Sounds interesting, but what's the backend for Code Preview? and how is it different from other companies in this space like Retool, Zeet, etc.
This is an interesting question, the codepreview integration can operate without a backend, in fact, some existing integrations work this way.
Still, a backend helps to:
1. Distribute the necessary settings/scripts to create a preview, this is now handled by a plain-old (password-protected) file server.
2. Allow users to manage their projects, for example, set variables/secrets, configure a custom domain, etc.
> how is it different from other companies
The main difference is that we did not go to the K8s way, which help us to easily integrate projects without asking our customers to adapt their project to us.
Besides that, there are no bots behind our contact pages, so far, we have a very close relationship with our customers.
> like Retool, Zeet, etc.
I wasn't aware about these tools, still, they seem to be tools for creating applications while codepreview allows generating previews for existing applications.
Is that a fair comparison?
1. Netlify/Vercel handle production deployments while codepreview does not.
2. Netlify/Vercel have many more features than codepreview, still, codepreview is more flexible in what it can, do you want to pre-create users for each preview? no problem, do you SQS queues? you can get those, etc.
3. Vercel/Netlify are mostly about frontend previews (tied to js) while codepreview handles fullstack previews, in our demo, we showcase a web app preview built with Scala/Scala.js/Postgres, other stacks are supported too (like Java-based ones).
4. Vercel/Netlify charge per user while codepreview charges a fixed fee for all your users.
Hope my questions help you in making an sharper elevator pitch to customers.
You have reminded about a comparison chart we are drafted but never published.