Post

Jason Cohen
@asmartbear.com

What’s nice about all these people thinking they can no-code a competitive software product… …is that they’re wrong, which means someone who could have been your competitor, is wasting their time. Stay focused on the goal.

3 reposts76 likes

Jim Canto
@jimcanto.com

Dooood, first you killed my directory plan.. and I've been Low-Code/No-Code since 2008 (before it had a name). You're breaking my heart, man. 😞😉 Many tools try to capitalize on the No-Code buzz. Most are actually Low-Code imo. Have you looked at Caspio.com? Not much it can't do. Thoughts??

caspio.comLow-Code Platform - Build Online Database AppsCreate powerful online database applications with Caspio's leading low-code platform. Build web apps, automate tasks and more with little to no code.
Jim Canto
@jimcanto.com

That's how it started some 25 years ago. Like anything else, it depends on how you use it. I don't see it being stuck in LOB exclusively. I can create public-facing databases with record-level authentication... for any purpose I can come up with.

Jason Cohen
@asmartbear.com

Ha! I haven't looked, no, but note that the target audience for caspio (according to their own home page) is for custom internal tools at companies, not to create new SaaS that you sell to others. Which is my point again!

Jim Canto
@jimcanto.com

They target that market because companies building internal tools are the low-hanging fruit and Caspio is an enterprise provider. The capabilities are all there to build public apps, complete with login and UI. Using Caspio's free version, I built this very simple app for a friend: sharemyliver.org

sharemyliver.orgShareMyLiver.orgShare My Liver is a non-profit helping those who need a living liver donor by raising awareness of living liver donation. Our mission is to make living liver transplants accessible for eligible patien...
Jim Canto
@jimcanto.com

I don't disagree with your original point. Just showing you there may be an exception to the rule. Caspio can scale and I'd be interested to see what someone with coding skills could do with it. Me?? I'm 58 with FTE, a family, and grandkids. Time is short and I don't write code, ya'know?

Jason Cohen
@asmartbear.com

OK, well, my guess is that apps built on it won't be materally better than apps built with it, and thus Caspio itself will be the no-code competitor, and custom-made crafted apps will too, making it difficult to be competitive. That said, there's always a first.

Donnell Wyche
@donnell.bsky.social

This is good encouragement. Someone reached out to buy one of my SaaS products, and when I declined, they said they’d just create a competing product. I was like, “Good luck!” 👍🏾🍀

István Beregszászi
@pestaa.com

Most B2B buying journeys end with no purchase. Isn't that the main hurdle for every tool maker to overcome? If so, is no-code really a disadvantage when it frees time up to do marketing? Every spreadsheet out there is a potential SaaS (code or no-code).

Jason Cohen
@asmartbear.com

I hear you, and I agree marketing is often the harder thing. I just haven't seen a no-code 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 beat spreadsheets and people using no-code themselves. Yet. Maybe it will start happening a lot. But right now, you also have to make a product, not just marketing.

István Beregszászi
@pestaa.com

With you on that. I actually think no-code/low-code is the leakiest of all abstractions. Or, when powerful enough, they'll become visual programming. And people can't drag and drop their way out of a leaky abstraction. (Luckily for us. ;>)