Businesses are constantly searching for ways to improve efficiency within the development of apps, websites, and other technological services that typically require complex coding skills and bear the high costs of hiring those who have these skills. However, there has been an emerging innovation that has the potential to make this process so much easier for businesses who may not have the resources available to hire an experienced team of software developers to put in the complicated and expensive work. Low-code platforms are the answer to this dilemma, and can possibly revolutionize the way we approach software development within the business world.
A low-code platform is a software platform that allows developers to build and execute websites and other applications without having to go through the trouble of coding the whole project. These platforms generally offer drag-and-drop services and pre-built components or graphical user interfaces to design these apps efficiently and affordably. This does not mean that coding will not be used at all in order to execute these projects, but these platforms greatly decrease the amount of manual coding that needs to go into the process of creation. No-code platforms, however, require no coding knowledge for use.
“It’s key to differentiate between low-code and no-code platforms. Low-code platforms are most often used by IT and others with some coding knowledge to create mission-critical custom applications. No-code platforms typically allow business users with no coding skills to solve their own problems and optimize day-to-day operations,” explains TechRepublic.
This innovation can be extremely useful in the sense that more people can have a direct, hands-on impact on the development of a project, especially those who aren’t highly skilled software developers or have tons of experience in coding but do have plenty of business knowledge in order to contribute. Skilled software developers and business users who step in and assist through low-code platforms work side-by-side in the creation of these apps. It also greatly improves the turnaround times for these projects so that problems can be solved quickly and as needed.
“Users can create applications as if they were drafting a flowchart rather than writing line-by-line codes for each desired function and capability. These platforms also generally have features that allow for experimenting, prototyping, testing and deployment,” explains Mary K. Pratt for TechTarget.
One of the more popular low-code platforms being used by businesses today, according to GeekFlare, is Zoho Creator. Not only does this platform include a great variety of pre-build app templates, but it is also extremely useful in the sense that it brings your project to a desirable state using intuitive code editors, visual builders, automated workflows, and other impressive features. You can also use this platform to organize and scale large amounts of data. This platform has helped so many businesses grow and advance their technological processes quickly. I related this to a topic that we’ve talked about in class regarding how we use technology like AI to solve the foundation of our problems, and humans use their skills to focus on the more complex and inefficient. Low-code platforms seem to do just that; they give us the opportunity to quickly build the foundation of a project, and leave the more complex objectives to be completed by software developers and code.
Although there are plenty of benefits in using these low-code platforms, there are a few valid concerns as well, one of them being security risks: “One big security problem that can happen with low-code platforms is when one team creates an app that your IT department has no knowledge of. This is called shadow IT. Shadow IT could refer to using personal devices over work ones or running data in programs without asking for permission first. It can lead to huge security risks for data via viruses or giving outside people access,” says Zara Hanif for TrustRadius.
It is easy to not take security risks into account when using platforms like these since they are so user-friendly, but businesses must still take into account who is accessing these projects and the large amounts of data that unauthorized users could have access to. Businesses must be in constant communication with IT teams and/or consultants in order to protect themselves from any negative implications dealing with security.
I decided to write a blog post about this because I recently helped build a website for an organization that I am involved in, and I was initially worried that it would be a complicated and untimely process. However, we used the website builder and domain service GoDaddy to work on this project, which to my surprise, was a simple drag-and-drop process. I wondered to myself: “Why would companies go to the lengths of coding their websites from scratch when they can use these platforms that already offer complex features and built-in security measures?”. It saved us so much time and was affordable in comparison to paying someone to code the whole thing for us. Although platforms like GoDaddy and Wix.com are no-code platforms, low-code platforms could definitely have an even bigger impact.
In the world of low code, it is an awesome idea to create ways for ease of use for users. It has become extremely apparent that smaller businesses can’t afford to hire those that would know how to code this stuff and set up these operating systems. The drag and drop process you talked about with Go Daddy is a perfect example of getting stuff done in a timely manner without spending too much time or money with your resources.
Great post Angela. I agree that low-code platforms are the best option for people who are looking to get their idea involving a website off the ground. Like Dr. Kane said in class, the only reason you should ever code your website from scratch is because there is some kind of differentiator built into the site. Given this, 99% of the time, a low-code platform is probably the best route for most businesses and startups.
I have an acquaintance that I’ve tried to start a company with that was so set on building the website even though he had no coding experience, so he wasted so much time and energy trying to find the right coding team. We learn in entrepreneurship, just get a minimum viable product (MVP) out there to see if people will actually pay you for your services. Most of the time, you could do this manually without a low-code website through email alone. For example, Airbnb started as an email chain, and they then found that there was a market for their service, so they then built a product around that.
Low-code platforms are super cool when it comes to giving coding-like knowledge to people who don’t know how to code. It definitely takes the learning curve away and I’m sure there are huge benefits to that. I actually didn’t even think about the security risks until I got to the bottom of your blog post, but looking at the idea now, it would be incredibly easy to use data and devices that are not approved by the IT team due to the easy access of the drag and drop platforms. I’ll have to check out Zoho Creator. Great blog post!
I think low code provides some incredible potential for a lot of companies, especially as Joseph mentioned, it can reduce wasted energy since it might not be a differentiating factor. However, I do worry that we may become complacent with this drag-and-drop style and not develop any further coding languages to push platforms, hopefully, that doesn’t happen and we can utilize both for their strengths.
Great post. I do think that low code/ no code tools are going to be a huge way to democratize coding. Back when I first started teaching, we still taught students HTML and FTP, because it was the only way to get content online. Now, anyone can post content with the click of a button. The future will be this for coding (although coding does require a certain amount of structured and disciplined thinking.)
Hi Angela! This was a really informative post. Low code seems like it would be a great resource to understand the functionality of a programming language without having to start learning it from the beginning, even for developers who already know the main programming languages. I’m interested to see how much low code will be implemented into companies within the next few years. This could help employees in the company get exposure to some of the company’s IT operations and work, without having to work in development. Great post!
I really like the idea of low code and how it creates opportunities to focus on innovation and more personal based tasks. It helps eliminate the focus on basic set ups and allows the use for more advanced UI systems. Although this may remove jobs from the the more entry level coding space, this allows more space to focus on many more unique and new tasks.