# How can I develop “horizontal apps”? (common app to multiple clients w custom branding, optional features)

**URL:** https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619
**Category:** Ask for Help
**Created:** [December 12, 2023, 5:38pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619 "2023-12-12T17:38:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jkirkwood001](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jkirkwood001/32/54952_2.png) [@jkirkwood001](https://community.glideapps.com/u/jkirkwood001)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2023, 5:38pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/1 "2023-12-12T17:38:33Z")

</div>

Can you help us develop “horizontal apps”?

What I mean is, I have a great app I want to resell to similar organizations. How can I maintain one “code base” (template?) that I can update to continuously improve a dozen apps with common functionality (for different clients)?

Obviously I want to avoid having to update (unreliably) a dozen app instances with the same bug fix or improvement.

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2023, 1:11am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/2 "2023-12-13T01:11:05Z")

</div>

> [@jkirkwood001](#):
>
> How can I maintain one “code base” (template?) that I can update to continuously improve a dozen apps with common functionality (for different clients)?

That is not possible with Glide. Every app is on itself, and you can’t have a “parent” app to make changes to multiple “children” app.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jkirkwood001](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jkirkwood001/32/54952_2.png) [@jkirkwood001](https://community.glideapps.com/u/jkirkwood001)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2023, 2:01am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/3 "2023-12-13T02:01:31Z")

</div>

Thanks for your experienced reply.

I’ve added this to the 2024 Wish List.

Even if most aren’t trying to develop ‘horizontal’ apps, I know many who want to be able to re-use screens and subcomponents across their app, so I can hope!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2023, 2:14am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/4 "2023-12-13T02:14:09Z")

</div>

> [@jkirkwood001](#):
>
> Even if most aren’t trying to develop ‘horizontal’ apps, I know many who want to be able to re-use screens and subcomponents across their app, so I can hope!

Have you tried copy pasting components across apps?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jkirkwood001](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jkirkwood001/32/54952_2.png) [@jkirkwood001](https://community.glideapps.com/u/jkirkwood001)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/5 "2023-12-13T02:25:27Z")

</div>

I have done it within one app. It works well only if the same data table is being used, right?

Don’t think we can copy between different apps at all, right?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2023, 2:33am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/6 "2023-12-13T02:33:02Z")

</div>

I haven’t tried, but I think you can copy paste across apps, just that if the data structure is different you might have to configure multiple things.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jkirkwood001](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jkirkwood001/32/54952_2.png) [@jkirkwood001](https://community.glideapps.com/u/jkirkwood001)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/7 "2023-12-21T11:40:05Z")

</div>

So the “solution” to this is @Flowcode 's suggestion in the feature request forum:

> [@For Agencies: "Slave Apps" that follow changes in a "Master Apps" (Semi-SAAS/Template Alternative)](https://community.glideapps.com/t/for-agencies-slave-apps-that-follow-changes-in-a-master-apps-semi-saas-template-alternative/66931):
>
> I fell in love with Glide about 1 year ago so I sold my company and now am in the process of creating a purely Glide Agency. Exciting times! In the process of creating the Agency I came up with an idea on how to serve as much people as possible with Glide Apps. I think this idea is extremely BIG (the amount of value created by Glide Agencies and Glide would multiple big time) so I am sharing it here in the hope that lots of other Agencies like it and that it will be implemented in Glide. I thi…

If you’d also benefit from this feature, please upvote him!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nathanaelb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nathanaelb/32/43079_2.png) [@nathanaelb](https://community.glideapps.com/u/nathanaelb)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 11:46am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/8 "2023-12-21T11:46:11Z")

</div>

> [@ThinhDinh](#):
>
> I think you can copy paste across apps

When I tested it, copy-pasting components

- works well from one app to another, within the same folder within the same team
- works well from one app to another, across folders within the same team
- does not work well (and possibly not at all) across teams

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jkirkwood001](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jkirkwood001/32/54952_2.png) [@jkirkwood001](https://community.glideapps.com/u/jkirkwood001)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/9 "2023-12-21T12:17:51Z")

</div>

Thanks @nathanaelb .

Even if this worked well in all cases, it’s still _copies_ of pages, eh? That’s not true ‘reuseability’ which reduces errors and enables modular app building. So the [request](https://community.glideapps.com/t/for-agencies-slave-apps-that-follow-changes-in-a-master-apps-semi-saas-template-alternative/66931) is what I (we) need!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nathanaelb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nathanaelb/32/43079_2.png) [@nathanaelb](https://community.glideapps.com/u/nathanaelb)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/how-can-i-develop-horizontal-apps-common-app-to-multiple-clients-w-custom-branding-optional-features/68619/10 "2023-12-21T12:54:13Z")

</div>

Absolutely, I was referring to copy-pastes of components. Once the component is pasted, it doesn’t have any link to the original.

Your request is a popular one 🙂
