How Xano helped Unico Connect deliver client projects 50% faster

Solutions

Unico Connect now uses Xano on all new client projects for backend development.

One client was Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools, a California-based school for adults to learn English, earn a high school diploma, and receive career-specific education. Unico Connect used Xano to build the backend logic for Highland's Brain, a new mobile app for Highlands students.

Implement extensive functionality

The app leveraged many of Xano's advanced capabilities. Xano also easily handles thousands of users, allowing the project to scale without hitting performance issues.

Highland's Brain includes both speech-to-text and text-to-speech, with automatic translation into the student's primary language — enhancing communication and collaboration across teachers and students. Students get centralized access to resources, records, and support systems, with the backend automatically routing support tickets. A task management system helps students manage coursework, and community chat rooms are customized to their skillsets and native languages.

Why Xano?

When Patel initially discovered Xano, he was skeptical. He has a developer background, and thought Xano's visual development promises were too good to be true.

"I started playing with Xano, and in just two days I was able to build amazing stuff!" he explained. Patel then introduced Xano to his team and they quickly saw its value as well.

1. Xano significantly reduces tool sprawl
   Xano provides one centralized platform for database management, development, and governance. "You don't have to use multiple tools to access the database — everything is in one place," Patel explained. With less scattered tools, Unico Connect was able to spend less time on management and improve security.

2. Xano makes backend management easy
   Xano provides a standardized environment, where all teams can just log into the web editor and immediately start building. This clears up a lot of development roadblocks. "Because everything is already coded for us in Xano, we no longer have to deal with the typical problems of solving merging conflicts between modules," Patel said.,Specifically, he cited automatic Swagger API documentation and custom data backups as features that made internal management easier for Unico Connect.

3. Xano is built to scale, with a robust technical foundation
   Xano provides a visual development layer on top of proven technologies. "I really appreciate the fact that Xano is built on best practices. Xano is on a secure cloud infrastructure in the Google Cloud, and it utilizes Docker Containerization, Kubernetes, and a PostgreSQL database. All of which means that Xano enables us to scale…not just prototype," Patel explained.

Results

Unico Connect immediately decreased development time by 30%

"Now we're just writing logic, not syntax. Xano helps us to build the backend really quickly, and also helps us to prototype much faster," Patel explained.

As Unico Connect's team became more familiar with Xano, they often saw a 50% increase in development speed. They also attribute this to fast responses from Xano's support team. "The support has been great, even with the time difference. If we need assistance the Xano team is always very helpful on the Slack channel."

Unico Connect reduced project costs by up to 40%

Unico Connect became significantly more competitive with Xano. "It has definitely helped us close more deals," Patel explained. "What used to be a $10,000 project can come down to $6,000."

Unico Connect also no longer needs a DevOps expert to deploy servers or manage load balancers. Xano handles all the DevOps for them, cutting costs and speeding up time to market even more. "Xano is like a secret weapon that helps us get more projects and then do an excellent job on them," he said.