Low-Code & No-Code Platforms – All You Need to Know

Low-code and no-code platforms have been receiving a lot of attention in the digital workplace. With IT and business teams closely working together to build stellar digital strategies, these platforms not only help decrease the turnaround time of applications, but also accelerate digital transformation.

In fact, according to Gartner’s recent report, several organizations will use low-code and no-code development platforms to create 70% of new applications by 2025.

In this blog post, we talk about low-code and no-code platforms, their benefits, and similarities.

Let’s get started!

What is a Low-Code Platform?

Low-code platforms are a middle ground between no-code and full-fledged manual coding. These platforms are extensible and allow scripting, helping developers accelerate the speed of development without duplicating basic code continuously.

Low-code platforms have scalable architectures with open APIs. This enables reusability and flexibility with cloud and on-premises deployments.

They help developers explore the possibilities of extending platform capabilities with their own code, which enables them to create sophisticated and complex applications.

Salesforce and Zoho are the most successful low-code platforms. Users can build their own applications on these platforms using a range of frameworks. Salesforce and Zoho allow clients to add and customize what their end users can view.

Salesforce has AppExchange as its low-code development platform.

The expert CRM leader, Salesforce is built to deliver a metadata-driven low-code application development framework. Using advanced tools, users can create apps, irrespective of their coding expertise.

Since non-technical business users can use the visual interface and drag and drop tools, the Salesforce platform actually becomes the low-code answer to app development.

Benefits of Low-Code Platform

1. Improved Business Agility

Low-code platforms are extensible. This allows integrations with major vendors to make APIs, command lines, and web services reusable. You can therefore integrate and deploy new tools and technologies.

2. Increased Development Cycles

Low-code app development platforms have opened the gates for innovation. Even someone with no coding experience can start creating applications using these platforms. This will eventually improve time-to-market as well as decrease costs.

3. Higher Productivity

Low-code applications have tools that can simplify the process life cycle, help you implement monitoring and alerting capabilities, as well as notify you of the processes at risk of failure. A streamlined and automated development process thus helps IT manage bulk tasks in less time and maintain higher productivity.

4. Quicker Iterations and Prototyping

Low-code platforms help you meet the evolving needs of businesses today. Using the tools provided by these platforms, developers can quickly edit existing codes and processes. Non-coders can prototype solutions that can be tested and evaluated without the help of any software developers.

What is a No-Code Platform?

No-code development platforms allow non-technical users to develop applications. These provide a similar user experience as low-code, but go above and beyond the user expectations. They don’t need to write a single line of code.

These visual-based platforms with drag and drop functionality enable you to develop functional apps, without a programming expert’s help. No-code platforms can help teams with specific needs within a limited scope.

These simple, intuitive interfaces ease agile development and enable developers to respond to business needs quickly.

Mailchimp, Bubble, Zapier, Canva, etc are some of the most common no-code development platforms. Mailchimp makes communicating with the customer base a faster and more thoughtful process. Bubble is a no-code app builder that allows developers to assemble visual components and launch full-functioning products.

Benefits of No-Code Platform

1. Fast & Easy

No-code platforms enable you to create business solutions with ten times more speed than traditional app development. Also, no-code tools are pretty easy to use and intuitive as well. The drag and drop features enable you to develop customer enterprise-level applications easily without any coding knowledge.

2. Better Collaboration

Unlike traditional app development, no-code builds transparency where business leaders can see what the IT teams are developing. These platforms don’t need any coding experience, which gives business analysts an opportunity to get involved in the product development process.

3. Reduced Legacy Maintenance

Maintaining legacy codes can take a toll on an organization’s finances. With no-code platforms, businesses can do away with this need. Unqork, a no-code software platform helps you build custom applications without coding to create a competitive advantage.

4. Accessible & Flexible

No-code breaks down the structural barriers and is accessible to everyone involved in the app development process, irrespective of their experience in coding. The schema-free database gives you the flexibility to build apps immediately and load data faster.

Similarities Between Low-Code & No-Code Platforms

1. Reduced Dependency

Both low-code and no-code platforms empower all kinds of users. This democratization of technology reduces the dependency of businesses on specialists and hard-to-hire experts.

2. Increased Productivity

Low-code and no-code platforms increase productivity and the velocity of development, clear backlogs, and reduce project timelines.

3. Quick Customer Feedback

Both these platforms allow developers to receive feedback from customers by displaying easy-to-build prototypes. This helps with making major decisions early on in a project.

4. Cost-effectiveness

Low-code and no-code platforms are a cost-effective way against manual development. These platforms allow smaller teams, fewer resources, and lower maintenance costs.

5. Enhanced Team Collaboration

Business leaders and the IT team have a greater scope for increasing their collaboration. They can collaboratively participate in developing the end product since there are no coding barriers involved.

Key Takeaway

“The future of coding is no coding at all.” – Chris Wanstrath, CEO, GitHub

Clearly, these platforms have the potential to become the future of software development. Now, if you’re thinking about how to drive innovation coding, you can draw comparisons between the two and derive insights into their strengths and weaknesses.

But to choose a platform, you need to first assess the current requirements and identify the one that suits your needs.

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