Karthik Sridharan Profile picture
Bootstrapping startups to power my dream life: 1. https://t.co/DkMJDvJuWn: $3 million ARR 2. https://t.co/hrCI0qRXIW: $2000 MRR (SEO course) 3. SEO niche site: $14000 MRR

Jun 7, 2021, 16 tweets

"Our startup's $2 million revenue runs on a $80/month NoCode stack."

When I shared this, I got many questions around the tools used.

So, today I share 7 types of NoCode tools along with:
1. Specific use case each solves
2. Real examples
3. Alternatives

Thread 🧵

1/ Marketing websites

A) Tools: @unicornplatform, @umsohq

B) Use cases
- You can simply drag & drop elements onto a page

- Build a marketing website in less than 60 mins

- Easily edit your marketing copy & communication to customers

1/ Marketing website (contd.)

C) Example

- We built our entire website of Flexiple.com containing over 50+ pages on Unicorn platform

D) Alternatives
- @carrd
- @webflow (covered later)

2/ Database storage and information websites

A) Tool: @airtable

B) Use cases
- Advanced and more UI-friendly excel
- Easily collect data using an intuitive form
- Neatly present the data on your website in intuitive layouts

2/ DB & Information websites (contd.)

C) Example
- To help individuals laid off due to COVID, we built a page listing those who could be hired: flexiple.com/covid-layoff-h…

D) Alternatives
- Tools like Sheet2site, Table2site work well with Airtable to make quick websites

3/ Beautiful info & e-commerce websites

A) Tool: @webflow

B) Use cases
- Build beautiful custom layouts without Code
- Leverage its "CMS" to make numerous automated pages
- Use particularly if you are a designer and want to implement custom design to pixel perfection

3/ Beautiful info websites (contd.)

C) Examples
- We built both Scale (2.flexiple.com/scale/all-illu…) and Founder origin stories (2.flexiple.com/founder-origin…) on Webflow

D) Alternatives
- Bubble (bubble.io): However, if focus is pixel perfect design, Webflow is much better.

4/ Automate workflows

A) Tools: @zapier, @integromat

B) Use cases
- Automate recurring manual effort
- Store data in CRM, send automated mails, integrate tools, etc.
- @zapier is more intuitive but costly, @integromat has a steeper learning curve but handles complex cases

4/ Automate workflows (contd.)

C) Example
- Almost all our dynamic flows are handled by Zapier or Integromat. User signup -> storing their data in our db -> sending them a mail

D) Alternatives:
- Parabola (@parabolahq)
- Automate (@automate)

5/ Login & membership systems

A) Tools: @MemberstackApp, @memberspace

B) Use cases
- To convert your static website to have signups/logins and to also manage SAAS memberships
- Restrict content or pages to only paid users

5/ Login and membership systems (contd.)

C) Example
- We built a dashboard for new projects viewing, sharing invoices, etc. using the above set of tools:

D) Alternative
- Bubble offers an in-built authentication system but doesn't manage subscriptions

6/ Any complex web-based product

A) Tool: @bubble

B) Use cases
- Job-boards, marketplaces, internal tools => build varied applications using its "workflows" & database
- Quite self-sufficient and removes the need to depend on other tools
- Responsive design is a not the best

6/ Complex web-based product (contd.)

C) Example
- Our internal tool is entirely built on top of Bubble and saves ~160 human hours per month (has sensitive data, so can't share video)

D) Alternatives:
- Adalo, Glide: More suited for mobile apps (discussed next)

7/ Mobile apps

A) Tools: @glideapps, @AdaloHQ

B) Use cases
- Build complex mobile apps with a simple drag & drop functionality
- Automate user actions with in-built workflows
- Use their own DB or even GoogleSheets to store data

7/ Mobile apps (contd.)

C) Example
- Not used these products myself, but a really cool example is of the apps made to help organise & share COVID resources with people: covidresource.glideapp.io

D) Alternatives
- No credible alternatives that I know of

That's it for this thread - start building great products!

Also, I regularly write on startups, so, if you would like more such threads, consider retweeting the first tweet & following me :)

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