How do you decide when to use code vs no-code?

I'd always use code for anything that is core to your business.
No-code for things are that not really the fundamentals of your business.

Always code. If you know how to code and there’s a no code solution, then it’ll be that much easier to do it in code since there probably are coded solutions one abstraction later lower.

For me, it's all about the interface.

For common Web applications having typical forms as input interface and tabular reports / graph reports / dashboards as output, I always use a low-code solution, DaDaBIK (disclaimer, I am the founder).

For applications requiring other kind of interfaces, I normally code.

Cost and Scale.
No-Code is amazing for starting with lower budget and validating ideas. Also perfect in terms of time-cost so you can focus more on the product than in the coding itself. If you scale it's inevitable to scale your team so you can improve your product. If you scale to hundreds of thousands or million users it will also be smarter in terms of costs doing things in tech. There is no specific line to draw, just what makes sense in what are your focus and if you can stop bleeding money at scale.

And for a complicated project the optimal solution is between nocode and low-code to be more flexible and unlimited

We've switched as a software company from full-code to no-code for 80%

Making a new project we define the level of uncertainty. If you know everything about the project, it's market and strategy to go there and tech description, than full-code should be reasonable.

But mostly we are working with projects where you don't know every next iteration and it depends on feedback and research during your development. So what could be better than no-code which is 10x faster and leaner?

Even if you understand in 1-2 years that it is not enough for you and you need custom development it will be easier to do having your data and workflows.

For my current project, one co-founder is technical, and one (me) is not. Basically everything that is not a core feature of the product we do in no-code so he can focus on that. So the website is in Webflow, our pre-registration list makes use of Zapier and Airtable, etc.

Easy. If there's a no code way to do it, then no code 🙂

That's actually a serious answer, but I get what you're saying. When do you decide that the compromises you have to make with no code outweigh the flexibility you get with writing something yourself, right?

I think the question is more when do you move from no code to code if no code solution exists for what you need. As in, always start with no code and swallow the compromises because you'll move much faster, and waste less time and money.

Then, if your dea is valid, the business works AND the no code limitations are limiting you (painful, limited, inneficient ux etc) then move to your own thing.