Are you tired of dealing with back-and-forth email exchanges, scattered spreadsheets, and complaints from clients and collaborators who feel out of the loop on projects? Client portals can help solve these issues by allowing you to manage essential information in one place and share it with specific people.
However, creating a client portal is often more challenging than it seems. Many questions quickly arise: How do you easily sync with data sources? How do you manage various access levels? What about reporting? And, of course, how do you build one if you're not technically proficient or don't want to spend the time and resources to code it internally?
In this article, we cover what client portals are before presenting some examples of client portals you can use to inspire your own projects and presenting some self-service portal solutions you can get started with.
What are client portals and client portal solutions?
Client portals, sometimes called customer portals, are online environments (web apps or front-end interfaces) that organizations can use to grant certain customers or collaborators access to gated content or private data. They often allow users to manage files, provide feedback, and access information independently.
High-quality client portals can be defined by specific characteristics:
- A login page to ensure access is limited to particular individuals or organizations
- Various access types based on user profiles, rights, roles, etc.
- An intuitive interface to allow users to access data in a digestible way
- Seamless syncing with the data source(s) to ensure information is always up-to-date and accurate
The benefits of using a client portal are self-explanatory. They include providing an attractive front-end interface to customers instead of messy spreadsheets, controlling what data is displayed depending on each user, and ensuring that data is always up-to-date and in sync with your central database.
Client portal solutions can help you implement or create your own, with various levels of creative freedom, granular control, and implementation difficulty. At Softr, we provide a way for agencies, businesses, and individuals to create client portals quickly and without code, but we will share more later in the article.
“Creating a customer portal with Softr allows us to give our customers that bit of extra value. They always comment on how easy it is to use, and they love the fact that it updates with data from Airtable in real-time.”
-Jeremy Taylor, Owner, Defiant CNC
Let’s look at some concrete client portal examples for your inspiration (note: all these client portals were created using Softr).
5 client portal examples
We gathered five portal website examples from Softr customers to inspire your projects. The examples cover a wide range of industries, use cases, and implementation levels.
Venture capital firm: Keeping LPs informed in an investor portal
Untapped Capital is a venture fund that chose Softr to provide a portal to Limited Partners (LPs) to keep track of startups they might want to invest in and the comings and goings of their investment portfolio.
Stand-out features/insights:
- Synced with Airtable, which the firm uses as its CRM.
- Fast turnaround when creating new pages connected (or not) to Airtable data.
- Solved the balance issue between flexibility and functionality found in other tools.
Why we love it
We love that a venture fund that invests in tech startups chose Softr to build its portal. This shows a true awareness of the tech industry. Read the entire case study here or watch Untapped General Partner Yohei Nakajima talk about his use of Softr for his portal in an interview:
Manufacturing company: Automating workflows and processes
Jeremy from Defiant CNC experimented with automation in the manufacturing industry for years before starting his own consultancy. He uses a Softr client portal to keep clients in the loop and provide real-time updates about projects.
Stand-out features/insights:
- Access management to granularly control permissions for each client
- Managing accounts by automatically triggering payment requests upon quote validation
- Providing clients with the ability to follow and update their orders via the portal
Why we love it
Software solutions like Softr are often perceived as tools used mostly by startups and companies in the SaaS (software as a service) world. This example shows that no-code, automation, and process optimization principles are applicable across all industries and use cases.
We also love that a no-code solution can optimize such a technical field of work and bring seamless communication between the a and their clients. Read the full case study to learn more about Jeremy and Defiant CNC.
Automotive specialist: Finding and updating relevant information at a glance
Dan Smith, company director at DS Automotive, a UK Jaguar Land Rover specialist, has used Softr to facilitate employee access to day-to-day data, from vehicle details to customer-required information.
Stand-out features/insights:
- Easy-to-use and intuitive interface for employees to find information quickly.
- The team started with the free subscription plan to experiment before committing.
- Data synced based on access rights, from vehicle technicians to office staff.
Why we love it:
We love that DS Automative could leverage permissions and access rights to create a customer portal tailored to his team's daily tasks based on their roles and responsibilities. When a technician needs a specific vehicle history, office staff might be more inclined to research customer information. Head to the full case study to learn more.
Consultancy firm: Streamlining information from team members in one place
Rachel Quimby is the Creative Design and Marketing Lead at DCW Cost Management, a women-owned cost planning and project management consultancy firm based in the US Pacific Northwest. Faced with the challenge of information silos at the company, she led the implementation of an internal portal for employees to access information in one place.
Stand-out features/insights:
- A centralized website for all employees to look up information in a single place.
- Ability to submit invoices for reimbursement and suggest content for other stakeholders.
- The go-to place for company policies and mandatory documentation.
Why we love it:
We love that the portal helped streamline documentation and resulted in quantifiable results by reducing inquiries and making the lives of all employees easier.
And though this is an example of an employee portal, DCW followed it up by building a client interface. With no-code solutions, creating multiple tools and interfaces doesn't add development or subscriptions.
Read more about the portal from DCW Cost Management in our case study.
International school: Reporting and preventing student incidents
Pascal, a School Principal at the United Nations International School in New York, used Softr to create a portal where students can report incidents and receive emotional support.
Stand-out features/insights:
- A database built on Airtable, with Softr as a user-friendly, smooth Airtable front end for students and staff to interact with.
- Integrates relevant stakeholders, including the school psychologist and assistant principal.
- Leverages edit and access permissions to avoid sharing access to the master database with others.
Why we love it
What’s not to love in this project? The application of Softr’s portal capabilities perfectly showcases how Pascal and his team have built a safe, attractive platform for students and staff.
Protecting students' mental health and safety is of the utmost importance, and we are delighted that Softr can play a small part in this important mission. For more details, read our case study on the United Nations International School.
What are the best client portal solutions?
We hope that you’re inspired by these great client portal examples and are now ready to create your own. But where should you start? The logical first step is to evaluate the options available to you.
You can create your own client portal in three main ways: by coding it and building from scratch, using a dedicated client portal solution, or using Softr as your self service client portal solution. Let’s take a look at each.
1) Hard-coding your client portal internally
This method might be the most obvious choice. Building a custom client portal with your team or an outsourced agencypresents clear advantages but also significant drawbacks:
Pros:
- Entirely custom: You can build your portal according to your specific requirements down to the most minute detail, which can be important if you have a very niche use case
- Proprietary: If you are worried about not owning the technology behind your client portal, this can alleviate that concern.
- “Free": Theoretically, you won't pay a software subscription. However, your up-front costs for development and engineering will be much higher than other options.
Cons:
- Difficult to implement: Requires internal expertise in several technical areas and constant maintenance and iterations
- Very expensive: DIY solutions are very costly in terms of time and money, as resources (both human and technological) will inevitably pile up.
- Time-consuming: Building your client portal internally will likely turn what could have been an agile experiment into a massive project that could last for months (with no guaranteed result).
Although going the DIY route is commendable, it’s likely to prove very challenging unless you work at a large corporation with deep pockets and significant resources. Even then, building a fully custom client portal will require numerous iterations, improvements, and changes over time that might prove counterproductive over time.
2) Paying for a dedicated client portal solution
Another option is to adopt a dedicated software or solution that focuses solely on helping you build and implement your client portal. Contrary to the DIY method, this introduces more flexibility but still presents limitations you should know about.
Pros:
- Focused offering: A dedicated solution generally ensures that you have access to advanced features catering specifically to client portals.
- Specialized expertise: Dealing with a niche solution might translate into quality support and user community.
Cons:
- Expensive: Most dedicated client portal solutions are relatively costly. You might find it difficult to justify paying a high price for a single purpose.
- Limited scope: A niche solution will prevent you from transferring the skills and features you’re investing time and resources into to other projects beyond your client portal.
- Third-party solution: Reliance on third-party software will limit your ability to own your client portal and might require exposing your data.
This option can be a great choice for larger companies that want to dedicate time and resources to building a client portal. However, the limited scope of these solutions can prove quite restrictive and hard to justify when considering your budget and long-term vision.
3) Using Softr to build your client portal without code
Lastly, our favorite client portal solution (who would’ve guessed) is our own: Softr. Our platform allows agencies, organizations, and individuals to build client portals, internal tools, web and mobile apps, and more without ever needing to write a line of code.
“Softr’s intuitive interface and seamless integration with Airtable won me over in no time. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it incredibly easy to design.” - Bob Rutledge, Owner, MicroManaged Media
Softr comes with a wide range of benefits, but also some drawbacks you should be aware of ahead of time:
Pros:
- A large variety of ready-to-use templates, including our client portal template, to get started in minutes.
- Various data sources: Softr allows you to connect to multiple data sources and tools. Your clients can access the information they’re looking for in one place with the reassurance that the data is always in sync and up-to-date.
- Custom design and interface: Our platform features a drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to move blocks to build a branded client portal without coding or design skills required.
- Secure data and access management: Client portals often feature sensitive information, so it’s imperative that you feel confident about the safety of your data. Softr ensures world-class storage and hosting practices and helps you manage access rights to ensure who can access what at all times. Learn more on our security page.
Cons:
- Some elbow grease will be needed: Although we make it as seamless as possible to get started (including by leveraging artificial intelligence with our AI App Generator), Softr does require manual work during implementation.
- Limited data sources: As of writing this article, Softr supports Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, SmartSuite, and BigQuery. We’re working on adding more!
Softr is a great choice if you want to experiment with client portals with limited consequences - all you need to do is sign up for free and try it out. It’s also perfect if you want to skip the cost of hiring a developer, empower your non-technical team members, avoid purchasing software that doesn’t meet your needs, or save seats on your Airtable or HubSpot plan (these can add up quickly!).
If you’re interested in trying Softr but still unsure whether you have the skills to do it (trust us, you do), check out the next section, where we break down the implementation steps to build a client portal on our platform.
How to start building your client portal with Softr today
Starting with Softr is quick, free, and doesn’t require any coding experience. The entire process can be boiled down into three steps:
- Connecting Softr to your data, syncing with the data source of your choice (Airtable, HubSpot, Google Sheets, BigQuery, etc.)
- Customizing the layout and logic of your portal to match your intended workflows and allow precise control over what users can see and do.
- Sharing with your clients and collaborators using your custom domain.
For a detailed tutorial, check out this video, where no-code expert Dan Leeman breaks down how to create a client portal on Softr in minutes, or head directly to our sign-up page and get started for free:
What is Softr
Softr is the easiest way to turn your data into powerful business apps—no code required. Connect to your spreadsheet or database, customize layout and logic, and share with your team or clients.
Join 700,000+ users worldwide, building client portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards, project management systems, inventory management apps, and more—all without code.
Join 700,000+ users worldwide, building client portals, internal tools, CRMs, dashboards, project management systems, inventory management apps, and more—all without code.
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Thierry Maout
Thierry is a content marketer based in France. He has extensive experience writing about B2B SaaS, automation, and user onboarding. Originally from France, he has lived and worked in Ireland, the US, Germany, the UK and Canada as well as collaborated with companies from all over the world including UserGuiding, Make (formerly Integromat), and others. Thierry has a Bachelor's degree in International Affairs from Le Havre University (France) as well as a Master's degree in Law, Economics, and Management from the Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier (France). Passionate about education and the no-code movement, Thierry has been featured in publications such as UX Collective and The Startup on Medium. A frequent Softr collaborator (freelance-based), he’s also a former startup co-founder and has, among others, co-founded and managed growth at Fairwai.
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