Makerpad
Learn how to build products without code
We’re really excited to announce that Makerpad has joined Zapier.
I started my journey into what is now known as “no-code” back in 2016. The no-code movement hadn’t yet started, the community was non-existent, and there was, by comparison, a scattering of no-code tools and options for automation.
Fast-forward to today, and no-code has grown bigger than I had imagined it could. Huge amounts of money are being raised and invested, new tools are continuously being developed, and the community is growing at an exciting rate.
I founded Makerpad in 2019 as a way of showing people how to build things without needing to know how to code. I think part of what made it so successful so quickly was that the content I was putting out through Makerpad was educating people on the democratisation of software development.
This desire to democratise software, and push towards a future where people aren’t limited by a lack of coding knowledge, is a vision that unites Makerpad and Zapier.
Our conversations began late 2020, in a somewhat unorthodox way. Off the back of this tweet saying “Zapier should buy Makerpad ASAP”, Wade (CEO and co-founder of Zapier) reached out and said that the tweet was not wrong. Wade and I went back and forth and soon realised that our visions for the future of software development were aligned. I really feel that the two companies are a perfect fit for one another: Zapier is the glue binding no-code tools together; Makerpad is the education and learning community that brings people together.
It goes without saying that Zapier is doing incredible things for technology. With a non-traditional funding history, the company has grown into a hugely successful brand, employed a talented team of over 400 spread all over the globe, devised a killer SEO strategy, and most importantly, changed how the world moves and works with tech. I couldn’t be more proud that Makerpad will now be working alongside them.
Looking ahead, now that we have the backing and support of Zapier, there will be some exciting things happening at Makerpad. Together, we can take no-code to heights that would have been tough to do on our own. We hope to reach and educate people in all corners of the world, and work towards democratising software on a global scale.
There won’t be any major changes for now — you can still expect the same team and community. We’ll continue to make the high-quality, unique content you’ve come to know Makerpad for. With Zapier behind us, this can and will only continue to get better and better. We’ll be announcing more details over the coming days and weeks.
I want to say thanks to every one of you that has supported and believed in Makerpad. I’m thrilled to be on this journey with you all, and I can’t wait to bring you along for the next chapter.
You can read more about our news on TechCrunch and Zapier.
It's come a long way since I started Makerpad as a side project 12 months ago:
- we have a team
- some investors
- over 1000 PRO members 💰💰💰
- 10k email subs
- 10k users visiting us just last week alone!
- also our MRR grew 75% MoM Dec-Jan
All of this combined helps us continue to grow and be around for a long time continuing to build out the best no-code platform for all of YOU!
Sincerely from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting Makerpad! 🙏
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Awesome! :) Is there some kind of discount? It's a little bit expensive for students
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Woohoo!
Congratulations! 🙌 -
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Massive congrats, Ben! So proud of you and so excited for you!
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Congrats Ben! No code power! 😁
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Congrats.
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Awesome work Ben! Following Makerpad since the early beginnings!
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congratulations, way to go!
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Congrats Ben, onwards and upwards.
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This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Thank you SO much to everyone for your support. 🥳
We're so excited for what’s to come for Makerpad and the Makerpad team. Can’t believe we won the Golden Kitty and beating (nicely, because we love them) other awesome no-code tools to the top!
https://www.producthunt.com/stories/announcing-the-2019-golden-kitty-award-winners
All built without code of course!
What a GitHub profile is to a developer, Makerpad profiles are for no-coders.
- browse users
- submit posts + categorise
- say which Tools you use
- say what you've built (marketplaces, workflows etc)
If you want to request a profile invite: https://forum.makerpad.co/t/makerpad-profiles/109
Here's the announcement: https://twitter.com/bentossell/status/1217830213230514177
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BEFORE NO-CODE
- Hire expensive developers
As a developer, I'm a little offended.
Just kidding, I actually really like the idea. I've been a developer for most of my life. I hang out with other developers and the truth is, we kinda forget sometimes that most people on the planet don't know how to code. Amazing work my friend.
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haha thanks!
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Hi, good day to you Ben .
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This is a really good idea. Those who have less or no knowledge of programming language will benefit from it.
Do you have a free plan, cause some users to want to try it out before they make a purchase, I feel like you should plan for something like freemium.
But it's one of the best things anyway, and I can see that this new platform is going to be a success.
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We have tons of free content on the site already. We've played around with lots of pricing plans and the current one works for us.
The difficulty with a free platform is having people who may not be your best user so we focus on getting the right people at the right time.
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This is our biggest story yet: https://www.makerpad.co/stories/mitchell-wright-how-lambda-school-grew-with-no-code-tools
People often ask how far does no-code scale. This is a great example. Also Lambda is a code school, but they used no-code to grow and scale.
At makerpad.co we are at 793 PRO members and 8.7k subs. Looking to hit 1k and 10k subs by end of year as a stretch goal.
Honestly can’t believe this side project I started now has over 110 tutorials, 3 staff and over 200k revenue in less than a year! So grateful for everyone’s support so far.
If you can’t code or just want to see what’s possible with no-code, come join us: makerpad.co
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Boom! Epic job!
Just getting started :)
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Massive thanks to you joining the team :)
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Congrats on the milestone Ben! It's been fun watching you grow it.
What's the breakdown on the numbers? Any insights into how people are choosing to pay and how that's driven your pricing model?
I'm trying to remember back to how you first had it. Wasn't it a once-off fee?
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Congrats Ben!
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Congratulations @bentossell . Such posts inspire us to do something.
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Well done Ben!
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Amazing! Congrats Ben! I'm working on a no-code solution similar to bubble, but would really like to hear your thoughts on what gaps there are in the market or what I could do a little differently if you're open to it.
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Awesome 👏
Congrats on identifying a unmet area that had a real need for a service and doing it really well. Very cool 🔥
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Congrats Ben!
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So happy about your success! Keep up the good work
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Congrats!
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Absolutely deserved ! The tool is amazing and I am actually going to sign up now
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Wow, impressive! Congratulations.
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Huge milestone, congrats!
Amazing to see how much value you're adding to the no-code landscape at the same time.
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What do you think was the single most important decision that made the most impact over the last year? (besides
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Congratulations!
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That's amazing, congrats man!
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That's awesome! well done!
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Damn man that's awesome! Congrats.
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Well done!! 👍🏻👍🏻
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Inspiring @bentossell. Such a great product.
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Congrats!!
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This looks serious good. Love it. I was interested in knowing how I could probably collaborate with you on Design front, specifically UI and UX + Webflow. Jump into what I am working on right now UXHunt.com
Let me know if you are interested? I am really early into the game so my numbers are low. ;) -
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I'm so impressed that you and the team have been able to build a community like this. Community-building is not my forte! Any tips on channels or strategies that helped you tap into this growing community of no-code makers?
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Congrats man.
How many "tutorials" did you launch the paid version with?
And was the pricing always the same (or have you increased recently)-
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I actually can’t remember how many but less than 10.
The price has increased every few months since we launched actually.
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Congratulations! Seems like an interesting idea.
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Congratulations!!! Keep inspiring us
Tom built this incredible tutorial (our biggest yet) about building a sort of Patreon clone.
By the end of this tutorial, you will have a fully functioning product with an aggregated news feed where users can create a community, create public and member-only content, take subscription payments, manage posts, manage profiles and see monthly revenues.
Tools used: Adalo - that's it!
Build time: 3-4 hours
https://www.makerpad.co/tutorial/subscription-powered-community-like-patreon-with-adalo
The other day I tweeted "reply with what you want to build and I'll suggest ways to do it without code "
It went crazy! So many people replied. I thought I need to do something with this on https://www.makerpad.co/
Introducing Idea Requests: https://twitter.com/bentossell/status/1179808900482260998
You can simply submit your idea and then I reply with a comment to help you build it without code and also add relevant tutorials, tools and stories.
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great approach turning that twitter response into a feature !
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Cheers dude!
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Do you have any articles or tutorials about when to use bubble vs webflow? I absolutely love that WEbflow has bodymovin integration and the visual abilities seems far superior, and at the same time it seems that you can definitely make web apps using webflow/memberstack/zapier, but bubble is the most often recommended when it comes to building web apps.
EDIT: I have watched your video comparing them but it seems like memberstack might not have been a thing yet or had the functionality it now has which has opened up a lot of possibilities for webflow
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Which video did you watch?
I’ve pinged my team to say we need to definitely do a video (probably not a tutorial) about what bubble/boundless should be used for vs webflow/airtable/etc stack
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Actually the video I watched was not from maker pad it was from someone named Brent Summers. It is from May of this but it seems to me like some of the things he is describing being unable to do with Webflow should theoretically be possible, so it might already be out of date. Would love a video like that!!
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Saw that tweet and right away thought: "brilliant. it will go viral"
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Thanks so much! Definitely got a lot of traction haha
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Great, thanks for sharing!
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Thanks max
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Noice. I see you've decided not to add community answering option on this stage? Are you planning to?
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Yes I’ll be adding commenting for members soon. As it’s all built without code, planning and testing needs to happen!
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I've been working with the makerpad.co team on a new refresh of the site.
The goal? to allow people to see the section that's right for them easily. So if you're looking to build a membership site, you click through and see tutorials related to that. If you work in marketing, you click through and see tutorials to help you in your day-to-day.
Still some tweaks to make of course
Also, we published a few new tutorials:
- automatically create products in Shopify
- send app download links via Twilio
- use Apple shortcuts to save your fav blog posts
- pull Linkedin info into Webflow records
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Looks super clean, great job!
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love the icons! Did you make them yourself?
https://www.makerpad.co/signup << love the ones there. -
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Cool, I think this was the main point old Makerpad was laking -- the structure.
I was a bit confused when I entered the home screen previously, like "there's so much stuff, what should I check first? what's really relevant and what is not?"
So thanks for the update. Wonder how you come up with all these ideas on different stuff one can make without code.
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yeh totally and it was annoying me that it was just a load of tutorials in your face with no real paths to go down.
Well there's tons of startups every day that are launched or talked about (Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, TechCrunch, HackerNews, Reddit, etc). Even people on Twitter always say "I wish I could do this thing quicker or better"
So we look at apps, products, sites, others and figure out what would be cool to show.
E.g. youtubers is a big thing... so why don't we look at what interesting things youtubers have to do every day/week...how could we make some mini tools that youtubers can copy...how can we automate processes for a youtuber... why don't we make a youtube production tracker using Notion?! Yeah! let's do that...
That's sort of what a process may look like! One idea always sparks tons more ideas too so we have a huge backlog of them. And some things suit certain tools better, others can be built similarly on multiple tools. So it's endless!
p.s. that YouTube tutorial is a real one and will be posted today/tomorrow on makerpad.co :)
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Should've figured out myself that a site for makers will start with needs of makers and build from there 😆
Have you been trying out new customer acquisition channels lately or are you focused on the other end of the funnel? (like what the content of this post is about, making the product better to make people stay)
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ha yeah but things often accelerate quickly! Hard to stay on top of things.
Distribution is something I really need to look into and focus on. It may help with the latest version of Makerpad by having tutorials/content targeted towards YouTubers and wannabe YouTubers for the example above. Then we can try and explore ways to reach these folks. Still lots of experimenting to do
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I think I get your master plan (t̶o̶ ̶c̶r̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶n̶e̶.̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶v̶i̶v̶o̶r̶s̶): since youtubers are such a tightly-knit community (with one influencers doing videos with/about/against others and with their communities being constantly mixed) then if one youtuber shares what they learned from your tutorials the others will pick up and their audiences will follow.
Am I right?
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This comment was deleted 6 years ago
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This comment was deleted 7 years ago
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I’ll check the video!
Well that’s already the idea...you navigate through each via a job function or use case. So if you want to build a membership site, go through that section for those tutorials. Or search on the site navbar where it says “i want to build...”
Perhaps some sort of live chat may help here too.
Wonder how that could be more clear
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As I'm full-time now, Makerpad is hiring. Already added one.. looking for more.
Open role/open to one or more people joining to cover these areas:
- Tutorial research
- Building challenges
- Operations (organising Makerpad house for @NoCodeConf etc)
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Can you create a post at Linkedin, so i can re-share it with my network?
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Noice!
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Would love you to use zohunt.com to engage and manage applicants. I will be happy to set up an account for you free for the next 6 months 🙏🏿
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appreciate it but I build my applicant tracking system without code 😎
e.g. https://www.makerpad.co/tutorial/applicant-tracking-system-using-notion
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That looks like a sales CRM. The importants of a recruitment software is not just for storing candidates. Excel can do that.
How do you effortlessly schedule an interview, keep track of candidates responses, know when to cantact a candidate and which candidate to contact, etc?
If you are getting less than 100 applications, your solution can work, email alone can work for that.
Kindly keep us in mind incase you start shopping for a recruitment software in the future
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I build my solutions without code based on other solutions out there. This tutorial was made based on the AngelList tracking system.
There are ways to bring in Zapier and help automate a lot of stuff, ranking can be done with formulas etc too.
Your solution is not for me. My solution works for me and lots of others who need something more simple that can be upgraded with automations if needed. The point of mine is to show that it's possible to get to solutions without having to code. So not knocking yours but I just don't need it I'm afraid.
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Hey, any update since this annoucement?