The Low Down on Low Code Solutions

Building an application from scratch has often been seen as a daunting task, a web of intricate code, functions, and dependencies traditionally best left to the programmers. These programmers are required to have an in-depth knowledge of their language of choice, as well as the peculiarities of development environments, deployment processes, and then their approach to testing. Even then, with 2022 offering so much in the way of potential tools and languages, even developers themselves can come with their own niches and mindsets of how applications should be built and what they should be built in.

It can be a difficult ask for the rest of the business to get actively involved with this development and, in response, businesses have begun to turn to low-code development. These platforms are becoming more and more popular as they seek to remove much of the complexity from building modern business applications. These low-code platforms attempt to bridge the gap between the business and the developer. It is a software development approach which intends to remove most of the barriers to entry that makes conventional coding both a specialist and daunting skillset. These platforms can help improve productivity by democratising access to a side of the business which no longer needs to be reserved for developers.

There are many platforms out there that are subscribed to the low-code way of development. These come equipped with reusable components, modules, and via pleasing and straightforward GUIs with a strong emphasis on straightforward, jargon-less user interfaces and documentation. Users can create applications by use of flowcharts, drag and drop widgets with the entire development stack being taken into consideration.

Applications can be built without a line of code being written, with even cross-platform support to compare how an application would look on a tablet vs a webpage at the click of a button without the need of any HTML or CSS trickery.

There are an abundance of low code solution offerings available to fit nearly every use case. These low-code platforms can help organisations of any size quickly build, design, and deploy business apps with little to no coding skill required. These solutions can evoke the question, why learn Python (or another development language) when you can drag and drop something practical together in a few hours?

The major criticism from the software developer side is adaptability. Can you really have flexibility and specialisation at the same time? The risk is always there that an application will appear ‘generic’ and will only work within the boundaries that the platform allows.

Even though no-code options exist, low code can still require some code. For anything customised, applying a coding language (if even supported) or roping in a developer may be unavoidable. There will always be a looming feeling that using a low code framework could lock an application into high level abstractions and dependencies that Python could resolve quite simply with the right package.

There is no doubt that low code provides a very accessible avenue into software development. A big selling point of these platforms is ease of access. Visual development, one-click deployment, reusable components, and being aligned with agile methodologies, make low-code solutions a very feasible option for development. It is always worth asking the question of whether a ‘real’ programming language would be better suited, and it should be mentioned that these low-code solutions usually come with a price-tag.

In summation, if the tool exists, why not use it? Writing your own code yourself gives more options and flexibility but a long development process and all the bugs that can come with it.  If scoped out correctly then low code can optimise the entire development process to accelerate delivery. There are a plethora of low code options available, each with their own pros and cons to consider.