NO CODE movement?

#1

Ok, so i’m researching this part too.
Idea is simple at this movement - instead of building something complex and from scratch - use some services aka Zapier and others, in order to quickly ship your MVP.

  • I like it because I hate to code something that wouldn’t used by other people
  • It lover a gap for non-tech people, that can be “tricked” sometimes by tech community.

What i needs - a lot of predefined templates, good API and good documentation(looks like important things at all products, right?)

Tell me what do you think about it?

Details to read:

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#2

There is huge chunk of these tools present in app and game dev market eg Unity, Unreal all game engines have declarative UI and minimal coding that amounts to scripting. Only imagination is the limit to one’s success. In my app dev days I used to utilise tools like appmakr.

Honestly I never shipped anything with them, considering platform constraints.

Web development, on the other hand, seems to be missing out on this front, unless I am too unaware. For better part of my career I kept looking for Dreamweaver+ for dynamic websites but never found it, eventually resorted to package managers - all control with the CLIs, and you must AT LEAST know them even if you don’t want to code. Once you are past that inertia, you kinda feel you already hassled, so why not having your way rather than what the tool provides? Thus, the lack of such tools become self-fulfilling prophecy in web dev domain, IMO.

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#3

I think this space is going to become HUGE soon and I run Makerpad - which offers tutorials, templates and tools to teach makers and professionals how to build without code.

There are some big tools in the space already (Airtable, Webflow, Zapier) and more tools on the rise (Bubble, Boundless, Coda, Clay, Retool etc). Hiten Shah posted a Maker Report on no-code yesterday (https://usefyi.com/maker-report/) which has some awesome insights.

There are a ton of benefits to using no-code. It will be interesting to see if a handful of companies dominate the space completely or whether there will be a wave of tools to fill the space.

It’s also exciting to see who is building what kinds of actual products without code (Makerpad is built without code but not that complex to be honest!)

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#4

@bentossell you inspire me to dig into it :slight_smile:
As one of leaders - maybe you have some advices to share? Because I think we really moving into that place and I’m curious to see what will be next or how to be part of it.

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#5

It would be very depressing if one company or a few companies dominated this market. The idea that anyone can build anything without code is universally empowering, but it loses its sails if anyone can build anything as long as they use [company name]. That said, making many no-code options accessible under one hood, and making it simpler for those tools to work together, probably will increase the number of digital projects completed without needing to code.

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#6

I think it will be hard with current “economy”. I mean everyone want to dominate, right?
Not sure right now, how it can be prevented. Only maybe making that tools Open Sourced, not sure.

I like this movement because:
I imagine my friend Betty, she have idea to build next amazon, but don’t have tech skills. And these tols can help her to start.

Or I imagine a student, that located in small town and know how to use online. And he want to make small amount of money, and create a simple ads listing from social network.

for both of them - this movement can be useful

Cool research: https://usefyi.com/maker-report/

#7

While this will draw so many devs + early stage students into the market, it will be interesting to see if this will disrupt “programmer” developers market in any way.

What you can achieve with NO Code tools will always be infinitely smaller than what you can achieve with code.

This is because those toolmakers will have their own limit on what they make declarative vs what they cannot vs what they don’t want to.

And then there is hardware revolution happening alongside software, so tool makers too are competing and evolving to get hold of what’s available to them - otherwise they are out.

For example, it maybe easy for an app maker to build a mobile website like app in 3 minutes, but they simply can’t provide AR-powered appmaking capability until AR is no longer a fad.

Imagine this discussion happening 30 years ago when C and C++ were fresh, and many programmers might think at that time that higher level languages publishers will flood the market + dominate it.

Alas, it hasn’t happened. Open source too has thrived despite legacy players, and people who can directly play at machine level code are in demand and moved up the value chain by publishing more empowering tools + technologies, being part of AI / hardware design revolution.

#8

partially agree. For me open source is growing - because people find their way to make money/visibility/perks from it. imagine talking about open source 30 years ago. it were 0 seconds talk. Right now everyone see how benefitial it is to have or contribute to open source projects.

i don’t actually see a big difference between learning some code framework and no code template. i mean both of them are “construct” that can be used. For sure, quality/complexity is a problem. But you don’t expect to build a rocket from stones, right? but with right tools, parts from big companies - it’s possible

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#9

Famous, like a fresh tool looks pretty promising: https://famous.co/

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#10

I’m so excited to discuss this topic. I totally agree No Code is a huge movement but it’s only for building MVP. I can’t imagine it’s hard to run a platform like Airbnb and Twitter for a company which has no technical staff.

Or No Code disrupt it? Fantastic! If so, it will be an incredible market! I want to know more about 1) Who are the customers 2) example services with No code.

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#11

99.99% of companies are below that level. Big companies can be like a soil with cool and flexible APIs for small projects, that like plants.

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#12

interview with @bentossell

https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/9d19bf8b6c

@david maybe we should have AMA with Ben?

#13

I’m excited about this because I just fundamentally don’t have the time to build my own apps. I have enough technical know-how and tenacity to pick up a lot of frameworks, but running your own biz / freelancing is helter skelter enough.

I’ve found a gap in the market, in a big way, and I think it’s important…and it doesn’t need to be a robust app, either. Something pretty basic.

So this is very appealing for someone like me who could do it the hard way, but just does not have the mental bandwidth.

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#14

Thats cool and it would bring more Excited and easy into business

#15

Awesome reading list. No-code is truly the future