Just when you thought there was something that would always require a developer to be involved… bang! A brand new no code platform has been released. It’s absolutely epic and so exciting for anyone working in tech whether you’re a marketer, developer, product manager, or being a founder.
In the early years as a growth marketer, there were so many areas in tech, marketing and product, that required custom development work, such as building advanced workflow integrations between apps, or building content marketing experiences with some fancy animations.
Even just getting together some quick prototypes to get a concept together for investors would require to fork out some cash, but now it costs almost nothing to get some pretty damn awesome together to get paying customers.
However, there are now hundreds of options across multiple categories that now have no code solutions, or at the very least, there is a low code tool option (which may involve some development work).
Either way, the software platforms I speak about in this guide have provide a more convenient, cheaper, and more accessible avenue for non-technical personnel to build some really cool stuff.
So it’s without further ado, let’s get into my top recommendations of no code apps I’ve had so much fun using.
No code tools are steadily gaining steam among founders and startups, and one software development platform that is getting attention is Bubble.io. Bubble allows you to create your app without needing to understand any coding languages or having to learn how to code. This makes app creation easy and hassle-free for you. Founded in 2012, Bubble has now more than a million users and a current Series A funding worth $100 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can try out Bubble for free which lets you explore the platform's core functionalities. To unlock more premium features, you can opt for their Personal ($29/month), Professional ($129/month), or Production ($529/month) plans.
Relatively new in the no code development landscape, Pory.io was founded by self-taught coders Luannie Dang and Samantha Wong from Australia. And in just two years, it has grown steadily to become one of the fast-rising stars in the industry. Currently, the platform is used by more than 10,000 creators and founders globally and has even caught the attention of Udemy founder Gagan Biyani. Pory even guarantees 10x faster work turnaround with a very minimal investment. As of press time, Pory is also looking forward to including workflow automation into's core functionalities, so this is something that you might want to keep an eye out for.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can try it out for 14 days and then you can choose from any of their Basic ($18/month), Professional ($49/month), and Enterprise Plans.
Another pioneer in this new era of no code tools for UX design, Adalo is quickly gaining the attention and funding that it deserves. With a sleek, intuitive, and modern design, Adalo makes it easy for you to create stunning user experiences without any coding knowledge. You can use their drag/drop interface to create beautiful interfaces without any coding background, as was intended and envisioned by its co-founder Ben Haefle. Originally named Foundry, Adalo now has a Series A backing in just 17 months from its launching. It managed to earn the confidence of Tiger Global where the latter invested $8 million for its sustained growth. That speaks volumes about how it's is shaping up to be the go-to UX platform for start-ups and founders looking for a no code tool to build epic apps.
Why I love it
Pricing
Adalo's core functionalities are free to use to create an unlimited number of apps. If you need access to more of the advanced features, then you can invest towards their $50/month Pro Plan or $200/month Business Plan.
Glide Apps is a web-based platform that enables users to convert data from spreadsheets into mobile apps that work on iOS, Android, and other devices. This saves users time and effort since they do not need to create app designs from scratch. Building complex web applications with Glide is quite simple and pretty straightforward. The application's visual editor is simple to use and data can be displayed in scalable blocks, making it easy to interact with and update. Data changes or modifications are reflected in real-time in so you can stay on top of it. Established in 2018 in San Francisco, California, Glide Apps now has a total funding amount of $23.8 million and a user base of half a million.
Why I love it
Pricing
It's free to use for up to 3 apps and 100 public users. Visit the pricing page for more info about all available features.
If you need a chatbot to maximise your customer's journey, then you have to try Landbot. It focuses on automating customer support for startups. Their chatbot can be used to resolve customer problems, answer customer questions, provide customer updates and handle sales inquiries. In addition to this, Landbot can also be used to grow your customer base by creating lead gen campaigns. Launched in 2017, the app is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. They have a total funding amount of just over $10 million to date and cater to more than 12,000 businesses.
Why I love it
Pricing
It has a forever-free Sandbox Plan that gives you free access to Landbot's key features. For more advanced features and higher chat limits, you can check their Starter Plan (€30/mo), Pro Plan (€80/mo), or the customisable Business Plan.
This next entry basically brings together all the best features of the no code movement into a convenient teaching portal. Makerpad is a collaboration platform that helps users automate their work processes. This platform offers a wide variety of 3rd party tools and templates to help users build projects and automate their work without any coding at all. Makerpad also offers training to help users learn how to use these various platforms and no code tools effectively. Acquired by Zapier in March. 2021, Makerpad has also recently received its seed funding from Arka Venture Labs and other investors for a total amount of $3.7 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
Using Makerpad is absolutely free and a great springboard to explore the many tools that you can utilise to fit a specific business need or interest.
Similar to Landbot, Voiceflow also offers chatbots to help businesses automate their customer service. But what sets Voiceflow apart is its powerful artificial intelligence capabilities for voice apps. Voiceflow's AI allows it to learn how you speak and respond to customer queries in a way that is natural and humanlike. This results in fewer customer service calls, faster response times, and improved customer satisfaction. This tool is perfect for businesses that need to automate their customer service processes, but don't have the time or resources to do so manually. Voiceflow powers conversations at thousands of organisations and Fortune 500 companies.
Why I love it
Pricing
They offer a free Starter Plan that lets you manage up to 2 projects. For unlimited projects and other features, you may choose from either Team Plan for $40/month or their custom-priced Enterprise Plan.
Thunkable offers an easy-to-use, no code design platform that lets you create mobile apps that both look and work great on Android and iOS devices. Its powerful integrations with third-party services also offer more flexibility and features, allowing for a more complete app experience. Its user base is quite extensive, with more than 3 million app creators now using Thunkable across more than 184 countries. It is currently based in the US with a Series B funding of more than $33 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
Thunkable's free tier offers a higher project limit as compared to others. With this plan, you get access to up to 10 projects and 2 project downloads per month. If you require more than what its free tier offers, then you can opt for the Starter Plan for $15/month, or its Pro Plan for $45/month. For larger organisations, there are also the Business and Team plans that are more customised to meet each company's unique needs.
It's no surprise that Google eventually joined in the no code movement with the introduction of its Google AppSheet. Originally created by Praveen Seshadri in 2014, Appsheet has become one of the most popular and widely used no code development tools for mobile apps recently. What is admirable about it is that it consolidates all of your data coming from various sources such as GSheets or Forms, Excel, and Smartsheet. Salesforce and more, and creates powerful apps that can be used for efficient project management or CRM. As of today, almost 4 million apps all over the world have been created using Google Appsheet.
Why I love it
Pricing
Google Appsheet is free to use up to 10 users. For more features such as automation and enhanced app security, you can opt to choose from their Starter Plan at $5/month or Core Plan at $10/month. Google also offers an Enterprise solution available upon request.
Building no code mobile apps is basically like a walk in the park with Bravo Studio. Bravo's straightforward approach to developing no code mobile apps helps users with no programming experience to create and publish beautiful native apps, saving months and money in otherwise traditional development. Launched in April of 2019 from Barcelona, Spain, Bravo has now grown exponentially thanks to pre-seed funding worth $1.1 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can use Bravo for free, with access to unlimited app projects, with a limit of 3 published apps per week. For higher requirements, you can select from Bravo's Olé Plan (quite a catchy name actually) for €19/month which also comes with a free 7-day trial period. The team behind Bravo is currently working on a Team Plan and will announce the details anytime soon.
Keeping it simple is one of the guiding principles that folks over at V One adhere to when creating their products. And this is very much noticeable with their no code app-building platform. Its Visual Content Management System lets you design your apps the way you want your data to be presented. With an intuitive user interface, it's pretty easy to start and be onboard with V One.
Why I love it
Pricing
All of the core features and functionalities are free to use and access until you're ready to launch. Upon publishing your app, you then have the option of signing up for a domain with V One's branding or purchasing a domain for a $20/month or a one-time payment of $997.
One of my favourite no code tools (that I used to build this site), which is used by more than 3.5 million designers and startups worldwide is Webflow. This amazing platform enables teams to create beautiful apps and websites without the need for any coding background or computer science experience. As a no code visual web and app builder, Webflow lets you manage and control every aspect of our development process from design to publication. Initially founded by Vlad Magdalin in 2013, Webflow has since become a multimillion-dollar business with annual revenue of more than $20 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
Using Webflow is completely free until you're ready to launch your app. If you're ready to launch your app or site, then you can choose from the Basic Plan ($15/month), CMS Plan ($20/month), and a Business Plan ($45/month). There's also an Enterprise Plan available for organisations which you can inquire about via their sales channels.
Though Ghost is not exactly marketed as a no code website builder, its visual, drag and drop approach in creating web content does not require any strict coding from the user's end. If you’re focused on designing a compelling blog that makes it easy for multiple editors to publish content, this is a great platform to consider. I know many startups personally that use Ghost as their dedicated blog CMS which is then connected with their own custom SaaS. Ghost now has a total of 3.1 million installs, with total Series A funding worth $7.3 million dollars and annual earnings of roughly $4.7 million. Definitely an exciting upward growth trend for this company.
Why I love it
Pricing
It offers a free trial period for 14 days where you can test its core features and build your publication. You can then subscribe to their Starter Plan for $11/month, Creator Plan for $31/month, Team Plan for $63/month, or Business Plan for $249/month.
Dorik is another one of my favourite no code platforms that deserves a good look. It's an easy to use and affordable website builder that I know a lot of founders and makers are loving right now. What makes Dorik stand out is its intuitive builder - whether you're just a novice or an advanced web builder already, this CMS is completely customisable to suit your level of expertise. It currently has 12,000 paying users with plenty of positive reviews over at Product Hunt.
Why I love it
Pricing
It comes with a forever-free plan that lets you publish unlimited pages with Dorik's domain branding. You also get access to all of their templates and blocks, including several helpful integrations. For access to premium features, you can subscribe to either their Starter Plan for $49/year, or Premium Plan for $99/year. Both plans come with 25 and 100 custom domains, respectively.
Softr is built on the premise that you don't need hours or days to learn a new tool, more so to build your website. With Softr, anyone with no technical background can create customer portals, dashboards, membership apps, and more without crunching those hours because of a steep learning curve. You can directly access your organisation's data and link it to your app or website for a more data-driven and responsive platform. Based in Berlin, Germany, Softr is trusted by more than 50,000 companies and creators and has recently acquired a Series A funding worth $13.5 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
With Softr's freemium tier, you get to create unlimited applications and link them to 1 custom domain with Softr's branding. To unlock more features you can opt for the Starter Plan for $29/month, Professional Plan for $79/month, and their Business Plan for $199/month. The nice part about these paid plans is that they also come with a 30-day trial if you wish to test their full features.
Ideal for budding entrepreneurs and startups that need to quickly launch their website or app without going through the rudiments of coding, Umso offers what can arguably be the fastest way to design and publish a website. Founder Felix Gurtler is intentional in making Umso the ideal no code website builder to support young businesses so they can quickly go live and reach a wider audience. And with more than 13,000 paying users on board Umso, it's easy to see its appeal among startup founders.
Why I love it
Pricing
Umso comes with a 14-day trial period, with the option to subscribe to their Basic Plan for $25/month, Startup Plan for $45/month, or the Business Plan for $75/month.
Making one-page websites, especially for landing pages, is where Carrd shines as a no code web-building tool. Its highly visual user interface is amazingly simple and can be intuitively used by anyone with or without coding experience. Created by a guy that simply goes by his initials AJ, Carrd was launched in 2016 with the sole intention to simplify the process of creating websites. And after 2 years, Carrd rose up to be the platform of choice for more than 2.5 million sites with an annual run rate of more than $1 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can use Carrd for free with the option to remove their branding if you subscribe to their relatively low annual subscription fees. Starting at $19/year via the Pro Standard Plan, you get to create 10 websites with custom domain URLs, while the Pro Plus lets you create 25 sites plus access to more advanced security and content management features.
SpreadSimple offers a pretty fast way to set up your website with no coding background at all. It offers a straightforward and quick way to create and manage a website using existing data from Google Sheets. For example, managing your inventory and prices has never been easier when you combine SpreadSimple and GSheets. Real-time data exchange, support for formulas and expressions, collaborative edits, and more are just some of the key features that make SpreadSimple an attractive alternative to other no code tools.
Why I love it
Pricing
Using SpreadSimple to create your responsive websites is free (with SpreadSimple branding). Its free version is robust enough to include all its essential features if you just wish to publish your content. However, business startups may opt to subscribe to the Pro Plan for $16/month per website.
Like SpreadSimple, Sheet2Site promises to deliver a fast and fully functioning website by connecting your Google Sheet data to your webpage. It is versatile enough to cater to any eCommerce startup or business, so you can immediately give your product or service a visible online presence. Sheet2Site provides your website with core functionalities such as filtering by price, type, brand, or any product options that you require. With headquarters in Ontario, Canada, founder Andrey Azimov launched Sheet2Site in March of 2018, and has been recently acquired by software entrepreneur Neil Witten.
Why I love it
Pricing
Sheet2Site does not seem to offer any option to test it out for free, but its paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. They offer a Basic Plan for $29/month and a Premium Plan for $49/month.
Boosting your eCommerce website, especially if it's on Shopify, might benefit from having Unstack. As a no code marketing platform, Unstack provides the functionalities to quickly widen the reach of any eCommerce site. Synchronising Unstack's powerful database with your Shopify database, lets you optimise the sale and online visibility of your products and services. With more than 3,000 Shopify merchants benefitting from this CMS, you can be sure that you can create and manage your content easily without any codes whatsoever while seeing a significant return on your investment.
Why I love it
Pricing
The CMS comes with a free version that allows your connected site to be optimised for 1,000 visitors. For a larger audience, you can select from any of the paid plans: Lite ($29/month), Full ($49/month), and Full Plus ($99/month).
Sharetribe is epic software for anyone that wants to build a marketplace. Setting up only takes a few minutes and is a fraction of what a web or app developer will charge. Becoming what we call a marketplace entrepreneur has never been easier and more cost-effective. Founded in 2011, Sharetribe has been the partner of more than 1,000 online marketplace founders all over the world.
Why I love it
Pricing
It offers a 30-day, no-risk trial period for each of its four paid plans: the Hobby Plan for $99/month, the Pro Plan for $149/month, the Growth Plan for $199/month, and the Scale Plan for $299/month.
Creating collaborative workflows and tasks has never been easier with Airtable. This no code collaboration platform enables users to design and build a range of workflows and custom tools to fit the way their teams get things done. Airtable lets you quickly gather all your information, arrange it, and link it in any way you require, giving you the freedom to get the job done. You can visually design your workflows, giving team members the flexibility and tools to provide their inputs. Trusted by more than 250,000 paying companies and organisations, you can be sure that you have a product that gets the job done.
Why I love it
Pricing
Airtable comes with a free-to-use plan for smaller teams. Visit the pricing page for more info. They also have a really good, frictionless referral program so you can save if you get more founder friends and others you know to sign up.
Notion's approach to project management and workflow simplification has made it one of the most popular tools in the market, with its value increasing significantly over time. Its digital workspace lets users manage all of their workflows in one place using no code customisable blocks of tasks to help organise everything from collaborative work tasks to personal goals. Any resource that your team needs can be all brought together within Notion - whether its a Google Doc or a Canva artwork - all members of your team have access to them under one digital platform.
Why I love it
Pricing
Notion has really affordable pricing which is great for both personal use (which I use), as well as for fast-growing startups.
MailChimp is one of the most popular CMS platforms out there that offers a complete business solution - from launching and managing your website to optimising your marketing campaigns and lead captures and conversions. It goes beyond simply sending out newsletters as much as to keep users or customers engaged throughout their journey. MailChimp currently has 14 million active paying subscribers across the globe.
Why I love it
Pricing
The platform has come a long way when it comes to pricing and what you receive in terms of value. If you asked me a couple of years ago, I’d say explore other cheaper email marketing software providers. However, their customer journey builder, amongst other features such as landing pages, has certainly made pricing more attractive.
Created specially with the blogger in mind, Substack is a no code platform that allows for the easy creation of custom posts, galleries, and more. Substack follows a subscription model for writers, bloggers, and content writers. It provides a platform where they can publish their work, offering them free to their readers with the option to publish subscription-based content as well. Launched in 2018 by founders Christopher Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi with headquarters in San Francisco, Substack continues to grow and has received a total of $82.4 million in funding.
Why I love it
Pricing
What makes Substack great is that it lets you publish your content for free and will not charge anything on your end until you start offering paid subscriptions to your readers or anyone that follows your paid content. You have the freedom to determine how much to charge your readers and once you do, Substack charges 10% of your total earnings per month.
As one of the the world's number top product marketing platforms, Beamer serves the purpose of offering a change log and notification centre where you can keep your followers or subscribers in the loop for any product or service updates or share your plans and development road maps. Used by more than 20,000 of the world's best products, Beamer's no code platform has been proven to increase user engagement and provide real user feedback.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can try out Beamer with their free version if you wish, which caters up to 1,000 monthly visitors. For higher requirements, you have the option to have a 14-day free trial of any of their paid plans. This includes their Start-Up Plan ($49/month), Pro Plan ($99/month), and Enterprise Plan ($249/month).
Like Beamer, Popupsmart offers a no code notification tool that increases customer engagement and drives eCommerce sales. With Popupsmart, you can quickly build your email lists and engage with your site visitors in a matter of minutes. It's visual editor is easy and straightforward to use. You start by identifying your business/campaign goals and let Popupsmart come up with gorgeous, eye-catching layouts. Then you can further tweak its automation rules to better target your audience or site visitors depending on how they interact with your site or online products. Popupsmart does the heavy lifting of bringing back your visitors and completing their customer journey.
Why I love it
Pricing
Popupsmart is free to use for 1 website with as many as 5,000 page views monthly. For websites that have more monthly traffic, you can opt for their paid plans such as Basic Plan for $24/month, the Pro Plan for $66/month, and the Expert Plan for $108/month.
Leveraging social proof is what Proven.ly does best. This no code tool lets you add social proof widgets on your website, which in turn helps users be reassured that you are legitimate and trustworthy. This helps to increase conversion rates by increasing trust and credibility in your products or services while tapping on customers' FOMO to initiate a call to action. Interestingly, such an approach is proven to drive sales and conversions to up to 250%.
Why I love it
Pricing
As of press time, Provenly is offered via Appsumo where you can purchase it for a one-time purchase of $39. This is a great deal since you'll be having lifetime access to its Pro features via a one-time payment. If you're interested, be sure to grab this opportunity while it is still up.
Ps. This LTD deal most likely won’t last after I write this, so check their pricing page.
Another epic platform that catches my attention in terms of increasing customer engagement is Outgrow. Outgrow provides interactive widgets like calculators, quizzes, and polls to drive customer engagement and conversion. It's based on the premise that interactive content drives conversions and bounce rates by adding real value, driven by social shares. Highly rated over at G2, Outgrow was given the Leader and Best Usability Awards in 2020.
Why I love it
Pricing
Each of Outgrow's paid plans comes with a 7-day trial period. There is no free option, however, and right off the bat, you need to select from their Freelancer Plan ($25/month), Essentials Plan ($98/month), and Business Plan ($600/month).
Jotform is a go-to as part of my no code stack when it comes to building forms. The versatility of Jotform is awesome. It lets you create forms, polls, surveys, and more for your business needs in a matter of minutes, whether it's for collecting feedback from customers or organising data for analysis. You can also use it to manage contact information, events, and more. Plus, with its built-in integrations with more than 150+ platforms, Jotform makes it easy to collect data from your customers directly. It has come a long way since its inception back in 2006, and has recently celebrated its 12 million user mark.
Pricing
Pricing
Thankfully, Jotform comes with a forever-free plan that lets you create up to 5 forms with a 1,000 form views limit. For more features, you can choose from their Bronze Plan for $29/month, Silver Plan for $39/month, and Gold Plan for $99/month.
Another amazing no code tool is Paperform. Unlike Jotform, this "digital swiss-army knife" capitalises on beautiful designer templates. But it's not just great for aesthetics, Paperform is a one-stop hub for designing eye-popping, advanced forms that you can share across any CMS and eCommerce websites. And with what originally began as a side hustle for Sydney-based couples and Paperform founders Dean and Diony McPherson, Paperform has now evolved to be one of the fastest rising form builder startups, with multi-million earnings under its belt.
Why I love it
Why I love it
Paperform does not come with a free version, but instead, it offers a free 14-day trial of each of its paid plans. You can opt for Paperform's Essential Plan ($24/month), Pro Plan ($49/month), or Agency Plan ($159/month).
Zapier is perhaps the leading platform for integrated apps and workflow automation. It's visual approach to streamlining workflows across applications makes it easy for founders, marketers, operators and entrepreneurs to complete their projects in half the time. Its custom zaps or shortcuts are relatively easy to set up without any need for crunching codes.
Why I love it
Pricing
It has a decent free plan for you to get started and understand how the platform works, but it can add up when you start running a lot of actions and workflows. I’ve definitely received bills where it can get pricey, so definitely recommend planning to understand what exactly you need to automate. However, once you plan and get it right, it's well worth the investment.
Parabola.io is another awesome no code tool which is an alternative to Zapier which can automate your tasks and workflows. Parabola lets you easily move data between different sources with its built-in data import and export feature. Similar to Zapier in numerous ways, there are many possibilities of what you can automate.
Why I love it
Pricing
From a pricing perspective, Parabola has really friendly pricing. Even the $80 p/m plan lets you create unlimited flows. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
Make is a powerful workflow visual platform for creating custom solutions without the need for coding skills. It enables individuals, teams, and enterprises to collaborate and scale their businesses with automated workflows. Make also helps you build visual workflows without needing any coding background or expertise.
Why I love it
Pricing
It's free to use with the option to add more features via its paid plans: Core Plan ($10.59/monthly); Pro Plan ($18.82/month), and Teams Plan ($34.12/month).
More like a plugin for Webflow, Jetboost lets your site visitors search your content in real-time with dynamic filtering and the ability to add like buttons. This makes it easy for users to save and share relevant content with friends and followers while keeping track of which filters have been used. Additionally, these dynamic URLs can be easily embedded in web pages or blog posts, making them easy to find and share. Jetboost is all about empowering viewers and subscribers to effectively search content from your CMS, and it does so superbly.
Why I love it
Pricing
It's free to use until your site is ready for launch or goes live. You also have the option to bundle Jetboost payments with that of Webflow. You have the option of purchasing the All in One Bundle for $29/month or its Dynamic CMS Essentials Bundle for $19/month.
Anyone with little to no coding background may use Paragon to create API processes visually. With its intuitive building components, Paragon lets you bring together triggers, database queries, and connectors to create efficient workflows in a matter of minutes. Founded in 2019, Paragon has grown as a viable automation and workflow solution provider thanks to more than $13 million additional funding through a recent Series A.
Why I love it
Pricing
Using Paragon's essential features like its visual workflow builder is free, with the option to unlock more epic features via its Pro and Enterprise Plans. Prices are not available publicly so you're advised to check with their sales for more information.
Pandaflow is pretty sweet software that I only just came across fairly recently. Similar to the others mentioned, you can organise and set up workflows between your favourite apps. There is even an AI module that is wicked.
Why I love it
Pricing
There isn’t a freemium tier available for Pandaflow, but you are given the option to try it out via its paid plans. You can try it out for 7 days and then afterwards if all goes well, you can opt for their Lite Plan ($49/month), Silver Plan ($99/month), or Gold Plan (199/month).
UserGuiding was built for the purpose of helping users and customers appreciate (by quickly seeing the value, and in turn, increase your activation rate) of your SaaS product through a no code, onboarding platform. If you're in the business of providing training programs or short-term courses, then UserGuiding is a great tool to engage your subscribers. Increase adoption and user familiarity using interactive guides, lessons, and walkthroughs.
Why I love it
Pricing
UserGuiding offers a 14-day free trial, and the option to fully avail of any of its paid plans: Basic Plan for 99/month, Professional Plan for $399/month), and its Corporate Plan for $699/month.
Podia is one of the top products I've only come across in the past few months and love it. Not only does it provide an excellent no code platform to package your content in one usable training program, you also get the tools that you need to effectively market your work. Since its beginnings in 2014, Podia has steadily become the platform of choice for the delivery of online courses to more than 50,000 creators worldwide.
Why I love it
Pricing
You can try Podia for free for 14 days, and you can then see which paid plan is perfect for you. You can select from any of the paid plans which includes the Mover Plan ($39/month), Shaker ($89/month), or Earthquaker ($199/month).
As a crowdfunding and community platform, Buy Me a Coffee offers an alternative for creators to make the most out of their content without paying for extra web services that you may not eventually need otherwise. It also offers a creative twist on how followers can support their content creators without the hassle of signing up. And with almost half a million online creators onboard, you will quickly realise why it's such a great way to collect online payments.
Why I love it
Pricing
Being a creator in Buy Me a Coffee, you do not need to pay any monthly or annual fees. In fact, the platform only charges a 5% transaction fee for "coffee" that you earn.
Similar to Buy Me a Coffee, Gumroad is another platform that online creators can tap to showcase their digital products and skills. From digital services, tutorials, blogs, ebooks, or courses, you can share your passion and skills with a larger audience while earning from your creative efforts. You don't need to start big or take a huge risk in investing in Gumroad's platform. You have the choice to start small - perhaps a small digital product or a particular service - and see how your audience responds to it. Founded by Sahil Lavingia in 2011, Gumroad has now managed to help creators earn as much as $500,000,00 on their platform.
Why I love it
Pricing
It doesn't charge a monthly fee. Instead, they get a cut from your sale anywhere between $2.9 to $9 of its total cost plus 30 cents. The premise is that the larger your sales, the lower the cuts or share that Gumroad will deduct.
If you're looking for how users can engage more on your website, you may want to consider setting up a community forum - this is where Peerboard can help. It features a plug-and-play feature that sets up your forum with zero technical or coding knowledge required. It's a great way to provide your users and subscribers with a community board where they can engage with each other in a discussion format.
Why I love it
Pricing
Peerboard is free to use with no usage limits. For additional forum spaces and access to advanced features, you can try any of their paid plans: the Starter Plan for $29/month, the Professional Plan for $79/month, or the Growth Plan for $299/month.
Unlike the above mentioned where you can offer membership plans within their own platform to your customers, Memberspace gives you the access and control to build your own membership portal on your own website. With their low code approach to setting up a members-only portal, you don't need to hire a web developer to offer such functions on your site. Launched in 2015, Memberspace was a direct response to the trends at that time of offering members-only content to clients and creators.
Why I love it
Pricing
It offers a 14-day free trial for you to see how it works. You have complete access to all their features which includes unlimited members, VIP support, and up to 2 websites that you can connect to. After the trial period, you can opt for any of their paid plans: Starting Plan ($29/month), Growing ($49/month), or Advanced Plan ($199/month).
Another great way to add membership features to your site is via Memberstack. It’s the perfect no code tool for setting up gated content on your Webflow site, you can quickly build and launch your product without the hassle of learning any programming language. It helps you set up a secure and compliant members-only portal on any website or CMS platform of your choice, whether WordPress, Webflow, Wix, or more. Memberstack currently manages over 3.1 million authentications and payments across 2,200 companies around the world.
Why I love it
Pricing
Memberstack comes with a free, unlimited trial so you can try their features. You will be billed once you're ready to launch and sign up for any paid plans, including their Basic Plan ($29/month), Professional Plan ($49/month), and a customisable Established Plan.
Last on our list of no code platforms for community-building, is Outseta. Ideal for founders who wish to venture into offering SaaS products, members-only websites, or building online communities, Outseta lets you create and manage your site's content, members, and discussions with just a few clicks. There's no need for a strict coding or programming background for you to secure your content or online community. Its visual approach to designing access for your gated content is a great choice for entrepreneurs who want to focus more on building a community around their product or service.
Why I love it
Pricing
Outseta offers a 7-day free trial, with the option to sign up for their Founder Plan ($39/month), Start-Up Plan ($79/month), or Growth Plan ($99/month)
Leveraging on the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Obviously AI offers a suite of internal tools that can help you optimise your website for better search engine ranking, better content engagement, and better customer acquisition. Obviously AI's platform offers a wealth of features that can be used to measure the success of your website using AI predictively. Obviously AI is relatively new in the industry of data analytics but in just a couple of years since its founding in February of 2020, it has already managed to acquire seed funding of almost $5 million.
Why I love it
Pricing
As of press time, Obviously AI is planning to offer a free plan anytime soon, which includes access to 3 AI models and 500 AI-powered predictions. In the meantime, you can request a free trial and demo of their Pro and Pro Plus plans.
From my experience, it’s been so much fun building mobile applications using Glide Apps, Adalo and Bravo Studio. Each of them has an epic UX which makes it really awesome whether you’re a beginner or someone who has decent experience building mobile apps. All of them are quite mature now as well compared to when they were first launched a few years back.
Many of the apps mentioned in this guide can be used by eCommerce marketers. For me personally, the standouts for me in terms of growth operations and daily workflows has to be Parabola (which has awesome use cases for Shopify store owners), Zapier (of course), Webflow, Airtable, and Notion. Some are limited with their free tiers in terms of how much you can use, but each of them are great to get going. Naturally, with any platform, you have to upgrade or use a paid plan to unlock more features.
My favourites have to be Outseta and Memberstack. Outseta is super impressive and really good for anyone wanting to build a new SaaS product. It includes essentials such as CRM, billing, authentication, customer support, and more. As for Memberstack, it’s perfect for anyone using Webflow as their CMS and want to run membership programs or products with monthly subscriptions.
There are a lot of awesome resources out there for anyone wanting to learn new skills and hop onto the no code train. You’ve got amazing YouTube channels such as Jesse Showalter and Bubble. There are many other YouTube channels to check out just through a simple search. Bubble actually has amazing tutorials and lessons where you can build real-life famous startup replicas such as Facebook, Quora, TaskRabbit, and others. Then, you have Makerpad, which is a great site for those starting out, and even those who are experienced.
There are three standouts that I’ve seen many use over and over again, and they are Softr, Pory and Sheet2Site. These platforms make it really simple for those with non-technical skills to use the likes of Google Sheets or even Airtable to upload data and build a polished front-end. They also support mobile responsiveness, making it look awesome across all devices.
