Hi there Coda community, i’m new here so i have some really basic questions that are making me very confused and frustrated.
1 - Can I actually make an “Web App” or a “Mobile App” with Coda for commercial purposes? They say Coda Doc is as powerful as an App and there is a lot of “App talk” in their message, but then i can’t really make it work or look like a real App… Sure i can make a game in Coda or a cool tool, but then does not work like a stand-a·lone tool, I can only use it inside Coda, with the Coda interface… And yes i know users can “play” without login to Coda but their changes are not going to be saved…
2 - Everyone have to login via Coda to actually use a doc? This don’t really feel right… The doc was not supposed to be an App? Plus the Coda interface is very distracting and makes the all experience of using a doc powerful as an App to look more like using a doc in Word or Google Drive…
3 - Is it possible to hide the Coda brand and the Coda interface? For building something with commercial purposes in mind this is something really important, and i was not able to find anything about it… So my guess is no?!
Please note im not really criticizing Coda, Coda seems like a great product but I guess it’s not really what I was expecting or imagining? All those sweet words about App power really made me expect a completely different product were each doc would work and look exactly like an App… My fault I know
Don’t know what to say, you already answered most of your questions, Coda is a doc first, so yeah, we are stuck with its interface because It is the only program that can read such documents, also you won’t be able to hide coda’s branding, It would be like hiding MS Word’s branding from Word, Word just reads the documents, you could use another program to do it, but in the case of coda, only Coda reads Coda docs.
Also, Coda is not a platform for building apps, but to build docs that are as powerful as apps, I get that It is subtle, but Coda advertises a powerful doc building platform that can adapt itself to look and act like an app, but It is not an app building platform with doc capabilities.
Lastly, I have no idea If you can or not use it for commercial purposes, but the last post that I saw from the Coda team was about this, they even had a survey about creating coda docs and about wether or not people would like to work creating coda docs for other people’s business
(Sorry If It seemed a little too harsh, that is not what i meant If you felt attacked or that I was rude, my apologies)
Also, Welcome! Don’t get discouraged by some of this stuff, there’s lots of great things you can build with Coda dude, take a look at the section of show and tell to see the cool things people have done!
Hi Pedro, thanks for the feedback, I really want to love Coda… seriously im really trying but unfortunately I can’t really use it since i want to build something to use with clients, even maybe build a service around it, but for now was just not build with that in mind…
Indeed, Coda is not an app-building platform; you cannot build packageable apps with it. The “Coda apps” statement is just a marketing copy, just like the “No code” one (because formulas are technically still code, just not the “conventional programming language” kind of code like C++ or Python).
What Coda actually is — a cloud doc platform, think Excel online / Google Sheets, but with more ways to present the data, and with buttons that you can program to perform actions.
I believe, the “doc as powerful as an app” statement is there only to set Coda apart from rivals like Notion. Coda is basically Notion + actions. This addition lets you build custom workflows, not only to-dos and journals.
To sum up: Coda does not let you make apps — but it lets you build docs that can substitute many kinds of apps.
Then there’s also me who likes to abuse Coda and build various crazy stuff, like a chat bot or this snake game, just for fun and to explore the potential of the platform
