9 Reasons Why No-Code Platforms Are Ideal for Rapid Prototyping and MVPs

An average minimum viable product’s (MVP) development takes about half a year, and a presentable SaaS app takes even longer. But what if you could release your prototypes faster without writing a single line of code?

That’s precisely what no-code platforms help you do. This technological revolution has gained much momentum since the pandemic, owing to a drastic increase in demand for developers despite low supply.

In this article, we’ll explore proven reasons why no-code platforms are perfect for rapid prototyping and rolling out MVPs really fast.

Quick development cycles

Developing a market-fit product is a lot of work. There’s just so much to do, from ideation, brainstorming, and defining the core problem to outlining the essential features and eventually creating a rapid prototype or MVP for user testing.

And don’t forget you still have to gather feedback, iterate based on insights, and scale the product after validation. These processes individually take weeks to months, thus making prototyping even longer.

Stan Burenko, a business developer at Uptech, found out through previous data that it takes approximately four months to create a simple app at the development firm.

Programs with medium complexity took about seven months, while more complex ones took a year or more. Besides, this is just an average and conservative estimate. Depending on expertise, budget, and sophistication, we could be talking about years.

That’s no longer ideal in a world where customers expect newer solutions faster than the clock ticks and competitors roll out dozens of functionalities within weeks to months.

Volodymyr Shchegel, VP of Engineering at MacKeeper says: “No-code platforms speed up development by eliminating the need for manual coding and offering pre-built components, templates, and automation tools. This allows users to test and validate their ideas or deploy MVPs faster without waiting for extensive coding or debugging”.

According to Redhat, no-code reduces app development time by up to 50%—90%— more like cutting down months to weeks and years to months.

Reduced development costs

When developing a product, you’re basically preparing a budget to cover coding, hosting and infrastructure, testing, maintenance, and many other expenses, which could number in the dozens.

That’s equal to assembling different teams with different expertise to handle different stages of development. According to Glassdoor, an average application developer earns up to $158,000 annually. And that’s dependent on skill needs. The more expertise, the higher you pay. Imagine you need about two to three of them in a developer’s team.

Then there’s payment for the UX/UI design team, quality assurance dept, etc. But that’s just what you pay your in-house team.

You still have to account for development resources. On average, traditional development absorbs over $3.61 per line of code (LOC), meaning businesses might spend more than a million dollars to build an app that contains 200,000 to 300,000 LOC.

In NerdHeadz’s estimation, if you hire an agency or a freelancer instead of in-house execution, a minimum of $300k is needed to build a complex app like the ERP software for the metal industry and about $60k to $200k for the moderately complex ones.

Cost Comparison Table

In contrast, no-code platforms require only about 30% of traditional costs to build a fully functional fleet of app solutions and boost revenue by 58%. This allows for efficient resource allocations and ensures you’re financially capable of validating as many ideas as possible through continuous low-cost prototyping.

Lower technical barriers

Gone are the days when only employees with a background in computer science and knowledge of Visual Studio could write a working line of code. Today, anyone can create an app, even with zero skills, and become a citizen developer. According to Gartner, 80% of non-IT professionals will develop IT products by 2024.

“With lower technical barriers, companies can assign more non-IT persons to assist with product development. This, in turn, reduces time to development and MVP while ensuring your core technical employees focus on more crucial product tasks within the organization”, Mira Nathalea, Chief Marketing Officer at SoftwareHow.

Besides, the demand for app products is five times greater than the available IT capacity. So, no-code platforms fill that gap and ensure more companies can roll out their MVPs faster without having to queue for a skilled developer.

Faster iteration and testing

Product prototyping is essential for testing and validating ideas, whereas MVPs present an opportunity to gather real user feedback, test market demand, and validate assumptions before investing in full development.

But what if you had a dozen ideas to prototype? In this case, you’d need to spend thousands of dollars and wait dozens of weeks for each to validate them before even building a minimum viable product.

Erin Acheson, VP of Business Intelligence at ZeroEyes, says, “For SMEs or startups looking to attract investors for rounds of funding, such expenses are not ideal, and they have to wait for a return on each investment before scaling. Even for enterprise-level businesses with an almost infinite financial pool, this could still turn out to be a big challenge.”

Conversely, if you utilize no-code platforms, the outcome is drastically different. You have a plugin idea that looks workable? Pick a no-code platform, select a suitable template, or request one according to your blueprint and validate it quickly. It’s that fast, plus you spend less.

You can also modify your MVP in real time without waiting for a developer to rewrite the code.

The faster you validate your ideas, the earlier you come to terms with a focal product that you can quickly turn into an MVP and scale into a full product afterward. That’s how organizations adopting no-code build their app products 56% faster than those relying on traditional technologies.

Integration with existing tools

Most no-code platforms support built-in integrations with third-party services, such as databases, CRM systems, payment gateways, cloud storage, email marketing tools, analytics platforms, social media channels, and customer support systems.

This means you can quickly import your technical data, bring in previous product information, and access other critical resources you're already using to speed up the development process without custom coding.

Besides allowing integrations, no-code platforms can also help you build custom integrations for your products through tools like API connectors, webhooks, and custom workflows. And given that most adopt AI to simplify complex tasks like data mapping, API connections, and error handling, this helps develop more efficient and versatile outputs.

Flexibility for non-technical users

No-code platforms feature a drag-and-drop visual builder, allowing both non-IT and IT developers to rapidly roll out usable products. There is no complex or technical jargon—just some mobile blocks or widgets you can move around and arrange as you want.

This reduces the functional barrier and further boosts companies’ ability to maximize their resources. And that’s why it’s unsurprising that citizen developers will outnumber IT professionals 4x by 2025.

Peter O'Callaghan, Head of Marketing at ScrapingBee says, “No-code platforms have a short learning curve and useful onboarding resources, which reduces the time it takes to incorporate your non-IT teams. In situations where you need some human touches, IT users can flexibly switch to the code editor and ramp things up”.

Scalability for small projects

Usually, companies start by building a product with only one or a few user features. As customer demand and client base grow, it becomes imperative to add more essential functionalities. For instance, OpenAI launched chatGPT in its most basic form but has had to scale up over time with newer introductions like voice and upload functions.

“However, scaling up is not as easy as it sounds, especially for small and medium-sized businesses with limited budgets, despite growing demands. Moreover, scalability requires quality time, which a dynamic market competition wouldn’t offer. And sometimes, you might have to scrap existing products to rebuild a more advanced one”, Sabas Lin, CTO at Knowee, points out.

According to Edward White, Head of Growth at beehiiv: “No-code platforms solve this problem by ensuring you can scale your project gradually without overhauling the entire system. With the product editing feature, you can work on your existing product template to add features, integrate new functionalities seamlessly, and adapt to user needs. This is also cost-effective and faster than traditional development approaches”.

Simplified deployment process

Deploying an application is a complex process that includes server configurations, setting up your database, and conducting in-line maintenance. While it might not be a significant time buster for simple apps, it’s a different story for the more complex ones, especially SaaS suites. And that can affect rapid prototyping.

Kyran Schmidt, co-founder at Outverse, says, “No-code platforms help circumvent this limitation by providing a one-click deployment to the web, iOS, and Android servers. Since these platforms are cloud-integrated, your products are also automatically hosted on scalable servers from providers like Azure and Google Cloud without you doing anything.”

Most platforms, like Flow.Ninja, also provide built-in testing environments, where you can test your app in a live environment and debug to fix issues before fully deploying it.

Pre-built templates and components

Virtually all no-code platforms offer pre-built product templates. A perfect example is NoCodeHq, a brand that offers dozens of sleek templates, usually spawned from reputable web products.

There are also provisions for functionalities, widgets, integrations, and blueprints that you can drag and drop into your templates. No need to build from scratch. This allows you to focus on functionality and delivery over coding.

The Future of No-Code Platforms

No-code platforms are here to stay—there's no doubt about that. Over 85% of businesses have already adopted this innovation, and 85% of workers believe that no-code adds value to their work lives.

Currently, no-code technology is perfect for simple and medium-complex app products. You can roll out feature-rich websites or construct sleek accounting applications, prototype thousands of ideas, and deliver MPVs in weeks.

With time, these platforms will also gradually scale up to build even the most sophisticated products while all you do is offer a blueprint.