AWS Honeycode Is Dead. What are Alternatives?

AWS Honeycode Is Shutting Down. What Are Good Alternatives?

In 2020, AWS launched its brand-new no-code app builder Honeycode to great fanfare. But just three years later, AWS announced that Honeycode is shutting down and will be discontinued, effective February 29, 2024. For teams and builders looking for Honeycode alternatives, this guide explains how to migrate, what to consider when choosing no-code or low-code platforms, and which platforms replace Honeycode most effectively.

The official announcement on the Honeycode website marks the beginning of the end for AWS’ no-code app builder.

For those who have developed apps on AWS Honeycode, the question now is: what’s next? What platform should you migrate to? Below we cover practical migration steps, how to think about mapping spreadsheet models to relational databases, and why certain AppSheet alternatives or MySQL app builder platforms might be a better fit depending on your needs.

Best Honeycode alternatives: no-code and low-code platforms

The market for no-code alternatives and low-code platforms has matured rapidly. Some tools are spreadsheet-centric while others use proper relational databases and offer production-ready features such as role-based authentication, webhooks, and APIs. When evaluating Honeycode alternatives, prioritize platforms that support data migration, scale beyond row limits, and provide integrations with your existing systems.

Common considerations include total cost of ownership, the ability to connect to external data sources, support for relational data models (important for moving beyond flat spreadsheets), and whether the platform offers built-in hosting and user management.

Rapidly Develop Modern Web Apps

There are plenty of no-code/low-code tools in the market. A good starting point is understanding each tool’s pricing model. With Five, applications can be deployed to the web for as little as US$29.99 per app and month, including unlimited end-users.

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Migrating Away From AWS Honeycode

How to map Honeycode workbooks to a relational database

One of the biggest gaps users face when they migrate is translating spreadsheet logic into a relational database model. A spreadsheet often stores different entities—customers, orders, items, tasks—in a single sheet or workbook. The first step in any Honeycode migration is to audit your workbook column-by-column and identify distinct entities that should become separate tables. Treat each repeated group of columns as a candidate table and look for natural keys you can use as primary keys.

Once you have candidate tables, normalize the data to remove duplicates and redundant fields. This doesn’t mean you must reach perfect 3NF immediately, but separating entities and establishing foreign key relationships (for example, order.table referencing customer.table) prevents exponential data bloat and avoids the row limits you faced in Honeycode. During this stage, consider data types—dates, numeric values, booleans—and standardize formats to make later imports and queries predictable.

After designing the schema, import your CSV exports into the new database using the platform’s import tools. Many modern no-code platforms and MySQL app builder solutions include guided CSV importers that prompt you to map columns to table fields and to set primary/foreign keys. Validate the imported data by running simple queries or using the app UI to confirm relationships and lookup fields function as expected before rebuilding interfaces or automations.

Rebuilding Automations and Integrations During Migration

Workflows and automations are where spreadsheets often hide important business logic. Honeycode automations may trigger alerts, update rows, or send emails; during migration you should catalog all automations and external integrations. For each automation, document triggers, conditions, and actions so you can replicate them in your new platform. Some no-code alternatives provide pre-built automation builders or connectors to services like Zapier, Make, or native webhooks that allow you to re-create equivalent behavior.

When moving integrations, prefer solutions that offer API access, webhook support, and native connectors to common services like Slack, Gmail, or cloud storage. If your new tool uses a relational database, you’ll often gain flexibility to run server-side logic or scheduled jobs for complex automations that were previously difficult or fragile in a spreadsheet environment.

Finally, test automations thoroughly in a staging environment. Run end-to-end scenarios that include user actions, data updates, and third-party callbacks. Logging and error notifications are essential during the cutover so you can quickly identify missing triggers, permissions issues, or malformed payloads and iterate without disrupting production users.

Five: A Honeycode Alternative

Five is an AWS Honeycode alternative for all those who want to run their applications on a more professional and scalable tech stack. As a MySQL app builder and no-code alternative, Five focuses on delivering relational database apps that can scale beyond the artificial row limits of spreadsheet-based tools.

Applications built with Five come with a MySQL database. If you’re not quite sure what this means: MySQL is the world’s most popular open-source database. It can handle data volumes surpassing 2,500 or 10,000 records easily. Choosing a platform that provides a relational database by default avoids common pitfalls when you need to scale and supports robust querying, indexing, and data integrity features.

The only prerequisite for setting up a MySQL database is an understanding of relational databases. Unlike a spreadsheet, MySQL or any other relational database stores data in a relational format for greater efficiency, scalability, and data integrity. If you’re evaluating low-code platforms, favor those that let you design tables visually while still exposing the relational model under the hood—this makes Honeycode migration far smoother.

Five has a visual database designer, which makes this process accessible even for those new to database design. On top of that, Five lets you import data stored in CSV easily using its “Import CSV” feature. This makes the process of moving data off Honeycode and into Five seamless. For teams coming from AppSheet or other spreadsheet-first tools, the transition to a MySQL-backed app gives immediate gains in performance and flexibility.

Five also provides its users with a pre-built application front-end. So unlike in Honeycode, developers do not need to spend time creating a custom user interface. Five’s pre-built user interface is ideal for creating any kind of business software application, such as:

• Human resource applications that manage the onboarding of teams, or manage their availability and shift assignments,
• Approval processes that streamline workflows, or automate tasks, using email and in-app notifications,
• Asset management applications that help users keep track of inventory,
• Surveys that gather feedback from customers, employees and events, or
• Budgeting and event management applications to plan and keep track of time and cost.

Find a wide variety of template applications on our website here.

Last, Five makes it easy to give access to applications. By simply switching on the “multi-user” setting, applications are automatically turned into login-protected apps that allow for the creation of unique user accounts. Each application is hosted under a unique URL that can be shared with end-users to access the app. This simplifies user provisioning compared to spreadsheet-driven apps and provides built-in role-based access control for secure deployments.

Five’s features make it an attractive alternative for those migrating away from AWS Honeycode. But features apart, the big question is how much does running an application developed with Five cost? After all, AWS Honeycode didn’t just offer ease of use. It was also very affordable.

So, let’s take a closer look at Five’s pricing next.

Five: How Much Does It Cost to Build and Run an Application?

Many Honeycode users liked the simplicity and affordability of its pricing model, starting at just US$19.99 per month. When comparing no-code alternatives, remember to factor in record limits, user limits, backups, and integration costs—these can make an initially cheaper plan more expensive over time.

Five offers equally affordable pricing, starting at just US$27.49 per application and month. Now, this is arguably slightly more expensive than Honeycode, but there’s no limit on records or users. On top of that, Five is also free to download, so developers can build and test their applications locally free of charge. For teams that need to migrate from Honeycode and scale quickly, removing row caps and unlocking integrations often reduces long-term costs and maintenance overhead.

Building Your First App with Five

To build your first app with Five, follow our beginner-friendly Excel to Web App tutorial. The guide walks you through CSV imports, mapping spreadsheet columns to tables, setting up user roles, and recreating automations. Using a structured approach to Honeycode migration reduces risk and makes cutover predictable.

If you’re evaluating other no-code alternatives or AppSheet alternative platforms, run a short proof-of-concept: import a representative dataset, recreate two or three core automations, invite a handful of users, and measure performance and usability. This practical comparison will make it clear whether a platform is a short-term fix or a long-term solution for your application needs.