Let’s talk about the unsung hero of business web applications: The CRUD application. They’re everywhere, whether you realize it or not. Your customer database? It’s a CRUD app. Your company’s inventory system? Also a CRUD app. Even when you’re posting updates on LinkedIn – you guessed it – you’re using CRUD apps.

But what exactly makes these applications “CRUD,” and why should you care? In this article, we’ll cut through the technical jargon and explore:

• What makes an application “CRUD”
• Real-world examples
• Important tips for building them (the right way)
• How to build CRUD apps quickly

Whether you aim to replace that aging system or build new applications, mastering CRUD apps allows you to understand your development project better and ultimately make more informed decisions about them. 

Sounds good? Let’s dive in.

What is a CRUD Application?

CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete, which are the four basic functions needed by data-driven web applications. Let’s break down each one:

• Create: Add new information (like entering a new customer into your database)
• Read: View existing records (like looking up a customer’s details)
• Update: Change existing information (like modifying a customer’s phone number)
• Delete: Remove information (like removing an old customer record)

These four operations are the backbone of pretty much any business application you interact with. Here’s an example: Suppose you’re using your company’s inventory management system:

• When you receive new stock, you CREATE a new inventory record
• When checking stock levels, you READ the existing inventory data
• When you sell items, you UPDATE the quantity
• When you discontinue a product, you DELETE its record

The great part: While the four basic operations are simple, you can build very complex systems on top of them. It is like having four basic LEGO pieces – you can combine them in many ways to build exactly what your business needs.

CRUD Applications in the Real World

Let’s take it one step further. How do businesses use CRUD apps in their day-to-day operations? Here are some common examples:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Think about your sales team’s CRM system. Each time they perform the following actions, they’re actually doing a CRUD operation:

• Adding a new lead (Create)
• Looking up a prospect’s contact information (Read)
• Changing a deal’s status (Update)
• Removing duplicate entries (Delete)

It’s just a combination of different CRUD applications. These simple operations power your entire sales process.

Inventory Management

Remember that time your warehouse manager complained about their outdated inventory system? They were probably struggling with a poorly designed CRUD application. A well-designed inventory CRUD app lets you:

• Register new products
• Check current stock levels
• Adjust quantities after sales or returns
• Remove discontinued items

Employee Directories

Your employee management system in your HR department? You guessed it — yet another CRUD app. From onboarding new hires to updating job titles and removing former employees, it’s all built on top of these four CRUD operations.

Content Management Systems

If you’ve ever updated your company’s website using a CMS, you’ve used a CRUD application. Each time you:

• Post a new article
• Preview existing content
• Edit a page
• Remove old announcements

…You’re performing CRUD operations through your content management system.

The list could go on and on, from simple to-do lists to more complex systems for finance, inventory management, and more. I’m sure you get the idea. CRUD apps are everywhere, and play a major role in most businesses.

Best Practices for CRUD Development and Data Management

Being in business since 1981, it’s safe to say that we’ve built quite a few CRUD apps over the years. We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. Let’s look at some proven practices that will save you headaches down the road. Of course, I can’t get into every single tip in this article, but here are some of the most important things to consider:

Start with your data

Think of web app development like building a house — without a proper foundation it will eventually fall apart. Before you build your own CRUD app, you should start with the fundamentals:

• Keep your database structure simple and logical: Planning out your database and how different tables will interact with each other is a crucial step in building any web application. Plan out your tables, fields, and joins. Understand how your data will work together before you start building.
• Use consistent naming conventions: Make sure you have a standardized approach to field names before you develop applications. Inconsistent field names can create headaches down the road in any software application.
• Plan for future growth: What happens if you need to enhance your app with new features? What if you need to support more end users than anticipated? Always plan for growth.
• Document your decisions: Have you ever come back to a development project, only to realize you’ve forgotten how you put everything together? I’m sure every developer has been there. Make sure you thoroughly document your plans for the database and the application itself.

I once worked with a company that had to rebuild their entire inventory system because they didn’t plan for product variations. Don’t make the same mistake.

Build Security In From Day One

Security isn’t a feature that you add at the end. It’s something that you build into your application from the ground up. Every CRUD application needs:

• Role-based control: You need to manage which user roles can access the application and what they can do. For instance, should every user be able to write to the database? Does everyone need to have the same access to all of your data? Probably not.
• Input validation on all fields: Going a step further, you must protect your database. Ensure that users (or attackers) cannot input any data or data formats that shouldn’t be in there.
• Encrypted data transmission: CRUD apps often handle sensitive user data that flows between the client and server. Without encryption, data travels as plain text across networks, making it vulnerable to interception.
• Detailed audit logging: You need a record of who accessed your data, when they accessed it, and what changes were made. This timestamp-based trail not only helps in investigating security incidents and troubleshooting system issues, but is also a necessary step in regulatory compliance.

Focus on Performance

Speed matters, especially when working with lots of data. Here’s how to keep your application running smoothly:

• Database Indexing: Indexing is your best friend when it comes to slow queries. When tables get big the difference between an indexed and non indexed query can be milliseconds vs minutes.
• Caching: Caching for frequently accessed data reduces database load and response times. This is especially true for read heavy applications where the same data is being requested over and over.
• Query optimization: Badly written queries will bring your app to a crawl. Query analysis, removing unnecessary joins and using the right WHERE clauses will make a huge difference.
• Pagination: When dealing with lots of data, returning all records at once can kill the server and client. Pagination helps with resource management and user experience.

You’d be surprised how many performance problems can be solved with proper database indexing alone.

Make Testing a Priority

Testing is not an afterthought – it’s a development component. Every CRUD app needs:

• Full operation testing: Each CRUD operation must be tested across all scenarios. This means testing successful operations, handling errors and validating the results in the database.
• Input validation testing: Every input field needs to be tested for valid and invalid data. This means testing boundary conditions, special characters and potential injection attacks.
• Security control verification: Regular testing of access controls, authentication and authorization rules ensures your security measures stay effective as your app evolves.
• Load: Your app needs to work with as many users as could possibly use it at one time. Load testing helps you find performance issues before they hit your users.

One financial services company saved themselves from a major crisis by load testing their customer portal before the holiday rush. The tests revealed serious performance issues they were able to fix before they became real problems.

Keep Maintenance in Mind

Have you ever inherited an application or piece of software that was a disaster to maintain? I’m sure every experienced developer has run into that at one time or another. Make sure you take these steps to avoid creating un-maintainable code:

• Code clarity and documentation: Your code should tell a story that future developers can follow. This means clear naming conventions, documentation of complex logic, and inline comments that explain the why behind important decisions.
• Standardized component usage: Re-inventing the wheel for common features is unnecessary complexity. Using standard, tested components not only speeds up development but also makes your codebase more familiar to other devs.
• Error logging: Error logging is your window into application issues. Each log entry should tell you what went wrong, when and what the system was trying to do at the time.
• Monitoring infrastructure: You can’t fix what you can’t see. Built in monitoring helps you track application health, performance metrics and usage patterns so you can fix issues before they become problems.

Many of these best practices aren’t just theoretical – they’re proven solutions from real world applications.

Building Your First CRUD Application

Let’s get practical. You need a CRUD application – maybe it’s a customer portal, an inventory system, or an employee directory. You’ve got two paths forward: traditional development or modern low-code solutions. Let’s explore both.

The Traditional Development Approach

Imagine spending months building a custom CRUD application from scratch. You’ll need:

• A back-end developer to build the database and server logic, including the create operation for adding new records
• A front-end developer to create the user interface
• A security expert to implement proper controls
• Extensive testing time to catch bugs

Here’s what the process typically looks like:

1. Design the database schema
2. Create the server-side logic for each operation
3. Build the user interface
4. Implement security measures
5. Test everything
6. Deploy and maintain

Sound time-consuming? It is. I remember talking with an IT director who spent six months building what seemed like a simple inventory management system. By the time it was finished, the requirements had changed twice.

The Modern Approach: Low-Code Development

Here’s where things get interesting. Modern low-code platforms (like m-Power) have revolutionized CRUD application development. Instead of writing thousands of lines of code, you can:

• Generate user interfaces automatically
• Implement security controls with a few clicks
• Deploy applications in days instead of months

Here’s what low-code development means for your business:

Speed to Market

Instead of waiting months for a new application, you can deliver in hours or days instead of weeks/months. Here’s a great case study that explains how m-Power helped a 2-person IT department bring development in-house AND develop applications faster than the outside consultants they used in the past. “Future projects should take days or sometimes up to a week or two, but never months,” says their IT director.

Lower Development Costs

You don’t need a large development team. Your existing developers can build more applications faster, or even enable power users to create simple CRUD applications themselves. Different types of database management systems, such as SQL and NoSQL, play a crucial role in efficiently handling CRUD operations within these applications.

Built-in Best Practices

Remember those best practices we discussed? Most low-code platforms handle them automatically:

• Security controls are built in
• Interfaces follow standard design patterns
• Database optimization comes standard
• Testing is simplified

Easier Maintenance

When every application is built the same way, maintenance becomes predictable. No more dealing with different coding styles or trying to understand custom frameworks.

See It In Action

Want to see how quick and easy CRUD development can be? Watch this video where we build a complete customer management application in minutes using m-Power:

The best part? This isn’t just about building applications faster – it’s about building them better. Your applications will be more secure, more maintainable, and more scalable than if you built them from scratch.

Want to learn more about building CRUD applications with m-Power? Click here to schedule a demo.