Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by ordinaryradical on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @10:46AM
(#26329878)
Sounds like you’re on the right track. I personally think codeless tools like these are all about confidence-building. I’m just technical enough to know what Puppeteer is and know how long it would take me to learn it. If I see that I can learn your tool right on your site/play around with it without having to sign up, my conviction goes way up.
Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by pimlottc on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @05:29PM
(#26335688)
The cloud feature sounds like a nice product, but I think ordinaryradial was suggesting something else (or if he wasn't, I am): a toy app on your own pages that also has the automation scripts "pre-injected". It would be limited to just running on that sample app but would let people try it out immediately in their own browser without needing to install an extension or use a full-blown virtual browser.
Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by yaseer on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @05:57PM
(#26336025)
Ah yes, I get the gist - I didn't explain the rationale well!
Creating that toy environment on a single page would result in us engineering something totally new, just for demo purposes.
It's easier to just virtualise everything like browserstack. That way, we don't make anything new, we just virtualise what we've already built, and you can try it, instantly.
It's the same result, but in one case, we spend on engineering, but in the other, we spend on hosting.
Re:Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a....
by pimlottc on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @06:24PM
(#26336298)
That’s certainly fair - you’ve got to build out the cloud offering anyway. Makes sense, even if the toy idea is in some ways simpler from a technology point of view; dev resources aren’t free.
What you've described is literally our cloud product - we give people a sandbox with a virtual browser to use and get started (like browserstack). We're working out a way to scale it cheaply, so anyone can get started. Right now, it's a paid feature.
I'm very glad the feature we have planned is something customers would appreciate though, at least we won't have built something nobody wants. We made that mistake in the past...