No-Code vs Code

This is a common question that most Non-Tech founders or Early Builders face, To Code or No-Code?

As a non-technical builder, my views may be biased but let me just share my experience. When I first started building products. building Tech was a scary proposition but gradually I have made peace with it.

  • When you are starting out, pick a stack that will allow you to ship. Shipping is very important because if you don’t, all the effort goes to vain. Pick the stack that helps you ship your MVP in the fastest possible time.
  • Whatever tech you choose, you must understand the basics of building a tech product – Frontend, Backend and Database. Frontend is what you see, Backend is the logic and Database is where all the data is stored. It is very simple but once you understand this, you will be better equipped to decide your stack
  • Bubble is a great no-code tool and you can build a wide variety of tools on it and it will serve you well but the learning curve can be a bit steep. I do not recommend Bubble for consumer apps that have a very high recurring usage – such as social networks or maybe even a voice notes app. But again, if it helps you get off the ground – do it with Bubble, later on you can shift as and how you want.
  • Mobile apps are tricky with no-code. Except flutter flow, not many tools allow you to develop native mobile apps. Stick a web product or a progressive web app for your first product.
  • While No-Code may be easy to start with, the costs may be higher in the longer run given that most cloud providers will give you a lot of credits.
  • I recommend using Boiler Plates to quickly build tools on Code if you know how to code, else you can use No-Code
  • I also recommend building landing pages on Framer or any other no-code tool as you do not want to deploy code everytime there is a copy change. Frankly, Framer does amazing landing pages. Only downside is that you can’t add a lot of dynamic stuff on framer, which they are now working on with their recent plugins announcement.

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