I often see recommendations to non-technical founders that an MVP is built with a no-code tool.

These can be suitable if your particular idea would genuinely benefit from what these offer, but it’s important to realise that these tools are rarely simple, despite being sold as such. They each have their own learning curve and usually require quite a bit of research to accomplish more advanced tasks.

When you’re just getting started with your idea, it makes a lot of sense to try to build something that represents your end product. This exercise forces you to think through how a customer will interact with the software, how data is presented, and so on.

The truth is that making a mockup will achieve the same thing and will be more flexible, cheaper and take less time.

So, when deciding on whether to build a real app or use no-code tools for an MVP, the thing to consider is its purpose.

It should be for validating your idea within your market.

If you absolutely need something interactive, don’t have much budget, and have the mindset and patience to learn then a no-code platform may be a good idea.

In general, though, taking a more simple approach is going to get you closer to finding your product’s fit sooner.