The No-Code Movement and 4 No-Code Tools to Explore

A few months ago, I attended a meetup online. Before the actual program started, I had been chatting with other attendees. Our conversation drifted to how to make websites that look good and are effective. One attendee mentioned his success with no-code apps for that purpose.  That made me curious about the no-code movement.

What are no-code apps?

Serra Alban writes:

No-code or a no-code tool, to be more practical, is a method and a movement of programming that does not necessarily involve writing code but instead works with GUI (Graphic User Interface) tools. This is so to say that no-code tools don’t depend on their users’ knowledge and ability to use code, instead, it makes use of way simpler methods to increase efficiency.

Alban’s article was a good resource I found as I explored the no-code movement and I encourage others to read it as well. 

No-Code platforms I explored:

1. Bubble.io

Bubble was the first no-code app I tried when I found out about the no-code movement. I took the free tutorials online and quickly found that it was an excellent website builder. I was able to make a simple app after completing the tutorials.

Also, I saw that I would be able to use templates to create websites for future projects. What I liked about Bubble was that I could make a website or app that I did not have the skills to make with programming. It felt freeing. The possibilities seemed endless. Bubble was easy to use and they allowed new users a lot of time and education to get up to speed.  

2. Carrd.co 

Next, I explored the carrd.co website. On the free tier, I made a landing page for a company - no-code required. The program made website design as simple as word processing. My example landing page looked very professional and polished to me. I was able to host this small page free with Carrd, but for more useful capabilities I found that I would need to pay for the pro version. The pro version has three tiers which range from $9 to $49 dollars per month. 

3. Zapier.com

Recently, I had been volunteering with a team to create a ticketed community event. We were communicating with each other using Slack to coordinate project activities. One of the members of the team was familiar with the no-code movement and recommended Zapier.

He coordinated Eventbrite and Slack with Zapier so that when tickets for our event sold, we would all be automatically notified via Slack. This improved communication with team members. All of us were in the loop at all times about the progress of our event. Learning about Zapier seemed worthwhile to me. It saved us a lot of time as a team and no coding was involved in the process. Later, I experimented with Zapier by creating my own zaps. It was relatively simple to do. 

4. Airtable.com

Airtable is an “online system where a group of collaborators can store, share, and collaboratively edit information,” according to this article. The Airtable site has several tutorials and a limited pro trial to learn to use the program. I watched a 25-minute tutorial on Airtable, which highlighted its advanced spreadsheet capabilities.  I found it helpful to watch this YouTube video to learn more about Airtable.

Where can you learn more about the no-code movement?

Try the #100daysdaysofnocode challenge. They advertise: “Bring your ideas to life in 100 days. No coding required. #100DaysOfNoCode is an online community connecting you with the people, content and habit fueled system to build great things.” 

The program delivers weekly workshops, a learning lab, and member-led events for a small fee. This can be an important educational tool for learning because you also get a chance to interact with other learners who are creating apps. These people may be able to give suggestions for your attempts at making no-code apps. 

I found that the environment in no-code apps is constantly changing as the no-code movement grows. There is a steep learning curve, and much of the knowledge about no-code apps is experiential - you have to practically develop no-code apps to learn. My experience with no-code apps is that they are simple to learn but there is a lot of information so you can become overwhelmed. 

The no-code movement is growing quickly and the variety of apps could change rapidly in the next months. So, are you considering no-code for your next project? I hope this article will help you in joining the no-code movement.