HACKER Q&A
📣 adriand

Is this the end of the "no code platform" era?


I've never once had someone tell me they enjoyed using a no code platform. The typical experience seemed to be quick progress for the first 80% of the project and then agony for the remaining 20%. These platforms had undeniable appeal for non-technical people, but always seemed (to me, as a developer) a substandard way of developing applications and integrations. But there wasn't a great alternative.

Now, obviously, there is. Vibe code is the new no code is what it looks like to me. What do you think? Does AI spell doom for no code platforms? Or will they adapt and become "semi code" platforms or something?

  👤 toomuchtodo Accepted Answer ✓
Vibe coding is worse, it's like a repl in Stack Overflow and if it looks good, it'll ship, even if it isn't necessarily good (how would you know unless you have experience?). The best fit imho is LLMs for helping you build deterministic code paths and data flows with strong guardrails and other quality controls, so I think low and no code is here to stay. At some point, you might have to refactor wholesale out of low or no code into a monolith when you exceed the constraints of such systems for your business or application.
👤 tjr
I think people who truly don't understand programming need more structure and guardrails than coding from scratch with LLMs.

If you're wanting to, say, set up an online store website, and you don't know how to build a website at all, I think using something like Shopify is a better path than consulting an LLM and having it generate code for you.

On the other hand, if you do understand at least generally how to build what you want, you can leverage LLMs to build it faster and customized beyond what something like Shopify could offer.

So I reckon, for true non-developers, some no-code platforms will carry on. For developers, LLMs will probably replace some subset of such things.

👤 keldendorji
Semi code looks the path.

Even as a developer who uses alot of vibe code, i believe that the industry will go into AI Code standards with checks on design patterns + type checks + coq level testing