Updated Jan 25, 2026

Hidden Costs of No-Code Platforms

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No-code platforms promise quick, affordable app development, but the real costs often go beyond initial expectations. While they allow businesses to build apps without coding skills, hidden fees tied to scaling, premium features, and platform limitations can significantly increase expenses over time. Here's what you need to know:

Platforms like Adalo (a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play) are working to address these transparency challenges in the no-code space. Understanding where hidden costs typically emerge can help businesses make more informed decisions when choosing a platform.

Initial Costs vs. Scaling Costs: Entry-level plans start at $30–$50/month but can rise to $3,000–$8,000/year as your app grows.
Limits and Upgrades: Restrictions on users, storage, and app actions often force unexpected plan upgrades.
Add-Ons: Features like custom domains, API access, and third-party integrations can add hundreds or thousands to your budget.
Vendor Lock-In: Migrating away from a no-code platform can cost 2–4 times the original app development cost.
Long-Term Costs: Over five years, total costs can increase by 30–50% due to maintenance, upgrades, and scaling.

Platforms like Adalo aim to address these issues with transparent pricing models, including all essential features in their plans. For example, a mid-scale app requiring 5 published apps and 100,000 monthly actions costs around $200/month with Adalo, compared to $400–$1,000/month on other platforms. Understanding these hidden costs upfront can help you budget effectively and avoid surprises.

User and App Limits: Forced Upgrades

How User and App Limits Work

No-code platforms often impose restrictions on the number of published apps and team collaboration capabilities. A "Published App" refers to an app that's live on a custom domain or available in an app store. For entry-level plans, you're usually allowed just one published app, while free tiers typically cap database records at 200 entries - a limit you can hit quickly, even with basic app functionality.

On basic paid plans, editing access is often limited to a single user. To involve additional team members, like designers or developers, you'll need to upgrade. Some platforms also introduce "App Actions" as a metric for scaling. These are user-triggered events - like creating records or navigating screens - and come with monthly quotas. Exceeding those quotas usually means upgrading to a higher tier. These restrictions can lead to unexpected costs as your app's usage grows.

Unplanned Upgrade Costs

These limitations can create a scenario where businesses are forced into unexpected upgrades. For instance, if you need a third published app but your plan caps you at two, you'll face an additional $25 per month or have to move to a higher tier. Similarly, adding team members can quickly increase costs - each additional editor might cost $15 per month, which can add up faster than simply upgrading your tier.

The situation can escalate further if a sudden spike in users or data forces an immediate upgrade. For example, maintaining your app's functionality could push your costs from $45 per month to $200 per month or more. David Adkin, Co-Founder of Adalo, explains:

"App Actions are the amount of actions that are getting run throughout your app by all of your end users... we thought it made the most sense to align our success with your success".

It's also crucial to check if key features - like geolocation, custom integrations, or design version history - are locked behind higher-tier plans. This kind of feature gating can lead to additional, often unexpected, expenses. Up next, we'll dive into scaling costs related to storage, bandwidth, and performance upgrades.

Scaling Costs for Storage, Bandwidth, and Performance

Storage and Bandwidth Fees

As your app grows, expenses often go beyond the basic fees you initially budgeted for. Storage costs, for instance, typically break into two categories: structured data stored in databases and file storage for media like images, documents, and videos. These are usually billed separately.

Take Microsoft Power Apps as an example. While the platform offers a modest 250 MB of database storage as part of its base plan, any additional storage comes with a price tag - $40 per month for each extra gigabyte. File storage is slightly more affordable at $2 per month per gigabyte. If you're dealing with 50–100 GB of media, you're looking at an extra $100–$200 per month just for storage.

Then there’s bandwidth. With usage-based billing, a sudden spike in traffic can send your costs soaring overnight. And it doesn’t stop there - higher processing demands as more users access your app will also add to the bill.

Performance Upgrade Costs

Scaling an app often means upgrading its performance capabilities, which comes with its own set of expenses. Platforms use different metrics to measure and charge for processing power: some track "Workflow Units", others count "App Actions" or apply "Execution Charges." Regardless of the terminology, the result is the same - higher usage equals higher costs. For example, running one million executions can cost anywhere between $10,000 and $100,000 per month, depending on the platform.

Mark, a Digital Transformation Leader at a financial services company, shared his experience:

"Our no-code platform was perfect for our pilot team of 15 users. But when we rolled it out company-wide, we discovered we needed the enterprise plan with advanced security features - tripling our expected cost".

This kind of "tier shock" often happens when scaling from a small pilot to a larger deployment. Over five years, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) can increase by 30–50% due to scaling needs, price hikes, and performance upgrades. To avoid unexpected expenses, it’s smart to keep a close eye on usage metrics during the MVP phase and plan for costs at 10× or even 100× your current scale before committing to a platform.

Add-Ons and Premium Features: Paying for Basics

API Access and Integration Fees

While base plans may seem budget-friendly, they often come with hidden costs. For instance, connecting to third-party tools or custom APIs usually requires upgrading to more expensive mid- or high-tier plans. These entry-level plans are often designed for testing or small-scale use, not full-scale operations. If you need to sync with external data sources like Airtable or a CRM, you might quickly find yourself needing an upgrade. Custom API development alone can range from $500 to $5,000 per integration, making it a significant expense.

If the platform doesn’t support direct integration, you might need middleware tools like Zapier or Make to bridge the gap. Depending on your workflow volume, these services can cost anywhere from $20 to $750 per month. And that’s just the start - additional enterprise-level features can further inflate your costs.

Enterprise Features and Their Costs

Features like single sign-on (SSO), role-based access control (RBAC), audit logs, and compliance reporting are often locked behind higher-tier plans. These enterprise-grade security options can easily triple your monthly expenses. The financial impact becomes even more pronounced during a company-wide rollout. A solution that worked for a small pilot project may require advanced security and management tools when scaled to hundreds of users.

Before committing to any platform, take the time to thoroughly evaluate your integration needs. Factor in all potential costs, including per-user fees and third-party API charges. These enterprise-level features can significantly stretch your budget if not accounted for upfront.

Vendor Lock-In and Long-Term Maintenance Costs

The Vendor Lock-In Problem

Vendor lock-in ties your business to a platform's proprietary data formats and custom workflows, making it incredibly costly and complex to switch to another service. Your app's data, integrations, user permissions, and business logic become so intertwined with the platform's architecture that moving elsewhere feels almost impossible. There’s no simple export-import solution to transfer your app seamlessly.

Take this real-world example: In 2026, a startup founder created a local services marketplace using a no-code platform for just $4,500. But when the app began to scale and hit the platform’s limits, migrating to custom code took three months and cost $20,000 - more than three times the original budget. Why? Because every single component had to be rebuilt from scratch.

"Vendor lock-in occurs when a business becomes dependent on a single vendor's technology, making it difficult or costly to switch to an alternative." - Superblocks Team

Maintenance and Rebuild Costs

Switching platforms isn’t just a one-time headache - it comes with long-term financial consequences. Typically, migrating to a new platform costs 2 to 4 times more than building the initial MVP. Rebuilding workflows, integrations, and custom features drives the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) up by 30–50% over five years.

The problem doesn’t stop there. As businesses try to work around platform limitations with quick fixes, maintenance becomes a growing burden. These "band-aid" solutions not only add complexity but also inflate costs. Many platforms reach their performance limits at around 500 to 1,000 active users. At that point, businesses are often forced into an unplanned - and expensive - transition to custom development.

These hidden costs emphasize the importance of pricing transparency, something platforms like Adalo aim to provide.

Transparent Pricing and Predictable Scaling with Adalo

Adalo

How Adalo Eliminates Hidden Costs

Adalo takes the guesswork out of app-building expenses with its straightforward, tier-based pricing. Unlike platforms that tack on extra fees for essentials like hosting, databases, SSL certificates, or API access, Adalo includes all of these in every paid plan. For as little as $45/month with the Starter plan, you get everything needed to build, launch, and scale your app - no surprise charges for basic infrastructure or maintenance.

Adalo's pricing is built around five key elements: the number of apps, storage space, monthly App Actions, available features, and collaborators. Each tier spells out exactly what you're paying for. For instance, the Professional plan at $65/month includes 2 published apps, support for 5 editors, 25GB of storage, and API access - all without hidden fees. Need more? Additional published apps are $25/month, and extra editors are $15/month.

Adalo also simplifies publishing with its single-build, multi-platform approach. One app build can be deployed across web, iOS, and Android, saving time and effort.

Adalo's Included Features and Growth Model

Adalo goes beyond pricing transparency by packing its plans with essential features. The platform handles over 20 million daily data requests with 99% uptime, ensuring reliability - all included in your subscription. Paid plans come equipped with hosted databases, real-time data syncing, push notifications, user authentication, and automatic SSL certificates. Starting with the Professional plan, you can also connect to external databases like Airtable, Google Sheets, MS SQL Server, and PostgreSQL at no extra charge.

Adalo’s growth model is designed for predictability. Start with the Free plan, which supports unlimited test apps (up to 200 records each), then move to the Starter plan for production needs. From there, you can scale through the Professional, Team, and Business tiers, each with defined limits on apps, editors, storage, and actions. Even if your app exceeds its App Action limits, Adalo ensures it keeps running while notifying you about additional purchase options, so there’s no interruption in service. Plus, opting for annual billing can save you around 20%, with most professional apps costing between $1,500 and $2,500 per year - a fraction of what traditional development typically costs.

Comparison: Hidden Costs vs. Adalo's Pricing

No-Code Platform Hidden Costs vs Adalo Transparent Pricing Comparison

Cost Comparison Table

When exploring app-building platforms, it's easy to get caught off guard by hidden fees. Many platforms advertise low entry prices but tack on extra charges for features like API access, native publishing, or scaling beyond limited user counts. Adalo, on the other hand, stands out with its straightforward, all-inclusive pricing structure.

Take a mid-scale app as an example - one requiring 5 published apps, 100,000 monthly actions, and 10 editors. On many platforms, this setup could cost anywhere from $400 to $1,000 per month. With Adalo, the same configuration fits comfortably within the Team plan at $200 per month, with minor add-ons bringing the total to around $300 per month.

Feature/Cost Category	Typical Hidden Costs (Other Platforms)	Adalo's Transparent Pricing
User Limits	$50–$529/month in usage-based fees	No per-user fees; pricing is based on app actions and storage, not the number of end users
Published Apps	Extra apps often require enterprise upgrades	Team plan includes 5 published apps; Business plan supports up to 10 published apps
Storage & Bandwidth	Charges for database records, file storage, or bandwidth overages	Generous allocations included in each plan, with no surprise fees for storage or bandwidth
API Access & Integrations	$20–$750/month for third-party tools like Zapier; custom API builds can cost $500–$5,000	Native integrations (Zapier, Stripe, Airtable, PostgreSQL) included in Professional plans and higher
Native Mobile Publishing	$500–$5,000 for third-party wrappers or custom builds	Included in all paid plans starting at $45/month
Enterprise Features (SSO, RBAC)	Often require custom enterprise contracts costing $500+ per month	Included in the Business plan ($250/month); advanced features available via Adalo Blue
Scaling & Performance	Usage-based fees (e.g., $129–$529/month for capacity units)	Predictable action-based tiers; affordable add-ons ($5–$20 per block) for exceeding limits
Collaboration	$8–$50 per additional editor seat, adding up as teams grow	Extra editor seats available at $15/month each

Unlike platforms where hidden fees can inflate costs by 30–50% over time, Adalo's pricing ensures you know exactly what you're paying for. Whether you're launching your first MVP or scaling to thousands of users, Adalo keeps your costs predictable. You won't face surprise charges for hosting, updates, or app store distribution, making it easier to budget as your app grows.

Conclusion: Choose Transparent Pricing with Adalo

Hidden fees can wreak havoc on your budget, especially when they stem from user limits, scaling costs, or extra charges for features like API access and native publishing. Some platforms tack on these additional costs, inflating your overall expenses by as much as 30–50% over time. This creates what’s often called a "success penalty", where growing your user base becomes more of a financial burden than a win.

That’s why having a clear, all-inclusive pricing model is so important. Adalo takes the guesswork out of budgeting with flat-rate pricing that covers everything you need to launch and grow your app. Features like native iOS and Android publishing, database management, hosting, SSL certificates, and cross-platform updates are all included in plans starting at $45 per month. You won’t face extra charges for exceeding action limits or database rows, ensuring your app runs smoothly without unexpected interruptions.

When compared to custom app development - which can cost $40,000 to $150,000 upfront, plus $1,000 to $10,000 monthly for maintenance - Adalo’s pricing keeps costs predictable. While some platforms may lure you in with low initial fees, hidden charges can quickly eat away at any savings. With Adalo, a mid-scale app featuring 5 published apps and 100,000 monthly actions costs around $200 per month, offering a straightforward, transparent pricing structure designed to grow with your success.

"Adalo has helped me to speed up this project at such a low cost that it's crazy. I am able to fulfill my dreams in half the time & that is the largest cost-benefit." - Alexandrina Mabonga, Maker of Sunscreen

Transparent pricing isn’t just about saving money - it’s about creating a foundation for sustainable growth. Adalo’s clear, upfront pricing means you can budget with confidence, scale without fear of surprise fees, and focus your energy on building exceptional apps instead of worrying about complex billing statements.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Can I easily predict and manage my no-code app development costs?	Yes, with Adalo's No Code App Builder, you can easily predict and manage your costs with transparent, tier-based pricing that includes all essential features like hosting, databases, SSL certificates, and API access in every paid plan. Unlike platforms that charge hidden fees for scaling or basic infrastructure, Adalo's straightforward pricing lets you budget with confidence from day one.
Why choose Adalo over other App Builder solutions?	Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms. AI-assisted building and streamlined publishing enable launch to the Apple App Store and Google Play in days rather than months. This app store publishing capability is crucial because getting your app into users' hands through the App Store and Google Play is often the hardest part of launching a new app or business—it's the key to marketing and distribution success.
What hidden costs should I watch out for with no-code platforms?	Common hidden costs include user and storage limits that force unexpected plan upgrades, premium features like API access and custom domains locked behind higher tiers, and integration fees for third-party tools. Over five years, these costs can increase your total expenses by 30-50%, so it's essential to evaluate all potential charges before committing to a platform.
What is vendor lock-in and how does it affect my app development costs?	Vendor lock-in occurs when your app's data, integrations, and business logic become so intertwined with a platform's proprietary architecture that switching becomes extremely difficult and costly. Migrating to a new platform typically costs 2-4 times more than the original app development, as every component often needs to be rebuilt from scratch.
How does Adalo handle scaling as my app grows?	Adalo uses predictable action-based pricing tiers rather than usage-based fees that can spike unexpectedly. If your app exceeds its App Action limits, Adalo ensures it keeps running while notifying you about affordable add-on options ($5-$20 per block), so there's no service interruption or surprise charges as your user base expands.
What features are included in Adalo's paid plans?	All Adalo paid plans include native iOS and Android publishing, hosted databases with real-time data syncing, push notifications, user authentication, automatic SSL certificates, and hosting—starting at just $45/month. Professional plans and higher also include native integrations with tools like Zapier, Stripe, Airtable, and PostgreSQL at no extra charge.