Whether it's creating custom applications or automating workflows, businesses and individuals constantly need efficient and cost-effective ways to develop software.
However, creating your own software can be difficult if you don’t have a team of developers to help you, especially if you have limited coding knowledge or experience.
That’s where low-code development platforms can help.
What Are Low-Code Development Platforms?
Low-code development platforms are software development environments designed to help users build applications with minimal coding experience.
They provide base-level code, scripts, and integrations so both developers and non-developers can prototype, build, and scale applications without needing to develop complex infrastructures with code. This makes them accessible to a wider range of people, including those with little to no coding experience, also known as citizen developers.
Most low-code development platforms use visual interfaces and drag-and-drop tools to make it easy for anyone to create applications, even if they don't have any coding experience. This is a big change from traditional software development, which requires a lot of coding and technical expertise from the user.
Low-code platforms democratise software development, making it accessible to a wider range of people. They can be used to build a wide variety of applications, from simple web forms to complex enterprise systems.
They are particularly well-suited for developing applications that need to be changed quickly and easily, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and business process automation (BPA) systems.
Benefits of Low-Code Development Platforms
1. Faster Development
Low-code development platforms use drag-and-drop features and pre-built components, allowing for the rapid creation of applications compared to traditional coding from scratch. This translates to quicker time-to-market for your ideas.
2. Increased productivity
By simplifying development, low-code platforms free up professional developers to focus on more complex tasks. Citizen developers with less coding experience can also contribute to building applications, extending the development team's capacity.
3. Reduced Costs
The need for fewer professional developers and faster development cycles often leads to significant cost savings. Low-code platforms can also help minimize maintenance expenses due to their often user-friendly interfaces.
4. Simplified Maintenance and Updates
Low-code platforms often provide built-in features for managing updates and maintaining applications, reducing the burden on IT staff. Businesses can adapt their applications more easily to changing needs with low-code platforms. The visual nature and pre-built components allow for quicker modifications and updates compared to traditional development.
5. Citizen Developer Empowerment
Low-code's user-friendly interface makes it possible for citizen developers to contribute to application creation, the pool of talent available for development projects. They also can foster better collaboration between business users and IT teams. Business users can provide valuable input into the application's design and functionality, while IT can ensure technical soundness.
Choosing a Low-code Development platform
Choosing the best low-code development platform for your business requires careful consideration of your project needs and priorities. Things to consider include:
- Your specific needs. What types of applications do you need to develop? What are your budget and deadline constraints? What level of technical expertise do your users have?
- The platform's capabilities. What features and functionality does the platform offer? Does it support the types of applications you need to develop? Does it integrate with the systems and data sources you already use?
- The platform's ease of use. How easy is the platform to learn and use? Is it well-documented and supported?
- The platform's vendor. Does the vendor have a good reputation? Do they offer good customer support?
You’ll also want a platform that offers good community support, as this can be a valuable resource for getting help with the platform and for learning new things. Keep security in mind too, as it’s important to choose a platform that protects your data and applications from unauthorised access.
Once you have considered these factors, you can start to narrow down your choices. Choose a platform that meets your needs as a no-code developer. We advise looking for a platform that is flexible and scalable so you can develop a wide range of applications and adapt the platform to your specific needs.
It's always best to try out a few different low-code platforms before making a decision. Most vendors offer free trials so that you can test the platform before you buy it.
Top 10 Low-Code Platforms for 2024
Choosing the best low-code platform for your needs is the key to unlocking the power that these development solutions have to offer.
Here are ten of the best low-code development platforms available in 2024, each of which stand out for their features, ease of use, and popularity with users.
ServiceNow
Our number 10 spot goes to the Now platform – ServiceNow’s single, unified low-code development platform for writing code and building applications. Now Platform is a highly versatile, scalable cloud solution that allows users to drag and drop components, construct workflows, and connect services with ease. The platform's AI automation tools enable businesses to respond swiftly to changing market demands and deploy apps as quickly as possible. Its additional, real-time collaboration tools enable cross-functional teams to work harmoniously ensuring that applications are developed efficiently, tested thoroughly, and deployed seamlessly.
Whether developing simple applications or complex enterprise solutions, Now Platform effortlessly adapts to evolving business requirements, ensuring that applications can accommodate increased demands. All this without compromising on performance.
Pega Platform
Pega’s low-code development platform allows businesses to optimise efficiency by giving business users, developers and IT teams what they need when they need it. The platform allows teams to seamlessly accelerate app development by defining core application elements – like outcomes, users and data – to jumpstart and accelerate app development.
It also offers a host of intelligent automation and workflow capabilities, enabling teams to not only automate simple tasks and eliminate unnecessary manual work but also ensure that your processes are producing optimal outcomes. These capabilities, paired with Pega’s intuitive and seamless user experience, allow businesses to intuitively build apps with beautiful, engaging end-user experiences that can be seamlessly deployed to any channel.
Retool
Retool is a powerful low-code development platform that provides all of the building blocks out of the box. Featuring over 100 expertly handled components designed to handle every data type and UI for internal tools Retool allows users to spend time assembling applications from dragging and dropping rather than having to invent their UI from scratch.
The platform provides a simplistic but deeply customisable setup that enables teams to connect to any API or data source, drag and drop to build UI, write code anywhere and publish apps quickly and efficiently. With Retool, developers are never limited to what’s available out of the box. If you can write it with JavaScript and an API, you can build it in Retool.
Low-Code by Kissflow
Kissflow’s Low-code platform brings business and IT teams to align and turn their ideas into useful business applications. It enables teams to build, test and deploy applications instantly from the platform, automating repetitive business tasks so that teams can focus on more important work. Developers can design their business processes by simply dragging and dropping and taking charge of the whole development process with forms, task recipients and alerts for every stage of development.
The benefits don't stop there. With Kissflow’s Low-Code platform teams can also set up rules to automatically route non-linear processes to the appropriate collaborates based on if they meet specific criteria. Or, of course, they can simply set up processes on autopilot, meaning they can get their work done rather than working on repetitive development tasks.
Oracle’s Application Express (APEX)
With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, even those without extensive coding expertise can create robust applications with Oracle. The company’s application Express low-code development platform allows companies to reduce the reliance on scarce technical resources and alleviate the burden on IT departments. Developments can simply automate their data flows with low code to build trusted data lakes for machine learning and analytics using Oracle’s OCI integration.
This cuts down application development time massively by providing rebuilt connectivity to all SaaS and on-premises applications, while also allowing teams to run-ready process automation templates and a low-code visual builder for web and mobile application development. Oracle also provides prebuild connectivity so that teams can connect any SaaS, on-premises, or customer application 4 to 6 times faster through pre-build adapters, recipes and templates that speed up the process and accelerate innovation.
Power Apps by Microsoft
Microsoft’s Power Apps is an excellent choice for companies looking to build professional-grade low-code applications with ease. Ranked as a leader for low-code applications with the likes of Gartner and Forrester, Power Apps is the only solution on this list that brings together low-code development, self-service analytics, and automation into a single, comprehensive platform. Teams can quickly build and share powerful low-code applications through the platform’s host of apps, services and data platforms that foster rapid application development to build custom apps based on business needs.
Power Apps is a platform as a service (PaaS), enabling teams to create applications that run on any mobile device or browser with new capabilities without having coding expertise. As an industry behemoth, Microsoft also boasts connections with various Microsoft-based and third-party applications, including the likes of SharePoint, SQL server, Google Docs, Dropbox, and Dynamics CRM
Appian
Appian’s AI-powered low-code development platform stands out for its incredible scalability and flexibility. The platform is designed to scale with business needs – whether that means supporting a few users or hundreds of thousands – and can be easily integrated with other systems, including CRM and ERP. It also offers a flexible low-code platform that can be easily customised to meet to unique needs of a business, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create and modify applications.
Built with security in mind, Appian is one of the most secure low-code development platforms on the market, offering granular security controls, encryption, and compliance with regulatory standards. It also supports a wide range of data sources and APIs, allowing everyone to work together to build and improve applications. Its social collaboration tools and features such as comments and notifications, keep teams connected throughout the development process, ensuring that applications are delivered on time and on budget.
Salesforce
With its extensive suite of powerful low-code and conventional tools, Salesforce accelerates every stage of the app development process. The platform offers 12 industry cloud solutions, all of which use its LCAP capabilities for extensibility to empower teams to build Salesforce apps with little to no coding required. Salesforce makes it easy to compose interactive apps with low code using Dynamic Interactions, which uses pre-built web components, that communicate, exchange data and react to user interactions. They can be added to any app without code, allowing developers to focus on more important aspects of the app development process.
As one of the most popular low-code development platforms on the market, Salesforce consistently unveils new capabilities in three annual releases and releases patches throughout the year. It also boasts one of the largest marketplaces in the world, with its AppExchange featuring over 7,000 resources, and a dedicated community supporting 74,00 developers – which is unmatched in the low-code space.
OutSystems
OutSystems’ low-code platform brings high performance to low-code development, uniting design, code and deployment into a single system that simplifies the process of creating business-critical software while keeping it always on and always up-to-date. The platform is one of the few solutions on the market with a singular focus on high performance, enabling teams to develop applications with serious productivity fast, while also eliminating waste and overhead so developers can get on with the creative business.
Recognised by Gartner’s Magic Quadrant as a leader in low-code development, OutSystems stands out for its incredible enterprise-grade platform features and extensibility that bolster professional development experience and enhance productivity. It also offers a revolutionary approach to software engineering, allowing no-code developers to produce applications and application components of any complexity, and in turn, broadening the platform’s use cases and technical scope.
Mendix
Our number one spot goes to Mendix, an industry-leading low-code development platform that empowers developers to deliver game-changing enterprise apps with ease. Renowned for its comprehensive support for both beginners and seasoned developers, Mendix provides a platform where all skill levels can thrive. From data models or integrating with other systems, developers can build applications with confidence and tackle complex problems with ease thanks to Mendix’s suite of automation stalls, dedicated community of developers and all-inclusive marketplace.
In the Mendix Developer Portal, each app lives in its own central project space with tools for collaboration, Agile project management, backlog management, feedback management, and DevOps. This allows teams to Manage projects easily with built-in tools that enable them to create, refine, and prioritise user stories collaboratively using conversation threads. With additional features such as portfolio management, which help enterprises mitigate risk, maximise value, and ensure alignment with business and IT goals, developers can rely on Mendix to provide effective low-code development.
