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Welcome to the no-code movement

All of us at monday.com 8 min read
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When software developers first hear about the no-code movement, many of them have the same fear.

They want to know if no-code development will put them out of work.

This fear couldn’t be more groundless. As Stack Overflow co-founder Jeff Atwood writes, a developer’s job isn’t to write code, it’s to create solutions.

That’s what the no-code movement is: a solution.

And not just one, either. No-code vastly increases the number of people who can create their own software solutions.

We still need developers to improve it. But it’s regular people who will use it.

This article will explain exactly what the no-code movement is and why it’s the future of software.

What is no-code?

A no-code platform allows users to build complex automated work processes without any knowledge of code whatsoever.

No-code platforms accomplish this with 2 main tools: automation and integrations.

Automations take menial tasks that team members used to do by hand — say, taking data from one spreadsheet and entering it into another — and finishes them automatically.

Integrations bridge the gap between 2 unrelated apps. For example, you might use integration to make it so clicking a person’s name in a dashboard automatically pulls their contact information from a different platform.

With automation and integrations, you can get a lot done within a single database or dashboard.

monday.com automation

In fact, you can make those pages so powerful that they work like apps that have been tailor-made for your needs.

But how can you build such versatile apps without any code?

Well, the apps still run on code. You just don’t have to write any of it.

Instead, you manipulate the existing code using a different interface, focused on natural-feeling visual interactions. You could build an app by dragging and dropping columns in a database or clicking options in a menu.

You might have also heard of “low-code” platforms. Those aren’t quite the same thing.

As the name implies, low-code platforms demand a little coding knowledge. They cover the tedious parts of programming but leave a lot of room for creativity.

Low-code interfaces are best for developers. No-code interfaces, by contrast, are for everyone.

The no-code movement started as early as 1985, with the first release of Microsoft Excel. With its ability to record macros and set up dependencies between cells and spreadsheets, Excel gave non-programmers vastly increased access to computing power.

But it wasn’t until WordPress launched in 2003 that no-code really hit the public consciousness. WordPress let non-developers build beautiful websites and spawned a whole generation of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web builders like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.

Excel and WordPress were the forerunners, but the no-code movement has grown far beyond them now.

If you’re curious about what we mean by that, take a look at the screenshot below.

monday.com features and releases roadmap

That’s the monday.com features and releases roadmap.

The Kanban board in the top half connects directly to the database at the bottom. Moving a card instantly updates the information in the table.

One engineer built that in a few days. Before the no-code movement, it might have taken the whole team to get it looking that good.

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What is the no-code movement?

So, why is no-code a movement?

Simply because it’s reshaping how the entire economy does business.

There’s a popular saying that every company is now a software company. It means that no matter what the company sells, they have to rely on sophisticated software to keep up with the competition.

Yes, many off-the-shelf apps can make work easier for any team, but they’re one-size-fits-all solutions. You can save a lot of time and effort with an app that understands your company’s specific needs.

If you need a tailored app for your unique workflows, you should be able to build it yourself.

And you shouldn’t have to attend a 12-week Bootcamp or divert developers from your customer-facing product to build it.

Like we said at the start, the no-code movement isn’t about making programmers obsolete.

In fact, no-code is a good thing for developers. It frees them from spending time on code they could write in their sleep.

Let’s take a closer look at what the no-code movement looks like in the real world.

How are businesses using no-code?

Thanks to the no-code movement, businesses that would never have considered building in-house apps can now create personalized solutions.

Here are 5 of our favorite examples.

Manufacturing

It’s rare to find a manufacturing plant that has its own in-house software developer.

Many factories are still taking customer orders through paper or email and keeping track of them on Excel. That makes it easy for customers to fall through the cracks.

But with a no-code platform like the monday.com order form template, the factory can build its own order-taking app.

First, the team builds a form.

monday.com order form template

Then they sync it with a table.

​​monday.com order form database

Now they can look at the table to see every order, ensuring they don’t miss a single customer.

Education

Students are busy people. They have to wear many hats in one day — historian, mathematician, cook, personal accountant — and “software engineer” is often one role too many.

No-code can let students build a better tool to ace classroom assignments. Take the monday.com managing student life template as a prime example.

monday.com student life management template

A student could integrate this database with their school email account and then send an email 3 days before each assignment is due. With linked databases, they could keep track of their schedule, budget their living expenses, and more.

Real estate

A good realtor is a salesperson, property manager, and financial adviser all rolled into one. That’s a lot to keep track of without a personalized app.

With the monday.com real estate agency management template, realtors can upgrade a map of their properties so important information about each one is available at a click.

monday.com real estate template

Because all their information is now located in the same database, the real estate agency finds it much easier to market individual properties. When prospective buyers have questions, all the data a realtor needs is right at their fingertips.

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Venture capital

Venture capital firms have a unique set of needs. Most of them specialize in a few different startup industries, any of which might require specialized assistance.

At first, the monday.com customer requests template wasn’t exactly what one VC firm needed.

monday.com customer requests template

But thanks to its simple no-code interface, the firm could add and remove columns as necessary to build a database that handled requests from portfolio companies.

SaaS

The no-code movement might have a bigger impact on software as a service than on any other economic sector.

SaaS teams are naturally tech-savvy, and they understand application development. They trial many apps to manage workflows, and they’re acutely aware when one doesn’t work as they need it to.

monday.com software development roadmap

Even on a team where everyone knows how to code, the monday.com software development roadmap can save an enormous amount of labor.

The developers know their roadmap app will work for them because they built it — and they didn’t have to take a week away from their actual product to do so.

How can I create software without coding?

Every monday.com template, including the 5 we just showcased, is based on a unified philosophy that makes it part of the no-code movement.

Put simply: we wanted it to be easy for any user to get from a template to the app they wanted, without needing to write one line of code.

Each template is fully customizable. You can add, rename, and remove columns as you see fit.

Once you have the lead table looking the way you want, it’s time to integrate it with other pages — like the order form in “Manufacturing” — and other apps — like the student email account in “Education.”

If that’s not enough versatility, you can also customize the monday.com platform itself through our app marketplace, an enormous slate of options for enhancing the power of your no-code apps.

How will no-code software change the coding industry?

The no-code movement aims to free every worker from time-consuming tasks. Its advocates want to make data entry, pen-and-paper accounting, and other menial office work into things of the past.

Previously, only developers (or those with access to them) had this power. With the no-code movement, these tools are now available to everybody.

If you’re ready to create your first powerful no-code app, visit monday.com today.

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