With multiple advantages, low-code is on the rise across many companies in various industries. Even Gartner admitted its popularity, estimating that low-code platforms will encompass 65% of application development activity by 2024.
Below we cover the benefits that cause such recognition.
Low-Code Development Platform Types
Forrester divides all low-code development platforms into five main categories, depending on how businesses use them and what challenges they help solve. These types are the following:
- General-purpose
- Process
- Database
- Request handling
- Mobile-first
Usually, the platforms that fall into the general-purpose category suit most companies since their aim is to leverage low-code development to build a variety of web applications.
On the contrary, those having a mobile-first strategy in mind turn to low-code mobile app development platforms that help quickly deliver the solution for any platform — Android or iOS.
Features of Low-Code Development
It’s good to know all the opportunities that low-code programming provides you with. However, before moving to the benefits the solutions can offer, let’s briefly cover the key features each of them should have in order for you to take advantage of low code. Here they are:
- Visual modeling tools
- Out-of-the-box functionality
- Drag-and-drop interface
- Security
- Scalability
Hopefully, knowing these attributes will help you better understand the functionality provided by the platforms and define which one can serve you to the utmost efficiency. Now, let’s jump to the part that will highlight the value of low-code application development.
Top 5 Benefits of Low-Code Development
Contrary to what it seems, it is not the most trivial task to define top benefits. The number of low-code app platforms presented on the market is enormous. In fact, it exceeds 200! Each of them provides value to companies across different industries and solves their specific business issues. Consequently, the paramount advantages they all carry might differ.
Luckily, there are guides and ratings to help one choose a matching platform based on functionality and realm of expertise. For example, Gartner included in their Magic Quadrant such enterprise low-code application platforms as:
- Microsoft PowerApps
- Creatio
- OutSystems
- Oracle
Eventually, after some considerations, it becomes obvious that all LCDPs have the main common benefits.
1. Reduced IT Costs
The adoption of low-code platforms allows businesses to reduce their IT spending regardless of company size and structure. Whether you have an internal IT department or hire developers for a project, the work of talented professionals is more expensive than the cost of low-code software.
First of all, the use of technology can reduce the workload of your in-house IT employees. It means that with the right set of tools and guidance almost any member of the company, quite often even without a technical background, can create an app.
On the other hand, most low-code platforms have a vast community of partners and a certification program. Thus, you can easily implement, customize, and support your app with the help of a third-party vendor. As well as get some onboarding and training sessions for your team. This is one of the most productive and cost-efficient approaches that can save you a lot of time.
2. Fast Software Delivery
Generally, successful project implementation includes multiple steps to follow. The cycle of software development involves such phases as analysis, design, coding, testing, and deployment. It requires a high level of team competence and significant time investment. No wonder that this complex process is full of challenges causing software project delays.
Low-code software is rich in features, drag-and-drop components, and model-driven logic. In combination with the pre-built user interface, they facilitate and accelerate the development cycle.
People without coding experience can create an app in weeks. Professional developers can release it in record time compared with traditional methods. That changes everything.
3. Improved Business Agility
Business agility has never been more important than now – downturn times when a global shift to remote work caused turbulence in the availability of resources.
Speeding up project delivery, low-code allows companies to quickly address challenges in a new working environment. For example, it provides tools to build stopgap solutions for effective resource planning, managing remote teams, and monitoring tasks.
Full-stack and cross-platform app development is another reason to talk about agility. Low-code helps create various software, including multi-device. As a result, companies are empowered to take new digital initiatives. They remain flexible and ready to face market changes and new customer needs.
4. Greater Productivity
Since low-code can serve as a digital bridge for professional developers and business users, it naturally boosts overall productivity. Both teams can work on business solutions and share expertise in the unified development space. On top of that, more members can be engaged in app creation, eliminating the gap between idea and its execution.
5. Multiple Integrations and Legacy Systems Support
The adoption of low-code provides companies with modern cloud applications that can easily integrate with many third-party systems. This is true even for legacy systems.
No wonder, some custom software solutions may need hand-coded integrations. Despite that, low code platforms tend to provide out-of-the-box connectors and integrations through their marketplaces. It means that companies can keep their systems intact and swiftly adapt to new requirements.
In the case of legacy system migration to a low-code platform, the latter can also be a box of surprises. The process of migration is often a risky and expensive affair filled up with complexity. With low-code platforms, you can build modern apps by performing reverse-engineering, reusing code, and creating template-based UIs.
Learn more about Legacy system modernization
Challenges of Low-Code Application Development
While low-code development provides plenty of opportunities to seize and can help businesses accelerate their digital transformation, like any other technology, it has some challenges to keep in mind. So if you’re weighing up low-code vs. traditional development, consider the following factors that come with the low-code approach.
Limited Flexibility and Customizations
Low-code platforms are good for building a variety of solutions. However, if you need to deliver a sophisticated enterprise system, you’ll likely have to involve IT experts.
For example, companies can easily leverage low-code technology for the development of a website, but scenarios where a more complex business logic is required need a more customized approach than low-code can offer.
Harder to Manage Software Development Life Cycle
As we’ve already mentioned above, traditional software development life cycle usually includes analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. All these stages allow for delivering a solution that would match initial goals and help reveal and fix the bugs.
Since the low-code technology is still evolving, it may have some gaps in the software life cycle management. While companies providing low-code platforms work hard to offer more tools for web application development, end-users still face errors and issues they need help with debugging.
Additional Tech Training Required
It is true that business users can turn to low-code platforms when they need to come up with simple functionality. Yet, when it comes to building robust and scalable applications, users with little or no software development experience need additional training in order to learn the advanced capabilities low-code platforms have.
