7 Must-have No-code Tools to Build Your Next Business
Contrary to popular belief, starting a business is more about planning and efficiency than about unique ideas and originality.
Sure, you’d be lucky to have an innovative concept up your sleeve, but no business can do without accurate planning and consistent efficiency.
In fact, the majority of functional businesses aren’t particularly unique. Landscaping, laundromats, burger joints, gastropubs, gyms…the list goes on and on.
In other words, don’t be scared about lacking great ideas: The true horror is how planning errors can drain vital resources from a company that’s taking its first steps.
This is particularly relevant when addressing the tech needs for your future endeavor.
First, because many (if not all) of your business processes will involve tech.
Second, because there are many products and services to pick from - deciding is difficult.
Third, because tech talent is scant and expensive, and over-relying on it can easily burn a hole in your finances.
With this in mind, we are here to share seven tool recommendations for entrepreneurs who are about to launch their next business.
But before we get there, let’s take a look under the hood of our analysis and see the criteria we used to evaluate our choices.
Recommended no-code tools: Criteria of eligibility
Since we don’t want you to take our word at face value, we developed a simple system to support our recommendations with data.
The tools we’ve picked are among the best when measured by:
User reviews (number and overall scores)
Features
Level of difficulty / user-friendliness
Pricing
On top of this, we are also highlighting a unique differentiator as well - the one thing that makes each tool positively different from the rest.
This said, let’s dive right into our selection.
1. Website builder: Webflow
Every new company needs a website, but not just any website. You need a fast-loading, responsive, beautiful website that is easy to build, highly customizable, and affordable.
That’s exactly what you’ll get with Webflow.
Source: Webflow
Webflow is the most disruptive no-code website builder that we’ve seen since the appearance of WordPress in the early aughts.
Not only it is packed with all kinds of useful features, but also addresses two of the biggest web design pain points - landing pages and responsiveness - in a thorough and easy manner for users.
On top of this, Webflow offers competitive pricing plans, thousands of templates for multiple use cases, a lively community of users, and a myriad of learning resources that will help you get a professional website in a few weeks.
2. Mobile app builder: Adalo
Mobile apps are a hit and miss for some businesses, and this reality puts pressure on how many resources you’ll dedicate to building one.
Adalo is the perfect solution to launch simple apps in little time and have a functional concept out there without spending tens of thousands of dollars on it.
Adalo is all about drag-and-drop: In their words, if you can build a slide deck, you can build an app.
Pricing is good but not great (there are more affordable alternatives out there), although paid plans tackle important aspects like publishing to Google and Apple app stores, connecting your app to external data repositories, and API access to build all kinds of integrations.
If you’re wondering how good is Adalo and what you can achieve with it, check out the story of the 17-year-old who built an app his entire school uses.
3. Social media management: Buffer
You’re launching a new business and want to make a splash, but is spending half of your day on social media worth it?
Probably not, as there’s tons of stuff to deal with in the meantime.
To solve this, you can go for a social media management and scheduling tool, which will allow you to create posts in bulk, and schedule them to be published across multiple platforms automatically.
There are many tools that can be used to do this, and Buffer ranks high among them.
On top of speeding up the content publishing process, Buffer is quite affordable, and features a free plan that’ll get your social media efforts up and running from the get-go.
4. Project management and internal docs: Notion
Keeping track of projects, tasks and documents is vital for a new business. Doing so guarantees transparency and accessibility, but also saves you valuable time that otherwise would be spent on catching up with what’s going on.
Notion is a great tool to sort this out from the very beginning.
Notion is a blank canvas for your task management and documentation efforts.
You can create pages from scratch or rely on templates to keep all your information organized and available to your team and build as you need/go.
User reviews are glimmering, and pricing is superb for such a feature-rich, adaptable service.
5. Email marketing: Brevo (ex Sendinblue)
If you plan to collect contact information through landing pages, lead generation campaigns, and social media, you’ll need to have an email marketing platform to act upon that data.
In a field packed with big names and feature-rich platforms, Brevo (ex Sendinblue) stands out for its simplicity and affordability.
A drag-and-drop builder, a powerful API, and unbeatable pricing turn it into a great choice for entrepreneurs that need to get emails delivered without much hassle.
6. CRM: Bitrix24
As you can see, all our tool recommendations lead to converting leads and contacts into customers. And to manage them all, a free, easy-to-use CRM is the order of the day.
Bitrix24 is high on our list when it comes to this.
Bitrix checks all the boxes that a new business needs: It has a free plan that includes storage space and unlimited contacts, it’s easy to use, and it doesn’t overwhelm you with tons of features that you may or may not need.
In other words, it gets the job of organizing your business contacts in a no-frills way, and without spending a buck in the process of doing so.
7. Integrations and automation: Make
There’s no other tool like Make. We are the only no-code automation platform that delivers value to every type of business in disregard of size and complexity.
With Make, you can automate anything you need, when you need it: From sending lead data into your CRM to launching scheduled email marketing campaigns and notifying your team about updates in documentation or tasks.
Is there a learning curve? Sure, but it’s nothing compared to the resources you’ll save by automating recurring tasks for your business.
Automation is the secret sauce that new businesses need to do more with less, scale faster than ever, and keep finances in check once and for all.
If you’re ready to dip your toes, subscribe to a free plan and see how our platform can help you streamline your business like no other.
Final words: Getting your tech stack right from the start
Having the best no-code tools for launching your business is great. You’ll likely save tons of time and resources on the spot.
Moreover, by picking the right tools you’ll be saving yourself many future headaches - from the impossibility to hire the best talent in a tight job market to dealing with pricey, long-term contracts for tools that don’t fit your needs.
Now that we shared our selection, we recommend you to trial each of the recommendations - a first-hand experience will put you in the best position to decide!
