When driving adoption for a low-code platform does one target developers or no-coders?
That’s a question that every low-code platform founder has been asking themselves. On the one hand, no-coders love building things fast. They usually come from other fields and carry different skill sets with them. They are focused on the business side of things and tend to know what it takes to get products to the market. What they sometimes lack is engineering logic. Therefore, when it comes to scaling no-coders still need to turn to “pro”-code and usually with the help of dev shops or freelance developers.
On the other hand, traditional developers know it all about the functionality of the project they want to build. They move fast and try to prepare the areas they would need to scale for the future.
"The future of coding is no coding at all."
- Chris Wanstrath, co-founder and former CEO of GitHub
But is it? Types of users aside, the greatest advantage of low-code tools is the ability to achieve business outcomes more effectively and efficiently. The fact that now thanks to the different levels of reusability it’s possible to write less code without compromising on the complexity of the product is astonishing.
Keeping that in mind it’s safe to say that low-code platforms are still products of the software engineering world born to make the life of developers easier.
If we break down what a low-code platform is we’ll see that it’s essentially a TOOL that helps write software. How does it help? Ultimately, there’re tons of different tricks.
Some are more technical - Retool, some have pre-built components - KissFlow, some are more visual - Creatio, and some offer as much or as little customization based on demand - Mars. However, low-code still has code in it and for no-coders adopting the technology, it means that a certain learning curve is involved.
Then why are there so many different low-code solutions? Because building one massive tool that fits all the ideas would be extremely difficult. Now every tool tailors to one particular industry or even a set of tasks. The trick here is not to overcomplicate because that is what eventually took away from the beauty of many tools out there.
By cranking up the speed of development with the use of plugins, micro-apps, pre-built components and whatnot many may argue that low-code also introduces certain limitations by installing walls or frameworks around each platform.
Is that a dealbreaker? If you’re just looking at the surface, it may definitely look like one. If you’re looking in deeper, it may not actually be a problem or even become an advantage.
Think of foldable houses. Choose the one you love the most, have it shipped to you and start installing it with whatever else you want to have inside. Use the fundamental base and change anything else from the floor plan to the color of china in your living room.
And if you ever run out of space there’s no need to try and squeeze all your stuff in the old box or crush the thing altogether you can just create more rooms / storage spaces / whatever yourself and continue building your house to be everything you ever wanted it to be.
What are the most revolutionary low-code solutions are our there? Is the future still in code?