Low-code and No-code Development. The Future or Just a Trend?

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MCTW_TDW

8 min readFeb 1, 2023

Have you ever stared at thousands of lines of code on your computer screen and wondered: “Is it even possible to do this without coding?” Well, the possibility is getting closer.

There is an immeasurable amount of websites, applications, software and even businesses that were probably never created or failed early-on simply because the people who came up with the ideas didn’t have the necessary technical skills to take the next step forward. Fortunately, in this day and age, you don’t need to know programming or coding languages to kickstart your dreams in the digital world!

The world moves too fast so whether you are an individual with a dream or a company in the market, you can now build almost anything without worrying about costs or infrastructure, focusing on finding solutions that achieve your objectives while taking less time, complexity and resources.

IDC has reported that by 2023, more than 500 million apps will be developed. That is much more than decades of apps put together!

How is Low/No-code different from traditional code development?

‘Benefits of Low Code Development over Traditional Development’ on Youtube

Traditional programming development relies on a group of programmers and developers working together, gathering specific requirements for a product, developing a plan, choosing which platforms to work on, what coding languages to use, design system architectures and create custom code from scratch to meet specified needs. Sounds like a hassle…

In fact, it’s often complex, expensive, time and people consuming, and can run into several challenges regarding testing, infrastructure and maintenance.

The development of No-code and Low-code combats these issues and complexities by allowing a quicker and simpler way of building applications, with little to no programming experience. Let’s hear more about it!

So, how does Low-code and No-code work?

Simply put, it allows people with possibly little to no coding experience to design, develop, implement, test and launch mobile and web apps faster and easier by turning the complex process of writing possibly thousands of lines of code into dragging and dropping visual blocks on a graphic interface. Sounds like magic, right?

Fig 1. Differences between Traditional, Low and No Coding development (source: *Quixy*)

How are they different?

No-Code platforms provide visual interfaces, templates, libraries, drag-and-drop tools and components to quickly assemble and design applications. This makes it extremely viable for both developers and non-developers to create solutions quickly and efficiently.

Similar to this, Low-code is a perfect option for creating mobile and web apps that can be integrated with other systems and data sources. By mixing No-code and manual coding, these platforms become more flexible, as they can be used by both people with zero coding skills and developers who wish to speed up their work.

Positives and Negatives

It’s true that Low-code and No-code development can swiftly turn an idea to a real product without having to rely solely on programming experts, but like everything in life, it comes with ups and downs. Let’s talk about them:

Some advantages…

The obvious one, anyone can be a developer, with or without a programming past.
Lower costs for development and maintenance. One of the most influential decision making criteria is the cost of developing your product, right? Let’s look at an example:

A team of 5 developers providing maintenance and support for a 3 months project with an hourly rate of €10 will cost approximately €8,000 for the 3 months. In comparison, platforms like Webflow charge between 29€-212€ monthly depending on the plan and offer similar possibilities.

Quite the difference indeed!

Less Time-to-Market. The fact that apps can be developed more quickly means they can go to market faster and reach a wider audience.
High flexibility and productivity. Because it relies on graphical interfaces it’s easier and more intuitive to work with, and since it’s not based on manual programming it’s much easier to quickly create different sides of an application.

These also constitute the main reasons why businesses take advantage of Low/No-code development, making them more flexible, agile, quicker to respond to customer needs and stay competitive in the market, sometimes even fighting with smaller companies who use these development methods.

But there are also some disadvantages…

Not as easy as it sounds. Even though it has a smaller learning curve than learning programming from scratch it still requires time and dedication to perfect.
Lack of customization. Even though these platforms offer great customization inside their realm and in their templates, if you want to be more creative most likely you will face challenges.
Not recommended for all companies. For complex, consumer-facing apps or software with a heavy user base, it may be harder to build a sturdy and durable app architecture, especially with no-code platforms. At the same time, these platforms may run security risks because of little oversight by developer teams.

Let’s make it clear so there is no doubt

You’re probably thinking I’m over-exaggerating with how this works, it can’t be this easy to just create a website and put it in the web… can’t it? Well, let me show you a real life example of how to use one of these platforms to develop something simple but useful, like a website. For demonstration purposes I’m choosing a No-code platform, so everyone can follow along.

Lets use Webflow, since I talked about it earlier. It’s a great tool to start since it offers great insight on their platform, tutorials and best of all, it’s completely free.

After creating an account or logging in you’re presented with this page, making it clear what the next step is:

After clicking on “New Site” we have the options to choose from existing templates or start a blank page. For this tutorial I’m choosing a template, so it generates some pre-built features on our website to facilitate our work.

Right now, with only the click of 3 buttons our website looks like this:

Unbelievable, right? But this is not actually a public website yet, just our template. Webflow offers a simple and intuitive interface with all the tools we can use to customize this website, free of programming burdens. Let’s make some changes to showcase how easy this is:

Of course this was a pretty simple to change to make, we just changed the title and the background color. However, besides being super quick, we also did it without having to touch a single line of code.

Now let’s actually get it online so people can visit and get the party going!

Clicking the “Publish” button brings us to these 2 options. Webflow already offers us a domain where we can publish our website. So helpful!

We select the default domain and we’re done. If we access that url we see our store is up and running. We barely had to write anything whatsoever, completely removing the burden and complexity of coding from scratch a website and dealing with the complicated aspects of publishing a project online.

The future is looking like a lot less lines of code

In the next few years we are likely to see a big shift in software development.

A forecast by Gartner suggests that low-code/no-code application platforms will account for almost 65% of all app development by 2024. What this essentially means is that the majority of apps created in 2024 will be developed using platforms and tools that provide easy (or no-code) ways to program.

But why is this taking off? We already know some advantages and disadvantages but let’s solidify it’s value:

Demand for enterprise apps is growing faster than IT capacity can deliver them, making companies adopt new strategies.
While before only big companies could develop and launch apps due to being expensive and complex, now thanks to the cloud and easy internet connection, micro-startups can launch applications more easily, sometimes forcing the big companies to also use these platforms for agility.
While traditional work models rely on IT at every step while having high cost in infrastructure and resources, cloud and no-code programming offer low IT dependency, taking less burden on developers.
Agility! This Low/No-code development strategy has the ability to quickly enable businesses to make changes to their applications to meet ever changing customer needs, taking advantage of market opportunities with less risk.
Individuals can build apps without an extensive programming knowledge and companies can assign inside workers to do the same without having to hire outsiders, focusing on a teams’ problem-solving ability and creativity and utilizing internal resources to the max!

According to Harvard Business Review, low-code/no-code platforms have evolved from just facilitating function-specific tools to making it possible for a broader range of business employees to truly own their automation and build new software applications with no coding while increasing organizational capacity.

To wrap things up, with everything talked about it looks like this isn’t just a trend, but in fact, a technological shift. It is not a perfect solution that will end the dominance of IT over marketing but it is a step closer to the reality of modular, componentized development, which empowers the coupling between professional and non-IT developers. Big or small, companies don’t want to fall behind and to keep up this trend seems like a great place to be in!