6 ways to automate your no-code app builder

In the old days, designing a simple app required both a herculean effort and a fancy computer engineering degree. But thanks to no-code app builders, even tech newbies can build a custom tool for both front-end and back-end business processes. Client portals, eCommerce stores, and even internal dashboards are relatively easy to build—even with zero coding skills.

But a custom app is only as powerful as it is efficient. It still takes time and effort to manage your app, stay aware of important updates, and keep backups of your most important data. Thankfully, Zapier’s automated workflows (called Zaps) are a no-code way to connect your no-code app with the rest of your tech stack.

Here are six of the best ways to automate your app builder so you can maximize your custom app’s effectiveness while saving yourself valuable time.

Table of contents

Why you should use Interfaces to build a no-code app

There are a lot of excellent no-code app builders out there—and many of them are featured in this article. But if you’re here to learn about automating your custom app, you might be interested in an app builder that’s actually built for automation: Zapier Interfaces.

Interfaces is a powerful no-code app builder with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that lets you create everything from custom forms to client portals and internal tools. Then, Zapier’s automation platform lets you seamlessly integrate your custom app with thousands of business-critical tools. Automatically create follow-up tasks, collect payments, capture and manage leads, and onboard new employees, all in one (streamlined and endlessly customizable) place.

Learn more about Zapier Interfaces, or get started with one of these templates:

Automate actions inside your no-code app builder 

One of the most useful ways to automate your app builder is to connect records across the app. That way, you don’t have to spend your time manually updating your custom app as you (and your customers) use it. 

For instance, you might want to create new records inside your app when a specific trigger event takes place. Or, maybe you’d like to edit in-app records whenever a user clicks an action button. Maybe you use an API workflow to send information from your app to third-party tools—and it would be useful to trigger that workflow automatically based on user activity. 

These Zaps let you set up custom actions within the app based on your chosen trigger actions, which saves you time and helps scale your app more effectively.

Update your no-code app automatically

If you find yourself spending too much time adding new users or creating orders in your app based on activity in your other tools, automation can take care of that busywork for you. 

From spreadsheets and databases

Maybe you use a spreadsheet to track new inventory for your online store or an Airtable base to manage your employee directory. If that information needs to go into your custom app too, automation can help keep your records up to date across tools. 

These Zaps let you skip manually copying and pasting important information into your app builder. Anytime there’s a new spreadsheet row detected in Google Sheets or Airtable, a new record will be created automatically in apps like Adalo and Bubble.

From eCommerce tools

If you manage your course or community using a custom app, save time by connecting to your payment processor or eCommerce tool. That way, as soon as a customer purchases a course or buys a membership in Stripe, they’ll be added as a user in your  Passion.io or Adalo app. Granting instant access to new customers not only improves customer satisfaction, but also saves you admin work on the back-end. 

On the other hand, if a customer cancels their subscription, this Zap cancels their membership in Passion.io or Bubble automatically. Keep your records updated and make sure only paying customers get access to your content.

From forms

A form can be a versatile and easy way to make updates to your app. For example, your inventory management team could use a form to quickly add new products to your eCommerce app. Or, maybe you collect subscribers using a form on your website or social media. 

These Zaps create new records in your app builder automatically from each new form submission, letting you update your app just by clicking “submit.”

From email

App-builders like Triggre and Kintone let you build custom workplace platforms for efficiently managing your team’s internal processes. But unless you’re consolidating all your communication and files inside that platform, it’s easy to get lost in the chaos. 

These Zaps automatically save new emails to your app, helping you streamline your organization by keeping all your work-related messages and attachments in one place.

Create a spreadsheet backup

Custom apps are powerful tools for a great user experience, but when it comes to data storage, nothing beats a good old-fashioned spreadsheet. For everything you store in a custom app—be it product inventory, work orders, employee data, or customer purchases—you likely want a backup database for that crucial information.

But manually copying and pasting data from one app to another doesn’t scale. And as your business grows, it’ll become increasingly impossible to stay on top of new entries.

Thankfully, you can effortlessly connect your no-code app builder to your spreadsheet or database of choice using automation.  Whether you’re using a spreadsheet as a backup, for data analytics, or as a central hub for further automation, these workflows are a great starting point. 

Do things on a schedule

If you have regular maintenance workflows to keep your no-code app up to date, it can be helpful to automate those routine tasks. These Zaps trigger API workflows in Bubble or create new records in Adalo on a daily or weekly schedule. That way, your app stays updated without constant manual attention. 

Send notifications to the right people at the right time

There are plenty of reasons to send a notification whenever a specified action takes place in your custom app. Whether it’s sending follow-up messages to new subscribers or notifying your team of important updates, automation can keep the right people informed without bogging you down with busywork.

For instance, say your customer-facing app lets users create accounts or make purchases. It’s a good idea to send them a follow-up email whenever they take that desired action. 

But managing welcome emails for each new customer or subscriber can quickly get unwieldy—especially as your app becomes more popular. Instead, set up a Zap that sends welcome emails automatically. You’ll show new customers great customer service without being glued to your app builder’s dashboard.

Or maybe you want an easy way to stay up to date on changes to an app database. You could send time-sensitive notifications to your team for new orders or customers. Or if your staff uses a custom employee portal, it could be useful to send your HR team automated emails whenever there’s a new PTO request. These Zaps send custom emails to you or your team whenever a new record is created in your app builder of choice.

If your team lives in Slack instead of email, send those important updates to a Slack channel instead. You may want to notify your customer success team of new subscribers, update your IT team on incoming requests, or make company-wide announcements for new additions to your staff directory. No matter your use case, these Zaps can get it done. 

Use webhooks to connect your app to almost anything

If the software you want to connect to your app doesn’t integrate with Zapier (yet), you don’t have to default back to manual data entry. Webhooks by Zapier can help you fill in those gaps.

Webhooks are a simple way to send information from one tool to another based on a trigger event. Once it’s set up, webhooks will update your no-code app builder (or update your other tool) automatically. For example, you might add new users or records from an obscure form builder or send information to your custom database tool whenever a form is submitted in Zapier Interfaces. 

Use one of these templates to get started building your custom workflow.

Get more out of your custom apps with automation

No matter how you use no-code app builders, it takes a lot of effort and time to manage custom apps. You need to stay aware of important updates like new users or back-end requests. It’s also important to keep backups of data and files, whether you’re using a database or spreadsheet (or both). 

Doing all this work manually gets old fast, not to mention wastes all the time you saved by not having to learn to code (well, maybe not all the time, but at least one semester of a computer engineering program, right?). 

Instead, you can use automation to connect your custom apps to the rest of your most-used tools—ensuring up-to-date records and timely responses, minus all the grunt work.

Ready to automate your no-code app? See what you can start building today.

This article was originally published in December 2023 and was most recently updated in January 2024.