Sorry for the common question, but I'm relatively new to the whole indie hackers, and in fact the development, scene as a whole, and was wondering if you could create an entire startup with no code. For apps I've found Bravo Studio and was wondering if that is a viable tool to create a full working app that could generate revenue. If anyone has any experience with Bravo, or knows any other software, or just has some info to share, feel free to either comment or contact me.
Once again, I apologise if this post comes off as spammy or rude.
No-code tools are becoming super powerful, and you can do a ton with them (esp if you're willing to spend time to learn stuff like how data is stored, tools like Zapier, etc).
But the answer is always going to be "it depends." I couldn't stomach that site for very long, and it'd take a lot of digging to see what it's capable of. For no-code, the simpler the idea, the easier it will be to get it off the ground.
So, with more of an idea of what you want to build, others can help you more. But, otherwise, I say dig in and see what you can do :)
Absolutely possible, at least with tools like Bubble and Webflow.
We're running a number of products and services since 2016, with the majority of them built with Zero Code (hence the name, https://zeroqode.com).
Our portfolio is pretty wide (templates, plugins (js here though), courses, services), and we're growing.
We're not a typical startup\product company, but we're one of the biggest believers in no-code, and hopefully, we're helping in some way to improve the perception of no-code tools for the mainstream users as 100% legit tools to build a business\startup.
Best of luck to you with your ideas 🙏
First, I think the no-code movement is great -- but it's not a solution to every problem.
To me, I see this as a spectrum of feasibility if you want to use no-code. It's a pretty wide spectrum with lots of variables, but in general this would be my initial assessment.
If looking at a spectrum between feasible and unfeasible, there are certain types of apps where this is very feasible. Areas in media, content, services and commerce are good examples. These types of apps typically feature content/pictures/videos as their primary value add. There are lots of plug-in play solutions to solve many of the use cases here.
On the far extreme of not-feasible, would be things that require LOTs of data and LOTs of machine learning, artificial intelligence, or require solving many different users needs, where actions taken by one set of users, impacts another set of users (think sophisticated marketplaces).
There are obviously many factors that are in play here. For example, a video app that does AI to find/extract specific details in real-time would move to the right of the spectrum. An AI company that just labels pictures, would move to the left of the spectrum (since there are lots of services you can plugin for that).
Image above is meant to help visualize, but the key here is that it depends on YOUR scenario and how intricate it is. Once you know that, it really falls somewhere on a spectrum to determine if it's feasible or not.
Wow Johnny, you even took out the marker:)
It doesn't get better in terms of feedback,
you said something about tagging images and video, which plugin does that?
Thanks, sometimes I find it easier to explain with a picture or video.
With respect to tagging/annotating, I meant that there are services that have made that possible with no-code. 3 years ago, you needed to know some AI/ML and use something like TensorFlow or PyTorch, but now that's not necessary for a certain class of things, image labeling being a good example.
Services like Google and Amazon (among others) have higher level services available:
https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/
https://cloud.google.com/vision
And if you want to get even simpler, you can make simple REST API calls with something like scale, and they charge you per request.
https://scale.com/
but these are known problems with known (reasonably good solutions). AI/ML for a new problem set will require coding and ML and aren't really feasible today with no-code.
Thank you, this has given me a good way to think about if I should use no-code or not.
Yes and no. I think there's tech-enabled business or startups that have built a company without any code. Like won't need it.
In terms of a tech startup that scales. That might be possible. As tech gets better = no-code gets better. I think we'll even see a unicorn startup built with no-code.
My family roofing business is tech-enabled and requires no-code. Probably never will.
No-code a great way to get started and validate. Probably even scale to a certain degree. If you ever need to move off it, it's a problem worrying about when you get there.
Do you have any recommendations for applications to use?
All dependent on what you want to accomplish. I'm personally a big fan of Webflow and Bubble.