Unlocking Efficiency: 10 Key Advantages of No-Code Web App Development

Last updated: 04/26/2024

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Being able to create Web Apps without having to spend a ton of time manually writing code is game-changing in 2023 and is saving real businesses serious money & solving problems.

As a business owner, you’re going to want to read this article in order to be aware of these benefits when thinking of undergoing a web app project. Number 10 is our favourite!

In this article, we’re going to assume you already know what No Code Web App Development tools are but we will have an upcoming article on this very topic. Let’s get into it.

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Key Takeaways

• The main 2 benefits of No Code tools are they are significantly cheaper and quicker than traditional development
• No code tools empower everyone who is non-technical people to build web apps and get involved with web app development
• No code tools produce the same if not better quality web app as traditional development
• No code tools make maintenance much easier

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Benefits we’ll cover

1. Speed
2. Cost savings
3. Low barrier to entry
4. Ease of maintenance and improvement
5. Increase freedom as a business owner
6. Involvement in development
7. Flexibility + Agility
8. Stronger collaboration + Increased team productivity
9. Scalability
10. The future

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1. Speed

The biggest benefit of No-code development is it’s significantly faster. No code tools shorten the time taken from the prototyping stage to development, testing and maintenance.

Lines of HTML and CSS a trained front-end developer would manually need to write are done in 10x less time by tools such as Webflow using a visual editor.

No code tools are simply more efficient when it comes to writing code.

Using no-code tools can help you smash out your next web app project in a matter of days/weeks instead of the months it would take a full dev team to complete.

Using backend tools like Wized and Xano, setting up things like user authentication which could take days of work can now be done in an hour or so. When you pair this with no-code frontend tools like Webflow, the speed you can take your web apps to market drastically reduces.

This leads to faster innovation. You can start running with a business idea in a matter of days instead of having to wait to speak to a whole development team.

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2. It’s cheaper

No code development is very cheap to start up, develop and also maintain.

Traditionally, the price to build a web app usually costs between £35,000 to £120,000 (according to Clockwise). The majority of this cost is the hundreds of hours of developer time you pay for.

As we just discussed the time it takes to build web apps with the same functionality has been reduced by over 90% and you also don’t need a university-educated developer anymore.

That’s means immense cost savings - especially at an enterprise level.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, this should be music to your ears (and pockets!).

If you choose to work with a no-code developer, the only other cost you will have is your subscription(s) to the no-code platform(s) which is usually are usually between £20 - £150 a month

But you get started with a lot of these No code tools such as Wized, Xano, Bubble, and Webflow for FREE.

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3. Low barrier to entry

Gone are the days where you need to have a 4 years University degree and a ton of experience to get involved in back and fronted development.

In fact, now all you need now is a few weeks on YouTube/courses to learn to use the tools and a couple more weeks to practice.

Non-technical business owners with brilliant ideas, with the time & determination to learn, can now get up and running with their new idea.

Lower barrier entry means more people can get up and started but this means more competition too

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4. Easier to maintain and improve

You will no longer have your hands tied behind you in the sense of not being able to do anything without a developer's aid. You, as the business owner, can make some small changes yourself with the visual software.

And for more complex changes the bill to pay won’t come from an entire team of developers but instead from a freelancer or so. This encourages further improvement of your product.

Maintaining it is also easier because you aren’t stuck with the original company you built it with. Traditionally you would have a hard time going to another company for maintenance changes as they don’t want to be involved with a mountain of code from another company.

No code tools don’t completely stop bug fixes. While this isn’t always the case, it’s usually easier to debug because you don’t need to search through thousands of lines of code & you can see the effect fixes make instantly.

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5. More freedom as a business owner

No code allows you to focus on the business development and not just get caught up in the web development side.

This is beneficial because as web apps become a commodity, it places more importance on marketing the web app as there’s so much more competition.

You will also have much more room to pivot. Also communication is improved as you’re not having to speak with an entire offshore dev team.

There is just less overall headache with No-Code.

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6. You’re more involved in the development

As a non-technical founder, you may feel out of place when trying to take the lead on the direction you want to go when development commences for a web app.

Using no-code tools means you’re not just a bystander when development begins as you can’t understand code.

This has several benefits such as being able to communicate your wishes more clearer and suggest ideas as you’re more “clued-up” on what’s going on

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7. More flexible + Agile

It’s much easier to pause, play, rewind, 2x and restart the no-code web development process.

You’re usually not committing to a 6 figure bill in order to pay a ton of developers to work on this. This puts you in more control of the situation so you can change the direction easier or add new features with ease.

Also, no-code platforms offer a wide range of customisation options allowing you to get your functionality exactly where needed.

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8. Stronger collaboration + Increased team productivity

As we’ve discussed no code tools have a much lower learning curve which requires minimal coding knowledge or programming skills which opens its use up to more people - including your team.

This encourages collaboration for members of your squad to review, test, share feedback, contribute & make changes. This is further enhanced by the collaborative real-time features that some no-code platforms offer

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9. It’s scalable

No code platforms usually offer a plethora of integrations with your favourite backend systems, databases and APIs. And allow you to even connect to your own REST API.

As you upgrade your plan on these No Code platforms, the performance and efficiency of your web app become better and better. You can handle more traffic, send requests with fewer limits and process data more efficiently.

Some No Code tools may be limited by the fact they work with a set of pre-built components used to make web apps. These are probably fine with the majority of users but if you have a very highly specialised functionality, you may encounter some ceilings.

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10. No-code is the future

Don’t forget - normal websites used to be hard-coded! If you wanted to change one little bit of text, you needed an experienced front-end dev to edit the HTML, CSS or JS files, then zip it, and then re-upload that zip back into something like cPanel.

That’s a lot of effort, right?

Tools like WordPress came out and flattened out this problem & tools like Webflow perfected the solution to now where you can build a website at a significantly higher level with less cost & less time.

The exact same thing is happening with Web Apps.

And over time other market disrupting tools like Chat GPT also make the idea of manually writing out code laughable.

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Conclusion

In summary, if you’re like most people, you care about the outcome - The end product - The result. So in this case the web app.

No-code development is committed to giving you the same quality outcome / end product / result (if not better) than traditional web app development.

If given the choice between spending hundreds of hours manually coding or spending 1/10 of the time to get the same end product…. Its nonsensical to choose the manual option

Most of your end users won’t even notice the difference anyway. As long as it works, security is good, it’s responsive and quick then it doesn’t matter how it was done.

As it business owner, no code gives you more freedom and is still scalable.

No-Code development is easy. And if not easy, it’s definitely easier than traditional methods!

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much cheaper is no code development?

No code development is cheaper by over 90%. The average cost to build a medium complex web app is around £100,000 which is mostly spent paying a team of developers. Let’s say your application is complex so you will need a higher plan on these no-code tools which is around £500 a month (£6000 a year). That’s a 94% cost saving.

What kind of applications can I build with no-code development

With the use of no-code tools, you can build a range of web applications from client portals, dashboards, course platforms, marketplaces, to-do lists & internal tools.

Are there costs associated with using no-code platforms

Yes and no. You can get started on No Code platforms like Webflow, Wized and Xano without paying a penny in order to try out the platform for yourself or for a small project. But when you want to launch with a custom domain, support or need more workspaces etc you’ll need to purchase a plan from that platform. Plan pricing usually ranges from £20 to £150 a month (higher for enterprise level).

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We hope this article was useful! If no-code sounds like sunshine and rainbows but you’re curious to see the other side, stay tuned for our next article on the 10 Negatives of No-Code development.

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We are Step Labs - a Webflow & Shopify web design & development agency! We'd love to be the team that works with you on your next project. Contact us at victor@steplabs.xyz.

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Written By: Victor @ Step Labs