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App Development

Development of web and mobile applications from No-code studios

According to the 2020 study “Global Developer Population and Demographic Study” by Evans Data Corporation, today IT developer is one of the most sought-after professions: the number of developers in the world is 31 million people.

I think you also noticed that code development studios and freelancers have become a dime a dozen: contextual advertising and targeting give us thousands of offers for IT development services every single day. “We write in JavaScript, Java, Swift, Python, Kotlin and more.”

And the services of code studios are not cheap: the market average cost of developing, for example, mobile applications is from 450 thousand to 4.5 million, and the implementation period varies from 4 to 10 months.

Due to such “price lawlessness” and long implementation periods, many ideas only remain ideas, and many startups are not even born.

What if I told you that you can create profitable web and mobile applications 3 times faster and cheaper without resorting to the services of developers-coders?

The key to such a sharp reduction in the cost and acceleration of IT development is No-code services and Low-code solutions!

Interested? Then let’s move on!

Remark

In the comments to similar materials, I noticed a lot of dissatisfied exclamations in the spirit: “Nothing is clear, a very technical article.” For this reason, my article is focused not so much on fellow developers, but on entrepreneurs who can use this information to solve their business problems.

My name is Andrey Ilyinsky – I am the founder of the visual programming studio Sinneo! If you are a starter or an entrepreneur looking to launch a new product, this article is for you!

What is No-code/Low-code?

There are two concepts that people often confuse – No-code and Low-code.

No-code are constructors for creating IT products that do not require the use of code. Surely you know Tilda and Wix website builders? However, I should immediately bring you up to date: No-code constructors are much more than Tilda and Wix. In today’s article, I rely on the experience of developing on services designed to create web and mobile applications – Bubble and Adalo.

Low-code – I define how the approach to the implementation of an IT product is when the product base is made on a No-code service, and everything else that is not implemented on the constructor is added manually on the code.

Advantages of Low and No-code development over code

First of all, it is less laborious to develop applications on No-code constructors. Assembling a product from ready-made blocks is easier than writing dozens of lines of code for each element.

Creating an IT product on No-code is 3 times faster compared to code development – less labor intensity leads to a decrease in man-hours spent.

It is 1.5-2 times cheaper to develop an application on No-code only by reducing the man-hours spent on work.

If we also take into account that the man-hour of a middle nocoder costs 25-40% less than a middle coder, No-coding becomes at least 4 times cheaper than traditional coding.

With the help of pre-made plugins and API keys, No-code constructors integrate with third-party services, such as: payment modules, Google maps, email newsletter platforms, chat bots, third-party databases, CRM systems and others. This simplifies the work and expands the Application.

You can create a product not only from ready-made blocks, but also on zero block. On a white sheet, you yourself create this or that block, using not the entire ready-made template, but only specific elements.

Some services are Open Source. This means that on the basis of the No-code platform, you can enter your program code. This just transforms No-code into Low-code, and takes visual programming beyond block solutions.

Intrigued you? Here you can learn about the best No-code services and what you can build on them.

Where is it applied and to whom is it relevant?

Defining the target audience, we can safely say that Low and No-code development is primarily necessary for startups who have the task of bringing their MVP (Minimum Viable Product, Minimum Viable Product) to the market with little blood.

What is an MVP and why are startups bringing it to market?

Let’s say you have an idea. You have analyzed the market, studied the competitors, come up with your ideal product with a “Unique Selling Proposition”. Everything cool!

Then you invested money and time in the IT development of a complex and multifunctional product, brought it to the market. And, suddenly, the project, for some inexplicable reason, does not produce the results that were expected.

Why did it happen? The problem may lie in the overconfidence of start-up entrepreneurs in their product. They release their web or mobile application to the market without regard to the needs of the target audience, relying only on their intuition.

What to do to avoid failure? In order to minimize your potential losses, it makes sense to moderate your starting appetites and start with two steps:

1. Conduct CustDev (Customer development), or as it is commonly called in the English-speaking environment User Research or “User Research”.

In short, CustDev / User Research / User Research is a set of works to identify the target audience’s need for a future product, as well as their preferences for functionality, design, interface and other components of the product.

If you are interested in reading about “User Research”, write in the comments, I will definitely make a separate article.

2. Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP, Minimum Viable Product).

Regarding MVP, I will also be brief. The Minimum Viable Product is a product that:

  • is done not so much for making money, but for “testing the hypothesis”
  • reaches the market 3-4 times faster than the “final product”
  • contains the functionality necessary to meet the main needs of the target audience
  • has a minimum number of optional “stray”
  • demonstrates relevance and relevance among the target audience.
  • brings you the first money,
  • forms the first permanent audience.
  • If you are interested in learning more about MVP, then you are here!