We took a surface level look at Pipedream the other day, which really does look cool. It’s like a much more modern and fancy version of what Yahoo Pipes was. A better comparison might be Zapier, except you write code (if you want to) to make easy-to-build cloud functions that can be triggered by anything from RSS to HTTP requests to Slack messages. I wouldn’t say Pipedream itself is complicated to learn (although, admittedly, I haven’t exactly dug deep), but it does embrace complexity. Lots of inputs, lots of processing possibilities, and lots of outputs. Unlimited combinations, you might say.
I saw and bookmarked Napkin.io the other day, which, so far (as it’s brand new) seems to push away the complexity.
Computing tools should be made for humans. They should allow us to be more creative, more free, and more inspired. We believe everyone should have access to computing and tap into its full potential.
We’re making Napkin to change the status quo, to build a new kind of tool – a tool that gets out of your way, that lets you code, and that’s a joy to use.
It’s like a cleaner version of how I remember Webtask. You write a function and… that’s it. It’s available at a URL you can hit.
Each function has environment variables, so you can chuck API keys in there for proxying, auth if you need it, logs for debugging, plus you can write in Node or Python. It’s a healthy amount of features, with more on the way, but it really does feel like embracing simplicity rather than complexity.
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