Community Spotlight: Building a Real-World ERP with NocoBase

TL;DR

A community member from Mexico recently shared his story in the NocoBase forum.

For more than a decade, he had been trying to build a system for his family business. One that could cover procurement, sales, inventory, logistics, projects, finance, HR, equipment maintenance, fuel management, and more.

He tried outsourcing, no-code tools, and even building it himself, but none of those attempts worked.

Until one day, he posted this message:

“Mi ERP soñado… gracias a NocoBase.”

My long-awaited ERP has finally come to life with NocoBase.

He wrote the full story in Spanish.

We translated and lightly edited it to keep the meaning clear while staying as close as possible to his original voice.

You can read his original post here: https://forum.nocobase.com/t/mi-erp-sonado-gracias-a-nocobase/8326

Below is the full translated version.

Original post

Hello NocoBase team and community,

I’d like to share my story and how this platform has transformed our family business.

I’m from northern Mexico, and for more than ten years, I had been dreaming of building an integrated system to manage our company, which sells fertilizers and grows crops like corn, beans, and sorghum.

What I wanted was a single ERP that could bring everything together. Purchasing, sales, inventory, logistics, projects, finance, HR, equipment maintenance, fuel management absolutely everything in one place.

Dream became a nightmare

I hired developers to build it.

For a system that covered barely a third of what I needed, they quoted about 200,000 Mexican pesos*.

I paid 60% upfront so they could start. Long story short, they weren’t able to finish it.

They handed me the source code useless to me since I have no technical background. And they never returned the money.

I felt like I’d failed my family, who had trusted me with this project.

The fight to keep going

Even though I felt discouraged, I didn’t give up.

I set up manual processes to collect data from each area and then transferred everything into Excel.

It was inefficient. Information got lost, and the spreadsheets quickly became a chaotic mess that I couldn’t analyze or link together.

I tried building a database in Access, but that didn’t work either.

The ideal solution would have been a custom mobile app for field work, but the quote was 360,000 pesos* plus VAT.

After already failing once, and losing people’s trust, that simply wasn’t an option.

I don’t have programming experience. I never managed to handle Visual Basic, macros, Power Apps, Power BI, and so on. It was all too hard for me, although with effort I did manage to understand entity–relationship diagrams.

Even when AI tools arrived, I tried using Visual Studio Code and learning to program, but the learning curve was still too steep.

The endless search

I tried more than ten no-code tools like Airtable and NocoDB.

I kept running into the same issues: the per-user pricing was too high (I needed at least ten users), there were limits on records and automations, and the features just weren’t enough for our complex needs.

I was close to giving up.

NocoBase came out of nowhere

Then I discovered NocoBase.

Honestly, at first I assumed it was just another tool.

But after testing the demo, I realized it was completely different. Radically different.

Why NocoBase became the real solution?

Completely free: The community version is powerful and doesn’t cost a peso.
Self-hosted: I installed it on my own server, with full control.
No limits: No user caps, no record caps, no automation caps.
Highly customizable: The drag-and-drop interface lets me build everything I needed without writing code.
Easy access: I connected it to a domain, and now we can use it from any device with the internet — or even offline on our local network.

How I finally made it work

I set up NocoBase on a small PC I bought just to use as a server:

8th-gen Intel
i3 with 16GB of RAM
256GB SSD

It cost only 2,350 pesos*.

It uses very little power and has been running nonstop, 24/7, for more than six months.

I discovered NocoBase in March 2025, back when it was on version 1.6.

The timing couldn’t have been better, as key features like variables and responsive layouts were just being added.

For me, the four pillars of building a powerful app in NocoBase are:

A well-structured database
An intuitive interface
Efficient workflows
Clearly defined permissions

A dream realized

Thanks to NocoBase, I finally achieved my dream.

I built the ideal application for our business, with every feature I had imagined, all in one place and without depending on a developer who would charge me for every change.

Each user now has a role with the right permissions, so they only see what they need.

This lets us capture real-time data from the field with almost no errors.

And the biggest transformation is that we can now analyze our information to make better strategic decisions:

Smarter purchasing: We can identify the best suppliers and the most profitable products.
Sales and customers: We can see who our most valuable customers are, who has stopped buying, and offer tailored deals based on data.
Inventory control: We make sure essential items never run out.
Trend insights: We know when sales rise or fall, helping us plan ahead.
Workforce management: We measure each employee’s productivity and profitability.
Predictive maintenance: We stay on top of equipment and machinery upkeep.
Complete traceability: We keep a detailed log for every field and plot.

I’m deeply grateful to the entire NocoBase team and to the community that keeps making it better.

I plan to upgrade soon. First to the Pro version, and later to the Enterprise edition, so I can unlock its full potential.

Looking ahead

I’m really excited about the official 2.0 release.

With the Code Agent and the ability to work directly with database context, I feel I’ll be able to customize my app even further and add advanced analytics without ever needing to learn how to code.

To me, it feels like the ultimate tool.

It took effort to learn everything, but the documentation has it all. Right now, I’m studying the new 2.0 alpha docs using a copy of my production database.

A call to action

It frustrates me that when you search “NocoBase” on Google, YouTube, or Facebook, there’s barely any content in Spanish. While paid tools with far fewer capabilities get promoted everywhere.

So I’ve decided to start a Spanish-language YouTube channel to teach and spread the word about NocoBase, so more people like me can build their own ERP without spending a fortune.

Thank you again. To me, NocoBase isn’t just software — it represents ten years of persistence finally paying off.

A big hug to the whole team and community. Thanks to you, I was able to make my dream come true.

I’m convinced NocoBase is the future of business applications. Its potential is huge, and I’m certain it will soon be at the top.

What I admire most is how the team stays humble, without overselling or making big promises, letting people discover its value on their own — unlike other tools that promise everything and only want our money.

Notes

200,000 Mexican pesos is roughly $11,000.
360,000 Mexican pesos is roughly $19,800.
2,350 Mexican pesos is roughly $129.

Closing words

When we first came across his post in the community, our whole team was genuinely excited. Knowing that NocoBase helped someone turn a ten-year dream into something real is one of the most rewarding parts of our work.

It’s our privilege that NocoBase could serve as the tool to support his vision. But the real credit goes to his persistence and patience, which kept the project moving forward.

We’re also glad to see him sharing his experience with more Spanish-speaking users in his own way. He has already published his first video, and we’d love for you to watch and support it.

Within the NocoBase community, there are engineering leaders, freelance developers, students, and many users like him who are building their own business systems.

Thank you to everyone who shares experiences, offers suggestions, contributes plugins, or joins discussions.

We will continue to listen and bring your feedback into the product so that more people can build the applications they envision.

We also look forward to hearing more voices from around the world and seeing the NocoBase community continue to grow!

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