Noya and the Golden Age of Software Tools

Table of Contents

• Background
• The Problem
• The Solution
• Benefits
  • For Creative Teams
  • For Tool Creators
• Monetization
• Conclusion
• P.S. We're Hiring

Background

We’re entering a golden age of software tools. Historically, software tools — such as those for designing user interfaces, editing videos, or creating 3D models — have been created by teams of programmers. But now, with the help of AI models that can generate code, anybody can create their own tools with minimal coding experience themselves. More advanced tools still require coding knowledge, but even then, the barrier to entry is lowering every day.

Why is this exciting? Because the best tools are often created by the people who understand the problem the best, not the people who are the best programmers. AI-assisted programming makes it possible for domain experts to create the perfect tools to solve their own problems, e.g. an expert video editor doesn't need to be a professional software engineer to create their dream video editing tool. This effectively shortcuts the entire software development process, allowing individuals to accomplish in days what would have taken large teams months to do before.

The Problem

Tool creators are typically frontend/user-experience focused, as these are the areas that really define the tool from the end user's perspective. Even as the barrier to entry lowers, this is likely to remain true. However, modern tools (think Figma, Linear, Notion) require a complex tech stack that's time-consuming to set up and frequently outside the domain of an individual tool creator's expertise. Modern tools typically need backend/server-side features such as:

• Real-time multiplayer collaboration
• User, team, and org management
• Sharing and permissions
• Commenting
• Notifications
• File and asset management
• Version control
• Billing and subscriptions
• Plugins and automation

As tooling has evolved, users have come to expect more from their tools, and the list of table-stakes features continues to grow. Even if AI models could generate these things, it's a lot of infrastructure to manage and pay for, and not something most tool creators should be spending their time on. This will only become more true as the barrier to entry lowers, and tool creators have less software engineering experience.

The Solution

What if we could let tool creators focus on the problem they're uniquely suited to solve, and not the technical infrastructure? What if we could create a platform that takes care of these features that are essential but orthogonal to the core problem? What if we could enable even non-engineers to take their tools to production?

Many of the features described above are hard to solve in general, but have an established UX and technical solution for creative tools specifically. For instance, real-time multiplayer collaboration is hard to solve in a way that works for every possible kind of app, but the same solution can be used to build a Figma, Miro, or Canva.

This is Noya.

Noya is a platform for building creative tools. Noya provides a familiar end-user-facing SaaS platform and a collection of APIs that enable individuals and teams to build their own tools. Noya wraps these up into a seamless, easy-to-use developer experience, enabling frontend-focused creators — and maybe even non-developers — to take their tools to production.

Benefits

For Creative Teams

Noya provides a single account and subscription for all your creative needs. Imagine an Adobe Creative Cloud that's open, extensible, and built for the modern web. With Noya, you can:

• Leverage a suite of modern collaboration tools for many different kinds of creative work
• Mix and match tools from different creators, composing them as needed to best fit your team's working style
• Create your own custom tools to solve any gaps in your workflow
• Freely import and export your data thanks to Noya's open file formats and adherence to standards

For Tool Creators

Noya tips the scales of the build vs. buy decision in favor of building.

Historically, creating a successful/enduring tool has been effectively a full-time job. Hacking together a prototype is manageable, but polishing it, shipping it, and maintaining it requires a long-term time commitment.

If it's an indie tool, the initial revenue is typically too low to support the creator. If it's an internal tool, it's hard to justify that the time isn't better spent elsewhere.

Many creators opt to open-source their tool. This can work well, if the creator has the time and resources to maintain it and grow a community around it. But then the odds of earning meaningful revenue are even lower.

Noya lowers the level of effort required to create a production-quality tool to the point where an indie creator or internal team can justify the time commitment. Additionally, for open-source tools, Noya provides a simple way to monetize by hosting a multiplayer version of the tool and paying royalties to the tool creator.

Monetization

Noya makes money in two ways:

1. Subscription Revenue: Noya hosts a suite of tools that are available to the public. Noya offers a free tier with a limited number of files, but requires a paid Pro subscription to unlock unlimited files. The Noya tool suite is open: anybody can add a tool to the Noya platform. Royalties are paid out to tool creators based on the actual usage of their tools.

2. Internal Tooling: Private tools are available with a Noya Enterprise subscription. This enables creating tools that are just available to your team or organization.

Conclusion

The golden age of software tools is here. As AI models continue to improve, more people will be able to create tools, using only a fraction of the time and resources previously required.

By leveraging Noya:

• Creative teams can customize their toolsets to perfectly fit their workflows, mixing and matching existing tools with bespoke solutions.
• Indie/open-source tool creators have a straightforward path to monetization through Noya's hosting and royalty system.
• Internal teams can create production-quality tools, designed for their specific workflows, that were previously too time-consuming and expensive to justify.

P.S. We're Hiring

If you're passionate about tools, get in touch at joinus [at] noyasoftware.com or reach out on Twitter/X.