is there some way that I could be convinced that you won't run out of money and shutdown tomorrow and leave my project dead with you ?

2 comments

Thanks a lot for your extensive feedback! It's detailed comments like this that help us improve and meet users needs.

Let me address each of your points:

Body validation, DB Query editor & DB features: Definitely understand your need for more complex validation and query building. We're still in public beta, and building out and refining our features is a continuous process. We're working on improving these areas for more advanced use cases and will consider your feedback as part of that.

Authorization: More granular control over authorization is on our roadmap.

Pricing: Appreciate your concern about pricing. In our private beta we had a different strategy and we have launched the new pricing plan this week after talking with our private beta users about what would be important for them. We'll certainly take your feedback into consideration as we adjust our pricing strategy.

Hosting location: Currently everything is hosted in the US, that being said region selection has been requested and is on the roadmap as well however we'll likely not not ship this feature before EOY. Till then, will include more information about the current hosting region on our website.

Long-term Reliability: We understand the reservation about how long Fastgen will exist since we just launched. We have not announced any funding for Fastgen yet but we are already well-funded for the next couple of years. It might also help to know that the whole core team has been working together for multiple years before we started Fastgen. While it was a different company, we raised more than 100M dollars for that one and are experienced in navigating different fundraising environments. We're in it for the long haul.

There is something increasingly misaligned with SaaS companies offering mission critical products (like databases or backends), that's bordering on delusions of grandeur.

If you are offering anything that has to deeply and critically integrate with my company and you are not exactly google, you will have to make it super obvious how I can practically outlive you without paying an insane price, before I would even ever consider adoption. Considering the trajectory that most startups take after a couple of years, it's just irresponsible to take it on as an additional risk.

That means practically, if you want to sell me on your SaaS (which I am happy to pay for, as long as you can offer it) I need a clear and guaranteed way to migrate to self-hosting if I must, without me asking. Right now, Vercel is a good example of how to do this right.

And Quantum Metrics is a good example of how to do it wrong - no easy way to export and/or migrate. Vendor lock-in sucks.
What happened to the previous company that you raised $100M for? Is it a SaaS? Is it still operating?
wow. Seriously you're probably expecting too much from a low-code solution! No platform is going to have everything you can imagine in it.
I worked at low code pioneer Mendix previously. 10 years ago we had all of these things. For enterprise grade low code platform you definitely need all of these features and a lot more.
Low code is hard, not only do you have to deal with insane technical challenges but also need to make sure you’re building the right level of abstraction. I wonder if it’s better to focus on very specific niche applications instead of being a “backend” builder.
No checked the other reply the dude from the company is saying all this will be in their product eventually. I think they launched very early.