I’ve been going back and forth on this for weeks and I genuinely can’t decide.
I’m building an AI SaaS by myself. Long term I want it to have AI customer support, WhatsApp, voice, CRM, image/video generation, custom AI workflows, and eventually my own language model.
The thing I’m stuck on isn’t the product, it’s how to build it.
One option is using something like Hercules. It gets me moving much faster and I don’t have to spend months building the boring stuff first. The downside is I’m worried I’ll eventually hit platform limitations.
The other option is just going all in with VS Code. Use AI coding assistants, build everything myself, and have complete flexibility from day one.
The problem is I’m not a developer. I don’t mind learning, but when I look at React, Next.js, databases, Docker, deployment, APIs, authentication… it feels like there’s an endless list before I even get to building the product.
At the same time, AI coding tools are getting really good, so I’m wondering if I’m overestimating how much I actually need to know.
For people who’ve already built and scaled a SaaS:
If you were starting today, would you still go straight to code?
Did anyone here start with a builder and regret it later?
Or did learning to code end up being one of the best decisions you made?
I’m not trying to start another “no-code vs code” debate. I’m just hoping to hear from people who’ve actually been in this situation because I keep changing my mind every few days.