Overview
One of the biggest objections to no-code platforms such as Tadabase is “Why use no-code when I can hire developers?”
While anecdotal, our experience at Tadabase is that most of our customers have at some point hired a team of developers to build what they were looking for. Their developer costs ranged from $8,000 to as much as over $1,000,000. From those projects, 8 out of 10 did not make it through to production. Not counting experience, that’s a ZERO Return on Investment.
Our customers’ experience correlates across the industry. Statistically, almost 90% of custom coded software doesn't get to production. While companies may feel at first that they found the ideal developer/agency to build out their dream project, the project does not materialize 90% of the time. Why is this?
In this article, we’ll outline the key benefits to no-code and why our customers chose Tadabase over hiring developers.
No-code benefits
Speed
Perhaps the greatest benefit to no-code is its speed. With its pre-built database infrastructure, application framework, and components, building your app is literally as fast as point and click.
While developers custom-coding an app from scratch would have to build the database infrastructure, security permissions, components, design, etc. all from the ground up just to get started, no-code platforms such as Tadabase provide all of these elements pre-built at a parallel, if not greater, performance scale.
It’s no shock that No code/ Low code platforms are proven to be 10X faster than traditional software development.
If the goal is to get started and deploy quickly, no-code is by far the way to go. At Tadabase, we've seen businesses build and deploy apps within a couple days. Even if a team of developers worked 24/7 (unlikely) to get a database up and running from scratch, that speed of deployment would be impossible.
Cost
Upon speaking with customers who initially tried to build custom apps with developers, we learned that the cost for using developers is, on average, roughly 100x that of using a no-code platform such as Tadabase.
For customers with an unlimited budget who can hire a robust team of developers including several excellent developers to account for speed ($175k each/annually), an experienced DevOps engineer to account for infrastructure ($175k/annually), an experienced designer for app design ($100k/annually), and so on…Yes, in that case, developers may work out wonderfully for you.
However, for the average business that does not have access to such a budget, using a no-code platform such as Tadabase is a cost-effective and realistic way to achieve a finished and sustainable product with speed, infrastructure, and performance all accounted for.
No more “We’re just waiting on…”
Did you find a seemingly awesome developer? Can he truly meet expectations? Possibly. But, likely you won't really know if s/he can deliver a perfected product to the finish line until you’ve already invested too much.
With no-code, the initial investment to determine if a no-code application will work for you is nearly instantaneous. Because you’re experiencing the platform for yourself, you’ll know within minutes of getting started whether you’ll be able to build the application you need or not. Within mere minutes, you’ll see immediate, real-time results and instantaneously be able to adjust things on the fly- something no developer can offer, no matter how gifted.
But when all cards are in the developer’s deck, you’re generally left waiting weeks if not months just to see an initial demo. And even once (if) you see the initial demo from your developer, you don’t really know if they’ll get your app past the 75% mark and to the finish line.
We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard customers describe building custom projects with developers that were halted permanently at 75% with a neverending excuse of, “We’re just waiting on…”
And that’s just talking about getting the product. When looking into the future of your business, you have to consider ongoing maintenance and scaling costs. By having control of your app and the ability to make changes yourself at any time as your company grows, you minimize your reliance on 3rd party developers from development to deployment and beyond.
Ongoing agility
Let’s be real- your business changes rapidly and developers don’t like that.
Generally, developers build what they build and don’t want to bother with all the little changes you may request down the road, which may seem petty to them but are crucial to you.
With no-code, it’s no-problem. Since you’re in control of your app and can easily make changes on the fly, you can make as many changes as you need without having to beg or be reliant on any 3rd party.
As an easy to use and visually intuitive no-code platform, most changes can be made by employees regardless of their technical skill or platform experience. This allows non-technical employees to customize features to their convenience and implement creative, new methods for optimizing their own workflows. By putting the app in the control of the people who actually do the work, employees can become more self-sufficient and accountable for their own workflow optimization.
By 2023, Gartner predicts that there will be 4x more citizen developers than traditional developers in large organizations. No-code is clearly the future and it’s here to stay.
Reduced knowledge transfer
Most no-code developers have an intimate knowledge of the business they work with, something that generally takes developers much longer to achieve, if ever.
When dealing with developers, a large part of their thinking generally boils down to technicalities. For instance, which language and framework should we use, which database is this going to be hosted on, etc. The focus isn’t centered so much on your business but rather on the technicalities of the database and how they can fit your business processes within those confined technicalities.
When working with no-code developers, the knowledge transfer is more focused on your business. No one knows the ins and outs of your business better than you. With less knowledge transfer, the odds of building an application that works precisely around your exact data systems and work flows is tremendously increased.
Built-in infrastructure
So the developer finished the code and it works. It’s all smooth sailing, right? Sorry, but no. Now your next major concern is infrastructure.
Is your app secure? Scalable? Reliable?
Is your developer also a DevOps Engineer or do you have one on your development team?
To compete with the reliability of an Enterprise platform you’d need, at minimum, an infrastructure that requires a DevOps engineer.
At the very minimum, in addition to the code, you’d need to figure out scalability, redundancy and security for the following:
- Web Servers
- Databases
- Caching
- File storage
- Penetration Testing
An app with even the most beautiful of custom code is useless without a solid infrastructure. So unless you have a highly skilled DevOps engineer included in your uber proxy development team, all that time and money spent on custom code may all have gone to waste.
However, with a no-code platform such as Tadabase, all that infrastructure is taken care of. And as a corporation governed by the strictest compliance standards, Tadabase is guaranteed to provide all infrastructure elements at the highest levels of industry standards, policies, and procedures, including SOC2, HIPAA, AWS, Sqreen, and Gov-grade encryptions.
Additionally, infrastructure is not something you want to set and forget. Patching, upgrades, and fixes can end up neglected when left to traditional development, leaving you vulnerable to security, integrity, and compliance concerns along the way. With a no-code platform such as Tadabase, all initial and ongoing infrastructure is constantly monitored and upgraded by the platform so you never have to worry about it.
No developer turnaround
Each and every developer has his/her own unique and preferred approach to writing code. Unless you’re working with a significant number of developers with tremendous oversight, your next developer or development team will have considerable issues with the way the “other guy” did it. They’ll want to rewrite much of the code to fit their “better” approach. And the cycle continues.
Naturally, as code changes from one coder to the next, database integrity is severely compromised. As developers come and go and your app’s code is changed and re-changed by the next unique developer, your app grows more and more at risk with each turnaround. And as the client, you’ll likely never know until it’s too late and your app, as well as your business, are compromised in some way.
With no-code, you’ll never have to deal with this kind of developer drama or turnaround. No-code platforms provide a uniform and built-in structure to how the code is implemented within your apps- one that you truly will never have to think about.
At Tadabase, many of our customers describe turning to us because of this developer turnaround.
Compounding improvements
When using an innovative no-code platform, you can benefit from the growth and expansion of the platform being used.
When a developer stops working on your app, the work is done. No new improvements, fixes, or upgrades will be implemented within your app if your developer isn’t actively working on it.
But when your app is hosted by a no-code platform such as Tadabase which is constantly innovating and implementing new features and fixes according to a set roadmap, your app will continuously benefit from compounding upgrades around the clock.
Community
When you hire a developer, or even a team of developers, you’re generally working in a silo with no external validation or support with your project. However, when you build an app on Tadabase, you’re building an app within a community of like-minded business owners and team members who share many of your same app goals and concerns.
Along with the Tadabase platform comes a thriving community of like-minded no-code developers who support one another, inspire one another with no-code tips and tricks, and share in the same vision of building the best application for their individual businesses.
Control
That developer who coded your app can also lock you out of it. Yes, this happens all the time.
In such a case, what happens to your data? Who’s in control of your application? And where does that leave your business?
With a no-code platform such as Tadabase, the platform is designed from the ground up to maximize your control over your own app and your own data. As a corporation governed by the strictest industry and compliance standards, Tadabase is built and continuously regulated to grant you the most control and freedom possible over your own app and information.
The dream of every business owner is to be self-sufficient and in control. With Tadabase, that dream is a reality.
Read more about our security and compliance here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the no-code benefits listed above highlight the devastating risks to hiring developers to custom-code your app from scratch.
Whereas in years past, traditional development was the given (and only) way to build business applications,
Your business is unique, but your operations are not one-of-a-kind. While your processes and order of operations may be tailored for your business, the operations themselves have likely been performed many times over by other businesses. Whatever you have or haven’t imagined possible, is possible. It’s actually probably already being done! This is why we encourage our users to share their stories of transitioning onto Tadabase. Spoiler: they were all astounded by how Tadabase transformed their businesses.
Want to hear more? Check out our most recent case studies and see how other businesses are using Tadabase everyday.
Spoiler 2: They all saved lots of money.
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