Breakdown The Benefits & Disadvantage of Using Low-Code  

The larger the enterprise, the larger the workload of the development team. So, for best efficiency, many businesses have leveraged the low-code benefits to simplify their operations and encourage innovations within budget. These low-code development platforms help optimize the programmer’s working time in the day to create more impactful value. Yet, what are other pros and cons of low-code platforms businesses should be aware of? 

The Pros of Low-code

1. It’s More Cost-Effective 

While the old traditional code (High-code, Traditional code, or coding from scratch) takes a long time and effort to complete and necessitates a team of developers, the project completion costs are higher. This makes it difficult because not all businesses, particularly SMEs (small and medium enterprises), have such a budget to work with.

Compare high-code to low-code, the benefits of the latter are much obvious. It requires fewer resources and is friendly to both coders and non-coders. Because low-code has a built-in code base, users don’t need to write much or have in-depth knowledge of the code; simply drag-and-drop, which significantly reduces operating costs. 

2. You Don’t Need Advanced Programming Skills To Use Them

Experienced coders are an asset to any team, but they can be costly and difficult to find in recent years (highly competitive to get them onboard too!). Thanks to these top low-code development platform, even your citizen developer can do basic coding and deployment on their applications, no matter what level they are in.  

For example, the marketing team can use a low-code development platform to optimize their web performance. Their job is to maintain and update the website or mobile app for engagement. Yet, imagine the time they spend if they need to contact a developer whenever they want to change something on the interface.

Using a low-code platform, the marketing team can actively and independently alter the interface with new content, imagery, design, and more. Coders only assist and advise when necessary. This is low code benefits is time-saving and practical solution for non-specialist departments. 

3. Tackle Tech Talent Shortage & Technical Debt

From the above benefits, we can see low-code is a great alternative strategy to fight the high demand of qualified technicians. Of course, this doesn’t mean low-code will replace them. While you are still looking for the right candidate, having a low-code tool can help your team to continue digital transformation, not being disrupted by other factors.

At the same time, startups and SMEs usually face technical debt when building digital products. It happens when you skip certain step during the development to fasten the time-to-market. Yet, in the long run, the “abandon pieces” can become a double-edged sword and you have to spend more time to fix it. With low-code, you can fasten these process without skipping it, hence reduce the risks of technical debt.

4. It Encourages Seamless Collaboration  

Traditional app development divides your team into two groups: coders and non-coders. Business teams (non-coders) plan the vision and assign it to developers (coders), but the project scope can sometimes get lost in translation.  

Low-code eliminates these communication silos, allowing both parties to contribute in real-time. Everyone from your executive team to your front-end developers can participate in bringing the application to life.  

It also eliminates the need for back-and-forth processes and long wait times between handoffs. Teams can truly collaborate rather than doing and waiting for approval and repeating.  

You are also not required to work on someone else’s timetable. If you need a solution right away, you can build an MVP rather than wait until the next sprint to get on the radar of your development team. 

5. Low-code Shorten Deployment Time 

Low-code development tools handle the tedious, time-consuming steps to help you get to deployment faster. With fewer entry barriers, you’ll have more hands on deck to help speed up the process.  

Low-code app development enables non-technical users to create minimal viable products (MVP) that you can test before involving your developers, saving you time and money. If an MVP fails, discard it and move on.  

Another available feature of the low-code development platform is drag-and-drop. This makes it one of the most convenient ways to manually edit, add, and remove details. LC also automatically back up finished products to create collections of reusable design components. Users can use it as a free template to make changes based on previous designs without re-coding.  

Faster development leads to more rapid deployment, which results in happier customers and a higher ROI (return on investment). This is a long-term low-code benefits for businesses.  

6. Low-code Makes Automation Easier 

Here’s how:

1. It simplify the front-end development, meaning that you can spend more time on standardize your workflow and build a smooth back-end.
2. With pre-build code blocks, you can break down your workflow into small chunks and leverage a modular architecture to connect between processes and departments.
3. Easily edit and iterate each process to make it best fit your business strategy.

Furthermore, the benefits of low-code platforms are that prebuilt platform integrations and API openness enable any digital business process automation. Explore the distinctive advantages of low-code automation in our article “How Does Low-code Workflow Automation Stand Out?“

7. Using Low-Code For Agile Prototyping 

One of the advantages of low-code platform is that it allows anyone to create prototype solutions for similar projects quickly. The prototype can be compared, analyzed, and tested to determine which option is best for the company.  

Once a decision has been made, the project can be forwarded to advanced development for scaling and integration with other solutions.  

8. Legacy Modernization & Integration Is Easier Than Ever

Another significant advantages of low-code development is integrating legacy mainframe systems. Low-code platforms are well known for increasing app development agility since they provide the same benefits, such as faster development, more resilient solutions, and the ability to adapt quickly to new requirements. You won’t have to worry about your project being left outside without the ability to scale. 

9. It Brings Flexibility To Adapt 

This low-code platform benefits assist in making the necessary changes and adapting any website or app to the needs.  

This can be done without complicated hand-coding; simply enter the platform’s low-code editor and make all the changes visually. Low-code development platforms provide developers with all the tools they need to iterate and edit existing business processes.

This makes it easier to have all the project documentation and revision history available, so anyone can quickly understand everything. Furthermore, implementing a similar project can be simple for anyone. 

10. Low Maintenance 

By abstracting the tedious plumbing work from day-to-day development, low-code development alleviates the burden of software maintenance. There are far fewer bugs and integration issues to deal with now that components are standardized, pretested, and ready-made. With this low-code development benefits, developers can focus on innovative work that drives greater business value by spending less time on maintenance. 

11. Freedom To Focus On Other Business Innovations  

By cutting down time on basic coding applications, your tech team will have more time to invest in other developments that are more impactful.   

On the other hand, many businesses allow employees to use low-code platforms (including non-technical positions) to turn their ideas into reality. At the same time, the tech team will only focus on optimizing and developing the ones that stand out. This works as a test for companies to search for the best-suited innovations in the sea of ideas and save resources on what matters.   

The Cons Of Low-Code

1. The Risks Of Vendor Lock-in

One of the most common disadvantages of low-code automation is vendor lock-in. Most businesses believe they won’t change their minds once they choose a vendor. The result is always different; now, they must rely on a single vendor.   

Thus, choosing a suitable vendor and a flexible low-code platform is essential. Specific low-code automation platforms provide clean, standardized code that can be used in collaboration with other vendors. Before purchasing the tool’s license, it is critical to read the vendor’s policy:

• Some vendors will stop supporting your application after you stop using it.
• Some vendors, on the other hand, can provide migration support to transfer your code and data once you stop using the application.

2. Low-Code Might Promote Shadow IT 

IT departments may encounter a situation where a department or individual uses an unapproved low-code automation tool during reviews or for other reasons. This exposes people to unnecessary risks and wastes resources.

Yet, this low-code platform disadvantages can be managed by constant monitoring for warning signs, such as receiving tickets for unfamiliar software. This situation is avoidable if your employees are educated about the dangers of shadow IT and aware of double-checking with the specialist in the field before launching it.

Another tips is to set up a Governance on using low-code, to help you manage its usage.

3. Limited Customization 

Integrating custom code on low-code is sometimes more expensive than building a customized solution from scratch. Certain vendors will provide access to the code. Your software development team must ensure the added ones are compatible with the platform’s source code. As a result, it is critical to understand the customization limitations before selecting a low code platform for your company. 

4. Low-Code Is Not As Easy As You Think  

One disadvantage of a low-code platform is it’s not that simple. Even though low-code was designed to be an alternative to traditional development that small teams can use, it still requires basics coding knowledge.  

Low-code is indeed less complicated than hand coding. It can enable citizen developers to create applications that require minimal programming skills, but that doesn’t mean that knowing some programming languages isn’t beneficial. 

Wrapping Up

Businesses worldwide have begun to implement low-code benefits to digitize their operations. When used in conjunction with a traditional approach, it allows for faster and more efficient application development. Every new technology has its own benefits and drawbacks that must be considered carefully before deployment. Synodus recommend that adopting new technology for your business should be based entirely on your company’s goals and needs. 

More related posts from Low-Code blog you shouldn’t skip:

• Potential of Low-code in Healthcare for Digital Transformation
• Using Low-code in Insurance to Accelerate Business Growth
• Utilizing Low-Code for Customer Services: How to & Use Cases