The Guide to Low-Code Development

The adoption of the low-code concept has been increasing in the past few years. This isn’t a surprise because this new switch has brought many benefits—low-code/no-code platforms could potentially cut development time by 90%.

The rising adoption of low-code also means that the low-code market is growing. In fact, the global market for low-code/no-code development platforms is estimated to generate $187 billion in sales by 2030. By 2024, it will account for almost 65%of all application development activity.

So, why is this concept becoming so popular? To help you understand better, let’s start by explaining it.

What is low-code?

Low-code allows you to create apps, websites, or SaaS products with minimal coding, significantly reducing development time. The term was coined by Forrester in 2014, while in 2017, Forbes described the concept as “disruptive.”

Low-code apps are usually built with the help of drag-and-drop tools, allowing you always to be aware of the visual aspect of your app. These third-party tools have become popular among both professional and non-professional developers. The increasing popularity is due to their ability to fulfill development demands, automate many processes, and reduce time-to-market.

For example, Schneider Electric released 60 applications in 20 months, most of them being developed in about ten weeks. Moreover, Ricoh used a low-code platform as a replacement for its legacy systems, which resulted in a 253% ROI and a 7-month payback.

Businesses have expanded their use of low-code apps in order to develop applications faster, gain a competitive advantage, and continue the process of implementing digital technology to improve their overall company success.

What are the benefits of low-code?

There are many benefits that low-code platforms bring to companies. Here are some of them:

An excellent visual overview

It takes less time to design applications using visual approaches than developing apps using code. Low-code platforms are mostly visually-oriented, offering built-in modules to display elements so that anybody can understand the visual aspect of the app.

Ready-to-use components

Low-code platforms provide ready-to-use components, removing the requirement to create app core parts from the ground up. These modules feature fundamental operations most apps need to have and can be utilized to construct different solutions more rapidly. Some low-code systems, for example, offer CRM or sales process management modules which makes development work much more accessible.

Simple and easy-to-use interfaces

Thanks to the drag-and-drop functionalities of low-code platforms, anyone can adapt to them quickly. Many problems that come up during a classic development process are eliminated, making this one of the most important benefits of the low-code concept.

Better scalability

Low-code enables you to create a wide range of solutions, from process automation applications to simple websites, all without imposing excessive spendings. You can also provide continual improvements to your users without disrupting your entire system. The end result is a scalable, maintainable system built on cloud-native architecture.

What are some use cases of low-code?

Here are the most common ways businesses use the low-code concept today:

Customer-facing apps

Customer-facing apps are among the most common examples of apps built with low code. Many companies struggle with customer-facing interfaces as their development could take up a lot of time and resources. Moreover, meeting a separate business’s unique needs is very challenging.

Low-code addresses these issues by allowing developers to cooperate and produce customer-facing apps in a period much shorter than what traditional development takes. Furthermore, businesses may create the interface once and utilize it for a variety of applications and devices.

In this area, popular tools include WordPress and Squarespace. To use numerous functions and complex styles, users must be familiar with markup languages (HTML and CSS).

Content management systems, landing page builders, chatbots, basically everything with which a user may plausibly engage during a digital experience are among these solutions.

Internal company apps

A low-code app can handle HR tasks, automation, and business information processing. Data control across services could be a great use case for a low-code integration platform with the necessary tools. When a fresh lead comes via an advertising campaign or a signup, replacing manual data input becomes very significant for scalability purposes. If you have an integrated app, a new user registration can trigger this process automatically.

Customer service systems

One of the sectors where low-code is increasingly being utilized to drive success is customer service. Users are used to chatbots providing customer support, and you can set them up quickly with a low-code/no-code platform. They are frequently favored over other communication methods such as email or telephone because they provide a quicker response.

Businesses can create a comprehensive customer support system with various features using technologies like Zendesk and HubSpot without writing a single line of code.

DevOps

DevOps processes became much smoother with the rise of low-code. Instead of using code and command-line interfaces, developers can organize, monitor, and deploy builds with just a few clicks.

This can lead to more automated processes and reduced development time, allowing development teams to monitor their instances through a visual interface. Jenkins, CircleCI, and JFrog are some of the most popular DevOps automation tools.

Wrapping up

Low-code apps are on the rise. We expect to see them a lot more in the following few years. However, this doesn’t mean that developers are going away. Developing an app will just become more accessible to businesses that want to reduce the time-to-market of certain apps.

Low-code platforms eliminate the underlying gap between what the company requires and the created software. Yet, just like any other technology, businesses must utilize it wisely to get the best value out of it.