To deal with the fast-paced, ever-changing demands of the market, organizations must adopt a strategic iterations approach—low-code platforms can be just the boost they need. Creating systems for making quick changes to products or business processes and deploying new ones faster.
The thought of building applications might sound pretty hard and expensive, right? Well, low-code platforms can remove some of the barriers of traditional development by giving business users the power to develop better systems, create applications and digitally transform processes in way less time (and in a cost-effective way). Today, we’ll help you better understand low-code application platforms.
What is a low-code platform?
Table of Contents
Let’s say your boss wants you to build a new custom application to streamline a specific process.
So you’ve 2 options:
- The traditional route with a usually more complicated development environment
- Low-code development platform
In the first scenario, you’d probably need to do some initial setup before actually developing the app (i.e., build a database, structure wireframes, set a backend server, etc.), which takes time. With low-code, those initial steps become unnecessary, and you can build the same app with fewer lines of code. This works thanks to a software development concept called “abstraction” — the practice of handling complexity by hiding redundant details.
If you’ve ever driven an automatic car, then you’ve experienced the power of this concept. Unlike stick-shift cars, where you’ve to manually change gears, an automatic transmission gets rid of that complexity and helps you drive without worrying about the backend operations.
What is a low-code platform?
Let’s say your boss wants you to build a new custom application to streamline a specific process.
So you’ve 2 options:
- The traditional route with a usually more complicated development environment
- Low-code development platform
In the first scenario, you’d probably need to do some initial setup before actually developing the app (i.e., build a database, structure wireframes, set a backend server, etc.), which takes time. With low-code, those initial steps become unnecessary, and you can build the same app with fewer lines of code. This works thanks to a software development concept called “abstraction” — the practice of handling complexity by hiding redundant details.
If you’ve ever driven an automatic car, then you’ve experienced the power of this concept. Unlike stick-shift cars, where you’ve to manually change gears, an automatic transmission gets rid of that complexity and helps you drive without worrying about the backend operations.
The same way, low-code platforms help you build apps on already abstracted layers, which speed up the process. Instead of writing code line by line, you “draw” them in a flowchart. It’s like having a bunch of LEGO bricks you can assemble at will to build exactly what you want.
Some of the main features of low-code platforms include:
- Intuitive visual builder: you can build apps with a graphical user interface.
- Ready-to-use code snippets: every object is reusable, so you can build new apps faster.
- Form and report templates: build new forms and reports without writing a single line of code.
- Pre-built integrations: seamlessly integrate software you already use to centralize information.
- Open APIs: get access to internal functionality of specific software to build new interactions.
And many more.
We’ll deepen on what low-code looks like in the real world a bit later, but first, let’s discuss the benefits of using this type of platform.
The benefits of using low-code
Some of the main benefits of low-code for your development process are:
- Fast implementation: build new apps in days, not weeks or months.
- Cost-effective: get rid of the costs involved with creating frameworks and databases.
- Ease of use: build functional apps with minimal code debt.
- Accessibility: get anywhere, anytime access to your apps.
- Scalability: low-code platforms provide you with a smooth upgrading path.
These benefits are some of the reasons the low-code market is expected to reach $187 billion by 2030.
An even more surprising study predicts that, by 2024, roughly 75% of enterprise-level organizations will have adopted low-code platforms for application development.
What’s the difference between low-code and no-code?
People often confuse low-code with no-code or use the two terms interchangeably. Sure, in a lot of ways, these 2 concepts are pretty similar (i.e., both approaches provide a visual environment for business app creation), but each serves a different goal.
The main difference lies in the end-user. As the name suggests, no-code platforms allow users to build new apps with the help of drag-and-drop features — no custom code required. Low-code platforms, on the other hand, do require some coding but make it easier for development teams to deploy new apps through abstraction and scalable app architecture.
In short, no-code is designed with the non-technical user in mind, whereas low-code approaches app development from a software engineering perspective.
To dig deeper into the differences between low-code and no-code, we suggest you read our comprehensive guide here.
