Don’t Want to Learn Coding? 5 Ways to Still Make Powerful Automated Tools

Learning to code helps. But you don’t have to learn coding to build tools on the web. With the right no-code development tools, you can quickly create automated docs that are just as powerful as apps. Think about it… you can take short cuts through everyday chores that would take complicated scripts or an expensive app. You don’t need to call a software engineer or learn a programming language on your own.

Just bring your creativity and create simple apps or automated documents that get the job done. Dive into these five no-code platforms here.

1. Coda: Stretch Your Docs and Spreadsheets

Think of Coda as what a spreadsheet can be with some clever automation. Coda starts with a blank canvas. Then add a table, add a few rows and columns, and integrate a few pre-built automated building blocks. The humble text document or spreadsheet starts behaving like a native app.

Coda is designed with automation and flexibility in mind. You can use automatic triggers to do away with any repetitive tasks. For example, Uber used Coda to build a team tracker that helped them re-design their taxi-hailing app. You can automate your to-do list to autogenerate both daily and weekly tasks without typing them every time.

Coda is a collaborative tool that is free for now. Expect price tiers to come in once the tool matures. You can start with a blank canvas or use the many templates available. Any documents you create can be used with the iOS app too.

Download: Coda for iOS (Free)

2. uCalc: Make Your Own Calculators

Not every calculator is about math. But it is always about different types of calculations. There are a variety of free calculators online. But uCalc helps you build your own. It is a visual DIY builder for calculators and forms that don’t need any coding skills.

You can make calculators and intelligent forms for every need—personal or professional. For example, you can build one that calculates the cost of pizza based on its ingredients. Or make a calculator that adds up the cost of an interior decoration project.

Create a calculator in minutes with the drag and drop visual editor. You can take advantage of templates too. After you customize it, take the code and embed it on the platform of your choice. uCalc supports uCoz, uKit, WordPress, Joomla, Wix, Drupal, ModX, OpenCart, Magento, and many others.

uCalc has a pricing tier. The free calculator allows three projects and limited CRM.

3. Carrd: Build a Single Page Website in Seconds

If you do any kind of work on the web, then you should advertise your presence with a simple portfolio or a website. Gone are the days when you had to labor over HTML and CSS, or even Adobe Dreamweaver. A slew of drag and drop DIY website builders have made it so easy. Add Carrd to the list.

Carrd is an automated website builder for clean, one page portfolios. The responsive portfolios look just as good on any screen. Start off with a blank page, or choose from the beautiful templates. Then, design your page with the drag and drop content blocks: drag text under an image, make a row of links across the top, or even add some of your own code.

The free plan allows you three sites per account. With the Pro plan ( $9/year), you can have custom domains and Google Analytics.

4. Glide: Create a Mobile App From a Google Sheet

Everyone seems to be creating mobile apps these days and earning “millions”. Well, it isn’t as easy as it sounds and a fraction move up with their checking accounts. But mobile app development isn’t going anywhere. Even then you must be feeling a bit left out? How about learning Android app development or Swift? No? Well, try Glide then.

Glide isn’t alone in helping you make a mobile app from Google Sheets. But it does offer a comfy free plan. The Google Sheet acts as the database. Glide imports the data and assembles a default app which you can customize with layouts, images, icons, and more.

The finished app gets a landing page of its own from where you can share it with others. Glide has Free, Pro, and Business plans.

5. VoiceFlow: Voice Bots for Alexa and Google Assistant

Yes, you can even build voice bots without any coding. It takes just a bit of logic to sequence the flow of information that the voice app will process. Voiceflow makes that easier with its pre-built lego style block system which you assemble step by step.

For example, the starting greeting from Alexa or Google Assistant is one block. Your query could then be handled by the different choice blocks, with each leading to different results. Voiceflow connects to APIs & 3rd party services for queries and interactions.

Voiceflow gives you one visual designer from where you can make and launch both Alexa and Google Assistant bots. Thanks to the absence of coding, you can become an Alexa (of Google) Skills builder in a fraction of time.

Start with the Free plan that allows for three projects. Professional and Business plans are paid tiers.

Be Creative Without Learning to Code

Code is all around us. But these “no-code” platforms show that the future of our digital society need not depend on coders alone. If you can think “out of the box” it will be yours too. Of course, the code-less apps you build will not instantly turn you into the next Mark Zuckerberg but will turn you into a person who can design solutions.

There are many other things you can build online without code. Get your confidence up with these no-coding templates for personal websites.

Image Credit: wowomnom/Depositphotos.com

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