General Caster vs. Autoboost

For my workflows I’ll need to use either Autoboost or General Caster. I started using General Caster at first but then saw that Autoboost was far cheaper.

I can’t really see if there are any notable differences between the two apps (but then again, I’m not sure what would justify the price difference). Are there any drawbacks to going with one over the other?

Thanks in advance!

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Hello @matttlap !

There are many similarities between the two apps, I would suggest letting us know what exactly you are using them for to let you know!

But in general, I think you should be fine using Autoboost.

Best,
Giannis, Implementation Consultant at thespelas.com

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Hi @GiannisKoukounas,

Thank you! Basically we need it for two things:

  1. Integrating formula columns with external applications. We have certian values that need to be calculated in Monday, and then exported into other integrations. Unfortunately, formula columns can’t be exported but Autoboost/General Caster can ‘cast’ (not sure if I’m using this term correctly) formula results to a standard text or numbers column, which then works perfectly.

  2. We also need to run workflows that involve ‘casting’ results within subitem colums. I believe that only Autoboost can do this actually, so at a minimum we’d need to use the free version of Autoboost.

So I think we can acheive all of this with the paid (but still much cheaper) Autoboost plan. Are there any significant differences between the two besides the price? I really want to make sure that we won’t need to switch over and redo all of our formulas (of which there are A LOT…) at some point.

Thanks again!!

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@matttlap Autoboost should be perfectly fine for what you are looking to do!

Autoboost’s Free Plan supports up to 250 automation actions per month, so more likely than not you will use them up pretty quickly, since you mentioned you have many formulas.

If you also need any help setting up the automations let me know!

I also think you might find the Column Magic App useful ( not for this particular case, but in general).

Best,
Giannis

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Wait a second…Column Magic looks almost exactly the same and is even cheaper yet! What’s the difference? Why wouldn’t it work for this particular case?

Thanks again, @GiannisKoukounas, this has been super helpful!!

Column Magic is more limited with what subitem functions it has, as well as “casting” with the Formula columns. You can certainly try it, perhaps it is suitable for your use case!

You would be interested in the “Copy” section, but I also recommend checking the other ones!

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Ah, got it. You’re right, it might not be perfect for this then but it looks like it may be good for other use cases.

Marking this as resolved - thanks for all your help, @GiannisKoukounas!

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@matttlap We are using autoboost and have found it very effective in similar applications that you mentioned.
The moveboost team are also pretty supportive if you need to contact them and you can even book meetings with their support team. For us we were able to arrange a custom trial setup to fully test the app’s suitability for our system build before fully committing to the paid version.
I’d also add that autoboost runs better on the US main server then the Euro one though as it was built specifically to it according to them.
Will try and help if you have any syntax or or set up questions.

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Thanks, @A.Cal!

Glad to hear that the team has been helpful - lack of support is one of the reasons I was hoping not to go with General Caster, unfortunately.

I have one question about Autoboost formulas if you happen to know: When it comes to multiplying formulas, can you only use two inputs a time? For example, I haven’t been able to do “MULTIPLY({column 1}, {column 2}, {column 3})”. Instead, I’ve had to use “MULTIPLY({column 1}, MULTIPLY({column 2}, {column 3}))”.

There’s nothing wrong with the second method - it works just fine - but it’s mildly annoying and I can’t for the life of me understand why multiplying 3 or more numbers shouldn’t be a feature (especially since their other formulas can still add or subtract more than 2 numbers at a time).