You’re prepared to really develop an API now that you understand what it is, why you would need one, and how to access one. With the exception of the final two, none of the below solutions need to be coded, but a lot of them can be improved or augmented with some custom development effort. In this article, we will explore the best Tools For Building APIs Without Code.
This approach, which enables you to test your API before you engage a software engineer, allows you to start with a no-code prototype and then enhance it with code from a developer.
Sparklite
Description: If you have data and calculations in an Excel Spreadsheet, you can turn them into a Sparklite no-code app in just a few clicks. To get a safe, queryable API that developers can use with any frontend, all you need to do is specify the inputs and outputs in your spreadsheet. SparkLite will take care of the rest.
Pros:
- A no-code, simple solution
- Integrations with other no-code builders
- API testing UI built-in
- Works with Excel out of the box
- Fast, even with complex calculations
- Free!
Cons:
- No custom code or authentication yet
- No write or update support yet
- Google Sheets not yet supported
Sheetsu
Description: Sheetsu might be the easiest way to get started building an API because you probably already have some data in a spreadsheet that will make up the backbone of your application. And Sheetsu takes any Google Sheet and turns it into a queryable, flexible API.
Pros:
- Super simple to get started. This is truly a zero-code solution
- Authentication via an API key
- Route-based permissions
- Automatically generated docs
- Input forms to allow users to add content
- Can use with Zapier to trigger events in other services, send emails, etc.
- Includes “instructions” you can email to developers to help them start using your API
- “Handlebars” option allows you to create a frontend template from your data
Cons:
- Does not allow you to enhance your API with custom code
- No user roles for advanced permissions
- Linking data in multiple tables isn’t really possible
- Query options are somewhat limited (just a simple search by field)
- Doesn’t appear to allow rate limiting
- While there is a free plan, it’s extremely limited, and you’re likely going to have to move to the $49/month plan pretty quickly
Airtable
This is one of the best Tools For Building APIs Without Code.
Description: I’ve started using Airtable for almost everything that I used to pack into spreadsheets. Having a fantastic visual user interface and built-in interfaces with numerous other applications is a major benefit of utilizing Airtable as your API. Additionally, Zapier enables you to create custom actions that are launched when new Airtable entries are added.
Pros:
- Super simple to get started, another zero-code solution
- Authentication via a single API key
- Permissions using sharing settings in UI
- Input forms to allow users to add content
- Can use Zapier to trigger events in other services, send emails, etc.
- Database-style linking between records
- Query by complex functions for advanced filtering and searching of records
- User roles allow limited role-based permissions
- Excellent automatic documentation generated for each table
- API is automatic. Every Airtable you make already has API access
Cons:
- Officially only allows up to 5 API requests per second, which might be fine for light use, but could be limiting as you scale up
- Authenticating users requires them to have an Airtable account and generate their own API key
- Not as customizable as some options
WrapAPI
This is one of the best Tools For Building APIs Without Code.
Description: In theory, WrapAPI is a powerful and extremely useful tool for scraping data or making your own static website or spreadsheet into a queryable, dynamic API. In practice, it’s a bit more complicated.
Even though I’m very technical, I’ve experimented with WrapAPI a lot and discovered that it only functions properly for select websites. Complex “client-side” apps tend to be lost, but relatively simple HTML-only webpages generally perform well.
But, if you already have your data on a web page (perhaps an HTML table) and want to provide it via an API as well, it’s worth trying out this tool.
Pros:
- Great if the data you have already exists on the web and it’s displayed on a simple webpage
- Would also be useful for monitoring web pages that don’t offer “official” APIs
- API-key based authentication
- Generous free tier (30k requests/month)
Cons:
- Can’t save data through the API, they are read-only
- No logging, or extensions, and customizability is limited
- A little more difficult to get set up unless you know how HTML and CSS selectors work.
Restdb.io
Description: What I like about RestDB io is that it starts simple, but is very powerful if you are a developer. Although it’s not quite as simple to add features like authentication or validation as it is in some platforms, if you are proficient in Javascript, you might be able to build that on your own.
Pros:
- Can create “lookup” relationships between records
- Can bring your own database to customize even further
- Pricing is very good and each tier scales really high
- Lots of features can be added via “Codehooks”:
- Authentication
- Logging
- Emails
- Role or route-based permissions
Cons:
- Supposed you want to get beyond basic use-cases, you’ll need a developer to help
- The auto-generated docs are too simplistic
- Vendor lock-in is a likely problem once you scale. While you can export your data, it would be pretty arduous to rebuild lots of custom Codehooks
Bubble
Description: Bubble is probably the best web application builder I’ve seen for those who don’t code, and because it also includes an option to expose your data or workflows over an API, it’s worth noting here. To control access to resources or fully hide some resources, you can integrate with your application’s permission settings. It’s a simple choice to use Bubble to generate your API if you currently use them for your website.
Pros:
- Permissions and authentication managed the same way as it is in the application builder
- Documentation generation with Swagger
- Logging through Bubble’s admin interface
- Creating data models is pretty simple and you can import CSV files with your data
Cons:
- Learning Bubble is a big undertaking, and if you go with them, you’re likely all in
- Not quite as customizable as building your own API with code, but it’s pretty close
Algolia
Description: For searching data, Algolia is simply magical. The majority of the other solutions here aren’t performance-focused because, frequently, creating an MVP doesn’t deserve it, but Algolia is a terrific option if you require speed and have a lot of data. You can upload records using CSV or JSON, and depending on how you intend to utilize it, it may require some technical setup. A Zapier connector is currently being developed. Algolia can probably work for you even if you are not a programmer.
Pros:
- Super-good at searching, setting up search rules, and speed
- Slightly more difficult than editing a spreadsheet, but not much
- Can be used as a replacement for Solr or Elasticsearch (if you don’t know what those are, don’t worry about it)
- Logging is available
- Scales up as high as you want
Cons:
- Limited flexibility and customization
- No documentation generation
- Can get expensive at higher use levels
Strapi
Description: Strapi is an open-source content management system that lets you self-host an API on your own server in minutes. You can probably get started by following the setup instructions even if you are not an experienced developer. To host your Strapi backend, you’ll need to run and maintain a server, which is currently the major restriction. Strapi, however, will likely introduce a hosted version that will make it even simpler for non-technical customers to get started with as it is an open-source firm.
Pros:
- Very flexible and fast
- Includes a GraphQL interface, which is a better option for some use cases
- Can build complex relationships between data models
- Permissions and authentication rules can be set granularly
- Scales up as much as your server can handle
- Free (but you do pay for your server)
Cons:
- Not completely “no-code” because you have to setup and run it on your own server
- More complicated to set up and configure than some options
PHP CRUD API
This is the last Tools For Building APIs Without Code.
Description: If you’re semi-technical or you can hire a developer to do some initial setup, PHP-CRUD-API might be a great option. It instantly generates an API that is documented and extremely customisable after you connect it to an existing MySQL, Postgres, or SQL Server database. The drawback of this strategy is that hosting and establishing the application will cost money. The benefit is that it ought to continue scaling with you after your MVP.
Pros:
- Much more flexible as you can view and modify the whole app’s source code
- Once set up, you just have to modify your database schema to modify the API
- Scales as much as the server you put it on
- Automatic Swagger documentation generation
- Works great if you already have an existing database
Cons:
- Not really a “no-code” solution as you’ll likely have to have a developer set it up for you
- While the application is free, you will have to pay for hosting it (probably $5-$25/month)
- No authentication, logging, triggers, etc. included out of the box, but they can be added with some custom coding