What are some successful NoCode applications?
I've been trying to wrap my arms around this for a while. I love the idea of NoCode. I think platforms like Bubble are a fantastic path for folks who might not be coding wizards, but would still like to pursue a tech-based business idea. That being said, I've yet to see a financially successful NoCode app. I see plenty of NoCode evangelists running around, selling courses and building audiences. Plenty of NoCode "builders" who will gladly accept money to create an application for you... but can someone show me an example of a NoCode application that's actually making good money for its creator(s)?
I have a small experience working for a company that loves NoCode solutions:
Makerpad 🙂
Makerpad is cool, but it still fits in the category of 'no code tools/projects that show you how you can be successful with no code tools' - not especially different from other evangelist, course creators, content libraries etc - I appreciate the site itself is built with no code.
You have lots of community success stories on your site (well I don't know if you're still involved post-acquisition), can you maybe share some for @NodeJS5000 that meet the criteria:
To be clear, this isn't a criticism of no code, my twitter handle is codefreechris after all. I bet there are loads of great examples, but quickly skimming through the Makerpad stories nothing jumped out, and I see a lot of people who ask this sort of question and they never get a satisfying answer. I imagine you're probably extremely well placed to share some great examples.
It's also worth noting for anyone cynically questioning whether no code methods are worthwhile because you can't build the next TikTok with it: if you can find rewarding work that earns you a nice living using no code tools, without becoming a unicorn, that's still a worthy pursuit.
Idea to acquisition in 11 months https://www.makerpad.co//posts/how-a-college-student-built-scaled-and-sold-a-startup-using-no-code-tools
Our latest story 😊
It literally says in the article:
"Take our business: we are an advertising business at our core. Our value prop is our advertising platform software. We own it entirely, and we can keep building on it to make it serve our clients’ needs exactly as required.
We have custom coded this element of our business from scratch. No-code tools just wouldn’t be able to meet the demand of our advertising platform."
So the core value prop that Lyft presumably acquired them for was a coded tool, and an established customer base. Again, I get that no code facilitated a bunch of operational stuff for them, that's awesome, but I really don't think that's what the OP, or others that ask these sort of questions, mean.
the whole thing was built without code. the company was acquired by Lfyt within 11 months - made good money for its creators.
now they use some code because they've got all the resources at their disposal.
Lambda School (now BloomTech) was built originally on no-code tools and got to 3000+ students, and tens of millions in funding.
Unicorn Factory is a marketplace for hiring freelancers - also makes good money for its solo founder.
You can build a business like morning brew without code. Almost any content business (and no it doesn't have to be content about no-code).
You can build any job board without code. Lots of those make a lot of money.
You can build a membership community without code and lots of people make money with that too.
There are so many business models where no-code can be used as the tech stack.
You're preaching the the choir, I get all that and I love these sorts of use cases :)
The point generally is that there are so many people that pose these 'can you actually make a profitable tech company with no code tools' questions, but so often the questions comes back again and again because people aren't satisfied because they didn't mean 'can you validate an idea, or build a market place?' etc, they want to know like 'are no code tools sometimes creating legit technology companies' rather than technology-driven content, services or eCommerce/marketplace businesses - particularly something completely novel.
The distinction is subtle, but important, and it would be awesome to see/hear some stories like: x person built a new web browser using no-code tools and they're killing it, or somebody actually build a platform like shopify but didn't no how to code. I get that there are some fundamental reasons why these examples are rare or unlikely, but that's the sort of killer example that would really put an end to critics or cynicism.
I didn't see it explicitly asking about a tech SaaS app but now I assume that's what it meant.
PullPanda built an application for github review notifications in slack using Zapier as the first version.
I think hoping for examples of something that thing isn't built/ready for yet is not the right approach. Kinda like asking if Dall-E could produce a piece of art that would sell for thousands. Maybe in the future, but not right now.
We'll definitely see more tech SaaS co's built with no-code in the future but for now it's a little complicated which is why you likely don't see it much in the wild. Lots of companies use it internally for their own little software workflows, but that's not sexy so those stories aren't told.
My 3rd bullet point in my original message, along with the rest of the points, sort of logically leaves you at tech SaaS, but I could have been more explicit.
Anyway, that's fine if you don't have examples like that, I was just curious because I thought if anybody knew/had some it would be you! I see so many cynical inquiries about no-code from people and I know that when there are some SaaS companies built on no-code from the ground up (which I have no doubt there will be) it would be great to be able to drop those in the comments.
yeh sorry I meant OPs post
"Making good money" is relative.
However, tinyacquistion.com was created with bubble.io.
It is doing quite well.
No there isn't and there shouldn't be any. I'll give you the reason why.
I agree that lots of people don't know how to program and no code apps are solving this problem too, but only to some extent. You are not able to tailor everything according to your business needs.
And that's good!
Cuz the type of complex apps you are expecting to be built by no code tools will make these no code tools as complex as programming which makes no sense at all.
You want the infinitely complex tasks to be done by something that's easy to use. Can't be possible.
It's only possible when you put limitations to your no-code tool.
Simplicity is the reason why an average person is using bubble or webflow. If their no-code tool becomes complex enough with infinite features, that will need infinite buttons, that will need loads and loads of hourly tutorials to be watched, then why don't just learn to code?
Trust me, that would be much easier.
You opt for no-code tools cuz it saves your time (to learn) and money (for salary of Dev's). What you're expecting will do just the opposite of it.
My advice:
Use a no-code tool.
Get your business started.
If you get some money out of it, then hire Dev's to add features to ur product according to your needs
It sounds like what you are asking is “has anyone built a successful recurring revenue saas tool with no code?”
My guess is there are probably plenty of products making their way in the world as saas tools but the creators are unlikely to shout about it from the roof tops because of the potential backlash (see previous negative comments int this thread). Also, being unprofitable is not an issue solely for no code products - and it costs a lot less (time and money) to fail or succeed with no code tools than “traditional dev”.
I agree there appears to be lots of people/agencies creating tools to help you learn bubble, adalo, appgyver etc. but my guess is that’s because the no code industry is in its infancy - most people just don’t know these products exist and you need these opportunistic evangelists to get the message out there. You want the industry to grow outside of its bubble and ensure no code becomes a serious option for business - and for it to “not be weird that a product was built with no code”.
I’m a director of traditional coded saas company in the UK. We have been In business for 20 years and have built 2 core products the “traditional way” - one where our founders started it in their bedrooms (in my opinion the equivalent of where no code is now) and the other with a budget of millions. I have seen the problems (both financially and technically) that traditional dev can cause and the amount of money it costs to build a product the traditional way.
The cost to build a product (even and mvp) the traditional way is exponentially more expensive, especially if you do not have a CTO. The cost to pivot is far more expensive and then if you are building a product with cash behind you, you burn through it on designers, product managers/owners, developers and then of course dev ops. The world is now filled with “mediocre calibre” developers that can cost a company £50k - £100k plus a year - many of whom are getting tapped up for new roles from all over the world on a constant basis and so churn in development occurs. This is a damaging and expensive problem for any company.
Financial Successes:
One of your questions should be "how many tools have been built by no code agencies and single developers that are being used by businesses to either run their business or as ancillary tools within their business (for internal or external use).
?"
We have launched ancillary products built to complement our traditionally built saas (work with our API /webhooks etc) that on their own earn us hundreds of thousands a year (£000’s) from our customer base. We tend to use Bubble, Zapier and Twilio.
No code allows us to build things quickly and try things out without the need to over design, product manage and then have to built by “traditional devs”. The speed to market and functioning product is 10X quicker doing it the no code way. It also means staff in roles such as account management can build products for clients and also help them build their own products.
These products allow "high calibre non developers" with good ideas to “have a go yourself”, for very little cost other than your time to learn the product. No code products also take care of the dev ops side of the business. You don’t have to hire someone to look after your servers or understand docker, Kubernetes, api creation etc - Xano + bubble (for example) will cover all of that for you for a relatively small monthly cost which saves an absolute fortune, especially once they become critical to the business.
Outside of my day to day I have built functioning and well used (and loved - their words :-)) CRMs for other businesses - these I have built for the cost of my time at a fixed price (I had no desire to run them as a saas).
No code isn’t going to be the end of coding - far from it. However, in my opinion it is so obviously going to be the future for many projects as it liberates people with great ideas to start building, that traditional developers need to get on board with this.
100% agree with this. I'm not technical at all -- I'm an accountant by training -- but with no-code tools I've been able to spin up a couple of really simple projects (e.g. dailycheckin.io) in hours, rather than the days or weeks it would take to do it in a more technical manner.
They're not financially successful yet -- but they're great proofs of concept, or would work as internal apps for a specific business use case, for example
Agree: coding as a skillset probably isn't going anywhere, but no-code means that way more people can build small stuff that provides value to its users, quickly and easily. Great point re devops too -- I'd have zero idea how to manage and maintain a server, but zapier and twilio can just do it for me.
https://bubble.io/showcase
https://webflow.com/customers
https://ifttt.com/explore/stories
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What an awfully negative comment.
No-code’s target demo is anyone who cannot or does not want to code.
Way to call out most people.
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I think you may be missing a few things here...
No-code is not the future of coding - agree. It's not meant to replace coding, but instead give more people the chance to create tech-enabled products/services. No-code helps people need to know less and less code to build something. Much like a coding framework helps a developer write less code. It's an abstraction layer. It certainly can't do anything near as powerful as code can. Plus we will always need code to enable no-code.
and "Anyone can..." is a bit up in the air.
Anyone can...:
It's not always about choosing not to. Things are hard to learn for different types of people. I tried many times to code and just kept hitting a wall. Didn't work for me. But I managed to build a business and sell it to a large company in 18 months using no-code. That avenue was much more efficient for me, as I assume it would be for most people with similar goals.
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