While Office 2.0 has brought some excellent utilities, the free online database creators lag behind word processors and spreadsheets in terms of functionality. They can be useful additions to the small office needing to put a short form on their website without the need for hiring a web programmer, but their utility doesn't stretch much more than that.
Zoho Creator
Description: Zoho Creator is an online database solution that is adequate for simple web-based applications. It contains a simple form builder and a scripting feature that allows logic to be added to the application. While not complex enough to really replace a true database in even a small office, it can be useful for creating web-based forms without the need to hire a programmer.
Lazybase
Description: This free online database solution is a very simple database with no support for advanced queries, forms or reporting. It might be an adequate solution for keeping up with titles in a personal movie collection, but I wouldn't stretch it much further than that.
StarterBase
Description: StarterBase is a very simple online database solution that offers a free account boasting that you can create five "applications" on it. But don't be fooled, what StarterBase refers to as "applications" are no more than tables. Whether this is just a bad choice of terms or is unethical marketing, it doesn't lead to much confidence in the tool. The database itself is awkward to use, which is readily apparent when adding data through an ill-conceived form.
