No-Code / Low-Code

coding

This item was not updated in last three versions of the Radar. Should it have appeared in one of the more recent editions, there is a good chance it remains pertinent. However, if the item dates back further, its relevance may have diminished and our current evaluation could vary. Regrettably, our capacity to consistently revisit items from past Radar editions is limited.

Mar 2022

Assess

No-code or low-code refers to tools that allow application software to be created via graphical user interfaces and configuration - instead of (classic) text-based programming. Low-code platforms additionally supports certain scripting possibilities.

No-code and low-code platforms have raised a lot of funding and the ecosystem is growing fast. There are more than 400 platforms listed on software selection websites like g2. The promise of this ecosystem sounds logical: there is a growing demand for digital products and solutions in all sectors - and skilled teams of developers are scarce. That's why platforms like bubble.io, airtable, appsheet, bryter, ninox and co promise to build digital products faster and better.

And the platforms have developed and the ecosystem is emerging. AI technics are being used to improve the creation process and modern low-code platforms also come with built-in release and operations support. We have used some low-code platforms for internal tools, for example to help organise events or onboarding activities.

Here are our thoughts on this:

We see opportunities to improve communication and collaboration between developers on such platforms and non-technical professionals (domain experts), as they can collaborate on the platform directly during the process of creating the digital product.
If the use case fits into the sweet spot of the platform, the results are very fast and surprising.
There is a logical trade-off between simplicity and flexibility: platforms with a high level of abstraction and a low learning curve can deliver good results very quickly. However, if you have requirements that do not fit into the "standard" of the platform, it becomes difficult to customise. On the other hand, platforms that allow a lot of configuration and scripting come with a higher learning curve. And in some respects it may end being similar to using a programming framework.
Operating costs can become a relevant factor - especially if you pay for high performance and higher utilisation.
You have to realise that with complex applications there is much more to do than "just" writing code. Test architecture, api design, integrations, careful design of the solution, proper testing, CI/CD strategy etc. So there is still a need for skilled (development) teams to do this work.

Thinking about the different aspects, we will not consider low-code platforms as the core technology in complex software development projects - but we think that even in larger IT projects or organisations there are valid use cases or certain "bounded contexts" where using a low-code platform is a proper choice and helps to deliver results faster.