If you’ve got an idea for a startup, you’re going to need an app. But without technical knowledge or the budget to hire a coding team, your idea might not make it off the drawing board. Luckily for you, no-code app building tools give everyone the means to design and build a professional application.
Can you really build great apps without coding? Yes! In fact, by 2024, 80% of tech products and services will be built by people who aren’t technology professionals. In this post, we’ll explore the tools available and help you decide which is the best no-code app builder for your startup.
What are no-code app builders and how do they work?
Maybe you want to launch a new video game, set up a personal shopper app, or start an affiliate program. No-code app builders make it possible to create and publish fully-functional apps without having to manually write code. These tools include visual editors with a selection of pre-coded templates and drag-and-drop elements.
You can also add automations and actions to guide end-users through your app. For example, if you were designing a call forwarding system app, you’d add buttons to forward a call, decline a call, or send it to voicemail. In most tools, you can test the app before release.
The capability of these tools is constantly increasing, and the global no-code platform market is forecast to amount to $65 billion by 2027.
What are the benefits of no-code app builders?
One of the main advantages is reduced costs — there’s no need to pay a coding expert, and the tools help you to speed up the app creation process and bring products to market much faster. It’s better for collaboration, as anyone on your team can make changes.
It’s also easy to test and update your app, thus lowering the risk of failure. For example, you could quickly create a product with Minimum Viable Product (MVP) features to test the waters, and either test it in the no-code platform or use beta test software.
Top 10 No-Code App Builders
Here are our top 10 examples of no-code tools for creating mobile, web, or internal business apps.
1. Bubble
Bubble lets you build interactive apps for desktop and mobile web browsers. The drag-and-drop editor has a large selection of templates and components for a fully-customizable UX (user experience). Many elements are user-generated, via Bubble’s large user community.
Play around with the tools by editing Bubble’s own homepage, create a prototype and share it with your customer-facing platforms. You can fully extend your app with Javascript plugins or the no-code API (application programming interface) connector.
Bubble also hosts and deploys your application for you, so you don’t need a web server. It supports 80+ international languages and enables payment processing, while security includes automatic SSL certificates and multi-factor authentication.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Personal: $25/month
- Professional: $115/month
- Production: $475/month
2. Appy Pie
AppyPie is a building tool for apps, websites, and chatbots. The drag-and-drop tool allows you to create multi-functional native apps using pre-set templates and customizable themes, and edit the interface in real-time.
You can even build apps using text or speech input. There’s an option to convert websites to apps, plus built-in app testing and publishing. AppyPie lets you create as many integrations as you need to develop a unique workflow.
With offline usage and updating, this is one of the easiest no-code app builders. It’s highly praised for its 24×7 customer support, which includes phone, email, and chat, alongside FAQs and tutorials.
Pricing: Note that the lower-priced plans only support Android, and white-labeling is available as add-on.
- Free plan
- Basic: $16/app/month
- Gold: $36/app/month
- Platinum: $60/app/month
3. Airtable
Airtable is known as a project management tool, and many of its capabilities lie in that direction. However, the new Interface Designer feature (in beta) lets you design a fully-interactive front-end experience on any workflow built in Airtable.
This includes customized apps for processes such as managing approvals, reporting on campaigns, or gathering information from colleagues. Using drag-and-drop elements, you can tailor the app for how your team operates, and carry out real-time editing.
You can import data from external sources like Google Calendar, Zendesk, and Box into an Airtable base (a base is a collection of related tables) and set up various integrations.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Plus: $10/seat/month
- Pro: $20/seat/month
- Enterprise tier available
4. Adalo
With Adalo, you can design your app from scratch, or select from over 25 drag-and-drop components – and the website says they’re adding more all the time. These include forms and charts, plus dynamic actions such as link pages, push notifications, and native device actions.
You can automatically add interactions and database configuration without any code, while Adalo will also integrate with an existing API and connect multiple apps together. It also lets you manage user data and add payments directly into your app with the Stripe integration.
Fun fact: the tool is named after Ada Lovelace, widely considered to be the world's first computer programmer.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Pro: $50/month
- Business: $200/month
5. ClickUp
Like Airtable, Clickup is strong on project management capabilities, connecting different sources of information to create automated workflows. But the ClickApp feature and API basically let you customize the platform to create productivity apps, integrations, and scripts.
The idea is to streamline things like work management, collaboration, organization, and reporting. There are plenty of pre-built templates and drag-and-drop elements, and you can work on the app as a team with real-time collaboration.
There are 1,000+ native integrations, while ClickUp-Integromat connects ClickUp with the other apps you use. Coaching and course options are available to help you learn more about the platform.
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Unlimited: $5/member/month
- Business: $9/member/month
- Business Plus: $19/member/month
- Enterprise option available
6. Glide
Glide turns your spreadsheets into apps by pulling in data and helping you build your app around it. Start by browsing the template store and making a copy of the one that appeals to you, then choose from a wide selection of pre-built visual components in the drag-and-drop editor.
Glide will instantly generate a working app or website from your design. You can publish your app to the web and share the link (or a QR code) with anyone. Whenever you edit anything, the changes instantly go live for your users.
It’s particularly suitable for creating apps for internal business processes. For example, for managing inventory, monitoring your sales pipeline, or maintaining an automated answering service.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Starter: $25/month
- Pro: $99/month
- Business: $249/month
- Enterprise tier available
7. Thunkable
Thunkable is a tool for building native mobile apps, which is ideal if you want to extend your existing product to mobile. Native apps are able to unlock the functions of a mobile device, such as cameras, Bluetooth, and location. You can also create an app that works offline.
There are 50+ drag-and-drop components, a jigsaw-style logic builder, and easy animations. You can connect your own database, while Thunkable’s extensible integrations enable you to access third-party databases and backend functionality. A variety of open-source projects are available for free.
Thunkable apps can be published directly from the platform to the Apple and Google stores, or the web—or loaded directly onto your device.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Starter: $13/month
- Pro $38/month
- Business: $167/month
- Team and Custom (ask for quotes)
8. AppGyver
Recently acquired by SAP, this professional no-code platform lets you build applications for mobile, desktop, TV, and more. The Composer Pro tool has drag-and-drop style controls to manipulate 500+ components, plus hundreds of pre-built logic functions.
You can add animations, upload your custom font family, and change adaptive design settings. There’s a large library of user interface components, and you can easily compose new ones and share them with the community.
AppGyver also includes a theme engine, which allows you to implement global themes across all components. You can build unlimited logic within the UI, or connect via API to third-party logic and backend functionality.
Pricing:
- Free (almost all features included)
- Enterprise: $10/developer/month
9. Bravo Studio
If you have design experience, Bravo Studio gives you total design freedom rather than drag-and-drop. You create your design using Figma or Adobe XD, and import it into Bravo Studio. Then connect to a backend or database via REST API to produce a fully-functional mobile app.
There’s also a collection of visual elements you can use to enhance your design, including popup pages, sliders, animations, flexible text, and video backgrounds. You can also enable actions and add advanced options like Stripe payments, OAuth, and push notifications.
Bravo Studio apps can be published on the Apple and Google Play stores. With the Bravo Vision feature, you can preview your app and send it to others to try before publishing.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Olé: €15.75 /month
- Team plan “coming soon”
- Enterprise option available
10. Quixy
Quixy describes itself as a digital transformation platform, but it also helps you create apps to support processes like procurement and inventory management. The five-step drag-and-drop app builder lets you design the UI on a six-column layout, and see previews on different devices.
You can set up the app to capture geolocation, e-signature, audio, and video, while other options include, grid controls, sub-forms, facial recognition, and QR code-scanning. Quixy apps will integrate with any external system using API—for example, a cloud-based PBX or other 3CX alternative.
Pricing:
- Solution: contact sales
- Platform: $20/user/month
- Enterprise option
Launching an app that everyone wants is a great way to make a success of your startup. And no-code tools let you build apps like a pro, without having to learn Python or wonder, how does MapReduce work? They’ll also save you money and get your product to market in record time.
The tools on this list are far from the only ones available, so do your own research and make sure you take advantage of any free trials to discover the best no-code app builder for your needs.
About the Author
Jessica Day - Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad
Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a 3cx alternative that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Jessica Day also published articles for domains such as Stefanini and Women Love Tech. Here is her LinkedIn.
About Bubble
Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more. Millions of users are building and launching businesses on Bubble - many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, or raise $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs that are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.
