By KC Canlas, Digital Marketing Professional

Human beings are social beings. More people sheltering at home means more people going online to find channels where they can stay connected. People can now do most, if not all, of their work at home and online. Remote work has become the new normal in a world hampered by a health crisis and sporadic lockdowns. The spike in the online activity created a need for businesses to build new applications rapidly.

Businesses turned to low-code development platforms (LCDPs) to catch up with the increasing need for new applications or application updates.

What is low-code?

Much like e-commerce or affiliate marketing, low-code has become a popular buzzword starting last year, but it has been around for a decade or so. An industry analyst from market research company Forrester Research coined the term in 2014, but the use of low-code development platforms (LCDPs) can be traced as far back as 2011.

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“Low-code platforms enable rapid delivery of business applications with a minimum of hand-coding and minimal upfront investment in setup, training, and deployment,” according to Forrester Research.

LCDPs have made software development easier than before. Instead of writing millions of lines of code to build an application, developers have the option to use the drag-and-drop functionality. Later on, the codes for complex features can be written.

The difference with no-code

Hearing low-code and no-code for the first time, it can get confusing sometimes. However, there is a big difference between the two. Low-code lets developers create applications with minimal coding, but no-code requires no coding at all. Low-code provides flexibility by allowing developers to write snippets for complex features, while no-code can be used even by non-technical users to create an application. No-code is usually geared towards citizen developers.

Examples of low-code are Salesforce, Microsoft PowerApps, Outsystems, Appian, and Profound.js Spaces. Examples of no-code are Google Appsheet, Bubble, Internal.io, AWS Honeycode, and Webflow.

Low-code in the new normal

Research and advisory company Gartner predicts that the low-code market is projected to total $13.8 billion in 2021, an increase of about 23% from 2020. This explosion in demand is expected to continue despite the pressure on IT companies to reduce costs.

“While low-code application development is not new, a confluence of digital disruptions, hyper-automation, and the rise of composable business has led to an influx of tools and rising demand,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research vice president at Gartner.

Many believe that low-code is the future, but, in reality, low-code is now and it is here. Gartner estimates that by 2024, low-code will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity, surpassing traditional coding methods. Additionally, three-quarters of large enterprises will be using at least four low-code development tools for both IT application development and citizen development initiatives.

The light at the end of the digital tunnel

In a digital economy that is evolving and innovating in the blink of an eye, platforms that make application development quicker, easier, and maybe cheaper in the long run will continue to blow up in demand. Not only large companies benefit from low-code (and no-code), but small and medium businesses can now swiftly build applications even with a pool of non-technical users and without enterprise-level budgets.

It looks like even the tech world experienced a massive shift to adapt with the trying times. Those who are slow to adapt will be left behind because LCDPs revolutionize how business is done from 2020 and onwards.

You can reach KC Canlas at kc.marketech@gmail.com