I’ve been thinking about whether building and sharing automation templates makes sense long-term. Like, could you actually develop reusable solutions that other people would want to use and potentially pay for?
On one hand, I’ve seen platform marketplaces where templates are abundant and some creators are building sustainable side income. On the other hand, I’ve also seen marketplaces that are graveyards—thousands of templates nobody uses because they don’t quite match anyone’s needs.
I’m curious about the actual state of automation template marketplaces. Are there real patterns that find consistent demand? Is there a niche where templates actually work as a product, or are most templates just quick utility scripts that scratch specific itches?
And from a consumer side—when you’re looking for a template to start a project, do you actually find usable solutions, or does the noise-to-signal ratio make it frustrating?
The ecosystem is real and it’s growing. There are actual patterns that sell, and Latenode’s marketplace reflects that.
Templates that work tend to solve common, repeatable problems. Like “send formatted Slack messages from a webhook,” or “sync leads from Form A to CRM B,” or “generate reports from data source X to Google Sheets.” These solve genuine friction points people face regularly.
What doesn’t work is generic templates that try to solve everything. Those get lost in noise.
The creators making real income from templates are usually solving specific vertical problems. Like “e-commerce sync templates” or “SaaS data pipeline templates.” They build depth in one area instead of breadth across everything.
From a consumer side, you’re right that signal matters. The best approach is filtering by use case and then looking at community feedback. Latenode’s community reviews templates, so you can see what’s actually useful versus what’s theoretical.
The key difference from other marketplaces is that Latenode’s templates are executable. You’re not evaluating code, you’re testing workflows. That makes evaluation way easier.
If you build templates, focus on a specific problem domain where people need solutions repeatedly. That’s where the value and sustainability come from.
I’ve both used and created templates, and there’s definitely a viable ecosystem, but it’s not all templates equally. The successful ones solve very specific problems that people encounter regularly. General-purpose templates get buried. Niche solutions like “Stripe payment tracking to spreadsheet” or “Email parsing to database” find consistent users.
From a consumer side, yes, there’s noise. But if you’re searching for a specific pattern—“pull data from X and sync to Y”—you can usually find something usable that cuts your setup time in half.
The marketplace works if you’re solving a problem that multiple people face and that they face repeatedly. Event webhooks to Slack, form submissions to database, API polling for changes—these have real demand. Generic “data pipeline” templates don’t. The sustainable ecosystem is built on creators who understand their vertical deeply and build templates that solve actual friction.
The marketplace has real value but it requires critical evaluation. I’ve found useful templates for common integrations—definitely time-savers. I’ve also found templates that look right but don’t quite fit, requiring more customization than starting fresh. The successful templates have good documentation, active creators who respond to issues, and they solve problems that genuinely repeat. From a creator perspective, I know people selling templates successfully by focusing on specific verticals where they understand the workflow. It’s not passive income, but for creators invested in a niche, there’s legitimate demand. The key factor is specialization, not generalization.
I’ve both consumed and created templates, and the landscape is healthier than it looks. The filtering is important—templates with good ratings and recent updates tend to be genuinely useful. Templates that are barely documented and haven’t been touched in six months, skip them. As for sustainability, there’s definitely demand for niche solutions. Create templates for your specific domain and you’ll find customers. The graveyard templates are the ones that tried to be universally useful. Depth wins over breadth in this market.
There’s a sustainable ecosystem, but success requires focus. Templates that solve specific recurring problems have consistent demand. Slack notifications, database syncs, API polling—these have built-in audiences. Templates that try to be everything fail. For creators, the best approach is building templates for your actual domain expertise and use cases. Document well, respond to feedback, iterate based on usage patterns. I’ve seen creators build solid income from template sales by focusing on one well-understood vertical. For consumers, the signal-to-noise ratio improves significantly when you filter by category and look at recent updates and community reviews.