The Guide To No 

Code Marketplaces 
 

Everything you need to know about building, 

launching, and scaling an online marketplace 
using no code. 
 
JULY 2020   

CREATED BY 
Mike Williams​ (Yoroomie) 
 
A RESOURCE FOR EVERYTHING MARKETPLACES 
www.everythingmarketplaces.com 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Introduction & Background 
 
I’m Mike Williams or you might know me as Yoroomie. I’ve built and launched multiple 
marketplace startups, most notably (that’s relevant to this) I built and launched 
Studiotime (​www.studiotime.io​) in an evening using no code. ​I quickly took an idea to 
what’s now a highly profitable and largest online marketplace for music studios in the 
world (35+ countries) using no code, minimal time, & little to no resources.  
 
In addition to building, launching, and operating Studiotime using no & low code, I run 
Thinkbox (​www.thinkbox.io​), which is a marketplace focused studio that focuses on 
building marketplaces for others using no & low code. We’ve helped build, launch, and 
support 75+ marketplaces using no & low code that have generated millions in GMV 
annually.  
 
Since I first built Studiotime years ago, no code tools and platforms have matured and are 
now ideal to take most marketplace ideas to launch (and even revenue generating) by 
leveraging no code tools and platforms. I’ve put together this extensive guide to help 
others understand their specific marketplace needs, quickly identify the options for no 
code marketplace builds, understand the tools & platforms that are best-suited for their 
marketplace through, provide a basic framework, examples, and also brief interviews and 
insights from operators of successful no code marketplaces to accelerate the typical 
learning curve.  
 
If you’d like to access more marketplace resources you can join the marketplace founders 
group that I also started, Everything Marketplaces (​www.everythingmarketplaces.com​). 
By joining, you’ll have access to a more comprehensive version of this guide, tutorials, 
deals on some of these tools & platforms, and also help every step along the way from 
myself and other marketplace founders.  
 
Thanks for reading and be sure to let me know when you launch your own marketplace!  
 
-Mike 

1 
 

 
Contents 
 
1. Thinking through your marketplace idea as a business 
2. The basics of marketplace business models  
3. The main types of online marketplaces & typical functionality  
4. Why no code?  
5. The no code tools & platform options for building 
6. The considerations & decision making factors for building a marketplace using no 
code related to each option 
7. Operating no code marketplaces  
8. Overcoming potential no code limitations & customizing your marketplace-specific 
to it’s requirements & workflows 
9. No code marketplace founder insights 
10. Summary 
11. ​Resources 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 
 

 
Your Marketplace Idea  
 
When you initially come up with your marketplace idea (& before you start building), it is 
beneficial to thoroughly think through it and ask yourself a few key business questions: 
 
1. What problem are you solving?  
 
2. Who are you solving it for? 
  
3. What are your skills, resources, and timeline for building, launching, and running 
your online marketplace?  
 
4. How are you uniquely positioned to solve this yourself and through creating an 
online marketplace? 
 
5. As a marketplace, how are you going to add value to both supply and demand? 
With that answered, what is your desired relationship with each as a 
marketplace? ​(i.e: providing listings as a simple directory, connecting them with 
demand, owning the transaction and payment layer, etc)  
 
6. How are you going to monetize this?​ (i.e: listing fees, booking commission fees, etc) 
 
7. How are you going to differentiate as a marketplace and ensure there is no 
platform overlap with other marketplaces?  
 
 
 
 

3 
 

 
Marketplace Business Models  
 
Peer-To-Peer (P2P) Marketplaces  
Marketplaces that connect individual (consumer) supply and consumer demand directly 
to facilitate bookings, transactions, or other value exchange directly through their 
platform.  
 
Business-To-Consumer (B2C) Marketplaces  
Marketplaces that connect business to consumers directly through their platform to 
facilitate bookings, transactions, or other value exchange directly through their platform.   
 
Business-To-Business (B2B) Marketplaces  
Marketplaces that connect businesses to other businesses in order to facilitate bookings, 
transactions, or other value exchange directly through their platform.  
 
Managed Marketplaces  
Marketplaces that connect two parties through their platform for transactions, but have a 
more direct relationship with their suppliers and supply. In some instances they assume 
ownership of the supply side.  
 
*Note that managed marketplaces typically assume more liability and risk through inventory, 
holding costs, etc. Examples of this are both The RealReal and GOAT App with inventory.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4 
 

 
The Main Marketplace Types  
 
Spaces Marketplaces 
Marketplaces that connect physical spaces (supply) and demand in the form of rentals, 
bookings, or other use directly through their platform.  
 
Services Marketplaces 
Marketplaces that connect two sides for the exchange of online or offline services.   
 
Products or Goods Marketplaces 
Marketplaces that connect sellers for goods or products (as the supply-side) through their 
platform with demand in the form of rentals or sales.  
 
 
The following are common core marketplace functionality and features required for 
spaces marketplaces: 
 
1.  User accounts 
2.  User listing creation and managements 
3.  Basic availability and scheduling management 
4.  Location based search and listing discovery based on location  
5.  User to user messaging on platform 
6.  Booking request and transaction processes  
7.  Booking management 
8.  Booking reviews  
 
The following are common core marketplace functionality and features required for 
services (online or offline delivery) marketplaces: 
 
1.  User accounts 
2.  User listing creation and managements 

5 
 

3.  Basic availability and scheduling management 

4.  Location based search and listing discovery based on location  
5.  User to user messaging on platform 
6.  Booking request and transaction processes  
7.  Booking management 
8.  Booking reviews  
 
The following are common core marketplace functionality and features required for 
products & goods marketplaces (physical & digital) marketplaces: 
 
1.  User accounts 
2.  User listing creation and managements 
3.  Basic availability and scheduling management 
4.  Location based search and listing discovery based on location  
5.  User to user messaging on platform 
6.  Booking request and transaction processes  
7.  Booking management 
8.  Booking reviews  
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
   

6 
 

 
Why No Code?  
 
Marketplaces are generally speaking businesses that do not leverage proprietary 
technology or require new user experiences, functionality, or operational capabilities. 
Given that, marketplaces are uniquely positioned to leverage no code platforms that are 
specifically built to allow you to take your idea to a live marketplace using little to no code.  
 
 
The Main Benefits 
 
+ No code is much cheaper and faster than building your marketplace platform from 
scratch.  
+ Most marketplaces have the same basic functionality requirements, such as 
creating a listing, communication between users, and handling bookings and 
transactions.  
+ There are no code tools and platforms that have productized (and modularized) 
basic marketplace functionality. This allows you to leverage all of these basic 
mechanics, functionality, and features to build a marketplace and customize it for 
your specific use case.  
+ Using additional customizations, tools, and even integrations, can also create 
additional features on top of the existing feature sets of these no code marketplace 
platforms and provide for a more custom user experience for yours.  
+ No code tools and platforms also allow you to operate, iterate, and support your 
marketplace using minimal time and resources.  
+ Before no code, building and running an online marketplace was typically capital 
intensive, but has now been made possible in a more resourceful way with no code 
platforms.  
 
 
 

7 
 

The Drawbacks 
 
While no code is much cheaper and faster then building your marketplace platform from 
scratch, it does have some limitations.  
 
- There is still a learning curve to building your marketplace, launching it, getting 
users, traction, and supporting it within the constraints of a no code marketplace 
platform.  
- As with most platforms & tools, there are also some feature, functionality, and 
customization constraints that you might face once you get real users transacting 
through your marketplace.  
- If initial limitations are not an issue at the earliest stages of your marketplace, they 
might be more realized as your marketplace starts to gain more traction, your users 
require more advanced functionality, and your marketplace would be better with 
more custom marketplace workflows, along with a better user experience.  
- There are also costs to using no code platforms and tools that can scale in 
proportion to your marketplace business as it begins to scale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

8 
 

 
The Most Common No Code Marketplace 
Platforms 
 
Sharetribe 
Sharetribe​ is a marketplace specific platform that allows you to take your idea to a live 
marketplace without code. Sharetribe emphasizes that it is used by 1,000+ marketplaces 
that are live and is a solution that allows you to go from idea to scale using it’s Go and Flex 
offerings.  
 
Bubble 
Bubble​ is a code-free programming language that lets you build interactive, multi-user 
apps for desktop and mobile web browsers without engineers. It emphasizes total design 
freedom with a drag and drop editor, robust and scalable infrastructure for hosting, and 
collaboration as benefits on it’s website.  
 
Webflow 
Webflow​ provides you with the power to design, build, and launch responsive websites 
visually, while writing clean, semantic code for you. It emphasizes the ability to quickly 
build well-designed websites, launch, and scale as distinguishing features on it’s website.  
 
 
 
 
   

9 
 

 
The Considerations & Decision Making Factors 
For Building A No Code Marketplace 
 
The primary considerations with building a marketplace using no code are your skills, your 
resources available (developer for customizations if you’re not technical), your timeline, 
and budget. In addition to these are the business requirements to factor in when choosing 
the right platform that are shown below, such as marketplace business model, the 
marketplace type, required functionality, etc.  
 

  Sharetribe  Sharetribe  Bubble  Webflo

Go  Flex  w 

Basics         

Monthly pricing  Starts at  Starts at  Starts  Starts at 

$79  $299  at $29  $35 

Marketplace specific?  ✔  ✔     

Customizations with third-party    ✔  ✔  ✔ 

integrations possible? 

Marketplace Business Types         

Peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces  ✔  ✔     

Business-to-consumer (B2C)  ✔  ✔  ✔   
marketplaces 

Business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces      ✔  ✔ 

Managed marketplaces      ✔  ✔ 

Marketplace Types         

Spaces marketplaces (Airbnb, Hipcamp)  ✔  ✔  ✔   

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Services marketplaces (Fiverr, Upwork)  ✔  ✔     

Skills & labor marketplaces (Taskrabbit)  ✔    ✔   

Products & goods marketplaces (Grailed,  ✔  ✔     

Etsy) 

Marketplace Functionality          

User accounts & management  ✔  ✔  ✔*   

User listings & management  ✔  ✔  ✔*  ✔* 

Location & keyword search  ✔  ✔  ✔*  ✔* 

Bookings & transactions  ✔  ✔  ✔*   

Platform payments   ✔  ✔  ✔*   

PayPal integration for payments  ✔    ✔*   

Stripe integration for payments  ✔  ✔  ✔*   

Reviews  ✔  ✔  ✔*   

User accounts & management  ✔  ✔  ✔*  ✔* 

Booking Calendar  ✔  ✔  ✔*   

Multiple-languages  ✔  ✔  ✔*  ✔* 

Third-party integrations    ✔  ✔*  ✔* 

Customizable transaction process &    ✔  ✔*   

workflow 

Possible to build native app experience    ✔  ✔*   

Other Factors         

Platform & data migration possible?  ✔  ✔     

11 
 

Developer support?   ✔  ✔  ✔  ✔ 
 
✔*​ denotes possible with custom development and potentially requiring tool integration. Note 
that for Bubble, some of these are embedded within the Bubble platform ( i.e: user accounts & 
management, listings & management, location & keyword search, etc) and can be customized 
within Bubble through the data tabs, thus might not require external plugins or third-party tool 
integrations.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

12 
 

 
Sharetribe In More Detail 
 
 

 
 
 
What Is It Ideal For? 
Sharetribe​ is the ideal solution for building ​peer-to-peer marketplaces​ that c​ onnect supply 
and demand directly and facilitate the rental of spaces, booking services, or selling physical 
goods to other users directly​ through their platform.  
 
What Are The Options When Building With Sharetribe? 
Sharetribe has two products they offer for those looking to build and launch and online 
marketplace based on the required functionality and customization possibilities: 
 
Sharetribe Go 
Create a peer-to-peer marketplace like Airbnb, eBay, or Fiverr and make money while 
your users book spaces, services, or sell physical goods & products. Using ​Sharetribe Go​, 
you can build and launch your fully functional marketplace without any code. 
 

13 
 

Sharetribe Flex 
Take your peer-to-peer marketplace business to the next level (web &/or mobile) using 
Sharetribe’s Flex​ solution. Build a more custom user interface, features, and specific 
marketplace functionality on top of Sharetribe’s Flex API. Sharetribe Flex is a marketplace 
backend-as-a-service and requires using and customizing their front end web templates, 
which they refer to as Flex Templates for Web (FTW).  
 
The Sharetribe Go Or Sharetribe Flex Decision Matrix 
 

Basics  Sharetribe  Sharetribe 

Go  Flex 

Monthly price  Starting at  Staring at 

$79  $299 

Support & Updates Included  ✔   

Front-End Hosting Included  ✔   

Backend Hosting included  ✔  ✔ 

Custom Development/Skills Required?   No  ✔ 

API Integrations Possible?    ✔ 

Customer support   ✔  (backend 

only) 

Marketplace Types     

Selling physical products  ✔   

Offering & booking services  ✔  ✔ 

Selling tickets   ✔  ✔ 

Listing & offering free goods, products, services, etc.   ✔   

Marketplace Functionality      

User accounts & management  ✔  ✔ 

14 
 

User listings & management  ✔  ✔ 

Location & keyword search  ✔  ✔ 

Bookings & transactions  ✔  ✔ 

Platform payments   ✔  ✔ 

PayPal integration for payments  ✔   

Stripe integration for payments  ✔  ✔ 

Reviews  ✔  ✔ 

User accounts & management  ✔  ✔ 

Booking Calendar  ✔   

Multiple-languages  ✔   

Third-party integrations    ✔ 

Customizable transaction process & workflow    ✔ 

Possible to build native app experience    ✔ 

Included Saas Services     

Location search  ✔   

Email notifications  ✔   

Server, error, and status monitoring  ✔  (backend) 

 
 
 
Sharetribe Examples 
www.shopuni.io​ (Sharetribe Go) 
www.tribehire.io​ (Sharetribe Go + custom landing pages) 
www.studiotime.io​ (Sharetribe Flex extensively customized) (​Founder interview & 
insights​) 
15 
 

 
www.theshoot.io​ (Sharetribe Flex customized) (​Founder interview & insights​) 
 
See more examples ​here​.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

16 
 

 
Bubble In More Detail 
 

 
 
 
What Is It Ideal For? 
Bubble​ is an ideal platform for marketplaces that connect businesses to consumers (B2C) 
directly through their platform. It is not the best-suited option for peer-to-peer (P2P) 
marketplaces (where Sharetribe is ideal) or managed marketplaces that don’t require 
backend functionality (where Webflow is ideal).  
 
What Are The Options When Building With Bubble? 
When building with Bubble, you can utilize pre-existing templates to get started building 
from, or even jump into a blank project and build a fully-customized user experience and 
workflows. Bubble is a no code platform in itself, but specific marketplace functionality 
might require plugins (payments, reviews, etc) and most Bubble marketplaces also 
require extensive customization in order to achieve their specific marketplace 
functionality.  
 

17 
 

Bubble Marketplace Examples 

www.uneebo.com 
www.residentstreet.com 
www.yardguru.com.au/home 
 
See more examples ​here​.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

18 
 

 
Webflow In More Detail 
 

 
 
 
What Is It Ideal For?  
Webflow​ is ideal for marketplaces that connect businesses to other businesses (B2B) 
directly through their platform. Also, other marketplaces that benefit from a 
well-designed and custom user experience without complex backend functionality 
required.  
 
What Are The Options When Building With Webflow? 
Just like when building with Bubble, you can utilize pre-existing themes to get started 
building from, or even jump into a new project and build a fully-customized user 
experience and their CMS capabilities. Webflow is a no code platform in itself, it does 
typically require other no code tool & platform integrations in order to achieve 
marketplace functionality, which is most common with Airtable (user database & 
management), Jetboost (search), Zapier (integrations & notifications), and MemberStack 
(user accounts, subscription, etc).  
 

19 
 

 
 
Webflow Marketplace Examples 
www.dwellito.com​ (Webflow, Zapier, Parabola, Jetboost, Airtable) (​Founder interview & 
insights​) 
www.unicornfactory.nz​ (Webflow, Zapier, Parabola, Jetboost, Airtable) (​Founder 
interview & insights​) 
 
See more examples ​here​.  
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

20 
 

 
Operating No Code Marketplaces 
 
Operating a no code marketplace business has its own unique operational requirements 
as a business. Unlike a SaaS tool, a marketplace connects two parties for the exchange of 
value or services, so there is a virtual or in-person interaction that originates from your 
online marketplace. With that in mind, there are a few factors to consider and prioritize: 
 
● Operator functionality that’s required for your marketplace via an admin panel: 
○ User management  
○ Listing management  
○ Transaction management  
○ Payments management 
○ Review management 
● Understanding potential points of friction & high touch for custom support 
(pre-authorized bookings, payment, cancellations, etc) 
● If you’re non-technical, having a product and technical resource available to help 
you understand potential improvements, integrations, and customizations if your 
marketplace requires more customized functionality and workflows as it scales 
(common with Sharetribe Flex, Bubble, & custom Webflow marketplaces).  
● Understanding the potential increased costs for no code tools & platforms as your 
marketplace begins to scale.  
 
*Note that if you are bootstrapping and less than a year old as a business, most tools & 
platforms will offer some sort of bootstrap or early-stage startup discount.  
 

21 
 

 
Overcoming Potential No Code Limitations & 
Customizing Your Marketplace-Specific To It’s 
Requirements & Workflows  
 
As your marketplace begins to build liquidity and scale, it will most likely require more 
customized workflows & features. Given that your marketplace is built using no code, it 
might not initially be possible to customize and add these requirements using just an out 
of the box platform like Sharetribe Go, A Sharetribe Flex FTW, Bubble templates, or basic 
Webflow build. While most of the platforms covered in this guide allow for third-party 
integrations, there are also creative ways to “integrate” other tools or platforms to 
creatively build out additional functionality and a better user experience. 
 
An example of this is using a landing page builder, such as Instapage, Carrd, or even 
Webflow to build static pages and host landing pages (homepage, why page, etc) on a top 
level domain (i.e: ​www.studiotime.io​) and then having the core marketplace functionality 
(user accounts, listings, bookings payments, reviews, etc) on a subdomain such as 
app.studiotime.io. This is how we creatively build a better user experience, built 
subscription functionality, and were able to scale Studiotime from initial MVP to six-figure 
revenue without coding and able to operate the company with under $500/month in 
expenses.  
 
Using creative workarounds, integrations, and even low code customizations to these no 
code platforms is very common now and most (if not all) examples of live and successful 
marketplaces provided as examples above do this.  
 
The following are common Sharetribe Go & Flex integrations and customizations: 
● Instapage​, ​Carrd​, or ​Webflow​ for custom landing pages on top-level domain and 
core marketplace on subdomain and Sharetribe. 
● Chargebee​ and ​Stripe​ used for subscription functionality 
● Calendly​ used for calendar integrations on Sharetribe Go 

22 
 

The following are common Bubble customizations: 

● User accounts & management 
● User-to-user messaging with real-time notifications 
● Customized marketplace transactions processes & workflows 
● Stripe integrations for payment gateway 
● User reviews 
● Custom admin panels 
 
*A note on the above is that these customizations for Bubble might require significant 
customization and/or potentially require plugins. 
 
The are common Webflow customizations: 
● Airtable​ and ​Zapier​ for user, listings, and reviews database. Zapier automates 
populating via Webflow CMS. 
● Parabola​ to synch data between tools and platforms 
● Jetboost​ to filter and search data  
● Airtable, Zapier, and email system for automating sales,  
● Memberstack​ to monetize via paid memberships, subscriptions, hiding specific 
content or pages, etc. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

23 
 

 
Founder Insights From Those Running 
Successful No Code Marketplaces  
 
Studiotime  
www.studiotime.io 
No code marketplace stack: Sharetribe Flex, Twilio, Chargebee, Instapage, & Stripe  
 
Answering my own founder and operator questions as the founder of Studiotime 
(6/26/20) 
 
How did you specifically benefit from using no & low code to take your idea to live 
marketplace? 
“The original story of Studiotime is that I basically had the idea in an evening after seeing 
friends text each other asking about music studios and thinking that there was already an 
“Airbnb for music studios”. I did a quick search and to my surprise there wasn’t. With this 
in mind, I came across Sharetribe when it was in the early days and quickly learned how to 
use it to build the MVP, customize it, onboard initial supply (via Craiglist manual 
outreach), and launch on Product Hunt. The rest is sort of history as it quickly generated 
quite a bit of traction, I focused on building supply, and we had 1k+ music studios, 
generated six-figure revenue, and soon became the largest online marketplace for music 
studios in the world (now 35+ countries). Without finding Sharetribe and using other no 
code tools, I would not have been able to quickly build, launch, and test an idea without a 
substantial time and cost investment. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have even built 
and launched it.” 
 
What are your approximate monthly costs?  
“For the first few years Studiotime was built on Sharetribe Go, custom landing pages, and 
used a few no code tools for integration to help automate processes, workflows, and 
support. The total costs were under $500/month.  
 

24 
 

Since we migrated to a more customized marketplace that’s built using Sharetribe Flex, 
our costs have increased but remain relatively low at under $1k/month for all of our tools, 
services, and any minor development needs.” 
 
 
The Shoot  
www.theshoot.io 
No code marketplace stack: Sharetribe Flex, Stripe, Relevance, Twilio, Chargebee, & 
Unbounce 
 
Interview with Fiona, Co-founder (6/26/20) 
 
How did you specifically benefit from using no & low code to take your idea to live 
marketplace? 
“We were able to take our vision to launch in around 4 weeks, at a cost of around $4,500. 
To provide some context, I am a UX designer so I spent a few weeks before this, designing 
the wireframes and user journeys for the website. Neither me, nor my co-founder are 
technical so we employed developers in Vietnam to do the additional development work 
and build the marketplace-specific customizations for our Sharetribe marketplace. They 
were fantastic and completed the work within a month. We were also able to bootstrap 
our marketplace whilst remaining in full-time employment.” 
 
What are your approximate monthly costs?  
“Our monthly costs are roughly in the region of $1,350/month. This includes the cost of 
hosting, new marketplace-specific customizations & features (ongoing development), and 
all tool and platform subscriptions.”  
 
Are there any specific insights you’d like to share? 
“I think no and low code tools are fantastic for building out your MVP. They allow you to 
set up a marketplace very quickly, launch, and get initial validation of your business idea. I 
would also encourage people to use them if they want something which is not too far from 
the out of the box templates for their marketplace type. They can be restrictive in terms of 
what you can and can’t build with them, but you can customize them for your specific 
marketplace needs. If you are looking to make major customizations, I would recommend 

25 
 

costing them out and weighing up whether it’s better to invest in a fully custom build or 
ideally leverage no and low code tools and platforms.” 
 
 
Dwellito 
www.dwellito.com 
No code marketplace stack: Webflow, Parabola, Airtable, Zapier, Google Sheets 
 
Interview with Caleb Barclay, Founder (6/29/20) 
 
How did you specifically benefit from using no & low code to take your idea to live 
marketplace? 
“Like many other founders, the idea of my company Dwellito started from a personal 
journey towards finding a backyard guesthouse that I could use as a rental income. As I did 
my due diligence of all the top 10 companies that I was considering, I started to see the 
value in the list I had created. A close friend had built a robust CMS in Webflow and I 
wanted to learn Webflow, so this project was the guinea pig. Webflow’s CMS allowed me 
to spin up all the data that I had collected into a site, in a matter of hours. No joke, this is a 
significant competitive advantage of nocode: testing ideas in a fraction of the time. I 
wouldn’t have tried out this concept had it not been for Webflow’s CMS. The low cost of 
maintenance gives the platform another edge - not just the cost of Webflow but more so 
the ability to test multiple ideas around monetization, user experience, and site 
performance, on a weekly basis.” 
 
What are your approximate monthly costs?  
“The monthly breakdown for our costs are: 
● Zapier: $50/mo 
● Airtable: $20/mo 
● Parabola: $5/mo 
● Acuity: $15/mo 
● Webflow: $16/mo (CMS plan) 
 
This puts the monthly total to run Dwellito at about $106/month.” 
 

26 
 

Are there any specific insights you’d like to share? 

“I would encourage people that are looking to build the next bootstrap marketplace to 
first define what their marketplace needs are, then reference existing nocode 
marketplaces to find out how they were built. Webflow has limitations and there are 
probably over 15 different ways the site could have been built. It’s great to look into the 
constraints of the platform and ask yourself how do you want to manage customers, how 
do you want to manage payment, how do you want to automate, how do you process 
updates for the suppliers, and so on. With Dwellito, customers are looking to purchase a 
home online so there are fewer transactions, but larger purchases. The strategy is 100% 
around improving the customer experience on the site; fewer suppliers but better 
presented data.” 
 
 
Unicorn Factory  
www.unicornfactory.nz 
No code marketplace stack: Webflow, Parabola, Airtable, Zapier, Memberstack, Jetboost 
 
Interview with Connor Finlayson, Founder (6/28/20) 
 
How did you specifically benefit from using no & low code to take your idea to live 
marketplace? 
“I can't code, so being able to use No Code tools was really a game-changer that allowed 
me to spin up an online marketplace. When I started building Unicorn Factory, I just 
wanted to build a super simple directory without any automation or databases. Webflow 
allowed me to do just that. Beyond that, discovering other No Code tools and problems I 
had. For example, when I wanted to automate some of my workflows, I came across 
Zapier. When I needed to have a database to store all the information in one place, I 
discovered Airtable. When I wanted to monetize the platform I found and started using 
Memberstack. Now, we have such a huge range of No-Code tools that really solve a lot of 
use cases you will come across when building an online marketplace. The big 
breakthrough for me was learning how to build within the limitations of the tools and my 
skill set.” 
 

27 
 

What are your approximate monthly costs?  

“My monthly costs can be broken down as: 
● Webflow Hosting $25/month 
● Webflow Account $25/month 
● Zapier $89/month 
● Parabola $16/month 
● Integromat $9/month 
● Memberstack $25/month + Transaction Fee 
● Jetboost $9/month 
● Airtable $24/month 
● Convertkit $49/month 
 
That’s the tool stack and all costs to run Unicorn Factory.” 
 
Are there any specific insights you’d like to share? 
“I often get asked for templates for others to build a marketplace similar to Unicorn 
Factory. For anyone out there that’s thinking about starting their own marketplace, I 
would actually advise against using shortcuts when trying to figure out how to set up your 
own marketplace. The only reason I am as comfortable as I am with all of these tools is 
because I invested the time to thoroughly learn them all. Even though it might take it a bit 
longer to get your MVP up and running, taking this approach will pay huge dividends down 
the road. Now, I am a lot more comfortable with adding new features and fixing bugs 
myself. That is something you won't experience when you get someone to do a bulk of the 
work upfront for you.  
 
For me, No Code is not so much about the tools you use. For me, it's about being able to 
build online products independently. Unfortunately, there is no template or shortcut out 
there that will give you this independence. You just have to invest the time into learning it 
all.” 
 
 
 
 

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Summary 
 
Since marketplaces (generally speaking) share similar requirements that have been 
standardized, templatized, and productized, they are uniquely positioned to leverage no 
code. Most marketplace business ideas can be quickly built using Sharetribe, Bubble, or 
Webflow to have a live and functional user experience that allows you to quickly take 
your idea to market, generate some initial traction, and hopefully validate your 
marketplace business.  
 
In addition to this, you can think of no code as reducing the time, costs, and risks of 
pursuing your marketplace idea. You will be able to quickly get real market feedback, 
signalling, and know what the next steps are in scaling your marketplace.  
 
While there are some completely no code marketplaces that are generating six-figure 
revenue per year, most marketplaces that are built using no code tools and platforms that 
are at some sense of substantial revenue and true scale have been extensively customized 
(using custom development), integrations, and have more specific workflows. This isn’t to 
say they are not no code, but they are highly-customized no code marketplaces. By using 
and staying on no code tools and platforms, you can spend less time and resources on 
development and instead focus on every other aspect of building and running your 
marketplace business (like marketing, support, etc).  
 
This guide is meant to be a deep dive into no code marketplaces and provide options, a 
framework for fitting your idea into, and learning if you can leverage a no code tool or 
platform to quickly take your idea to market. It is not prescriptive advice, but hopefully 
serves as a resource that can save you lots of research, time, and money when looking into 
using no code for your marketplace.  
 

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Resources 
 
Everything Marketplaces no code marketplace resources: 
● The no code marketplace toolkit & deals​ (30% off Bubble and other no code tools is 
available for all Everything Marketplaces members) 
● No code marketplace examples directory 
● The ultimate Sharetribe doc with step-by-step tutorials, demos, examples, 
resources, & common customization scripts  
● + More on your members resources section 
 
Other recommended marketplace resources: 
● Lenny’s Newsletter  
● Version One Ventures “The Guide To Marketplaces”​ (what inspired this no code 
version) 
  
 
Note that I did include affiliate links in this guide. Since I’ve spent a considerable amount 
of time creating this guide and am making it accessible to everyone for free, I would 
appreciate anyone that wants to use any of these tools or platforms to use the affiliate 
links for Sharetribe, Bubble, or Webflow. This helps me continue to create valuable 
content that I offer for free and make available to everyone.  
 
These links once again are (hyperlinked) ​Sharetribe​, ​Bubble​, and ​Webflow​.  
 
 
 
 
 

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