Forget Vibe Coding, Is No-Code the New Code?

Connecting some dots that probably shouldn’t be connected yet

It seems like everyone and their uncle is trying to exploit the latest AI breakthroughs to vibe code a real business out of thin air, stitching together whizbang elements of generative AI, RAG, and now agentic AI, and then wrapping all that spaghetti code into a big, beautiful burrito of a working product.

I love the energy. But eventually, all that tech debt is gonna come due.

As the vibe code revolution has spread, I’ve also heard a lot of talk about how vibe coding is replacing no-code and will eventually render no-code platforms obsolete.

I can understand the reasoning behind that. I don’t think it’s true.

Instead, I believe no-code might take the place of real code. High code. Nerd code. And I think this opens up even more opportunities to exploit AI in a sustainable way to build more and better businesses in less time with less money.

I Know. It’s Crazy. Or Is It?

I’ll warn you, I’m biased. I’ve been using no-code and low-code tools for over a decade, and not just to spin up quick MVPs or internal tools to take some of the load off of an overwhelmed engineering team.

Although those are great use cases and I’ve leaned into both, I’ve also spent an equal amount of time building real, working businesses out of no-code, mostly because, as a former developer, there’s no reason for me not to stick with well-constructed no-code long beyond an MVP.

And that notion — the speed and ease of no-code and my approach to it as a former developer — that’s what I keep coming back to.

As the hype around vibe coding continues to promise that anyone can build the next billion-dollar tech startup just by telling their Mac to do it, the question keeps coming up: Why would no-code even exist in such a world, where no code platforms force you to live within their limitations?

Dude! Vibe coding has no limits! It’s freedom, baby, yeah!

But maybe those very limitations are the fix for what’s wrong with vibe coding.

Maybe vibe coding is the new no-code, and… no-code is the new real code?

Could that be so crazy it might be true? And if so, how should you play it?

No Code Is Dead

I’ve been postulating the theory that no-code-is-the-new-code for a few months now, then I read this well-written and super-deep article in The New Stack called No Code Is Dead — which jumps from one extreme expert opinion on the survival of no-code to the complete other expert extreme and also everywhere in between.

TL;DR: Everyone agrees that vibe-coding isn’t going away, but that it produces an unhealthy amount of technical debt. Then Josh from Bubble says he views no-code as a vibe-code killer. Then there’s an opinion that both will go away. Then a belief that only no-code dies. Then someone predicts they’ll work together. The one guy says low-code will rule them all(!).

Then they all start to get into the reasons why no-code must and can evolve into somewhat of a “walled-garden” to contain the “life finds a way” nature of vibe coding before it lets all the raptors loose.

I mean, part of me feels like this is the same defense that SEO gurus were constructing around the “evolution of SEO” — until this past June when links got pretty much disassociated from search results.

So I’m still skeptical that no-code survives, and let’s play out that skepticism. Why not just vibe code now and pay a “real” developer later, just like you would with no-code?

Does Your Developer Read Japanese?

One quote in the article stood out for me, because it neatly encapsulates that while vibe coding is quick and painless and available to just about anyone with little learning curve, the sustainability of the viability comes with much bigger risks than you get with no-code.

Let me explain, or rather, let someone else explain.

Miguel Baltazar, from low-code platform provider OutSystems, uses an analogy of a native English speaker trying to write a book in Japanese using Generative AI. “You’re trying to write something in a language you don’t understand.” Then when you hand over the book to a native Japanese speaker, you’re assuming they’ll understand not just the entire story but every beat and plot point that gets you there.

And I’ll add another caveat — provided the AI doesn’t hallucinate, which is something you won’t be able to catch.

The best no-code platforms not only better force the “programmer” to stay within the limits of the structure of the “language,” but also force the programmer to understand those structural concepts, at least a little, but also as much as they want, to make their product work the way they envision it.

This is a small difference on day one, but it can be the difference between a product that’s ultimately sustainable and one that’s a financial bomb leaking something flammable.

It Comes Down To Abstraction

Here’s my no-code-is-NOT-dead argument in a nutshell.

No-code is just an abstraction layer on top of real code.

I said this myself way back in pre-AI-is-everywhere 2022:

“Unless someone is writing low-level machine code — and more power to you if you are — we’re all writing no-code. Today’s no-code tools and platforms are just more powerful and more visual than yesterday’s object-oriented code bases.”

Vibe coding is just another abstraction layer on top of real code, only with far fewer limitations and thus, a lot messier.

This quote, from Ryan Cunningham, corporate vice president of Power Platform Intelligent Applications at Microsoft, crystallized my thinking about the no-code-is-dead argument:

“All we’ve been doing for software engineers for the last 40 years is adding layers of abstraction, so we don’t have to write low-level assembly code. We are at the precipice of the next layer of abstraction.”

Look, you do you, that’s always been my motto. But if today’s no-code platforms do indeed see themselves as “vibe-code killers” and can execute properly to lock AI benefits into a “walled garden” of sustainability, then we get to that other thing I said even earlier in 2021:

“Low-level code has been boxed and packaged for a lot longer than the term ‘no-code’ has been around. It’s just happening at a higher level now.”

The thing is, “real” coders have been making building tech easier for “no-coders” since the dawn of the personal computer. I don’t think this changes because now you can just tell your Mac what you want to build.

But instead of having to go back and pay a real coder to make sure the product is sustainable, the no-coder platformers should be adopting vibe coding concepts while making sure the real code is sustainable as soon as the “programmer” stops prompting.

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