You can find a lot of information online about how no-code, low-code platforms can help businesses save time and money on custom software development solutions, thereby eliminating the need for professional software engineers.
There are reflections about so-called citizen developers and ideas about creating functional applications without specific knowledge and skills.
Those solutions with no-code and low-code for startups are ideal due to their versatility and open-source options. The low-code/no-code development trend is transforming how small businesses approach technology, evoking a dream of adaptable solutions that are accessible to anyone, regardless of their technical skill or budget. We aim to dispel this common misconception and demonstrate how low-code application platforms can’t replace custom software development.
Key Takeaways
- Low-code and no-code tools offer businesses extensive functionality.
- Let’s compare no-code, low-code, and traditional development.
- Citizen developers and non-technical employees using no-code/low-code tools are of use for companies to handle some challenges.
- Reasons why no-code and low-code can’t replace custom software development.
What Are No-code/Low-code Technologies?
Low-code and no-code platforms provide development tools that simplify the process of building software applications by minimizing or eliminating the need for traditional coding. These platforms provide visual interfaces, pre-built components, and drag-and-drop functionality, enabling users to quickly create, modify, and deploy applications, websites, or dashboards.
No-code Platforms Designed for Non-technical Users
Platforms for those with little or no programming experience. They use visual interfaces, drag-and-drop widget libraries, and pre-configured logic, focusing on ease of use.
Low-Code Platforms Geared Toward Developers or Power Users
Platforms combine visual tools with coding options for customization, offering greater flexibility, scalability, and control over your digital product than no-code platforms.
How Do They Differ from Traditional Software Development?
| No-Code/Low-Code | Traditional Development | |
| Development Process | Library with reusable widgets and visual workflows. It also requires testing and deployment efforts. | Custom coding requires efforts for design, development, testing, and deployment. |
| Technical Skills | Enables citizen developers with a basic understanding of building simple apps, eliminating the need for extensive programming knowledge. | Requires coding knowledge, deep technical expertise, and collaboration across multiple roles (project managers, developers, UI-UX designers, QA testers). |
| Customization and Complexity | Ideal for simple MVPs. Limited in handling highly customized or complex solutions. They limit your product to differentiate and become a cutting-edge product. | Fully customizable, capable of building complex, large-scale, and specific app development from scratch. You get a fully-fledged product with a competitive advantage. |
| Cost of Solution | Initially appearing cost-effective, but subscription-based pricing models can become expensive over time, especially as your usage scales. | It requires a higher upfront investment, but it offers better cost-efficiency in the long run by eliminating recurring platform fees. |
| Maintenance and Scalability | As your business grows and the complexity of your operations increases, these platforms struggle to scale effectively. | It accommodates your growth and can evolve alongside your business needs. |
| Dependency on Platform Providers | Your digital products depend on the platform’s ecosystem. This dependency creates risks, such as limited control over updates, pricing changes, or the platform’s discontinuation. | Businesses decide when to involve traditional developers in product transformation, ensuring seamless functionality even under heavy loads. |
| Lack of Integrity | Limited API support or customization options. | Custom software works seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, enabling better workflows and data management. |
| Lock-In Risks | Many platforms restrict access to the underlying code or use proprietary formats, tying businesses to a single vendor. | Ownership of the codebase ensures the enhancement of applications and other software independently, without being at the mercy of a third party. |
Predictions for No-code/Low-code Market
The global low-code development platform market is valued at approximately USD 10.46 billion in 2024. It is projected to reach around USD 82.37 billion by 2034, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.92% during the forecast period from 2024 to 2034.
Growth Factors in the Market for No-code and Low-code Development Platforms
As you can see, the market for no-code and low-code development platforms is experiencing rapid growth due to several factors that cover the changing needs of businesses and industries worldwide. What factors lead to market growth, and how are companies transforming their processes and bringing new digital products to market by finding the right solution for their needs?
| Increasing demand for out-of-the-box development solutions | Companies want to test their business idea and research market demand for their product. No-code and low-code platforms accelerate development cycles for MVPs, bringing them quickly to market. |
| Tech talent gap | The global talent gap in software development has increased the demand for tools that support non-developer teams in creating software products or facilitating digital transformation. |
| Cost efficiency | These platforms reduce the need for higher upfront investment needed for extensive coding and staff, significantly lowering software development costs in the initial stage.
Startups and small and medium-sized businesses find these platforms appealing due to their affordability in starting a project without delay. |
| Integration with existing systems | Modern no-code and low-code platforms offer, to some extent, integrations with companies’ systems, APIs, and third-party tools to extend the functionality of existing technology stacks. |
What Are Citizen Developers, and How Do They Help?
Citizen developers are non-professional developers who create or modify applications, digital platforms, and dashboards using no-code or low-code platforms. These individuals typically work outside of IT departments, such as Marketing, Sales, HR departments. To create digital products, they use drag-and-drop out-of-the-box solutions as tools to address business challenges, improve workflows, and build custom products without requiring advanced programming skills. Citizen developers offer convenient solutions for startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to adopt no-code or low-code tools, providing benefits such as cost-saving options and speeding up the development process.
As businesses strive to automate processes and boost efficiency, citizen developers facilitate the faster implementation of digital solutions, often at a fraction of the time and cost required for traditional development.
Key Benefits of Citizen Developers
- Faster turnaround times for digital product deployment;
- Individuals with direct knowledge of the specific business challenges of the given company adopt digital solutions;
- Reduced dependency on overburdened and costly IT departments or software development dedicated teams;
- Cost savings compared to traditional software development.
Low-Code Platforms Benefits for Some Types of Business
Low-code development platforms typically feature user-friendly interfaces with drag-and-drop components, enabling users to design digital products quickly and intuitively. This approach also allows individuals without deep technical expertise to contribute to application development.
Although low-code platforms offer a simpler alternative to traditional programming, some still need basic coding skills for advanced customization. However, the minimal coding skills required mean that you can find someone within a company who can build functional web and mobile applications with sufficient time, interest, and a bit of technical aptitude. Maintenance for low-code applications is typically less demanding than for traditionally coded apps, but ongoing support is still necessary to ensure functionality and alignment with business goals.
One of the key advantages of low-code platforms is their built-in support systems, such as tutorials, educational materials, and resource libraries. These features make them a preferable choice for startups or SMBs that lack access to or budget for cross-functional collaboration, or need to reduce development time and costs. Here’s a table outlining use cases for low-code platforms based on the type of business:
| Type of Business | Use Cases for Low-Code Platforms | Key Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Startups | – Rapid prototyping and minimum viable product development | – Speed to market |
| – Website and mobile app development process | – Reduced upfront investment | |
| – Automate repetitive tasks and workflows in the initial stage | – Enables focus on core business goals | |
| – Integrating tools for customer management (e.g., CRM) and marketing efforts | – Flexibility to iterate and scale | |
| -Creating analytical dashboards for investor reporting and measuring efforts to attract and engage clients | – Accessible for non-technical founders | |
| Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) | – Automation of some internal processes for project management, inventory, or HR processes, and transformation of legacy systems | – Cost-effective automation for simple tasks |
| – Automating invoicing, payroll, and financial tracking | – Streamlines some operations | |
| – Developing customer service chatbots or AI assistants | – Enhances customer experience | |
| – Consolidating data from multiple sources into efficient data analytics dashboards with a widget library | – Improves decision-making with centralized insights |
Top Low-code and No-code Solutions for Startups
| Bubble | The platform helps build apps with drag-and-drop functionality, making it a popular choice for building Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) or testing ideas. |
| Adalo | Focuses on mobile app development with a simple drag-and-drop interface, allowing startups to launch mobile apps quickly for iOS and Android. |
| Webflow | It’s a well-known platform for building responsive landing pages with visual tools that enable the creation of modern and effective UI/UX designs to build engaging experiences. It helps design and deploy high-quality web interfaces. |
| Glide | It is a cloud-based platform that offers tools designed for users to create custom applications, automate workflows, and integrate with services such as Google Drive, Slack, and Salesforce. Glide is a convenient tool for SMBs, startups, and remote teams, allowing users to build custom apps without coding and streamline their workflows. |
| Airtable | It’s a cloud-based platform for creating and sharing relational databases. Its intuitive interface allows users to set up a database in just minutes and store, organize, and collaborate on any data sets. It’s great for startups managing projects, data, or CRM processes. |
Solutions for SMBs
| Zoho Creator | It’s a low-code web development platform for rapid application development without the need for advanced programming skills. Its intuitive visual interface allows users to design and develop applications by dragging and dropping elements, setting up workflows, and seamlessly integrating the platform’s services. Companies use Zoho for project management, customer relationship management (CRM), and inventory management. |
| LaSoft Data Analytics Dashboards | LaSoft offers a tool for assessing business processes and outcomes through a ready-to-use analytics dashboard. This out-of-the-box solution enables companies across various industries to visualize their data effectively, providing managers with a comprehensive view of business performance, all on one platform. Lasoft’s solution eliminates the need to navigate multiple tools or invest in time-intensive custom dashboard development. With an extensive widget library, businesses can easily customize and modify dashboards to suit their needs, making it a flexible and cost-effective analytics solution. |
| Creatio CRM | It’s a low-code/no-code development platform designed to help companies scale and streamline their business processes with ease. Combining customer relationship management (CRM) with business process management (BPM), Creatio enhances the user experience through optimized internal workflows. This enables businesses to select sales strategies that align with their customers’ needs and preferences.
The CRM platform empowers employees by providing access to tools that enhance task efficiency and facilitate effective collaboration within the company. Additionally, Creatio CRM collects data from multiple channels, delivering an overall view of individual customer profiles to offer personalized engagement for clients of each particular business. |
| Looker Studio | The platform is popular among business analysts, helping with data visualization and business intelligence. It offers tools to analyze data, creating interactive dashboards to show metrics for business purposes to make data-driven decisions. Key features include a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, real-time data visualization, and team access options. |
| Salesforce | It is a cloud-based San Francisco software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to businesses of all sizes. Salesforce offers a range of products and services, including sales, marketing, and customer service tools, as well as built-in security features and tools for creating enterprise applications. |
| LaSoft Admin Panel | The LaSoft Admin Panel is a low-code solution designed for the quick and cost-effective development of administrative systems, helping clients save approximately 35%-40% compared to building complex custom systems from scratch.
Built with predefined components, the LaSoft Admin Panel enables you to efficiently create, update, and manage entities, including customer data, companies, products, and vendors, while maintaining seamless interdependencies between them. This solution offers both efficiency and full customizability, aligning with your company’s branding, workflows, and unique business logic. |
Solutions for Enterprises
| OneReach | It’s a no-code/low-code platform designed to build and manage AI agents and workflows. It can handle complex tasks, enhance collaboration among internal teams, managers, and stakeholders, and also improve communication with clients. All in all, the platform supports over 60 communication channels, enabling businesses to communicate through SMS, calls, web chats, e-mails, or platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs), machine learning, and generative AI models, such as GPT-4, facilitate intelligent and context-aware communication. The library of over 900 pre-built templates, combined with a visual drag-and-drop builder, was created to automate complex workflows, and you don’t need extensive coding skills to utilize it. |
| Microsoft Power Apps | This low-code platform, along with the option to integrate various data sources, offers advanced features and enables teams to develop software solutions for inventory tracking, project management, and workflow automation.
Businesses use Power Automate (for workflow automation) and Power BI (for data analysis and visualization), and integrate with Microsoft services such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365. |
| Tableau | The platform is popular among business analysts, helping with data integration and data visualization. It offers tools to analyze data, creating interactive dashboards to show metrics for business purposes and to make data-driven decisions. Key features include a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, real-time data visualization, and team access options. |
| OutSystems | A low-code development platform enables users to create enterprise apps with minimal code lines. Its visual interface simplifies the development process, making it accessible to users with no technical background for rapid application development. |
| Appian | It’s a low-code software project designed to rapidly and efficiently create enterprise applications. It features a visual interface that simplifies application design, deployment, automation, and integration with various data sources.
Appian is ideal for digital transformation, process automation, and elevating customer experiences with workflow management, business process automation, and advanced analytics features. The platform offers a suite of products, including Appian BPM, Appian Decisions, and Appian Analytics. |
Will No-Code/Low-Code Replace Custom Development?
We understand that ads on the internet ensure that no-code or low-code platforms cover businesses’ needs, offering faster and more cost-effective alternatives to traditional custom development. However, these tools can’t replace custom development. Instead, they complement it by addressing specific use cases where the development process’s speed, simplicity, and cost-saving are vital. The future of those solutions vs traditional coding has a balanced perspective:
Simple Applications, Prototypes, and MVPs
When a startup or small business requires simple solutions, such as internal tools, dashboards, basic workflow automation, or rapid prototyping and MVP development, these platforms can be invaluable. They enable teams to test ideas without needing custom development.
Convenient and Quick Business Solutions
Businesses can use no-code/low-code tools to create solutions like landing pages, event registration portals, customer feedback forms, or marketing campaign trackers.
Citizen Developers in a Team
Managers can delegate some tasks to non-technical employees to build applications tailored to department-specific needs, thereby reducing reliance on custom development for minor projects.
Why Low-Code Apps Often Face Challenges When Scaling
Low-code/no-code platforms are presented as a cost-effective shortcut to building an app or a web portal. At first glance, they really like a very convenient tool for creating an MVP to test a business idea in the market or to convey the product’s value to potential clients before pouring a large budget into custom development.
No-code and low-code platforms allow business owners to quickly design and deploy applications, skipping the traditional development process. However, many companies that start with tools like Adalo, Glide, or Bubble eventually reach a point where the platform limits their growth.
Once users’ quantity, data volume, or business logic become more complex, the software product can’t scale efficiently.
Limited Backend Control
Most low-code tools are stuck using pre-built REST APIs and can’t handle super-complex system integrations.
Limited Freedom to Make Changes
You’re pretty much stuck with whatever the platform offers. If you want your UI customised, or want to implement a specific workflow that doesn’t work the way it does.
Scalability
As your user base grows, so does the strain on the platform and price tag. And if you need to add a new functionality, you’ll likely need to start from scratch on a whole new stack.
Trapped in the Vendor’s Ecosystem
Your business depends on the platform; if vendors raise prices or change the terms of service, you could be looking at a costly, painful migration.
Security and Compliance
If you want complete control over how your data is stored, you definitely need custom backend systems.
The Illusion of Faster Development Cycles
Slogans and ads lead users to believe that low-code and no-code platforms accelerate application delivery. However, this “advantage” is an illusion when you consider the long-term effects:
- Quality in software development takes time. Rushed development often leads to technical debt and poorly designed solutions.
- Skilled developers utilizing modern frameworks and open-source tools can efficiently create customized solutions, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and quality.
- No-code solutions may save time initially, but you compromise future adaptability and product success.
Hidden Complexity for Non-Technical Users
One common misconception is that low-code and no-code platforms are easy for non-technical users to handle. However, in reality:
- Understanding components, product architecture, attributes, and functions requires technical knowledge and training.
- Non-technical users often struggle to work effectively with these platforms, resulting in suboptimal solutions.
This underscores the importance of involving skilled developers who can ensure the product is built to last and aligns with business goals.
Final Remark for Startups
For startups, low-code and no-code platforms can create a cycle of stagnation.
- Startups often require innovative, scalable solutions to grow and attract investors.
- By relying on limited platforms, startups risk being stuck in a “loop” of basic functionality that stifles their ability to differentiate and expand.
In contrast, full-code development allows your engineering team to control every layer of the application — from front-end design to API integrations, backend scalability, and security standards. Although it requires a higher initial investment, it saves costs in the long run because you don’t need to rebuild your product once it grows beyond the prototype stage.
| Category | Full-Code Application (Flutter / React Native / Swift) | Adalo / Glide (Low-Code Platform) |
|---|---|---|
| Development Speed | Slower; depends on the team’s size and project complexity | Very fast |
| Functionality Flexibility | Maximum — any business logic, UX/UI possible | Limited by available modules and templates |
| Custom Logic Support | Any logic: APIs, offline mode, integrations, push notifications | Partial — only what the platform supports |
| Loading Speed | Optimized — depends on implementation | Often slower due to platform overhead |
| UI/UX Design | Full control over design, animations, and layouts | Standard templates, limited customization |
| Backend/API Integration | Any REST/GraphQL integration possible | Limited — mainly REST-based |
| App Store / Google Play Publishing | Automated pipelines (CI/CD) and deployment | Requires manual builds and manual publishing |
| Updates & Releases | Requires manual rebuild or release | Automatic content updates via the platform |
| Scalability | Unlimited, depending on the chosen infrastructure | Limited — by records, logic, and storage capacity |
| Security & Data Control | Full control: encryption, firewalls, compliance | Partial; dependent on the platform’s policies |
| Third-Party Libraries | Any SDK or dependency can be added | Impossible or very limited |
| Performance Optimization | Custom implementation allows for speed and efficiency | Slower; depends on platform constraints |
| Team Skills Needed | Developers and DevOps are required | No coding skills required (drag-and-drop builder) |
| Target Audience | Suitable for full-scale products, startups planning long-term growth | Suitable for MVPs, prototypes, and idea testing |
Why Custom Development Is the Better Choice in the Long Run
Custom software development offers:
- Complete Control: You own the code and can make necessary changes without platform restrictions.
- Scalability: Custom software solutions can scale to meet your business goals.
- Quality: Skilled developers ensure a reliable product.
- Long-term perspective: Custom solutions adapt to market and regulatory changes with minimal disruption.
Final Thoughts
While no-code/low-code platforms offer a valuable starting point for the startup ecosystem and small businesses, empowering non-technical founders and business owners, they should be aware that relying solely on these tools can hinder growth and lead to long-term limitations. For enterprises and companies with complex needs, investing in custom development with writing code for software solutions remains a primary path.
All in all, these platforms are excellent for quick wins and cost savings. Still, a strategic approach—balancing their use with custom development—will drive sustainable growth in the company’s market presence.
