---
title: "Nocode tools comparison: App builders, APIs, Landing Page, Vertical Software"
description: Here is a Nocode tools comparison for different use cases. App
  builders vs Zapier vs Landing Page vs Vertical Software. Bubble vs Sharetribe
  vs Webflow vs Substack.
author: Andreas Tzionis
date: 2018-08-05
published: true
yoast_keyword: Nocode tools
tags:
  - nocode
  - bubble
  - shopify
  - zapier
  - webflow
---
## Hey 👋 

It's easy to get overwhelm with all the options in the nocode-sphere. After 1 year in the community and after testing all kinds of integrations I think I have some interesting insights to share. Let's get to the nocode tools comparison.

**TLDR;**

1. Vertical software
2. App builders
3. Zap-like automations
4. UI + API
5. Prod-like

## Tier 1: Vertical software

**In General** when you are up to a specific niche, maybe you validate an idea through the means of Facebooks ads or you find a niche forum that is looking a very particular problem a Vertical software solution looks very promising. This solutions are ready-made software that are sold in a similar fashion as franchises do in the food space. These nocode tools are optimized to a high degree, ready for all common problems that are faced in particular industry but mostly restricted to that. They usually [have high costs](/blog/the-minimum-cost-of-a-startup/) but that may not be a problem as its best to go with the when you have some niche or waiting customers for your services that can out-weight the costs.

#### **Options**

* [Sharetribe](https://www.sharetribe.com/) ($79/mo)
* [Substack](https://substack.com/) (free)
* [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/) (free)
* [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/) ($30/mo)
* [Yelo](https://jungleworks.com/yelo/) ($69/mo)

#### **Things to build**

* Marketplaces
* Communities
* Paid Content
* Ecommerce sites

## Tier 2: App builders

**In General** App builders are all in one solutions to build a web or mobile app. The differ from Vertical software as they are generic platform that are not optimized for one use. That means they require more work for a particular use case but at the same time they are more open to custom solutions. The drawback of App builders is that the require a significant time investment in building the exact services you want without the chance to get your service out of the platform. At the same time you have no control of pricing and fees.

#### **Options**

* [Bubble](https://bubble.io/) ($20/mo)
* [Wix](https://www.wix.com/) ($10/mo)
* [Adalo](https://www.adalo.com/) ($50/mo)
* [Wordpress](https://wordpress.com/) (free + hosting fees)

#### **Things to build**

* Marketplaces
* Paid content 
* with more customizations than Vertical Software

## Tier 3: Zap-like automations

**In General** Zapier is a visual system that connects systems in an event based manner. For example you can have a user created in your Airtable database when a webflow form is submitted or payment go through Stripe when a customer pressed the "pay" button. They were the leading platform in the #nocode movement a few months ago as the provided the first approachable way to connect various components without code. The drawback here is Zapier pricing that is nowhere near affordable (even the automate.io is still out of reach for most) and the the fact that you need to understand more than one platform to build your underlying product. Yet, this can be a good thing, you get the chance to reduce reliance on a single platform and start to understand software systems without learning to code!

#### **Options**

* [Webflow](https://webflow.com/) ($12/mo) / [Squarespace](https://www.squarespace.com/) ($12/mo) / [Wix](https://www.wix.com/) ($10/mo) + 
  [Zapier](https://zapier.com/) ($129/mo) / [Automate.io](https://automate.io/) ($49/mo) + 
  [Firebase](https://firebase.google.com/) (free) / [Airtable](https://airtable.com/) ($10/mo) / [Memberstack](https://www.memberstack.com/) ($25/mo)

#### **Things to build**

* Marketplaces
* Paid Content
* with more customizations than Vertical Software

## Tier 4: UI builder + API

**In General** this is the tier that things start to get serious. Since you will be using a proper API you will start to understand how enterprise level applications are build without digging into the code. With this stack you won't have to choose between the speed and polish or Tier 1/2 and the flexibility of Tier 3. You can have a native-grade speed app or website. You can get a UI/UX designer or make the investment and polish the site yourself. You can build more complex interactions without the limits of vertical software or App Builders. You can have all of that with such Nocode tools. At the same time this stack provides the flexibility of swapping frontends without any disruption (if you do the work to rebuild in a new frontend) and the possibility to swap backends back you will need to hire someone to do it for you if you don't code. Lastly, they enable you to integrate services you need with webhooks which means that you can send push notifications with OneSignal or emails with Mailchimp.

#### **Options**

* [UI Bakery](https://uibakery.io/) ($15/mo) / [Draftbit](https://draftbit.com/) (invite) + 
  [Firebase](https://firebase.google.com/) (free) / [Memberstack](https://www.memberstack.com/) ($25/mo) / [Busywork](https://busywork.co/) ($38/mo)

#### **Things to build**

* All the above
* Custom tools

## Tier 5: Prod-like

**In General** this is the hall of fame of nocode tools. You can have all greatness describe in Tier 4 plus 1 extra thing that takes it to a whole new level. You can have any function that is impossible to build with #nocode build with code and plug it in [your #nocode app](/blog/the-minimum-cost-of-a-startup/). Imaging connecting to an advanced TensorFlow model or some complex payment logic or an event logging system. If you know how to code that's great otherwise you can hire a developer off upwork to do the job for you. They will feel at home since they will be using the database systems that they are used to. With this stack the only limitations is your imagination (cliche).

#### **Options**

* [UI Bakery](https://uibakery.io/) ($15/mo) / [Draftbit](https://draftbit.com/) (invite) + [NoCodeApi](http://nocodeapi.com/) ($12/mo) + [Airtable](https://airtable.com/) ($10/mo)
* [UI Bakery](https://uibakery.io/) ($15/mo) / [Draftbit](https://draftbit.com/) (invite) + [Diagram](https://landing.ondiagram.com/) (20$/mo) + [EasyDB](https://easydb.io/) (free) / [MongoDB](https://cloud.mongodb.com/) (free)

#### **Things to build**

* All the above
* Custom tools

---
title: "Nocode Startup costs: Minimum budget for web and mobile apps"
description: The startup costs of launching and reaching 5000 users with various
  nocode / lowcode tools and different marketing and domain services.
author: Andreas Tzionis
date: 2018-07-05
published: true
yoast_keyword: startup costs
tags:
  - nocode
  - startup
  - costs
  - analytics
  - landing-page
  - domain
---
Some startup costs are obvious like paying up for a domain name or a landing page builder. These are usually paid upfront and they standout. Other costs are not so obvious as they appear at later stages of a company and in some cases they are even $0 in the beginning. An example of this is MailChimp which many companies don't know about its startup costs. MailChimp is free at the beginning and really easy to setup which makes it really attractive to newly founded companies but ends up be really expensive (hundreds of dollars each month) after bypassing the first 2500 customers. Now they are faced with two startups costs. The one is to pay MailChimp a big chunk of money every month to use their tool. The other is the developer hours to migrate all customer data away from MailChimp and to another platform which is equally expensive.

## Domain & Business

Most of the times good idea to have a domain early on and be able to get a landing page up for signups and a branded email address so people can reach you. There another administrative thing to do if they are more than one people involved. That is setting up a business account so no personal account is linked to company. Most of the times it requires a business registered. 

* [Gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/set-up-business) ($15)
* [Delaware.gov](https://corp.delaware.gov/) ($89)
* Sole trader (free)
* [Stripe Atlas](https://stripe.com/atlas) ($500 + $100/yr)
* 👑 [Google Domains](https://domains.google/) ($12/yr)



## Marketing page

Getting the landing page right is a crucial bit of the business and usually the go-to tool for this job is Wordpress. I believe though that the trade-off of flexibility to price is not good. Most of the times I tend to find a few areas that I need something more customisable and find myself to start digging into it more and wasting time instead of saving. If flexibility is my goal I rather use a tool like Stackbit that is more friendly to developers (since it uses React and the JAMstack). On the other hand if simplicity is the goal I found Carrd to be a tool that does the job for a very affordable price.

* [Stackbit](https://www.stackbit.com/) (free)
* [Wordpress](https://wordpress.com/hosting/) (free)
* 👑 [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) (free)
* 👑 [Carrd](https://carrd.co/) ($19/yr)



## Web app

The web app or mobile app is will be the core part of your business and it important that is flexible and extensible to support future requirements nicely. For building the frontend I believe UI bakery gives a lot of flexibility. One reason is that it builds a full scale web under the hood and more complex features will play nicely with this. The other reason is that is decoupled with the backend and can be swapped for a custom integration if the business scales up really well or gets venture funding. Our own tool Diagram I think does the job it suppose to do really well. It connects to all popular databases, it natively fast and it's has a very flexible nodes engine for more complex requirements.

* [Webflow](https://webflow.com/) + [Zapier](https://zapier.com/) ($$$)
* [Wix](https://www.wix.com/) ($10/mo)
* [Bubble](https://bubble.io/) ($25/mo)
* 👑 [UI Bakery](https://uibakery.io/home-bakery) ($7/mo) + [Diagram](/) (19$/mo)
* [Sharetribe](https://www.sharetribe.com/) ($79/mo) or [Yelo](https://jungleworks.com/yelo/) ($69/mo) or [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/) ($30/mo) or [Substack](https://substack.com/) (free)

## Mobile App

My first choice here is to go with Draftbit and build the frontend there. They support different layouts and have a flexible integration with other backend services. Moreover, they offer a hundreds of templates to start with and play around before getting into designing of your own app. For it's speed, compatibility and flexibility I think Diagram is a great choice for backend as described above. The last component of nocode startup costs for mobile apps is paying for the Play Store and App Store. There is no way around this but if it's done right it can also be a distribution platform as well as a great acquisition channel!

* [Bubble](https://bubble.io/) ($20/mo + $20 Fiverr)
* [Adalo](https://www.adalo.com/) ($50/mo)
* 👑 [Draftbit](https://draftbit.com/) (invite only) + [Diagram](/) (19$/mo)
* [Wix](https://www.wix.com/) Webview ($10/mo + $20 Fiverr)
* 👑 App Store ($25)
* 👑 Play Store ($100/yr)



## Marketing Services

It is often forgotten in the beginning but no startup can operate without proper marketing services like email, sms, push notifications etc. Also, considering how expensive this can get it's important to start thinking about it from the get-go. For example MailChimp is free for up to 2500 customers but it becomes really expensive is not scaling nicely once you reach that threshold.

* [MailChimp](https://mailchimp.com/) ($75/mo)
* [Sendinblue](https://www.sendinblue.com/) ($18/mo) for 5 emails
* [MailerLite](https://www.mailerlite.com/) ($30/mo)
* 👑 [OneSignal](https://onesignal.com/) (free)

All startup costs listed above are monthly. That may be unfair to some tools that have favourable yearly plans. Also, some prices are not accurate due to currency conversions. These prices are correct as of 5/7/20.

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Nocode tools comparison: App builders, APIs, Landing Page, Vertical Software

Nocode Startup costs: Minimum budget for web and mobile apps