Suggestions for no-code tools?
Which tools would you recommend for someone just starting out in the no-code space? I found Webflow and Bubble and while they look great, seems like they have a steep learning curve.
Which tools would you recommend for someone just starting out in the no-code space? I found Webflow and Bubble and while they look great, seems like they have a steep learning curve.
Webflow doesn't have a steep learning curve. My suggestion is to avoid Webflow university in the beginning. Just pick a free template and start playing around with the editor. You will be proficient in a few days, a week at worst.
Bubble is harder to get started, that's for sure, but it is also the most powerful at the moment and you can become proficient in 3-4 weeks.
Glideapps and adalo are very good for mobile apps and a lot easier than Webflow or Bubble.
Anyway, I believe that you should look to the long term. There are many easier solutions, like Landen, carrd, or launchaco, but they are pretty limited, haven't improved, except for minor changes, and you have no idea how long they will stay in business.
On the other side, Webflow and Bubble are constantly getting better and are venture backed. Webflow recently raised $72 millions, Bubble $6.3. They have thousands of paying customers and they are profitable.
So, yes, you will need to spend more time in the beginning, but if you can use them, you will probably never need to learn another no-code tool and can count on robust, powerful, and always improving solutions.
I think you wouldn't be very happy if anyone here would use the same sentence talking about your product! We should support each other (at least here), instead, we promote VC backed products, and we advise against bootstrapped/independent business!
Carrd, Landen, etc... will stay in business for years if we avoid this kind of mentality.
"I think you wouldn't be very happy if anyone here would use the same sentence talking about your product!"
Not true. It is a legitimate concern, especially if you plan on basing an entire business on my product, like someone would do with a website builder.
"We should support each other (at least here), instead, we promote VC backed products, and we advise against bootstrapped/independent business!"
I support the solutions I believe are the best for a specific goal.
I have been using Carrd for over 2 years, I like it and I don't think it will go away. The same goes for Landen, that I have used for a few months.
You are ignoring the fact that their future isn't the only concern I talked about.
Carrd is pretty limited in its scope, has very few integrations and isn't improving. Landen is more robust, but in my opinion overpriced, doesn't have a good enough CMS, and limited possibility to customize the end-result.
For Landen, the support is non existent. When I was a customer, I asked questions that never got answered and that's the reason I stopped paying and I don't recommend it.
I support good and ethical businesses. The fact that a company is bootstrapped isn't a plus for me, just like it isn't a minus to be VC backed.
I like Webflow and Bubble a lot, I like their teams, always present in the forum, listening to their users, and I can't recommend them enough.
I like carrd too and I recommended it multiple times, but still it isn't a tool that you can use exclusively for minimal landing pages and I would spend my time learning tools with more upside and flexibility.
Your suggestion that I should prefer bootstrapped business, just because they are bootstrapped doesn't make any sense.
First because all businesses start as bootstrapped, Bubble raised the first round June, after 7 years spent bootstrapping. The same goes for Webflow.
Second, bootstrapping isn't a morally superior choice, just a business and personal evaluation.
You're free to use whatever you want, and it isn't my business, but this does not take away from the fact that your sentence you have no idea how long they will stay in business was superficial and unrespectful!
Had a bad experience with Carrd and Landen? Talk about that, so you can also be helpful!
--Peace
There is nothing superficial or unrespectful in asking yourself if the platform that will host your business website, the platform that will take time and effort to learn will still be around in the few years. Nothing.
Well said
+1 to Glideapps and Adalo
Thanks for the tip! I think I'll go ahead and pick one of the free templates like you said and just play around with it. Or even Glideapps, seems like a good option too :)
Yes, this is how I learned to understand the editor. If you don't know the editor well, the Webflow university videos will be impossible to follow.
When you are ready to build your first website, look at this video about the structure. It is fundamental and will save you a lot of time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZMx_8FvjvQ
For most advanced stuff, I suggest you these two channels: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7dywl5wDxTu1RM3eJ_h9Q and https://www.youtube.com/user/thepxlgk
Awesome, thanks!
Have you checked out https://www.makerpad.co/?
On it. Thanks! :)
Can I entice you no coders to become coders with https://shooting-unicorns.com?
...or am I sailing on a sinking ship? 🤪
Haha definitely going to check it out and I'll get back if I have any questions :)
@sshaha
I'd say Webflow's learning curve is very low compared to others (ex: Bubble) and you can do a lot with it using integrations.
Here's a screencast I recently created walking through an example of quickly creating a Webflow site, using MemberStack, and glueing it all together with Zapier. It may sound like a lot, but it's not, and it's easy:
https://nocodequest.com/personalization-with-unique-member-dashboards/
Hey Salma!
I've been curating each no-code tool over at https://www.nucode.co and it's filterable by category if you want to give those popular ones a shot?
Our favorites are:
They're also currently sorted from top to bottom by "most-used."
Meaning the total # of templates built with it, makers using it, products built with it, etc.
Going to take a look at it, thanks Joe! :)
what are you looking to build?
Website or mobile app. Gonna start with one of these for now.
What’s the business model? What type of product is it? Marketplace, ecom, community, saas
Community for now. I'm looking at Webflow, Glideapps and Adalo. Got anything else I could check out?
I would use https://www.mightynetworks.com/
To set up a community site even if it’s not perfect. Then start creating content like crazy to build the community
Great, thanks!
I'm working on a no-code SaaS with my girlfriend. We are currently using Webflow and it's working pretty well. I didn't find the learning curve steep at all. We bought a theme, and our modifying it to work for our needs.
Yeah someone else suggested the same, just pick a template and play around with it. Thanks Shane! :)
It really depends on what you're trying to build... some nocode tools are dead simple (like populate a spreadsheet and it spits out a working app) and some are just as complex/flexible as code, except you build in a visual way instead of writing the code.
The "easy" ones have limited output, and the harder ones do have a learning curve, so really it's all about the right tool for the job.
If you're not sure what you build, check out makerpad.co for inspiration!
Currently browsing through Makerpad. Thanks :)
I have been thinking of no code use cases for my product https://versoly.com/
One that came to me was basically selling monthly subscription or one off products.
So lets say you want to do a paid slack group or paid newsletter
You build the site on Versoly, embed https://www.tillypay.com/ and then use zapier to send them an email to the slack group or add them to a mailchimp group once they paid.
Oh that's neat! Going to see how it will fit my needs, thanks!
Hmm... my product is essentially a TillyPay competitor (https://payablelink.com/) - except we have a File Escrow feature that you could use to give them a URL / code when they've paid.
We could extend that to make a http call to an webhook of yours so that you could do the email (removing Zapier from the equation). Any thoughts on this?
(Apologies for hijacking the thread)
Would love to see more info on your landing page :)
Working on it! Thanks. Let me know if you want to chat a bit more to see if the product could fit your needs
You could try https://carrd.co/ by @ajlkn if your looking to build a website its a great product. If you looking to build an mobile app you could start by looking at https://www.glideapps.com/
I wrote a short article recently showing just how easy it is to build a very basic app using Glide
https://dev.to/iainfreestone/create-a-simple-no-code-podcast-app-in-4-easy-steps-300o
Hope these help
Thanks! Going to try Glide today. And bookmarked the link! :)