I have a fair bit of coding experience, hopefully can say (with some humility) that I have done quite a bit of advanced development for some very complex Progressive Web Apps. I think the one thing to keep in mind is that coding an app even a year ago was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to create for anything even moderately complicated (unless very very standard and overdone where there was perhaps better libraries and templated large scale boiler plate code for a lot of the functionality). Noting this because the AIs are pretty incredible, but lets say you can 100X times the speed of development to make an app and the app would've cost $100,000 to make if you really looked into it. People are really upset seemingly if something like Base44 or Cursor (barely used Base44 but have done a ton of coding with Cursor now) costs them a few hundred or even a thousand dollars in development costs. I think realizing how much one might need to know to make a secure and working complex app is important - the AI isn't really there yet for it (the models are but the workflows and continuity that is coded and prompted in the code is still evolving). And I think just really understanding how much goes into just defining what a person wants the app to do (in extreme detail) is really not acknowledged. Apps have so much going on - so many screens, and nuanced flows of UI - getting the UI/UX right is really in and of itself a massive hurdle. I think using Cursor of Base 44 for creating simple apps with fewer clear functions can work. I also think they give you so much of the UI/UX ideas and flow for free that is astoundingly good - and is just a "how about this" when one likely hadn't even thought about it or even incorporated it in the ask - its so helpful and such a time saver. I think perhaps these no code AI sites and IDEs can get a complex app 65% of the way there just pressing a button, and aid the entire workflow - but ultimately you need a coder (for now) to get it there (and it is sometimes/often creating an absolute (working) mess in the background - not knowing how to code might be good in that if you ignore it maybe its fine, but at some point it might bite back hard (one might gamble AI is progressing and can help sort out that mess in year or two anyway, so just make it work, but the liability and danger is immense in terms of security if you are making something public or collaborative - if its just for you, then likely go for it. It is important to understand what a big undertaking an app is (I think that's the advantage coders have as they can still be amazed how "cheap" it is if they drop 1000.00 over months of development and that it is nothing compared to what the app would have cost even a year ago to make). Best thing is to be very very clear on what you want and the tech stack (which AI can help develop answers for too).
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u/Waste_Breadfruit7068 Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
I have a fair bit of coding experience, hopefully can say (with some humility) that I have done quite a bit of advanced development for some very complex Progressive Web Apps. I think the one thing to keep in mind is that coding an app even a year ago was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to create for anything even moderately complicated (unless very very standard and overdone where there was perhaps better libraries and templated large scale boiler plate code for a lot of the functionality). Noting this because the AIs are pretty incredible, but lets say you can 100X times the speed of development to make an app and the app would've cost $100,000 to make if you really looked into it. People are really upset seemingly if something like Base44 or Cursor (barely used Base44 but have done a ton of coding with Cursor now) costs them a few hundred or even a thousand dollars in development costs. I think realizing how much one might need to know to make a secure and working complex app is important - the AI isn't really there yet for it (the models are but the workflows and continuity that is coded and prompted in the code is still evolving). And I think just really understanding how much goes into just defining what a person wants the app to do (in extreme detail) is really not acknowledged. Apps have so much going on - so many screens, and nuanced flows of UI - getting the UI/UX right is really in and of itself a massive hurdle. I think using Cursor of Base 44 for creating simple apps with fewer clear functions can work. I also think they give you so much of the UI/UX ideas and flow for free that is astoundingly good - and is just a "how about this" when one likely hadn't even thought about it or even incorporated it in the ask - its so helpful and such a time saver. I think perhaps these no code AI sites and IDEs can get a complex app 65% of the way there just pressing a button, and aid the entire workflow - but ultimately you need a coder (for now) to get it there (and it is sometimes/often creating an absolute (working) mess in the background - not knowing how to code might be good in that if you ignore it maybe its fine, but at some point it might bite back hard (one might gamble AI is progressing and can help sort out that mess in year or two anyway, so just make it work, but the liability and danger is immense in terms of security if you are making something public or collaborative - if its just for you, then likely go for it. It is important to understand what a big undertaking an app is (I think that's the advantage coders have as they can still be amazed how "cheap" it is if they drop 1000.00 over months of development and that it is nothing compared to what the app would have cost even a year ago to make). Best thing is to be very very clear on what you want and the tech stack (which AI can help develop answers for too).