Why we chose to combine no-code with code

By dittofi

For the last three decades, startups (pre-seed, seed, series A and up), SMEs and large corporations have all had the same two choices when they want to build an app. Companies – whoever they are – can either buy an existing technology or build a custom app using their own developers.

Buying an existing technology tends to cost less and gets you an app quicker. But the app will not fit your use case exactly, there will be data privacy and security questions and there is exposure to third party risk.

For example, let’s say that you purchase a CRM tool from a platform provider. You integrate the CRM into your existing business development workflow. Six months later, the CRM company decides that they need to increase their prices or they risk going out of business. The company then ends up going bankrupt anyway, leaving you with all of your existing business development workflows pointing towards a defunct CRM tool.

The alternative would be to build your CRM tool from scratch. Now you own it and there is no risk that the prices will randomly increase or that the software vendor will go out of business. But building an app from scratch takes much longer, requires a larger upfront investment and carries with it a higher risk of failure.

Today there is a third option to build an app that is becoming increasingly popular. Build your app with low code or no-code.

Low code / no-code (LC / NC) platforms can be implemented fast, customised to your specific use case and typically cost much less than building your app from scratch.

These platforms don’t achieve this by magic. They do this by providing pre-built blocks of functionality that you can use directly off the shelf. For example, a login page, a password recovery mechanism, search features and so on.

Common no-code functionality

There are four features that most no-code platforms have that make building an app easier, faster and less error prone than writing code by hand.

1. Pre-built building blocks

Most no-code platforms have a list of pre-built blocks of code that you can use for example login, sign up, password recovery, filters and so on. You can grab these pre-built blocks, drag and drop them onto your page and then, using fine tuned controls, customize these features for your specific use case.

2. UI built for rapid dev

No-code platforms have been carefully designed for rapid development. They distil difficult programming problems into easily understood and intuitive concepts that allow you to develop large chunks of your app in a few clicks – without hiring an expensive developer or needing an extensive technical background in app development.

3. Hosting included

Nearly all no-code platforms include hosting for your app. The hosting allows you to launch your app without needing to configure or test your servers, set up monitoring or manage your apps hosting. This can save you months of additional work that would normally be carried out by development IT and operations personnel.

4. Templated apps

App templates are completed apps that you can install, customise (without writing code) and launch. No-code platforms give you a list of apps that have already been developed. You can browse these apps, test them out and find one that is a close fit for your business. Next you can install the app and customise it to your use case. If you’re lucky and you find an app template that works for your use case, this can be a way to get an app in less than a day.

Browse Dittofi’s app templates now >>

However, no-code platforms do come with limits. Some are inflexible, produce slow or unresponsive apps, struggle to scale and none of the traditional no-code vendors lets you own your apps source code and IP.

Challenges with pure no-code

All apps run on code. Even if you build your app on a no-code platform, your app runs on code. The difference between code and no-code is that with no-code, you don’t see, own or have access to your app’s code. This can be a good thing because it means that you are not responsible for writing, testing or maintaining the code. You just need to use the visual interface to build your app.

The downside of not owning your code is that you give up total control to the no-code platform vendor. If you want to add a feature that the no-code platform doesn’t support, you need to ask the no-code platform to add this feature. The no-code platform will then decide when and if they are going to add this feature.

Missing features are common, but worse still are bugs, slowness, security or scalability issues that materialize over time in your app. These can be impossible to workaround and you have no choice but to wait for a fix, since you are 100% dependent on the no-code vendor to fix these issues.

This leads us to an important rule of programming – bugs in your app’s code are inevitable. So what if you don’t have access to or own your app’s code? Well, ultimately all you can do is wait for a fix to be put in place, or rebuild your entire no-code app.

So – no-code is great at getting you to market fast but in the long run if you’re building an app that is central to your business, you can’t rely on no-code as you grow.

But… this isn’t the end of the story – the new wave of no-code tools are built with converters that can transform no-code app designs into real, developer friendly and high end code that you can export and own. You can take this code when you have traction and without needing to rebuild from scratch, hire developers to extend and improve your app.

Code and no-code unite

At Dittofi we see that the future is a combination of no-code and code. We saw that the existing no-code platforms were helping both technical and non-technical people build apps fast. However, we also saw that many of these apps were limited and were not lasting longer than 2 – 3 months in production.

We decided therefore to harness all the things that no-code does well. Fast to build, launch and iterate apps etc. But, we also created an auto code generation technology that transformed no-code designs into real, developer friendly computer code that our users could export.

Today our no-code interface is leading the charge in the market for rapid app development. With Dittofi you can build apps 80% faster than writing code by hand. You can also export all of your app’s code at any point in time. This is not just any code, this is high end, scalable, enterprise grade code that uses current technologies and conforms to the coding standards set out by Google.

Dittofi therefore ensures that your company has both the control of owning its code, and the chance to develop high quality, scalable apps at high speed and without writing any code by hand.

Learn more about Dittofi here >>

Conclusion

If you’re looking at different ways to build an app there are still three ways to do this: buy an app, code from scratch and use no-code. Each of these has their advantages and drawbacks. Now however, in 2022, there are an increasing number of options that combine code with no-code giving you the chance to buy an app template, totally customize it and then export and own the source code if you ever find yourself at a limitation.

Schedule a free app consultation with one of our app consultants to learn more about no-code and auto code generation. We can tell you if this is a technology that would work for your app development.

About Dittofi

Dittofi is a full stack, no-code app builder used by individuals and teams to build scalable apps 6x faster. You do not need to know how to code to find success with Dittofi.

There are three main paths to successful app development with Dittofi:

- PATH 1: Dittofi University. Sign up to Dittofi & learn how to build apps with our online tutorials.

- PATH2: Dittofi Teams. Private, in person training sessions for individuals or tech teams.

- PATH 3: Dittofi Experts. Hire a Certified Dittofi Expert that can help you build your app in just 10 days

With Dittofi you’re able to build full stack, highly scalable web apps 80% faster than traditional methods & all without writing code. Under the hood of your application designs, we are generating high quality code that you can own.

Dittofi’s unique approach to code vs no-code sets us apart from all other no-code platforms. Dittofi has built a solution that operates right on the frontier of innovation in no-code. We empower individuals & teams to build infinitely scalable apps, & go some way to bridging the gap between techies & non-techies.