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Founders of Zapier, Bubble, and more predict the future of no-code

How will no-code tools change the future? Check out predictions from the CEOs and Founders from top no-code platforms, communities, and agencies.

submitted this link on May 8, 2022
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    What they fail to mention (and I think will also be important) is that MARKETING will also get very important. With software becoming easier to create, marketing that software will probably get extremely crucial if you want to become one of the top players in your niche.

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      I'd argue an even broader core capability of user acquisition is going to be key. Marketing will be necessary for consumer-facing tech, but no-code is also enabling B2B solutions to be built from the ground up. There, strong sales is the name of the game.

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      @zerotousers I think that's a great call out!

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      Yeah, this is all but a guarantee. With more content being available, people will have to compete for the limited mindshare people have.

  2. 3

    No-code is indeed going to change the future and knowing how to build on top of the no-code tools is going to be a super power.

    Actually as I'm building DoTenX (an alternative for zapier), one of my goals is to make it easier for people to build businesses only based on DoTenX.

    You can find it here:
    https://github.com/dotenx/dotenx

  3. 2

    These people of course are going to be bullish on their own industry. So no surprises there. But I disagree with a lot of the ideas this article posits.

    “We believe that 95% of custom software that's built by programmers today will be built on no-code in the future.

    I'm always hearing this, but it doesn't seem true. SWEs are always the most in-demand job and software engineering has the most job openings. When is the "future" they are predicting arriving? Right now it doesn't seem on the horizon.

    1. 1

      @theselftaughtlearner I agree that everyone in the article has a vested interest in these predictions coming true, so there's no doubt a lot of bias in their predictions.

      As for the % of code that is being built on no-code platforms, I think Gartner Research has done the most to quantify the current market share and predict the future based on growth trends, and they're pretty bullish. Here's one article: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-06-10-gartner-says-the-majority-of-technology-products-and-services-will-be-built-by-professionals-outside-of-it-by-2024

  4. 1

    no code is definitely an interesting area, that probably some everyone of us relies upon already, think marketing automation or other. however, I (still) fail to see how no-code solutions would replace normal software engineers. the products that i have seen are very basis and lack the customisation that hiring an engineer would give. I think this is the hardest challange that this niece this faces but i personally doubt that it will arrive there in a short period of time.

  5. 1

    When you learn to code you learn first and foremost computational thinking. I expect a huge difference in how such LoCode tools are used by coders vs laymen.
    Also, I believe coders love building in the flow state and hate debugging, If the tools of the future can augment building and ease debugging pains I like that. Still, I firmly believe you need to be code trained and CS aware to take advantage of it.

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      I'm not sure I fully agree @ArkSzklar. I believe most people enjoy building in the flow state, whether they're writing code or doing any other creative exercise.

      I do like the idea of being "CS aware", though. I imagine a lot of us building products on no code platforms would benefit from improving our understanding of underlying computer science principles!

  6. 1

    There was a fairly decent discussion about the whole no-code thing on Hacker News just the other day. For the curious: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31314093

  7. 1

    The last time frontend was about to be eaten by the tools like (WIX, Wordpress, etc) We got Jamstack and moved all the business logic to frontend, hence it got even more importance 😅

    Nocode is not a replacement to a development process, it's a supplement. The proof: Almost all pure nocode projects out there are about "teaching you how to become a nocoder" Just go and check Buble's showcase page 😅

    But nocode shines when you supplement it with your dev process. It can handle all boring and painful repetitive tasks that you don't want and need to do. It can speed up the process.

    For example in my previous project. I was using nocode for all my cron jobs, automated emails and even for email validation and image generation. Recently, i am considering using n8n again for automated lifecycle emails. Why? It's Way cheaper and easier for me. Also gives me full freedom and no vendor lock.

    1. 1

      @emredemirel I agree. I think no-code tools will supplement and augment existing tech stacks, not necessarily replace them. There will just be way more people within an organization who can contribute to the no-code portion of the stack.

  8. 1

    I don't disagree that no-code will be the future for many basic apps in which the tech isn't the differentiating factor. One issue I see is as a creator you get immediate "lock in" to a platform and can't easily move your app between platforms as they have completely different abstractions and features. It's also not "fun" as a builder. I was using Bubble recently and found it clunky and tedious.

    1. 1

      @carnera It's an interesting point on the "lock in" for the platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing more options to export code in some circumstances. It's worth keeping in mind that these guys are running businesses, so they want you to stick around.

      I do think the clunkiness you mentioned will get better over time.

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