Is DIY no code even worth it? Or just suck it up and invest a build?
I'm trying to build my own app mvp to validate if there's demand and market appetite and pivot my marketing etc. And these tools are immensely powerful but as a result they take a long time to configure, style and put together even simple apps.
Is it worth doing it yourself? Or is this part of the process where you should really just invest some capital?
I always find myself limited by no-code tools—one of the reasons I became a developer in the first place. But, no code works for a lot of people here and can do more than they could a decade ago.
If your MVP is truly that simple and small, may as well try no-code to validate it. If you are making something complex or large, then coding is the way.
If there’s no clear winner, feel free to try both out for a week and see which one you like more—and then come back and tell us how it went 😄
Exactly... If you invent something new you have to sort of make it...
No code is for simple stuff that other people have already thought of but where you got a unique touch or niche.
I built the MVP of www.sourcee.app in a few months with Bubble. It really doesn't take that long to get the hang of the platform. So I would always go down this route to validate an idea before spending any capital.
Alternatively, you could put a simple landing page together and talk with people to validate the idea.
Wow that app looks pretty fully featured for Bubble! Are you saying it can do wordCloud & all that UI functionality like creating pills out of keywords simply in the UI?
I've found affininty for appGyver so far since it surfaces all the API endpoints so nicely but I'm in no way tied to it.
Not out of the box, the wordcloud is a plugin i bought for $3 😅 and the keyword selector is also a plugin (although now that i think of it, i think bubble made it)
The thing with Bubble is that it's a blank canvas, so you need to spend some time learning it. It's easy to make a working app, but to make one that looks nice takes a bit of time and an eye for design.
Yeah I feel that's missing. These nocode tools are designed to be powerful - but in doing so they leave too much design work to be up to the individual. I'd love a bit more of an opinionated approach with the design aspect but with the power of NoCode interactions and API hooking. But maybe that's not really possible - there are too many scenarios where design needs to break from a component system default such as headings on top of a paragraph. The spacing/bottom margin would be fine for a post - but if you have a module there's gonna be way too much margin that would need to be overridden.
Did you hire anyone to help with the refinement?
Sounds like the consensus is that 99% of it can be done with a no-code approach. Maybe I just need help figuring out how to do the server side stuff. I need someone who can write a firebase cloud function maybe then I'd be good.
I ran a product dev agency for 12 years...
Unless you are really innovating some new tech, chances are you can get it done with one of the "no code" platforms if you're willing to sacrifice some features and tilt your head a bit.
All depends on what you're trying to build.
I did a whole post on this here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-started-building-this-in-react-then-it-struck-me-that-99-can-be-done-with-no-code-59cf50199f
No-code is definitely the way to go. And if you do know how to code, no-code + code is super powerful. Do 99% with no code tools and that last 1% that's tricky or not possible to do with no-code – with a bit of custom code if that makes sense.