trying to build a SaaS using free/no-code tools – looking to learn from others

Hi all,

I’m a college student trying to build my first SaaS product. I don’t have a technical background, and I can’t afford to hire developers, so I’m exploring free and low-code/no-code tools (what some people call “vibe coding”?).

Right now, I’m in the learning and planning stage. I don’t have a finished idea yet, just a strong interest in creating something real and figuring things out as I go. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s:

1. Built a SaaS without a tech background

2. Used free tools or no-code platforms to get started

3. Is currently working on a similar project

Any tips, recommended tools, lessons learned, or just general advice would mean a lot. I’m not trying to promote anything – just here to learn and connect.

Thanks in advance!

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15 hours ago

Check out my profile - I have posted detailed guides on how to start Vibe Coding!

@J_Phroneos

1 day ago

Hey! I’m not super experienced with no-code myself, but I’ve been exploring the space too and came across a few tools you might want to check out: Glide, Softr, Bubble (for more complex stuff), Airtable for the backend, and Zapier or Make to automate things.

A lot of people use these to build real SaaS products without writing code. You’re on the right track.

Would love to hear what you end up making!

@jack-wade

2 days ago

I'm a nerd, but I got no tech background. I started 2 month ago

You gotta learn by building small projects, asking the LLM to explain you every step along the way. You will learn stuff like:
- what "setting up an environment & dependencies" mean
- using the Terminal (CLI)
- Github & Git for code version control
- How to deploy a website without using no-code tools like WIX, Squarespace, etc.
- Vibe code using an IDE (like VS code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc)

I use VS code + Roo code extension + Deepseek for small tasks and Gemini 2.5 for bigger ones.

bear in mind, you won't be able to build big complex SaaS with no dev background because you'll be limited to what the current LLMs can handle right, which is not much. You absolutely have to understand version control, because AI WILL fuck up your code, you gotta be able to rollback to previous working version, in case things break.

I started building small python scripts, and turned them into desktop apps. Python is a simple language that LLMs are very good with, and is super powerful, especially for automation.

In one month I built 2 apps for my personal use:
- A desktop bookmark manager app, that auto completes details like tags, description, screenshot, using a web crawler + headless browser + local (self hosted) LLM
- A dictation (speech to text) tool I now use almost everyday.

The AI I use for my daily questions is Perplexity Pro. Hope this can help.

@raviklaassens

2 days ago

Hi there! That's an exciting place to be. You could start with tools like Cursor or Trae, from there you could use models like Claude 3.7 which are super efficient at coding tasks.

I do recommend learning to code yourself as well tho, the AI can make a ton of mistakes. If you see AI as your 'intern' and yourself as the project manager, you'll be on a good track with 'vibe coding'.

I'm currently building webpifier.com using mostly Cursor and it's been quite helpful at most of the grunt work.

Best of luck with your product!