Ship features faster using no-code integrations

Whilst building side-projects last year, I realised I was wasting too much time on parts of a project holding it back from ever launching or a feature from being shipped. I remember being inspired by a podcast I listened to with the creator of Makerpad, Ben Tossell, explaining how "no-code" is the future by linking multiple 3rd party platforms together to create a working MVP.

I wasn't willing to go that far and rely on all of my project to work off 3rd parties. Still, I was interested in using 3rd parties to do specific tasks such as data collection, image optimisation, mailing lists etc.

Mailing Lists

We all do this; we collect emails for launches, feature drops etc. and the majority I've found either bounce between Mailchimp and Convertkit. The only issue with these is that they are not friendly for startups with zero funding. Because as your growth increases, so does the cost to keep that list growing.

This was when I came across Button Down. The pricing is perfect, it has quick integrations, and the API is a breeze to work with. I've hooked this into all my projects quickly, and it allows newsletters or single shot emails to be sent relatively rapidly.

Not to mention, Button Down is also privacy-focussed. So doesn't track your user's personal information.

Data Collection & Documentation Pages

To get pages like roadmaps, changelogs, FAQ's or support pages etc., out the door, Notion is the app to look at. It's allowed me to quickly create documentation/support for my apps without considering designing and building them in. Having a spreadsheet with images and code blocks all in one page, which is also linkable, works well.

(You could take this a step further and use Super to make an entire website using Notion)

On the flip side, if you need to collect the information, you could use Air Table. You can quickly whip up a form (E.g. A contact or submission form) that links straight to a spreadsheet, and whallah - You have organised data that can be exported as CSV's into your app, or you could take this a step further and link with Zapier to import users into Button Down! Magical.

Content & SEO

Although I haven't used this yet, I like the idea of them. Headlime uses AI to create the (near) perfect content for your marketing sites. You input a few keywords and click a button, and you then have your whole site written for you. I like this approach to get you going, but I'm not sure how well this would work for the long term.

To visually appealing metadata / open graph images that convert your shared articles to visiting users, I've discovered services like Microlink (Free-ish) and Bannerbear. They both allow you to hook into image templates and output an image card.

Analytics

For visitor analytics data, there's nothing better than Fathom. I can't express how easy this app is to plug into your site and give you privacy-focused data on your visitors and most visited pages.

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Overall, using these 3rd parties have saved me hours of design and development time, and it means I can deploy features faster.