Low-code VS No-code for corporate innovation by Zühlke and HuggyStudio

An introduction to Low-Code and No-Code

The low-code movement has been around for a while. Long before it had a name, developers were trying to make writing applications more manageable by providing visual tools to define applications. They showed how a majority of an application could be created and maintained visually, and only a few custom parts needed coding. As more development platforms used this approach, the industry analyst Forrester Research coined the phrase “low-code” to describe them. 

However, even the small amount of writing text commands slowed down the creation process and kept non-developers out of the process. The next step was to remove the need for coding, and the category of no-code was born. Many also feel no-code platforms are focused on non-developers as their users. In fact, the no-code and low-code movements have developed the phrase Citizen Developer to describe those users.

The most important common aspects of no-code and low-code are increased productivity and empowerment. They each significantly reduce the amount of time and the number of people needed to create and maintain an application, and reduce the skills and training required to build a digital product. This is why both approaches are so popular.

According to Gartner, 70% of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies by 2025. With this fast growth and the ongoing IT talent shortage, we believe that low-code and no-code will become the new standard within corporate innovation and that Citizen Developers will be in high demand.

When to use Low-Code with real examples (by Zühlke)

Low-code is the mix of build and buy, graphical representation of logic and the ability of injecting traditional code. The platforms speed up development by providing prebuilt components, infrastructure, best practices, but still provide the flexibility to implement processes the way they are. We applied it successfully in projects when there is a lot of common, state-of-the-art functionality, for example in a tenant portal where users can interact digitally with their real estate management company. 

Additionally low-code applications based on enterprise ready platforms such as Mendix are production ready, mature platforms and applications built on the platform can easily be operationalized. They are no try-and-throw-away software but can be used through the whole application lifecycle. As an example we built a quote-and-buy platform for a Swiss insurance company which is in production and is used by their employees to perform their daily work. 

In summary, low-code platforms speed up your time-to-market and combine it with a high degree of customization. They allow you to build production-ready software and avoid rebuilding functionality on a new platform while you move along your innovation process.

When to use No-Code with real examples (by HuggyStudio)

Thanks to its ease of use, no-code is ideal when testing new ideas. It offers the speed to continuously adjust on customer feedback and keep iterating until hitting product-market-fit. In general, no-code is the fastest way to get from an idea to a functional product. Less time required also means less budget.

Besides from speed and costs, no-code is also the easiest skill to internalize. If you are planning to build up your internal development capacity for new product ideas, it will be easier and less expensive to build up no-code skills. Indeed, in comparison to coding skills, no-code skills can be acquired by a wider audience, which simplifies the hiring process.

At HuggyStudio, we accompanied an insurance company that was building up its internal technical resources. As most business people, they were able to build an initial product version themselves and keep iterating on customer feedback with our coaching. In this specific use case, we focused on Bubble.io, a powerful no-code platform. 

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In summary, no-code is great for testing new ideas and building the first version of your product. Also, no-code is ideal for non-technical teams that are interested in making small changes themselves. While you can go quite far with no-code (see our Linkedin clone), it offers less customization than code and low–code platforms.

Real-life examples of Low-Code vs No-code

Low-code:

1. Portfolio management built on Low-Code for a Swiss real estate company to assess and plan investments:
2. Self-service portal for a Swiss real estate company to digitally interact with their tenants
3. Platform to check the interaction of multiple medications to avoid side-effects

No-code:

1. Farie.ch, a sub-brand of Carvolution that helps users purchase cars online: https://www.farie.ch/
2. Cybero.ch, an initiative of The Mobiliar that wants to create a hub for cyber security in Switzerland: https://cybero.ch/
3. NoCodeLinkedin, a clone of Linkedin to showcase the power of no-code: https://nocodelinkedin.com/ 

Key takeaways: Low-Code vs No-code

• Low-code and no-code both speed up the development process in comparison to traditional development.
• Although no-code doesn’t offer as much customization as low-code or code, it is powerful enough to build beautiful and highly functional products.
• No-code is ideal for rapidly testing new business ideas with a functional product right after the prototyping stage.
• As no-code is accessible to non-technical people, it is easier to internalize this knowledge through employee training.
• Low-code is capable of building full-fledged and production-ready solutions for many business problems.
• Low-code simplifies development and shifts the focus of development to solving the actual business case while maintaining more flexibility than no-code.
• Citizen development is an important concept in both - low-code and no-code - and enables domain experts to take over tasks. Anyhow, Low-code development still requires software developers for complex tasks. This is an important difference compared to no-code.

Want to learn more? Join our upcoming event: “Low-Code vs. No-Code for corporate innovation”‍

Learn more about No-Code and Low-Code and how it's empowering corporate innovation teams to build their digital products and solutions faster!

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🗓️ When: Monday, June 27th 2022

📍 Where: Impact Hub Zurich, Sihlquai 131, 8005 Zurich (Community Salon)

⏱️ Time: 17:30 - 18:30. Stay after the session for an apéro + networking!

🎙️ Speakers: Fabian Gmür, co-founder of HuggyStudio and Simon Schaefer, Expert Software Engineer of Zühlke

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Register here to join us!