Would you pay for a visual editor with code capability?
Hey everyone, Before I start, I don't want to advertise anything. Just asking for feedback and see if people like my idea. I'm working on a visual web automation tool focused on web scraping and web automation, and I wanted to get some honest feedback on the…
Hey everyone, Before I start, I don't want to advertise anything. Just asking for feedback and see if people like my idea. I'm working on a visual web automation tool focused on web scraping and web automation, and I wanted to get some honest feedback on the idea and the pricing. The basic premise is a local desktop app where you can build robust scrapers visually instead of coding everything from scratch. It has a script recorder similar to Playwright's codegen, and another tool that handles things like asynchronous banners, random pop-ups, and shifting page layouts. You aren't restricted to just the UI, either. There's a full text editor built in if you need to write custom logic. The app just compiles all your visual instructions directly into standard Playwright code, for you to use it anywhere, not only inside the platform. It also handles the standard CSV imports and exports for your data. My main question is: does this solve a big enough headache in your workflow that you'd actually pay for it? If so, would you consider $149 a fair price for an unlimited, lifetime license?
Collected discussion
Well, I think it depends... I worked for company that had its own low-code platform. It has a visual editor for BPMN diagrams for logic and visual editor for form designing (bootstrap grid). It worked pretty good for newbies in company' but more experienced people tended to use code wherever it was possible rather than GUIs. I like your idea about possibility of both. 149$ seems ok (for USA standards?). What about subscriptions for limited time usage?
I did not think about subscriptions. I thought they are predatory for a local app that doesn't have almost no monthly costs, but I can see that in some markets it could be more accessible to pay a small monthly fee.
Yes, but all these tools do something else. They build the tools, which is somehow different than the tool I want to sell.
Well you can find out either by finding a competitor that does get paid or presenting someone your landing page with your idea and see if they sign up for waiting list and wanna pay for early access Hypotheticals won't get you there. If you ask your mom if they would pay for it she would say yes, if you show her the payment screen she probably would give you a different answer.
I mean just look at existing alternatives there are thousands of paying customers for bubble, retool, softr, airtable etc
Yes, people would pay if this specific feature will save them time. In our low-code software PHPRunner we have both visual editor and code but they compliment each other so there is no need to choose between the two. Visual Editor is for UI and code is for functionality.