Gartner estimates that “by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity”.
What is low-code software?
A low-code development platform (lcdp) is a software that provides a development environment for creating software or apps through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming. A low-code model allows developers with varying levels of experience to build applications using a visual user interface in combination with model-driven logic.
But what exactly are the advantages?
Speed
Development using this approach can be up to 10 times faster, depending on the platform used. On average, large apps can be built by two or three developers in up to two months. Because it is a ready-made and mostly standardised architecture, it facilitates interaction and communication between those involved.
Integration
One of the major challenges in systems development is integration with other platforms as the choice of language or technology can impact development cost and time. With the help of the platform, this time curve is reduced as there is already a numerous range of features available.
Operating costs
With virtually everything available, the platform typically provides many ready-to-use features, thereby reducing costs and allowing businesses to invest part of their financing in other phases of the project or even in the well-being of employees, for example.
Minimum viable product
Because the high demand for technologies is constantly growing, having an idea and transforming it into a product can take considerable time and, as a result, lead to the loss of opportunities in the short term. Having a platform with many features and integrations allows you to reduce development time, shortening the entire learning curve so you can redirect some of your efforts to focus on application business rules.
Easy to learn
These platforms are easy to learn since they are generally very intuitive. However, they still require knowledge of software development, regardless of the language. The platforms also offer graphical interface-based mechanisms to ensure developers can abstract many irrelevant or even repetitive things.
Although development is made easier for those with less programming experience, this type of development does not replace the need for more experienced developers since it is a generic platform, that has some basic market limitations, combining the advantages described above. A specialised developer will always be needed for customisation.