The debate between No Code/Low Code and Traditional Development has been ongoing for some time now. The need to create and deploy software quickly and cost-effectively has never been greater for businesses of all sizes. Many organizations are struggling to decide which approach to take when it comes to software development. 

By reading this article, you will make an informed decision about which approach is best for your project. You will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how they can affect your development process. You’ll also learn how development time and expense affect the overall success of your project.

What is No Code/Low Code?

No Code/Low Code technology is a kind of infrastructure for software development that enables users to create websites and mobile apps without having any prior coding experience. It is designed for organization consumers and developers that are looking for a more rapid, more efficient way to create apps across several platforms. Platforms with No Code or Low Code support drag-and-drop features making it simple to create and deploy programs quickly. Additionally, these platforms offer some features and relationships that may be used to construct and edit programs.

Where Do No-code/Low-code Platforms Work Best?

No-code/low-code platforms may be the perfect option for businesses and other entities wishing to build apps for unique business use cases in the absence of a conventional solution. However, keep in mind that these are basic principles, and the ideal method is to assess and apply the solution within the context of the individual company objectives and goals.

Can No Code/Low Code and Traditional Development Be Used Together?

No code/low code and traditional programming are not incompatible and can cooperate to make a digital project successful. Organizations may speed up development and control expenses by using no code or little code to design a system’s fundamental functionality. The most intricate, customized functionality can then be developed by bringing in professional programming teams. A further benefit of no code/low code is that it democratizes application development by empowering ‘citizen developers’ with business expertise to produce practical and usable apps without the requirement for conventional programming. Additionally, this frees up expert programmers so they may concentrate on other coding-related activities.

Benefits Of No-code/Low-code Development

Benefit #1 Reduced Costs

Low-code development services can significantly reduce time and costs for enterprises while also eliminating the need to hire as many developers. Opting for no-code development for your product offers the added benefit of flexibility through the Agile method, which supports versioning for any application edits.

Benefit #2 Flexibility

Businesses can develop and make changes faster with low-code development. Compared to custom development, creating low-code/no-code products requires fewer skills because they offer configuration-based design experiences.

Benefit #3 Efficient Risk Management

By using a no-code/low-code approach, businesses can easily adapt to changes in regulations and remain compliant. Furthermore, processes like code writing, compiling, and debugging are considerably faster than traditional development methods.

Benefit #4 Enhanced Customer Experience

Automated low-code and no-code platforms streamline crucial operations to enhance the customer experience. These platforms are highly agile in application development and offer strong business process capabilities, resulting in the creation of high-quality apps that ultimately improve the overall customer experience.

Benefit #5 Enhanced Productivity

Platforms with low- or no code allow IT and business teams to collaborate to find genuine solutions for business issues. This method enables business teams to create their apps without the aid of developers, speeding up the development process. Additionally, it lessens the requirement for intricate coding, allowing for the participation of more team members and boosting output.

Benefit #6 Security

New patches and upgrades will be installed automatically in low-code/no-code platforms instead of by developers manually.

No Code/Low Code Vs. Traditional Development

The combination of low-code and traditional development can bring numerous benefits to both the business and project delivery teams. These advantages include enhanced efficiency, improved user experience, and faster time-to-market. Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge the significant differences between the two approaches.

Determining System Requirements

When considering the system requirements for a project, there are significant differences between no code/low code development and traditional programming. Traditional coding involves selecting a specific programming language, environment, and device before beginning the project. For instance, an Android app cannot easily be transferred to a Mac OS desktop solution. Therefore, companies that use traditional coding must make extra efforts to ensure their system works across various operating systems. In contrast, no code/low code development eliminates this problem by using drag-and-drop visual interfaces that can run across multiple operating systems. Some platforms also offer tools for managing requirements and errors, making them ideal for agile development. Applications built with no code/low code can be adapted to various operating systems and devices, regardless of complexity. This is not possible with traditional programming, giving no code/low code platforms a market advantage in building large-scale and scalable systems with seamless adaptability and native development capability.

DevOps Automation

Deploying traditional applications can be a complex and time-consuming process. Each line of code must be tested in a non-production environment before it can be used in the production environment, and application instances must be checked for compatibility with their assigned configuration. However, using a no-code/low-code platform can eliminate some deployment stages. For example, no code/low code modules and their functionalities are tested thoroughly before being added to the platform, reducing testing time. The no code/low code development environment is also cloud-based, making the testing process more efficient and straightforward.

Maintenance & Support

It can be difficult to maintain or update traditional programming applications when business objectives and requirements change. This often means having to write completely new code, which can slow down business innovation and make it harder to meet customer expectations. For instance, if data analysis recommends adding a new feature to the application, the development team would need to step in. Additionally, issues with data center configuration would require manual fixes. These are some of the main reasons why applications become outdated and are considered legacy software as technology and operating systems progress. No code/low code software development can help alleviate these concerns. With a visual interface module managed by the platform provider, making changes to the solution is simplified, and the application design is optimized for ideal performance.

No Code/Low Code vs. Traditional Development: Differences

Low-code and no-code platforms allow for quick app development with easy-to-use drag-and-drop interfaces, while custom app development uses traditional methods to create robust apps. These two approaches have distinct differences. 

Difference #1 Skill-Sets

Creating complex applications traditionally requires extensive technical skills and a variety of tools and functions. However, low-code/no-code platforms simplify the process by providing a smaller set of tools that can be used to create a variety of applications with ease. This enables non-technical staff to develop applications without needing extensive technical skills.

Difference #2 Quality

Due to their highly technical and complex nature, custom application development platforms can often result in a large number of bugs, making them difficult to use. In contrast, business low-code/no-code platforms generally do not generate bugs, leading to the creation of applications that run smoothly and are free from any hassles.

Difference #3 Cost

Developing traditional custom software can be quite expensive, with costs ranging from $40,000 to $250,000, depending on the project scope and company needs. In comparison, low-code/no-code solutions are a more affordable option, with companies only paying for access to the service instead of the entire development process. This makes them an attractive choice for larger businesses in need of highly customized software.

Difference #4 Flexibility

Low-code platforms offer a more flexible development experience compared to traditional ones, thanks to their user-friendly drag-and-drop features. This means users need not invest as much time in learning and operating them as they would with complex code-based systems. Additionally, low-code platforms eliminate the need for coding when developing applications, allowing users to simply use drawing methods to achieve the same result.

Difference #5 Maintenance

Maintaining software through traditional coding processes can be tedious, especially when revisions are necessary. This requires a specialized development team to plan, design, and test the changes before training users on the new updates. Fortunately, low-code platforms simplify the maintenance process as the hosting company manages all updates and improvements. This means even small or IT department-less businesses can enjoy well-maintained software without the need for third-party vendors or in-house teams.

Summing Up – So, Which is Better?

The answer to the question No code/low code vs. traditional development: which is better? is not as straightforward as you may think. Traditional programming still has a lot to offer in terms of flexibility and customizability, even while low-code platforms undoubtedly provide numerous benefits in terms of expediting application delivery. Thus, it depends upon the company’s particular requirements and objectives. The choice to combine the two strategies is also an option, though. When traditional programming and low-code platforms are used together, businesses may benefit from low-code speed and creativity while still being able to create specialized solutions. The development of top-notch, business-grade solutions that combine the greatest features of both worlds is made possible as a result.

The post No Code/Low Code Vs. Traditional Development appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report for enterprise low-code application platforms, 65% of application development activities will be done by no-code app development platforms in 2024. In this article, we will explore 15 of the top no-code platforms that can help businesses scale in 2024. These platforms have user-friendly interfaces that make it easy for non-technical members to customize them for their needs.. We will also explore the features and pricing of each platform. 

What is no-code?

No-code means creating and building software, websites, and apps without coding experience or knowledge. This is achieved through visual drag-and-drop interfaces, pre-built templates, and other user-friendly features that allow users to create and launch their projects without knowing how to code.

What are no-code platforms?

No-code platforms provide the necessary features to create and build software, websites, and apps without coding. They range from website builders to automation software to app development platforms. They are designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, making them accessible to many users, regardless of their coding experience.

No-code app development platforms

Flatlogic Platform

https://flatlogic.com/

Flatlogic is a no-code app development platform that allows users to quickly and easily create full-stack web apps without writing any code. It has customizable templates and a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for anyone to build an app. With Flatlogic, users can generate full-stack database-based apps using React, Vue, and Angular in three steps – select your stack and template, connect to Github, and deploy your app in minutes.

Flatlogic also offers a fully-documented REST API for creating Headless CMSs, making it simple to perform everyday data operations such as Create, Read, Update, and Delete. With Flatlogic, businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals can save time and money by creating full-fledged web apps without extensive technical knowledge.

Key Features

• Creates full-stack apps that are connected to a database and backend using React, Vue, and Angular.
• REST API for creating Headless CMS
• Easy connection to Github for app deployment

Pricing: Flatlogic offers an annual subscription that saves up to 37% compared to a monthly subscription.

• The individual plan is priced at $299.00 per app/year, making it a cost-effective solution for small projects and MVPs. 
• The Professional plan is priced at $2,990.00/year, perfect for agencies and professional developers. It includes everything from the Individual Plan and allows unlimited applications, all front-end options (React, Angular, Vue), all backend-end options (Node.js, Laravel), and all database options (PostgreSQL, MySQL). 
• The Enterprise plan is adjustable to your business needs and comes with a dedicated account manager.

With its per-application pricing, Flatlogic is an excellent option for anyone looking to create a web app quickly and without extensive technical knowledge.

Adalo

https://www.adalo.com/

Adalo is a no-code app development platform that enables users to create custom web and mobile applications without code. It has a built-in database that allows users to easily manage their content and develop relationships, toggle visibility settings, or explore integrations for unmatched complexity and power.

Adalo also makes publishing apps to any app store or custom domain easy. Toggle publishing settings to run iOS and Android builds or instantly push updates to your custom web domain.

Adalo also offers monetization, scaling, and growth tools with a built-in analytics dashboard to keep you growing and iterating in the directions that matter. It also makes it easy to connect your app with thousands of third-party apps and services through APIs to build more intelligent and powerful custom software.

Key Features

• Customize your app with your own branding.
• Built-in database for content management.
• Easily publish your app to the iOS or Android app stores.

Pricing: Adalo offers five pricing plans:

• Free: $0 per month/billed annually
• Starter: $36 per month/billed annually
• Professional: $52 per month/billed annually
• Team: $160 per month/billed annually
• Business: $200 per month/billed annually

Adalo enables users to create custom web and mobile apps without writing code, with easy publishing options, a built-in database, analytics, and integrations for a complete solution for creating, managing, and scaling your custom software.

Bubble

https://bubble.io/

Bubble is a powerful no-code platform for creating digital products such as CRMs, SaaS apps, and dashboards. The platform offers complete functionality without the need for any code, allowing users to create multi-user apps for desktop and mobile web browsers, with features similar to apps like Facebook or Airbnb. Bubble also offers a range of design options, with no need for knowledge of HTML or CSS and robust, scalable infrastructure that handles deployment and hosting for you.

Key Features

• Responsive, pixel-perfect designs and layout.
• Real-time collaboration.
• Plug-ins to connect analytics, email marketing, SEO, and payment tools.

Pricing: Bubble offers five pricing plans: 

• Free: includes core platform features and bubble branding.
• Personal ($29/month): includes core platform + API and custom domain.
• Professional ($129/month): includes three units of server capacity, two application editors, and two development versions.  
• Production ($529/month): includes ten units of server capacity, 15 application editors, and 20 development versions.
• Custom: includes a dedicated server, configuration, and hosting region choice.

Bubble is a no-code platform for creating digital products with a full range of features and customization options, robust, scalable infrastructure, and a dedicated learning platform. It is an excellent option for those who want to create complex apps without coding.

Code2

https://www.code2.io/

Code2 is a no-code platform for easy data integration and real-time data consolidation. It allows you to bring together scattered data, view it in real-time, and use it to power your apps without the complexity and expense of conventional data warehouses. The platform enables you to easily connect to your data, regardless of where it resides, such as Hubspot, Shopify, Stripe, or other databases, and merge different sources into a single, all-encompassing data source.

Code2 also allows you to automate repetitive tasks with smart workflows, simplifying your back-end and front-end actions, providing users with an integrated end-user experience, and creating triggers for UI and data, scheduled batch jobs, and user behavior. This allows your team to focus on value-creating activities and improve productivity.

Key Features

• Automate trigger responses to user behavior.
• Ready-made UI blocks and app templates.
• Easily connects to multiple databases.

Pricing: Code2 offers four pricing plans: Free, Lite, Standard, and Pro, priced at $0, $14, $49, and $139, respectively. The pricing increases with the number of features and functionalities offered.

The platform’s real-time data integration and consolidation capabilities and smart workflows can improve your team’s productivity and efficiency. The pricing plans are also very reasonable, making it accessible to all types of users.

No-code analytics platforms

Narrative BI

https://www.narrative.bi/

Narrative BI is a powerful no-code analytics platform to help growth teams turn their data into meaningful narratives. It provides valuable insights from marketing and advertising data automatically and makes it easy to connect all your data sources in one place. With the ability to integrate with Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Google Analytics, Narrative BI is perfect for businesses of all sizes.

One of the standout features of Narrative BI is its ability to scale with your business. Its no-code automated marketing reporting platform for agencies is perfect for tracking multiple marketing campaigns at once and automating reporting for all your clients. You can generate automatic reports in minutes and speed up your agency’s reporting process. With the ability to schedule reports to be delivered to clients daily, weekly, or monthly and intelligent insights in a single click, Narrative BI is an excellent option for agencies of all sizes.

Key Features

• Integrates with GA4, Universal Analytics, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads.
• 24/7 coverage for easy anomaly detection.
• Automated reports delivered on schedule via email or Slack.

Pricing: Narrative BI has four pricing plans:

• Free: integration with Universal Analytics and GA4, 100k monthly sessions, daily data syncs, two users, one workspace, and one data source.
• Pro ($90/month): includes Facebook Ads and Google Ads integration, 1M monthly sessions, data syncs every 6 hours, five users, and 3 data sources.
• Growth ($490/month): includes custom metrics and dimensions, roles and permissions, 10M monthly sessions, data syncs every 4 hours, 25 users, five workspaces, and 15 data sources.
• Enterprise (custom pricing): unlimited users, data sources, and workspaces, unlimited monthly sessions, and hourly data syncs. 

Narrative BI is a great solution for businesses and agencies looking for a powerful, no-code analytics platform that provides valuable insights, effortless integration, and easy scalability. Its pricing options can cater to a wide range of needs, from small businesses to large enterprise-level companies looking to streamline their data analysis and reporting process and gain valuable insights from their marketing and advertising data.

Funnel

https://funnel.io/

Funnel is a powerful marketing data hub that provides performance control. The platform is designed for modern, data-driven marketers who want to unlock their potential and focus on improving their marketing efforts. 

It defines marketing effectiveness, optimizes your spending, and provides faster and more accurate reporting. The platform also provides an omnichannel overview, giving you a clear picture of your acquisition and activation data from any marketing apps or platforms. 

Funnel also makes it easy to share insights with your team. You can easily share data and insights through a dashboard, spreadsheet, warehouse, or another destination.  

Key Features

• Automatically updated reports.
• Connects to over 500 marketing data sources.
• Automated data sharing to Looker, Tableau, and other data destinations.

Pricing: Funnel’s pricing is based on two main categories for Marketers and Agencies and is billed annually.

• Essentials: starts at €359/month, perfect for small teams familiar with data collection.
• Plus: starts at €899/month and includes access to a custom connectors program, guided onboarding, and premium chat support. 
• Enterprise: starts at €1799/month, best for large teams that require robust support, security, and scalability.
• Agency Small: starts at €359/month, best for small agencies who prefer self-service. 
• Agency Medium: starts at €899/month, best for most independent agencies. 
• Agency Large: starts at €1799/month, best for large agencies.

It is an ideal solution for global enterprises that want to avoid wasted marketing spend, excessive resource requirements, and data quality issues. With the platform, you can give every team a secure single source of truth without the overhead of a traditional data stack.

Corraldata

https://corraldata.com/

Corraldata is a powerful data platform designed for non-technical teams. The platform provides full-service integration and powerful built-in tools for business users, allowing you to connect everything from spreadsheets to ERP platforms in one place. With more than 200 out-of-the-box integrations and advanced support for custom integrations, Corraldata is a comprehensive solution that provides a single source of truth for all your data.

Key Features

• Pre-built analytics dashboards for easy customization.
• Built-in collaboration and chat features.
• Multiple custom integrations.

Pricing: The platform offers three pricing plans. Each plan has a 30-day free trial. 

• Essential: $150/month per data source. 
• Teams: $250/month per data source. 
• Enterprise: It’s custom pricing; you need to contact them for more information.

Its comprehensive suite of tools and integrations makes it easy for anyone to turn data into action. The platform’s pricing options are also flexible, making it an accessible solution for businesses of all sizes. 

No-code marketing platforms

Marketo

https://www.marketo.com/adobe-experience-cloud/

Adobe Marketo Engage is a marketing automation platform that helps businesses connect with customers and keep them engaged. It offers a wide range of tools and integrations, making it easy for companies to create personalized content and deliver it at the right time, every time. 

One of the standout features of Marketo Engage is its ability to personalize user experiences, from emails to landing pages, even for anonymous visitors. It uses in-depth profiles, real-time behavioral and demographic data, and AI to create personalized content tailored to each customer.

It also offers advanced marketing analytics, multi-touch attribution, and tools that connect sales and marketing data, allowing businesses to quickly see the effectiveness of each piece of content and how well their customer journeys are working. With the ability to get a holistic picture of the entire customer journey from the first interaction to conversion, businesses can make more informed decisions and improve their marketing efforts.

Key Features

• Predictive audience building and segmentation using AI
• Built in intelligence for account-based marketing
• Cross-channel marketing

Pricing: Marketo Engage’s pricing is not disclosed; you need to contact them for more information.

Getresponse

https://www.getresponse.com/

GetResponse is an all-in-one marketing solution that enables businesses to simplify their email campaigns, website creation, and marketing automation. The platform is designed to assist companies in establishing their online presence and expanding their customer base.

GetResponse has lead-generation tools that allow businesses to find new customers and grow their email lists through targeted and effective communication. The platform also provides a means for companies to engage with and retain their existing customers through tailored online interactions. Additionally, GetResponse offers e-commerce-specific features that help businesses increase their online sales by providing personalized experiences to their website visitors.

Key Features

• Predictive audience building and segmentation using AI
• Built in intelligence for account-based marketing
• Cross-channel marketing

Pricing: GetResponse has three pricing plans:

• Free: This plan contains everything you need for the basics, including email marketing, landing pages, and sign-up forms, and can connect up to 500 contacts. 
• Paid: Lowest plan starts at $13.30/month and includes premium features like marketing automation, segmentation, live chats, and e-commerce features. 
• Max2: A custom-made solution with unique features and custom pricing. 

Overall, it’s a valuable option for companies looking to expand their online presence and customer base.

Proof

https://useproof.com/

Proof is a website conversion optimization tool that helps businesses increase website conversions by up to 15% in under 15 minutes. The platform is designed to make customer-obsessed marketing easy and effective. With Proof, businesses can make their website more human and engaging, leading to better customer experiences and higher conversion rates.

One of the key features of Proof is Hot Streaks, which shows the total number of people who have recently taken action on a business’s website. This is great for high-traffic pages such as content opt-ins, webinar registrations, and free-trial pages, as it helps build credibility and trust with potential customers.

Another feature is Live Visitor Count, which displays the number of people viewing a page or the entire website. This is useful for creating scarcity on pages with limited inventory, such as physical product, booking, and event ticket sales pages.

Key Features

• Easy to set up on your website.
• A/B testing to track conversion.
• Integrates with Zapier to send conversion events from your CMS.

Pricing: Proof’s pricing is based on the number of monthly visitors.

– Basic (0 to 1k): $29/month

– Pro (1k+ to 10k): $79/month

– Business (10k+ to 50k): $129/month

– Premium (50k+ to 100k): $199/month

– Platinum (100k+ to 300k): $299/month

– Enterprise (> 300k): Custom pricing

Its suite of conversion optimization features can help businesses build credibility, create scarcity, and boost customer confidence, leading to higher conversion rates. 

No-code automation platforms

Zapier

https://zapier.com/

Zapier is an all-around automation platform that allows users to automate anything, including lead flow, sales outreach, contracts, team updates, and even to-do lists. Zapier is a platform that connects work apps and streamlines business operations. 

It helps businesses manage their entire funnel and empowers them to serve their organization better. From side hustlers to enterprise leaders, Zapier enables individuals and teams to focus on the bigger picture by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. It supports over 5,000 apps, providing infinite possibilities to connect the tools businesses use today and in the future.

Key Features

• Easy to set up.
• Customized logical workflows for a range of actions..
• Over 5,000 automation possibilities.

Pricing: Zapier offers several pricing plans that cater to different needs. 

• Free: 100 tasks/month.
• Starter ($29.99/month): 750 tasks per month. 
• Professional ($73.50/month): 2,000 tasks per month. 
• Team ($598.50/month): 50,000 tasks per month. 
• Company ($1198.50): for organizations that want automation with robust security features and oversight capabilities.

In conclusion, Zapier is a powerful automation platform that can help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations and manage their entire funnel. 

Parabola

https://parabola.io/

Parabola is a tool that helps businesses automate, document, and collaborate their processes to achieve operational excellence. It’s designed for businesses with unique, complex, and ever-changing workflows and for people who are experts at their processes rather than writing code. Additionally, it’s beneficial for teams that want to unblock the engineering queue and scale efficiently.

Key Features

• Integrates with Shopify for ecommerce automation workflows.
• Multiple API integrations to unify your workflow.
• SOC 2 Type II compliant

Pricing: The platform offers three pricing plans.

• Basic: free  
• Plus: $80 
• Advanced: contact sales for custom pricing. 

The pricing plans are flexible and allow businesses of different sizes to access the tool. It’s an excellent option for companies looking to achieve operational excellence.

No-code web development platforms

Webflow

https://webflow.com/

Webflow is a robust website design and development tool that empowers designers and teams to create, collaborate, and scale beautiful websites in a visual canvas without coding. With Webflow, you can build any website you can imagine with the full power of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a visual canvas. With over 3.5 million users, Webflow is one of the most popular website-building tools on the market.

Key Features

• Ready-made templates built with HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
• Optimized for SEO
• Flexible content management system.

Pricing: Webflow offers a variety of pricing plans to suit different needs and budgets. 

• Starter: Free
• Basic: $14/month billed yearly. 
• CMS: $23/month, billed yearly.
• Business: $39/month, billed yearly
• Enterprise: contact sales

Elementor

https://elementor.com/

Elementor is the ultimate website-building tool for WordPress users. With its powerful drag-and-drop editor, you can easily create stunning websites without the need for any coding. The platform offers a variety of widgets, including more than 100 full website designs based on the Hello Theme. With Elementor, you can choose from an extensive library of pre-designed website designs that are ready to use and easily customizable to suit your needs.

In addition to its robust design capabilities, Elementor also offers world-class hosting powered by Google, ensuring that your website will perform at its best. With Elementor, you can manage your entire website’s design system, including global colors and fonts, to create a consistent web experience.

Key Features

• Built-in hosting powered by Google.
• Full website design kits.
• Available in multiple languages.

Pricing: For a one-time payment of $99 per year, you can access the full suite of Elementor’s features, including the Theme, Editor, and Hosting. 

With Elementor, you can easily build, manage, and host stunning websites, making it the #1 website platform for WordPress users.

Carrd

https://carrd.co/

The Pro plan gives you access to exclusive features such as custom domains, forms, Google Analytics tracking, widgets for third-party services like payment gateways, and the ability to publish more than three sites.

Key Features

• Very simple platform.
• Integrates with multiple email marketing platforms.
• Easy-to-edit, responsive templates. 

Pricing: Carrd is free for up to 3 sites, making it the perfect choice for anyone who wants to create a website without breaking the bank. Carrd offers an optional Go Pro upgrade for just $19/year for those looking to add more features. 

Carrd’s pricing structure is straightforward, making it accessible for anyone looking to create a website with ease.  

Conclusion

No-code platforms have revolutionized the way businesses and individuals approach technology and development. With the right one, anyone can create and launch a website or app or automate marketing tasks without knowing how to code. Whether you’re a business owner, marketer, or just someone looking to create a new project, these platforms can make your life easier and help you achieve your goals.

The post Top 15 No-code Platforms To Scale Your Business in 2024 appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

No coding is a visual development environment that allows non-technical users to build apps by dragging and dropping software components to create a whole app. Users who have no prior coding experience can construct apps without writing any code.

What are Low-Code and No-Code Platforms?

Low code and no code development platforms may be used to design, build, launch, and modify enterprise-grade programs. These platforms were made to enable professional developers and corporate users with little to no coding skills to do so.

The two systems with no coding are the easiest to use. A visual, drag-and-drop, no-code architecture may be used to create simple, useful programs. The integration possibilities are restricted, and, likely, you won’t be able to successfully accelerate or modify legacy systems here. Instead, this kind of development works best when helping teams with narrowly focused, specialized requirements. 

The simplicity and ease of no-code platforms can have certain disadvantages. Because so much of its architecture is predetermined by those who built it, the ability to change it is minimal to nonexistent.

Given that they offer few features, why have no-code systems been able to last this long? This is especially true if you do not want to (or simply cannot) wait for your internal IT personnel to construct anything for you because they are easy to use even if you have no coding expertise or competence.

As a sort of middle ground between total human coding and no-code, low-code solutions are more flexible. Like their no-code equivalents, low-code systems can include drag-and-drop functionality and be graphical. They also give designers the best of both worlds in that development speed may be accelerated without having to repeatedly copy basic code since they are open, flexible, and permit coding or programming. Scalable designs, open APIs for renewability, and flexible implementation options in the cloud or on-premises are benefits of low-code platforms.

Difference between Low Code & No Code

Low-code platforms are often used by IT professionals with coding experience to create complex custom applications, whereas no-code platforms allow business users to build apps without any coding to achieve their business goals. By examining the qualities given below, you may learn more about the variations between low-code and no-code development platforms:

• Depending on the type of program, application integration may entail merging data from several platforms. Low-code development platforms generally offer great system integration flexibility, whereas no-code systems frequently fall short. Because shadow IT might develop through the creation of apps without sufficient oversight or inspection. Security threats, regulatory challenges, integration issues, resource-intensive applications, and rising technological debt are just a few of the potential outcomes.
• Anyone with a basic understanding of technology may use platforms for no-code programming. Low-code platforms provide customization and come with more sophisticated tools, but they are only appropriate for those who are skilled in programming. As a result, staff members might benefit from low code training. 
• Low code and no code development platforms may both be used to create corporate apps for internal usage. Conversely, low-code platforms enable the creation of well-known programs that support important business procedures. No code development environments are ideal for building software that can handle basic business problems by itself.
• The debate that has come before has shown that no-code platforms are perfect for any employee who wants to innovate and enhance processes. Platforms with low code are built for creating enterprise-level apps. As a consequence, it’s a great tool for DevOps teams and software engineers aiming to save costs and time associated with development.

No Code may assist an organization’s operations and return on investment in a variety of ways. However, you may be asking how no-code solutions may be customized to benefit your organization specifically. The following are some of the use cases that no-code has to offer, regardless of size or industry:

• For business intelligence analysts and programmers who wish to transform raw data into useful insights, the best reporting tools are crucial. No code solutions will prove to be just what you want. Real-time access to your company’s data is possible, and you can use no-code to transform it into useful data grids, visualizations, and significant statistics.
• Software for managing data. Using a no-code platform, you may connect your data sources to any database, such as MS SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and others. The data may then be updated, edited, added, deleted, etc. Business database apps may be created fast and easily. Collaborative information collection, storing, sharing, and sharing have become easier. A data export/import feature, configurable interface, modular expandable structure, and ready-to-use templates are all included with your code-free bespoke database.

Low Code platforms may be used to build more complex programs and can handle a larger range of use cases due to their general-purpose nature. 

• new technology application cases that are creative. Various low-code solutions can make use of access tools, face and voice recognition services, cryptocurrencies, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other cloud-based digital services provided by third parties. Additionally, they have access to substantial component libraries created by professionals in the field. 
• Pre-built user interface designs for mobile customer experience applications are there to assist you to improve usability and acceptability while keeping the integrity of your brand’s marketing plan. 
• cross-department and cross-domain applications that increase productivity and efficiency.

When using low- & no code

Both low-code and no-code offer benefits. The parallels between the two do not make this decision any simpler. The best course of action is to assess the current needs and make the proper decision. Take into account the following questions to determine consumer demands: 

• What goals are pursued while using low- or no-code software? 
• Who utilizes the services? How proficient are they in programming? 
• What is the scope and size of the problem that has to be fixed? 
• Does the construction need the integration of specialist internal and external applications? 
• How long should it take to turn things around? 
• How much say do customers want to have on the code? 
• Is sensitive data handling or security consideration required for the application?

What is the program used for and who will construct it are the two most important queries in this situation. Although all of these are significant issues, it is preferable to take a goal-centric rather than a user-centric approach, meaning that the what is more crucial than the who. 

Low-code is the preferable solution if the use cases are complicated, call for connections with other on-premises or cloud apps, have customer-facing or business-critical needs, or need to be distributed throughout the company. In this situation, collaborations with IT teams or training programs can address the issues even if users lack the necessary competence in programming languages.

Why use Flatlogic Platform for Low Code/No Code development

The development industry has an obvious use for low-code and no-code platforms. Gartner predicts that they will take over the market within a few years, therefore ignoring the benefits that these tactics provide might cost an organization opportunities. 

To accommodate a variety of developers inside an organization, search for a low-code development platform that offers specialized tools, integrated collaboration, and a cloud-native architecture. 

The requirement for coding expertise is diminished by low-code platforms, which use a visual, model-driven approach. They also change how lines of business collaborate with IT development teams to create applications.

Flatlogic Platform – is a platform that helps you to create, host, and develop a fully workable CRUD web application with front-end, back-end, and database. The generated application is an excellent foundation for further development with user authentication, data management, and a ready-made basic structure. 

Flatlogic full-stack web application generator is a tool for the fast creation of web applications from scratch. The agency provides the UI for creating the database schema from which you generate the application code base. All you have to do is think about your future application’s database schema. Equally importantly, you can also create static websites using our generator.

You can create almost any type of web application with the help of the tool:

• CRM;
• Headless CMS;
• E-commerce CMS;
• Admin Panel;
• Data management app;
• Inventory management application;
• UI for the database.

Let’s take a look at the features of applications generated using the Flatlogic full-stack web application generator:

• The application created with Flatlogic is fully responsive;
• The application has ready-to-use authorization and authentication features;
• According to the previously created database structure, all backend and frontend logic is created automatically;
• Each application comes with a Docker container that facilitates deployment on any hosting platform;
• Flatlogic automatically creates a Swagger-documented API for each element generated by the generator;
• Forms, buttons, tables, and the entire layout are pre-configured;
• The tool is also fully integrated with GitHub, so you can quickly create new entities and tables without writing new code, publish them to GitHub and collaborate with other developers on your project;
• The WYSIWYG editor is ready to use in the apps you create;
• The application will include some search, filtering, and validation features.

The post What is the difference between Low Code & No Code appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

Low-code development allows businesses to create apps with minimal coding. In addition, mobile app development based on the no-code/low-code platforms makes development a little easier. It enables developers to design, build and deploy apps without worrying about the underlying OS or architecture. However, for security purposes, developers generally use code signing certificates for better code integrity and legitimacy of an app.

Faster development means fewer efforts and optimized costs. According to GoodFirms, an application can cost between $40,000 and $100,000. Therefore, cost optimization and a timesaving approach are critical to mobile app development.

Here, we will discuss low-code features and benefits. Moreover, how it redefines mobile app development.

What is Low-code?

Low-code is a software development method that makes processes faster and requires minimal coding. It is a set of tools and practices which allow developers to minimize hand-coding efforts and have rapid app development. Most platforms provide developers with a visual interface to create apps requiring minimum coding. 

A low-code platform visually enables applications’ delivery through a drag-and-drop interface. As a result, developers can write fewer code lines to build apps. The best part is the speed of development that allows developers to build complete apps with user interface, service integrations, data, and business logic execution.

So, how does it work? A low-code platform provides app development features and various reusable components.

What is Low-Code development?

Low-code development is like a machine coffee! You do not need to boil the water; the right amount of water, sugar, and milk for that fantastic taste. Instead, developers need to write many code lines in the conventional approach, which takes more time and effort. 

It enables developers to build apps through a visual interface. It offers building blocks of applications and components for app development. Therefore, developers can focus on higher functions and features while cutting down efforts on coding. 

The development of applications needs a proper testing process to ensure a seamless user experience. Deployment is delayed if the development team takes more time to code an app and needs to integrate changes post-testing.

It improves time to market, making the entire process efficient. Now developers can spend more time on complex business logic and integrations. 

Let us discuss some of the critical features of low-code development.

Low-code features and benefits

Organizations can benefit from many low-code development features like visual interfaces, declarative tools, reusable components, etc. 

Visual flow

Whether you have experienced developers or newcomers, process flows are essential for them to understand before developing the application. A process flow helps development teams plan, execute and improve productivity. In addition, it helps organizations with a structured development process.

Low-code development enables organizations with a visual flow, making it easy for development teams to understand the entire process. As a result, organizations can visualize the whole development process for teams and enhance production. 

Drag-and-drop design

Businesses can benefit from the drag-and-drop design of the low-code development platforms. It allows organizations to close the gap of unskilled developers. You do not need highly experienced developers, as most of the building blocks of the application are drag-and-drop elements. Therefore, developers can use these components with a highly intuitive interface and create a seamless user experience.

Deploy anywhere capability

Having mobile-ready solutions is key to success in business. According to HuffPost, 87% of the customers purchase mobile, and 68% use smartphones for pre-purchase research. So, it has become crucial for businesses to go mobile and target users across devices.

Low-code development ensures that businesses can deploy applications across devices. Reusable components come pre-built in such platforms that help developers deploy apps in multiple environments with minor tweaks. In addition, cloud-based platforms offer flexibility, scalability, and continuous delivery.

Declarative features

Low-code development platforms have declarative tools that allow organizations to create flexible code structures. Therefore, they can make quick changes per business needs and market demands.

The agility of quickly adapting to market needs is easy with the declarative tools such platforms provide. Further, low-code platforms execute visual models and business-specific rules for enhanced development.

Security and scalability of apps

Application security is critical to your business, as users need a secure experience. According to a study, 63% of mobile applications with open source software components had at least one vulnerability. Therefore, you need to ensure that the app development platform is secure.

Cloud-based low-code platforms have security features like identification and access management (IAM). It allows organizations to verify data access and protect sensitive information from hackers.

When it comes to scalability, low-code development platforms provide enhanced capabilities. Cloud-based platforms offer scalable architecture for your applications, which can handle peak loads without affecting performance. 

Benefits of low-code development

Low-code development provides many benefits, which include higher productivity, optimized costs, better scalability, and efficiency.

Higher productivity

Low-code development reduces the hand-coding burden on developers, enabling higher productivity. Such platforms have evolved with advanced innovation and feature integration to address enterprise app requirements. 

A typical business app has four key aspects to consider,

• What functionalities app will provide to solve customer problems?
• What processes will require automation?
• Design decisions include strategies to ensure a better user experience
• Architectural decisions and choice of different programming. 

While functionalities can be similar in apps within a domain, other factors need customizations. Therefore, enterprises look to develop bespoke business apps to address customization requirements. Low-code platforms provide enterprise-grade app development without compromising on customization needs. It improves productivity for enterprises through. 

• A library of components and design patterns that are reusable
• Business-facing visual graphics and intuitive interface for app specification input
• A mechanism to convert the specifications into code
• Integrated development environment(IDE) for seamless user experience

Optimized costs

Organizations engaging developers per hour can reduce costs through lower development time. Low-code platforms improve time to market through the visual assembly of components that do not require extended coding. What makes it a worthy approach is the freedom experienced by developers get to focus on complex design problems. 

Another critical benefit that such platforms provide is the reduced cost of hiring. One of the most significant challenges for many companies is the skill gap. According to the US bureau of labor statistics, developer employment will grow by 22% between 2019 and 2029.

Therefore, finding, engaging, and hiring a skilled developer for your application development is a challenge for many companies. Further, such high demand with a massive skill gap leads to costly hiring. 

Improved business agility

Customer behavior changes make organizations adapt and create new business strategies. However, small businesses and startups need a solution to improve business agility.

Low-code platforms provide higher agility with faster development, enabling businesses to make quick changes per market demand. As most design modules are reusable and there is a graphical interface for adding new features to an app, the entire process becomes efficient. 

With faster development and ready-made components, you have the flexibility of rapid feature addition, testing, deployments, etc. Further, such platforms can enable organizations to provide seamless user experience across devices making it agile and flexible. 

Higher risk management 

Managing risks can be intimidating if you do not have the tools to adapt quickly. Low-code platforms allow companies to make changes according to the changing compliance and data protection regulations. 

For example, in 2021, there was a change in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data regulation guideline for business operations in the European Union. Companies that store, analyze, share and use data of EU citizens need to comply with GDPR. 

The newest alteration in the GDPR guideline indicates that Website owners and publishers need to take explicit permissions before installing cookies on users’ devices. Earlier it was perceived that users that browser on the website provides consent by default for their data storage, recreation, and analysis. 

You can use low-code development to adapt web app logic and security policies to accommodate new norms of data regulations.  

Application scalability

Scalability is an important aspect that drives major development decisions for many organizations. There are two perspectives for application scalability.

●   Runtime scalability is the ability to increase deployed capacity for your application to provide an enhanced user experience. 

●   Developer time scalability is the ability to use minimal code across projects and environments to deliver long-term management of several apps in your portfolio.

Low-code platforms provide organizations with tools to create apps with better runtime scalability. It also offers higher developer time scalability through modules and codes that you can use across different app projects. Especially if you need a web of apps to support services, such platforms are ideal.

The future of low-code development 

Low-code platform features and benefits give organizations an edge over competitors with scalable applications. What makes this approach a promising one for the future is its ability to support Rapid Application Development (RAD). Organizations prefer RAD when they need prioritization of rapid prototyping and quicker feedback integration. 

Apart from the support for RAD, here are some data making a case for low-code app development

• According to Gartner, 65% of the application development will be executed on low-code platforms.
• The low-code development market is set to generate a revenue of more than $187 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 31.1%.
• Such platforms can help reduce the development time by 90%.
• 72% of companies developed an application using low-code development within three months. 
• 84% of enterprises use low-code or no-code development for digital asset development
• 41% of developers want their organization to use low-code platforms and develop 50% of applications.

Types of Low-Code Development Platforms

Though the future looks bright for low-code development platforms, you need to know what type suits your requirements. 

General purpose platform

Such platforms provide low-code development capability to develop any application. It allows businesses to develop different apps and deploy them across environments. You can use general-purpose platforms to develop the backend and front end of the app. 

Process-based platforms

Businesses need applications for processes like forms, service integrations, and workflows. Low-code platforms provide tools to create reliable applications for business process management. Especially companies that need approvals for process workflows can leverage such platforms for quicker development.

Fixed-process platforms

Many organizations need apps that can handle specific user requests. These applications handle requests for fixed processes. Take an example of security access management inside an organization. You can develop applications for data access authentication through low-code platforms. 

Database low-code platforms

Database platforms are restricted to the function of pulling data from storage on access requests. These low-code applications are best for organizations with large data centers. 

Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP)

MADP is a platform that supports the concept of “write once, adapt anywhere.” Many organizations must target audiences across mobile platforms and develop individual applications. Low-code platforms help organizations develop a single codebase and use it across platforms.

What is the difference between low-code and no-code development?

One of the common myths about the low-code or no-code development approaches is that both are the same. However, both of these approaches are different in many ways. First and one of the most fundamental differences is the involvement of developers. 

While low-code development has linear coding requirements, the no-code approach provides a complete hands-off development.

For example, the applications for self-service inside an organization, dashboards, web apps for internal functions, content management platforms, and others can be developed through a no-code approach. 

Low-code platforms are an excellent option for creating an interconnected web of applications, while a no-code platform is best for standalone apps. Especially if you need user interface development and automation of standalone functions, no-code development is best. Some of the use cases also include BI reports and facility management applications.

Low code apps use cases

Low-code application platforms or LCAP can support many different types of use cases like 

• Citizen development 
• Business unit IT apps
• Business process apps
• Composite applications
• SaaS and ISV applications

Citizen development 

Low-code development platforms provide some no-code features for citizen developers to build applications using pre-built design templates, APIs, and default logic. It supports a citizen development strategy for businesses, which is useful when you do not mind a shadow IT scenario. Citizen developers build apps without proper IT approvals, called shadow IT. 

Due to the drag-and-drop format and no-code capabilities, you will end up with several apps, which need to be connected. Especially without proper control over citizen development, you may have many duplicate apps. So, it becomes crucial that you have a citizen development strategy and a low code platform accordingly. 

Business unit IT apps 

Business units are cornerstone departments or units of a business. For example, your human resource or sales department are business units needing management applications. Low-code platforms allow organizations to build business unit applications quickly to support different activities across such units. 

Business process apps

Companies need to access, share, and use backend data to automate specific processes. They especially need to share and use business logic to build platform applications. Automation of such processes across platforms needs apps that execute business logic.

Low-code platforms allow companies to build applications for business processes. Due to minimal coding, it takes little effort for businesses to make the low code platforms an attractive option.

Composite applications

Multi-disciplinary teams often work on cross-functional projects to bring business logic and IT together. For such projects, time and budget become critical aspects, which is why low-code platforms are suitable.

Low-code platforms provide visual tools crucial in promoting such collaborations because cross-functional teams need professionals that are more skilled. While one team has developers with preferred skills, others may have different levels of mastery. 

Therefore, low-code platforms with no-code capabilities are ideal for delivering composite apps. 

SaaS and ISV Applications

Low-code platforms allow businesses to build web and mobile SaaS apps. It also provides templates that make software development quicker for independent software vendors (ISVs). 

However, low-code platforms can be restrictive if you want to have customizations for your SaaS applications. Most platforms come with specific templates and boxes in your design strategy. Therefore, you need an alternative strategy to apply customizations. 

How to pick a low-code platform?

Low-code platforms are available in the market with different options. While some focus on tools for rapid development, others offer features like data visualization, integration, and information preparation tools. Nevertheless, how to find the right platform?

Here are steps to follow in choosing a low-code development platform, 

Step 1 Analysis

Identify and analyze the need for a low-code platform. What is the timeline of your project, how much is the budget, and what is the app’s complexity? Here are a few questions that you need to ask about need analysis. 

Further, identify specific use cases of low-code platforms for your organization and plan accordingly. You need to design processes, business logic development, and app features and decide which platform can suit your requirements.

Step 2 Development Strategy

Define your development strategy that involves the following aspects,

• Who will develop apps?
• Who will design the apps?
• What is the testing strategy?

These questions are essential because there are specific low-code platforms that target designers, developers, and testers separately. In other words, you can choose different platforms for each phase of the software development lifecycle or pick an MBAP for your apps.

Step 3 Customer experience impact

Low-code platforms provide pre-built templates to build a superior interface and user experience. However, you need to analyze the user requirement before choosing a platform. You also need to examine the impact of such platforms on development and customer experience.

Step 4 Costing and usage requirements

Estimate the development cost with the low-code platform and compare it with the conventional approach.

Further, keep in mind the specific usage requirements of the application before choosing a platform. 

Step 5 Features, compliance, and tools

Compare different platforms based on their features, ability to develop apps quickly, and compliance with standard data regulation standards. Check for no-code capabilities among other vendor options if you plan to leverage citizen development for your projects. 

Conclusion 

Rapidly growing mobile application usage is forcing companies to speed up digital transformations. However, the conventional approach to designing, developing, testing, and deploying apps need extensive coding efforts. Developers must create massive code repositories and create new code each time they release a new version. Low-code development platforms make development faster for developers reducing the need for a huge codebase. They can drag and drop ready-made components to create a reliable app experience. However, the suitable platform for your project will depend on specific requirements.

The post What is Low-code – A Detail Guide appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

For example, the marketers at Zoho and Appian promote their platforms as low-code platforms but in reality, they are no-code platforms. Because you don’t have to write even a single line of code to use the functionalities of these platforms. 

Another reason why such confusion occurs is that both low-code and no code platforms are used to achieve the same results. But it is high time that we clear the air of such confusion so that non-technical people, as well as business owners, can make an informed decision about which platform to use in their project. So, let’s get started. 

What is No Code?

We are living in an age where you don’t have to be an expert to build your website or application and it’s possible because of no-code platforms. You don’t have to learn a complicated programming language anymore, just use the simple drag-and-drop features of the no-code platforms. This is done through a visual development methodology where pre-made visual elements are connected with pre-coded and easy-to-configure workflows. 

These types of platforms are specially developed to serve non-tech people who don’t have any coding experience. Also, all the functionalities are pre-built and relatively simple to use so there is no need to involve or hire the IT department or hire any professional developers for your app development. This not only reduces the burden of certain responsibilities of maintaining the systems and infrastructure but also saves you from many overhead costs. 

Now say, for example, a restaurant owner named Bob provides dine-in, takeaway, and delivery options. Now, his delivery takes time and his costs are high too. So, to save money on it and to make faster deliveries, he comes up with an app idea. But he doesn’t have any coding experience or knowledge on how to develop a software application whatsoever. 

He could easily use the no-code platforms to transform his idea into reality without spending too much time learning how to code or money on app development. Of course, he has to have some basics clear about how the software works, what is a database, the user interface, and more.  

The thing is he could easily obtain such knowledge from anywhere, may it be youtube, free online courses, boot camps, and so on. Interestingly, most of the no-code and low-code platforms provide such basic training for the users of their platforms. 

And what more? If you go through the strenuous training of learning programming languages and then executing a software development process, it would just take a considerable amount of time in comparison to app development with low-code or no-code development. The former can take months whereas the latter option can take just a few hours. More importantly, with no-code platforms, you don’t have to start from scratch, they provide pre-built templates to build your applications. 

What is Low code?

It was the low-code platforms that made software development easily accessible to the masses. 

Low code is a software development lifecycle that focuses on building applications without coding. The concept of low code was first introduced by Dan North in his book, The Art of Unix Programming. He described low code as “a kind of programming that avoids writing any program code.”

Low-code platforms are usually used for creating websites and web apps based on web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Low-code platforms allow developers to focus on developing their application’s user interface (UI) while leaving all the backend work to a server-side framework or API provider.

Now say, for example, a web developer named Matt wants to create a new feature for his MicroSaaS. If he leans into manual coding, it takes more time but if he uses a low-code platform then he can integrate his new feature into the platform a lot faster. This would not only save him time but will also increase his productivity.

Developers can easily use the low-code platform without any trouble because they know how to code so they can easily figure out what to do and how to do it. 

When you weigh out all the available development options, Low code platforms rank in between the completely manual coding and no-code platforms. 

Differences between Low Code and No Code

Before we weigh the low-code and no-code platforms on standard industry parameters. Allow me to explain some basic differences to you first. 

Integration of applications

Sometimes you have to gather data from multiple platforms, of course, it depends highly on what type of application you are using. No-code platforms perform very poorly in this arena whereas low-code platforms are known to offer outstanding adaptability for system integration. 

When you build with the no-code platform, there isn’t anyone who could provide expert oversight or supervise your work. So the chances of programs developed under such conditions can sometimes have regulatory challenges, security concerns, integration issues, and more. You might also end up with an app that uses up more resources than necessary. 

Requirement of training

There is no need for any kind of training to use no-code development platforms, as you can just simply drag and drop the features you want in your app. No technical experience or knowledge is required either. 

But the low-code development platform contains some complex tools and provides customization too. The use of such a platform is possible only if you have some prior knowledge or experience in programming. Therefore, you need some training before you go out and start using low-code platforms. 

Resultant apps

Low-code and no-code platforms, both are mostly used to build business applications for internal usage. But the major difference lies mainly in what kind of business operations they can handle. 

No-code platforms can only help you create apps that can optimize minor business issues on their own, nothing complex can be solved using this platform. Meanwhile, low-code platforms are ideal for developing high-demand software applications that can easily manage essential business operations.  

Target audience

From what we discussed above, the no-code development platforms seem to be ideal for someone who aspires to innovate or even improve the existing procedures. And the low-code development is good enough to create enterprise-grade apps.  

For example, when the covid-19 virus hit, low-code platforms came in handy to design pharmacy and covid testing site-finding apps. It has proven to be an incredibly reliable tool for developers and DevOps teams for reducing their development time and costs.

Now, let us browse through the standard industry parameters and understand how low-code development and no-code development differs there. 

• Primary users – Mostly business personnel and other non-tech people use the no-code development. On the other hand, the primary user base for low-code consists of developers. 

• Objective – The main objective behind designing using low-code platforms was to reduce the development time whereas the no-code platforms were created so that people can easily build their apps without any hassle. 

• The need for code – The name no-code itself suggests that no coding is required in this type of app development. Meanwhile, in low code, you have to use a few lines of code to create features or applications. 

• Customization – You can completely customize any features or any component of the app because here you are basically altering a few lines of code or just adding some new ones. So complete customization is possible with low code. But in the case of no-code, pre-built templates are used to build apps. So, even if you want to customize, you can only customize those pre-built templates.  

• Platform flexibility – The low-code platform utilizes coding so you can just use different programming languages to use them across multiple platforms. However, using no-code development, you have to stick with the same platform. 

• Development capabilities – You can code your way through this type of development so this type of development has complete end-to-end development capabilities. But the no-code platform comes with limited development capabilities. 

• Complexity – Low-code platforms aren’t just complicated to use but they can also be used to develop complex apps. On the other hand, development with no code is easy but you can only build simple applications with such a platform. 

• Cost-effectiveness – If you already have a team of fully-fledged IT developers then low code is very cost-effective for your use. On the other hand, if you don’t have developers or have inexperienced developers but your requirements are high then no code is cost-effective for you. So ultimately it boils down to what your requirements are. 

Which one is suitable for you?

I think the differences we discussed in detail are good enough to give you a complete understanding of low-code and no-code platforms. Now, it’s time to answer the most important question because you might say that yes, it’s interesting enough that one platform can help you develop apps without coding and another can help you develop a custom application with less time and money. But which one is useful to me? 

“No Code can eat Low Code for breakfast” – Shawn Wang, Former Senior Developer Advocate at AWS. 

Well, no-code is very helpful but there are many merits to low-code development too. Choosing one can be a bit challenging. You have to make a strategic decision in picking a platform that can help you achieve your business goals. But don’t worry, allow me to guide you more so that you can make an informed decision. Well, keep one thing in mind most of it depends on whether you can hire professional developers or not and if you can, what kind of development experience they possess. 

When to choose No-Code development?

If you have just come to know that such tools exist then it is advantageous that you must choose no-code as your development approach, especially if you don’t have any technical background or coding experience. Even if you have limited IT resources then also going with a no-code platform would be a wise choice. 

No-code platforms aren’t designed for developers, they are built for citizen developers and business users. You can have complete control over your app development process and can oversee the entire digital transformation process, create apps, data management solutions, and ML tools without any type of IT team. 

No-code platforms are easy to use for rapid development. Software development is no longer expensive or limited to tech-savvy developers. 

When to choose Low-Code development?

If you or your team of developers possess unique coding skills and are proficient in at least one programming language then it is safe to say that you can choose low-code development over no-code development. Because the whole point of choosing no-code is that you can’t code your way through app development. 

If you have professional developers on your team then it is just the right time to introduce them to the low-code platform. Not only is it a good alternative to conventional manual coding but it also helps you save time and money. If you want to build apps for multiple devices then also you have to use low-code because using no-code you will be bound to a single platform only. 

Even if sometimes you have used no-code and now want to try out a little coding yourself then also it’s a good time for you to move on to low-code. 

Now, just ask yourself a few questions and you will have your answer for which platform is an ideal choice for you. 

• What is the amount of customization that you require? – If you need little customization then no-code is your choice and if you need large-scale customization then go for low code. 

• How much technical proficiency does your team have? – If you are proficient in at least one programming language you can try out low-code, otherwise, it will be better to opt for no-code. 

• How many integrations do you want to add? – If you want to work on a single system then you can go with no-code. Even a few integrations won’t do any harm. But if the number of integrated systems is larger then you must choose low-code development. 

I hope that this blog and a little Q&A above have been helpful to you in figuring out which side you would like to be in Low Code vs No Code.

The post Low Code vs No Code: Key Differences appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

We are finally happy to share with you the results of the world’s first study on how developers start a web application in 2022. For this research, we wanted to do a deep dive into how engineers around the globe are starting web apps, how popular the use of low-code platforms and what tools are decisive in creating web applications.

To achieve this, we conducted a survey with 191 software engineers of all experience around the globe. We asked questions around the technology they use to start web applications.

Highlights of the key findings:

• The usage of particular technologies in the creation of web apps is closely related to engineers’ experience. New technologies, such as no-code/low-code solutions, GraphQL, and non-relational databases, appeal to developers with less expertise;
• Engineers with less experience are more likely to learn from online sources, whereas developers with more expertise in software development prefer to learn from more conventional sources such as books;
• Retool and Bubble are the most popular no-code/low-code platforms;
• React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Amazon AWS, and Bootstrap are the most popular web application development stacks.

To read the full report, including additional insights, and full research methodology, visit this page. 

With Flatlogic you can create full-stack web applications literally in minutes. If you’re interested in trying Flatlogic solutions, sign up for free. 

The post Starting a Web App in 2022 [Research Results] appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

I am thrilled to announce to you our new tool called Flatlogic Web Application Generator.

It is a compilation of more than 7 years of our professional knowledge in web software development.

The idea is really simple and consists of a few steps only:

1. Choose the stack for your web application (React, Vue or Angular for front-end, Node.js for back-end and PostgreSQL or MySQL as a database),
2. Define a database schema,
3. Choose a design, and that’s it!

Then you get a working web application – you can even generate a live demo to preview the app and modify it if needed. The application is a sort of CMS for the entities defined in the database schema. It has a front-end, back-end, and database completely ready to use and download.

Now you can work with React, Vue, and Angular as a front-end, Nodejs as a backend, and PostgreSQL or MySQL as a database. We have Java, Python (Flusk), and PHP versions under development.

As for the design, we offer several options to choose from: Google Material, a classic one, transparent, etc.

You can use a free version of the web app generator, or buy a subscription that starts from $19 per month.

Tap to watch our tutorial video:

Join to start using it, click on the “Generate app” button on the generator page.

For more than a year we have been using the generator internally to boost the development process and now we are happy to share it with you.

Send us your feedback: concerns, questions, requests, etc., — we want to continuously improve the product we have built for you.

Thank you!

The post Full Stack Web Application Generator by Flatlogic appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.