No Coding Necessary: Creating a Website for the Price of Coffee with 'No-Code'
A humanities major has created a current affairs news site for the price of ten cups of coffee. This was made possible by utilizing 'No-code' technology, which allows users to build a website simply by clicking a mouse without complex programming. A university student with no basics in web programming built the current affairs news site 'Mango News' without coding, with the total cost coming to just 47,850 won, combining the domain purchase, hosting fees, and initial installation costs.
Encountering false information on social media is not difficult. According to the Korea Press Foundation, as of 2021, 77.2% of people who use social media for current affairs information reported experiencing misinformation, and 58.4% identified YouTube as a channel for its spread. Against this backdrop, the student decided to directly publish content on the web that organizes and delivers current issues accurately.
The only preparation material was a single introductory book. Opening 'Learn WordPress While Creating' by author Park Hyun-woo (Hanbit Media), the student learned concepts of domains and hosting one by one. The student purchased the domain 'mangonews.kr' from Cafe24 for two years at 37,400 won and selected 'New Autobahn Economy Type,' the most affordable shared web hosting option, at 450 won per month. An initial installation fee of 10,000 won was added to this.
The site's backbone was handled by the content management system (CMS) WordPress. On the Cafe24 management screen, clicking the automatic installation menu completed the basic setup, and plugins like 'Akismet' for spam blocking and 'Yoast SEO' for search engine optimization were added just like installing apps. Upon applying the 'MoreNews Pro' theme by foreign developer AF themes, the news site format, complete with top stories and categorized lists, was instantly shaped.
However, coding has not completely disappeared. Detailed modifications, such as removing view counts, eventually required coding knowledge. No-code is closer to 'near-zero' than 'zero coding.'
AI is even replacing coding. Recently, 'Vibe Coding' has emerged, further lowering the barrier to entry. This method involves describing the desired form and function in words, after which generative AI writes the code, and some services even support deployment. Shin Tae-soon, an author on startups and marketing, also used the AI web builder 'Lovable' to create a site with AdSense ads in just a day, leaving a post on Brunch asking, "Is this really possible without a developer?" However, without a proper understanding of the code structure, it is difficult to fix errors or maintain the site when issues arise.
The difficulty came after creation. Consistently uploading accurate and interesting content still required time and effort, and the tasks of regularly updating the WordPress core, themes, and plugins, as well as backing up data, continued. For sites handling member and payment information, management tasks such as applying security certificates (SSL) also followed.
Reflecting on the original reason for building the site, the student emphasized that in an era where anyone can create a website, what information is included and how it is verified becomes even more important.
