Database 101: Why Your Web App Needs One

If you're new to the world of web applications, you might be wondering: 

• What is a database, and 
• Why do I need one? 

The answer is simple–your application needs a place to store and manage data efficiently.

Imagine you’re building a property listing marketplace. You need a database to store information about all the properties that will be displayed on the website. Without it, there would be no way to keep track of the listings, making the application non functional.

Now, let's break down how a typical web application is structured and how databases fit into the bigger picture.

Architecture of a Web Application

A standard web application is made up of three core components:

1. The Frontend – This is everything the user sees and interacts with, essentially the web page itself.
2. The API Layer – This acts as a bridge, allowing the front end to communicate with the database.
3. The Database – The storage system that holds all of the application’s data.

The API layer and the database, together form what we call the backend of an application.

How the Backend Works: A Supermarket Analogy

A web application is quite similar to a supermarket or a convenience store. Here’s how:

• The storefront represents the frontend. This is what customers (users) see when they walk in (visit the website).
• The warehouse represents the database. This is where all the products (data) are stored.
• The shop assistants represent the API layer. They retrieve products from the warehouse and place them on shelves for customers to purchase (use).

Without shop assistants, the warehouse would be redundant since no products would reach the storefront. Similarly, without an API layer, the database is useless because the frontend cannot retrieve or display any stored data.

Understanding the API Layer

The API layer is the middleman between the frontend and the database. It retrieves, processes, and delivers data when needed.

For example: Imagine you store full dates (2025-02-07) in your database, but on the front end, you only want to display the year (2025). The API layer fetches the full date, extracts the year, and then sends only that information to the frontend.

A simple way to think about the API layer is as the "secretary" of the database:

• The frontend asks the API (secretary) for specific data.
• The API searches the database and retrieves the requested data.
• The API sends the relevant data back to the frontend.

This ensures that the frontend gets only the necessary information in the correct format.

Choosing the Right Backend for Your Application

Depending on your needs, different backends will be best suited.

For example, using something like Google Sheets would be best suited for a prototype in its early stages that is still testing many things. The reason for this is that it simply isn’t built to be a production ready backend for a web application.

🚨 WARNING: When Not to Use Google Sheets and Airtable

Google Sheets is great at visualizing data in the form of a spreadsheet. But it doesn’t have key features you would need, such as:

• User authentication (to restrict access to certain pieces of data).
• The ability to store hundreds of thousands of records.

There are certain hacky workarounds you can use to restrict who can access what data when using Google Sheets. But, they are just that—hacky workarounds.

The same goes for something like Airtable. It’s fantastic for data visualization. But it’s not built to be a production ready backend for the same reasons we outlined for Google Sheets.

The Right Way to Build a Scalable Backend

When you want to build something scalable that can:

• handle millions of records and 
• properly manage data security.

Then, using tools specifically built to be production-ready is key.

In the context of low-code/no-code, all of the primary backend tools like: Supabase, Xano, and BuildShip have both a database and an API layer. You can fully interact with the data.

It’s a wrap!

Databases are a crucial part of web applications, storing all the data your app needs. The API layer serves as the bridge, retrieving and processing that data for the frontend.

If you’re just starting, tools like Google Sheets and Airtable can work for early prototypes. But, for scalable, production ready applications, investing in a dedicated backend is essential.

Want to learn more? Check out our playlist on integrating different backends into your web projects.

Until next time!