The 2025 No-Code Platform Buyer's Guide: Key Factors to Consider

deedi.brown · 2024-11-22T16:20:21.694Z

No-code development platforms are making software development easier (and faster) than ever, and in order to stay competitive, more and more companies are adopting these tools. In our 2024 State of No-code survey, 64% of respondents said they believed it likely that within five years, the majority of human developers will be primarily using no-code solutions to create software.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://bubble.io/blog/no-code-platform-buyers-guide

alex69 · 2024-12-18T21:21:46.478Z

[EDIT: Per clarification comment below, this list focuses on no-code complete app building platforms, a niche Zapier is very new to.]

This is great content, but I cannot fathom how/why you excluded Zapier—it’s the gold standard in no-code automation platforms, particularly in terms of user friendliness! (How did you find these no-code developers to solicit ratings from? I would guess you chose participants from your active user base, which isn’t necessarily a representative sample.) Zapier is arguably the platform that played the biggest role in bringing no-code automation into the public eye (before it was cool.) The only reason I can think of to leave it out is that Zapier’s scores were higher than Bubble’s, and that didn’t fit into the pro-Bubble narrative you wanted to convey.

I’m not affiliated with Zapier in any way—I just use it heavily in my own no/low code automation business. I’ve used several others as well, but Zapier is the go-to for most of my clients’ use cases.

deedi.brown · 2024-12-18T21:21:46.651Z

deedi.brown · 2024-12-18T22:17:35.031Z

Hi Alex! Deedi, head of content marketing here. Thanks for your questions!

Zapier is definitely a huge player in the broader no-code space, but we didn’t include them because as you said, their business is automation, whereas we were concerned with app builders (in essence, their bread and butter is logic, no data or design!).

To answer your question about our survey base, it was a mix of Bubble users, non-Bubble users, agencies who use a range of no-code platforms, and people who had churned from Bubble onto another platform. We definitely wanted to make sure we were soliciting opinions about what mattered from more than just our existing user base!

The scores are weighted by which factors those survey participants said were most important, and some of the top factors were use-case versatitility and scalability — which are related to app building overall and wouldn’t have done Zapier favors.

Hope that helps clarify!

alex69 · 2024-12-18T23:08:54.634Z

Thank you for the quick, clear follow-up! I understand, and I appreciate your attentiveness and that additional context.

Zapier has recently started moving into the “build-your-whole-[web]app-in-our-ecosystem” space, but some of those features are still very young; several are still in beta.

So… fair enough! I’ll edit my comment to de-emphasize my theory and add a little note acknowledging your reply. Best wishes.

P.S. Perhaps you might consider adding the phrase ‘App-Building’ or ‘Software Development’ to the article title—since the term No-Code Platform is used to refer to quite a broad variety of tools and purposes.

stuart8 · 2024-12-19T03:17:41.305Z

Screen Shot 2024-12-19 at 10.04.55 AM662×470 41.3 KB

Bubble trying to market themselves as an alternative to Wordpress, Webflow and Wix is a strange one. Similarly why is there no comparison to page load speed? The data on user drop-off due to page load speed is surely a consideration for those considering no-code platforms?

My wish for 2025 is that Bubble understands their identify and drill down in making that the best it can possibly be. This strategy of trying to be everything just leads to the “Jack of all trades, master of none.” saying.

code-escapee · 2024-12-19T22:11:21.621Z

deedi.brown:

In our 2024 State of No-code survey, 64% of respondents said they believed it likely that within five years, the majority of human developers will be primarily using no-code solutions to create software.

As someone who thinks Bubble has been dropping the ball lately, I still recognize it as the #1 no-code tool* and miles ahead of the competition. That said, seeing WordPress ranked alongside Bubble in this survey makes me question its credibility. If respondents genuinely believe WordPress is still relevant in the no-code space today, they’re at least a decade behind the curve.

Also, the statement “64% of respondents said they believed it likely that within five years, the majority of human developers will be primarily using no-code solutions to create software” feels overloaded with qualifiers, to the point where it loses meaning. It’s like those cereal ads claiming they “may reduce the risk of heart disease as part of a healthy diet.” Basically, just fluff.

*Disclaimer: No-code DOES NOT include AI tools.