Does Low Code really exist?
I’ve been exploring the low code space in the past couple months and it is still hard to tell the difference between no code and low code. I haven’t really seen any successful company who advertised themselves as a low code product.
Is low code just a marketing buzzword that doesn’t really mean anything or is it a developing product category that can be popular in the future?
To me nocode is proprietary, provider hosted with limited extensibility with complete vendor dependence and lockin - so although cool in demo's with drag and drop interfaces - are pretty much everything a developer hates and will never limit themselves too.
Low code is just a new word for more useable / accessable frameworks which ideally are - open source, can be hosted anywhere, infinitely extensible.
You could combine the two nocode hosted solution interfacing with a low code apis. Ultimately any serious app will need to be written at the code level and lowcode is the most efficient option.
Pretty obvious who will win the war.
PS If you think by using nocode you can avoid the difficult concepts of any serious app (e.g transactions, security, horizontal and vertical scaling) - you are in for a very nasty surprise :-)
PPS Drag and drop for developing applications (not just GUI's) is massively inefficient - e.g having to write (if (a==b) else ) - versus having to drag a conditional diamond and then two outcome boxes.
Completely agree!
No code is just an extra configuration layer on top of a framework, which previously was only available for developers.
To me, Zapier is the ultimate example of a great no-code product.
Do you think people search for low-code solutions or it's more like they just look for the characteristics that you described above?
I use Retool.com and I feel like that one is low-code? You still have to write some small pieces of javascript to make things work. But overall it's still way faster and easier than coding apps the traditional way.
I didn't know that you can add custom code to Retool. Low code is great to reduce boilerplate code and annoying configurations.
Stripe has an interesting implementation of this, it has no code, low code and 'normal'. The no code essentially means you use a page hosted by then, the low code is the same but with simple code in the frontend and some code on your backend and the normal has you implement everything and it's cheaper (no extra fees) and more adaptable
Interesting. Do you think if people search for “low code solutions”?
Totally guessing I would say mostly no because they either want no code or their no how to code, it's probably more used by not so experience coders or people who are time limited (it's a faster implementation of course)
Probably all the successful low-code products are rather awesome developer tools
Code automation is one of the important low-code keyword and there are many low code automation platforms these days. However, it seems no code tools are more popular than low code since citizen developers(aka non IT trained users) have more needs for tools they can implement right away, whereas developers can utilize their ideas into production.
But low code platforms will surely rise in the future since it will lessen the mundane tasks and increase the production quality since developers will be able to spend their concentrations in more important tasks!
Great summary! I completely agree. To me a Low Code tool is when code is a necessary supplement of a product.
Shameless plug 😅, but I think https://www.makery.app is a good example
I do a lot of work that involves connecting with APIs but barely writing any code beyond that. Obviously figuring out how to construct the API call requires some basic coding knowledge but it's no harder to learn than it is to learn to create Excel formulas. If my customers want to adapt what I've made then it would be relatively easy for them to learn to do so - I'd consider that low code.
From my vantage point, low-code solutions are ideal for software developers or those with a basic understanding of programming. The value they provide is in minimizing the development time of adding specific features into "bigger" applications.
I view API's as a low-code alternative to building out features that have already been made and maintained by others. This level of abstraction and avoidance of "re-inventing" the wheel offers unique advantages to founders, SWEs, or others who need to go to market in as little time as possible (aren't we all?).
I'm currently working on a product that I consider to be low-code since it's aimed at reducing development time for, well, software developers. The value proposition is in the time-savings since developers are expensive and minimizing time-to-market is the goal. I believe this value proposition holds true for a lot of the low-code options available on the market.
As a bit of self-promo, if you need a low-code solution for adding PDF generation into an app, checkout https://www.jsonpdf.com
Good question! It's quite messed up. Low code exists - good example is my startup Codis - generating Flutter UI screens/widgets from Figma design.
Well there's some low-code tools like Outsystems that are enterprise grade, and really big companies use it to save thousands (hundreds of thousands) in development costs to build specific solutions. Of course, they are in an extreme end of the map.
Would you ever search for specifically a low-code solution for something?
At that scale? No. Don't understand why such large companies are using these tools, as they probably have the funds to do full-code developments. I think the companies like OutSystems have great sales teams, working hard to show some of these companies the pros of using their low-code tools.
'Low Code' is sufficient to get a business off the ground, depending on the type of business that you want to create.
Let's say, you need a website to attract, enroll, or collect payments from clients. No Code and low-code are just fine.
If your app requires any part of 'CRUD' besides 'R' (Create Read Update Delete), then No-Code Lo-Code won't be sufficient
The less you code the more you need to configure.
I think low code is just a way of saying 'you can customize it but you don't have to know how to program everything'
In an enterprise environment, people usually think of products like Mendix, OutSystems and Microsoft Power Apps.
These tools provide wysiwyg-editors for designing user interfaces and tools to draw boxes and connect these to implement logic and workflows. I have some experience with Mendix and Power Apps and am quite impressed by the possibilities. Without writing any code it is possible to create some cools apps. Sometime you need to fall back to writing a bit of code, which is supported as well.
Pretty cool! There is a Microsoft product for everything! :D
Locofy is a great example of what "low code" really means.
I don't know what "low code" really means but I've been coding in Google Script for years, and it's wonderful. Pretty much just javascript, with no CSS nor HTML.
Feels "low code" to me but I'm sure this is not what "low code" really means.
Yes it exists but is usually done poorly.
The optimal low code solution would be one where it is just as easy to add code inside their app as it is to code it yourself in VS code etc.
Trying to do that with https://versoly.com/ it is a no code and low code solution.
It is low code as you can easily paste in code and it works. The magic happens as it takes that code and allows you to edit it in the no-code UI.
Hopefully in the future I will be able to do this with JS as well not just HTML.