Skuid

Skuid, an acronym for Scalable Kit for User Interface Design, was established in 2013 by founder Ken McElrath. McElrath's career has consistently been at the intersection of design and technology, with early experience in graphic design, Mac expertise, and marketing, followed by ventures in cloud education management and technology services. This background in solving diverse business problems across multiple industries ultimately led to the creation of Skuid. In January 2024, Skuid was acquired by Nintex, a company specializing in process intelligence and automation, to enhance Nintex's application development capabilities. Following the acquisition, Skuid's products continue to be available and supported.

Skuid operates as a low-code application development platform, designed primarily for businesses using Salesforce. It functions as a toolkit that enables companies to build and deploy custom business applications with little to no coding, aiming to increase user adoption and productivity. The platform allows users to create bespoke user interfaces and experiences, addressing the common issue of standard enterprise software not meeting the specific needs of its users. Its clients are typically operational leaders and their teams who need to develop purpose-built applications quickly. The business model is subscription-based, with tiered pricing plans that include 'Builder,' 'Essential,' 'Growth,' and 'Enterprise' options.

The core of Skuid's offering is its cloud-based, drag-and-drop application composer. This platform enables users to connect to various data sources, including multiple Salesforce orgs, REST, OData, and SQL databases, and unify the data within a single user interface. Key features include visual data modeling, a logic framework for creating business rules, and a library of over twenty-five drag-and-drop UI components for designing application layouts. Skuid provides a Design System Studio for creating custom themes to match company branding without writing CSS. While it is a low-code platform, it also offers code extensibility through Javascript for developers who require more advanced customization. The platform is delivered as a managed package within a Salesforce environment, leveraging the existing data model without needing external databases unless specified.

Keywords: low-code application development, no-code platform, Salesforce app development, UI/UX platform, application customization, data integration, process automation, digital experience platform, Nintex, Ken McElrath, custom business applications, drag-and-drop builder, Salesforce AppExchange, user interface design, adaptive UI, application adoption, visual data modeling, enterprise software, app composer, workflow automation