No-code and low-code platforms promise to democratise software creation. We honestly assess what they can and cannot do in 2025 — and whether they are a genuine path for non-technical founders to build scalable products.
The promise of no-code is seductive: build a professional web application without writing a single line of code. Platforms like Bubble, Webflow, Glide, and Adalo have made this partially true. But how far does the promise extend — and where does it break down?
What No-Code Platforms Do Well
For straightforward use cases, modern no-code platforms are genuinely impressive:
- Landing pages and marketing sites — Webflow and Squarespace can produce professional results that rival custom-built sites
- Internal tools and dashboards — Retool and Bubble excel at building CRUD interfaces for existing data
- Simple mobile apps — Glide and Adalo work well for straightforward data collection and display apps
- Workflow automation — Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) connect hundreds of services without code
AI-Assisted No-Code: A Step Change
2024–2025 saw a major leap: AI can now generate no-code configurations, write automation logic in natural language, and even debug workflows. Tools like Cursor, Bolt.new, and v0 by Vercel blur the line between no-code and code — allowing non-developers to iterate at unprecedented speed.
Where No-Code Falls Short
The limitations are real and must be honestly acknowledged. No-code platforms struggle with:
- Complex business logic — Multi-step conditional calculations, custom algorithms, and sophisticated data relationships quickly exceed platform capabilities
- Performance at scale — Most no-code apps struggle under heavy load; a Bubble app serving thousands of concurrent users will require significant optimization or migration
- Custom integrations — Deep integrations with government APIs, banking systems, or enterprise software often require real code
- Long-term maintainability — Visual logic can become extremely complex and difficult to understand as apps grow
"No-code is perfect for validating a business idea. It is rarely the right foundation for scaling one."
The Smart Strategy: Validate with No-Code, Scale with Code
The most successful non-technical founders use no-code to rapidly build and test their Minimum Viable Product, get initial customers, and prove the business model. Once product-market fit is established, they bring in developers (or a software company like Shwastik Tech) to rebuild on a scalable, maintainable code foundation.
