Custom SaaS or no-code: how to choose?

Our view: to test an idea with a few users, a no-code tool is often the fastest and cheapest way to get an answer. A form, a simple database, a few screens: if the question is "does anyone want this?", it is often enough.

From the projects brought to us, the same signals come back:

• abusiness rules become too complex for the visual editor;
• bperformance degrades with the number of users or records;
• cyou need a right-to-left language, fine-grained accessibility or serious SEO;
• dcompliance requires knowing exactly where data lives (Quebec's Law 25);
• ethe platform's cost climbs with usage, on a curve you don't control.

Modall publishes, in Canada, $15,000 to $30,000 for a prototype or micro-SaaS in 4 to 8 weeks, and $40,000 to $80,000 for a market-ready MVP in 3 to 5 months. That is more than a no-code subscription at the start; the question is what the next stage will cost.

The most expensive scenario is neither option: it is succeeding on a base that doesn't hold, then rebuilding everything while customers wait. Our view: if the idea is already validated, or if the product must take payments, manage roles and grow, start with code from the first version.

Ask yourself these three questions:

• aAre you trying to learn whether anyone wants it, or to serve customers who already do?
• bMust the product handle payments, roles or sensitive data from the start?
• cIf it works in six months, can you keep going on the same base?