Mythbusting No-Code: Beyond Simple Apps

There’s a common myth that no-code app development is only suitable for building simple applications with limited feature sets. This is likely a holdover from early versions of no-code tools, which emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s and often had customization and flexibility limitations.

In reality, modern no-code development platforms have evolved significantly. Today’s tools offer all kinds of customizable features like advanced integrations, database management, automation, and intricate user interfaces – making them well-suited to handle a wide range of sophisticated, scalable projects with complex business logic or specific industry requirements.

Below, check out some of the most common use cases and products we’ve seen no-code app development used for – regardless of business size and industry.

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1. Two-sided Marketplaces

Two-sided marketplaces (e.g. Airbnb for x) are one of the most common kinds of client needs that we see. These platforms allow two groups of users to communicate and transact with each other in some way. No-code is a good fit because marketplaces require common, everyday web functionality (e.g. user signups, profiles, search, transactions, etc.) rather than new technological solutions. This means that developing these apps with conventional code isn’t needed. And just as importantly, most marketplaces are unique, which makes it difficult to build a one-size-fits-all solution.

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2. AI Applications

The world is abuzz about AI and for good reasons. It’s likely that tools such as GPT will completely transform how a lot of modern work is done. As a result, an emerging use case for no-code that we see is creating applications around AI. In those applications, AI is used to power the core of the application (e.g. creating marketing content) while no-code is used to power all of the other ancillary features that the application needs (e.g. interfaces, user authentication, payments, etc.).

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3. SaaS Products

The SaaS model is a proven one – you build a product that serves a need of a particular audience and you charge them a monthly fee for using that product. These have been traditionally built with code, but no-code is well-suited for building a lot of SaaS products since the key functionality needed (user authentication, subscription payments, complex data structures, etc.) are all doable with no-code. We constantly see no-code SaaS use cases that serve both consumer and business needs.

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4. Process Automation

Every organization has its processes, and many processes can be made easier and more organized with custom software. Project management, approvals, and general communication protocols can be built into simple tools using no-code, sometimes in just a few hours.

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5. Customer Portals

A really common use case we see is when an organization has a bunch of data stored somewhere (e.g. Salesforce, internal databases, etc.) and they need to expose that data to their customers. In those cases you can use no-code tools to build a custom portal which plugs into the data source to retrieve and update data as needed.

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6. Middleware Integrations

Another common enterprise use case is tying two disparate systems together, sometimes while building a middle layer that transforms the data in some way before sending it from one system to another. There are many no-code tools that allow you to build integrations like this, some better suited for very simple integrations, and some for much more complex ones.

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7. More Scalable Spreadsheets

A common theme that we see in business use cases is that companies that depended on Excel spreadsheets to manage a process are migrating to no-code applications. That’s because spreadsheets can be incredibly powerful, but they still lack features that certain processes need in order to be scalable. These include user authentication, version control, external integrations to data sources, and more.

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In conclusion, the no-code myth that it’s only fit for simple use cases no longer holds true. Modern no-code platforms can empower businesses of all sizes to build robust, scalable apps faster and more affordably than ever before.