From Idea to App Store: What Nobody Tells You About No-Code

Here's what nobody tells you.

Building the App Is the Easy Part

This sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. Getting a functional app working — screens, navigation, data flowing, features responding — is genuinely achievable in days or weeks with modern no-code tools. That part of the promise is real.

What isn't talked about is everything that comes after. App Store Connect configuration. Provisioning profiles. Code signing certificates. RevenueCat setup for subscriptions. Matching product IDs between three different dashboards. Sandbox testing accounts. TestFlight distribution. Screenshot specifications. Privacy policy requirements. App review guidelines that change without warning.

None of this is building your product. All of it is required to ship it.

I spent more time configuring subscription products between App Store Connect and RevenueCat than I spent building the subscription screen itself. Not because it's intellectually hard — because it's a maze of dashboards, API keys, and settings that have to match perfectly across multiple platforms, and the documentation assumes you already know what you're doing.

The "Last 20%" Takes 80% of the Time

There's a well-known principle in software development: the first 90% of the project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time. With no-code, the ratio feels even more extreme.

Your prototype works beautifully on your device. Then you put it on TestFlight and discover the loading screen takes four seconds on older phones. The subscription flow that worked perfectly in development doesn't connect to RevenueCat in production. Tags that functioned fine with test data break with real input. The app icon that looked great in Figma gets rejected because it has a transparent background.

Each of these issues takes 20 minutes to an hour to fix. But there are dozens of them. They pile up into weeks of polish work that never shows up in the "I built an app in 48 hours" stories.

This isn't a reason not to build with no-code. It's a reason to budget realistically for the finish line.

Security Anxiety Is Real and Mostly Misplaced

This one caught me off guard. I'd built the app. It worked. Users could add their clients, log sessions, track revenue. And then I froze.

The thought was: "I'm storing people's personal information. Names, phone numbers, session notes. What if something goes wrong? What if there's a vulnerability I don't know about because I didn't write the code myself?"

That fear kept me from launching for longer than I'd like to admit. And when I finally worked through it, I realized two things.

First, the fear was rooted in not knowing what security my stack already provided — not in actual evidence of vulnerability. Supabase, which I use for the backend, provides row-level security, encrypted connections, and authentication out of the box. That's more security than the Google Sheets and notes apps my users are currently storing client data in.

Second, the information I'm storing — names, phone numbers, appointment notes — is standard CRM-level data. It's the same type of data that every salon booking app, every fitness platform, and every freelancer invoicing tool stores. I'm not handling credit cards, medical records, or social security numbers. The appropriate security bar is "responsible and professional," not "bank vault."

If you're building with no-code and feeling this anxiety, here's my advice: spend an afternoon actually verifying what your platform provides. You'll probably find that you're more protected than you think. And the risk of never launching is far greater than the risk of launching with standard, modern security practices.

Apple's Review Process Is Not What You Expect

If you're building for iOS, you need to understand something: Apple is the final gatekeeper, and their standards are specific.

You need a real company website. Not a landing page — a website that looks like a legitimate business operates behind this app. You need a privacy policy that specifically addresses your app's data collection. You need screenshots at exact pixel dimensions for every device size. You need your subscription products configured correctly with localized descriptions and review screenshots.

And you need patience. The review process can take days. Rejections are common, often for things that seem trivial. Each resubmission resets the clock.

None of this is documented in no-code tool tutorials. They teach you how to build the app. Getting it through Apple's door is a completely different skill set.

The Cost Question Nobody Answers Honestly

"What will it cost to run this?" is the question that haunts every solo no-code builder, and almost nobody gives you a straight answer.

Here's what I've learned: at small scale — say, under 500 users — your costs are minimal. Most backend services have generous free tiers. Your biggest expense is your Apple Developer account at $99 per year.

The costs that will surprise you aren't infrastructure. They're things like: a domain name for your company website. A business email address so you don't look amateur. A Cal.com or Calendly subscription for booking calls. Design tools for marketing assets. The small tools that surround your product add up faster than the product itself.

Plan for $50 to $150 per month in operational costs before you have a single paying user. It's not going to bankrupt you, but it's more than zero, and knowing that upfront prevents the anxiety of watching charges appear on tools you forgot you signed up for.

It's Still Worth It

I want to be clear: I'm not writing this to discourage anyone from building with no-code. I'm writing it because the overly optimistic narrative sets people up for frustration that could be avoided with better expectations.

No-code tools have genuinely democratized software development. I've built real, functional, deployable products without writing code from scratch. Products that solve actual problems for real people. That wasn't possible five years ago.

But "anyone can build an app" and "anyone can ship, market, and sustain a business around an app" are two very different statements. The building is the beginning, not the end.

If you go in knowing that the path from prototype to production is longer than the tutorials suggest, and you plan for the unglamorous work of configuration, compliance, polish, and operations — you'll be in a far better position than most.

Build the thing. Just know what you're signing up for.

At Novus Broker Technology, we build products with no-code tools and help others do the same. Reach out if you're stuck in the gap between prototype and production.