No code/low code solutions democratize technology innovation, speed up application delivery, and enable enterprises to build automated workflows. Gartner estimates that the “worldwide market for low code development technologies is projected to total $26.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 19.6% from 2022.”
Such exponential growth highlights the demand for speed and innovation in modern enterprises, and the impact is already being felt across industries and verticals, from business software to content management.
This blog will examine the rise of no code/low code platforms and explore their implications for content management, including increased agility and cost savings.
What is Low Code Development and Why is it Important?
Low code development refers to a software development approach with a visual development environment where developers can use drag-and-drop features to build complex applications without extensive coding.
It offers an alternative to traditional development as developers can operate faster since less manual coding is required while offering a high degree of flexibility and customization capabilities.
The rise of low code development has also seen an increase in what are known as citizen developers to assist with the lack of specialized developers available to meet demands. These citizen developers lack the expertise of professional developers, usually reporting to a business function rather than the IT department, but are still authorized to create applications for in-house use by enterprises using low code tools.
We Can’t Forget About No Code Development
No code development is often used interchangeably with low code development but refers to a visual development approach where absolutely zero coding knowledge is required. No code development is ideal for non-technical and business users and enables them to build applications using drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built components.
In the headless content management space, no code development, in particular, has seen tremendous growth in recent years. While traditional CMS solutions included a drag-and-drop or WYSIWYG editing interface for marketers, many headless CMS platforms were initially geared toward developers and didn’t offer the most intuitive content editing functionality.
For example, leading solutions like Contentful have doubled down on no code and visual editing features to make things easier for marketers and business users with features like Studio and Studio apps and the Shopstory app. Others, like dotCMS, have combined traditional and headless CMS capabilities into a hybrid CMS, which includes a visual editor and drag-and-drop features.
While low code/no code approaches have numerous similarities, hence their interchangeable use, there are some notable differences to point out:
| Characteristic | Low code Development | No code Development |
| Target Audience | Professional and citizen developers | Business and non-technical users |
| Coding expertise required | Some | None |
| Extensibility | Can be integrated with other solutions | Limited |
| Flexibility | Customizable and adaptable | Difficult due to templated design |
Opportunities for Low Code/No Code Development in Content Management
The rise of low code/no code development provides numerous opportunities for enterprises to revolutionize their approach to content management. Some include:
Increased speed and agility for teams: With low-code and no-code tooling, organizations can move faster and gain more agility in their operations. Developers can move faster on their projects, and citizen developers can build applications independently, allowing the most skilled developers to focus on more complex tasks.
Less developer dependency: Marketers used to traditional CMS tooling can operate normally using a headless CMS that includes low-code and no-code tools. They can leverage WYSIWYG editing and intuitive interfaces, which remove developer dependencies and enable them to operate independently.
Embrace composability: A requirement for digital experience composition (DXC) is that non-technical personnel can manage and orchestrate applications on their own. With low code and no code functionality at their disposal, enterprises can embrace composability and allow business users to choose and swap business components as they see fit.
Cost savings: A key benefit of low code development is that it enables businesses to reduce costs since fewer developer resources are required to accomplish tasks.
Improved collaboration: Marketers and developers can get on the same page much faster when there are fewer dependencies, which helps to improve collaboration.
Quicker time to market: With no need to block developer resources, enterprises find it faster to build assets, including pages, templates, websites, and other content applications, using low code/no code tools. This enables companies to respond to market changes, introduce new campaigns, and expand into other markets as needed.
Challenges of Using Low Code in the CMS Space
Low code and, in particular, no code tooling offers several benefits for content management when used correctly. However, some challenges also need to be addressed to avoid new problems derailing things.
Templated Design
Since no code tools require templates and drop-down interfaces that provide non-technical users with the functionality they need, in some cases, you might end up with the same template challenges that limited developers when they used a traditional CMS.
Instead of having the freedom to build from scratch, the templates force them to work in a pre-defined way. This might offer benefits for some use cases, but for many others, it will likely restrict developers considerably.
Vendor Lock-in
With pre-defined templates limiting the freedom of what developers can accomplish with low code tools, organizations might end up suffering from vendor lock-in. This makes developers reliant on the vendor to perform specific tasks as the advanced customization they require isn’t natively available.
Flexibility Issues
Headless CMS solutions, in particular, are meant to offer complete framework agnosticism. However, incorporating low code tooling might limit the framework and technology choices that developers can make when using them.
Performance and Scalability Challenges
Even though low code and no code tools promote speed and agility, there are sometimes performance tradeoffs when using a low-code system.
Islands
Low code and no code tooling enable citizen developers to build custom applications. However, when this happens, it presents the risk of creating separate islands or siloed applications.
For example, each department creates its own application to perform a specific task because they don’t fully use the IT team’s app, or maybe the IT team hasn’t had the opportunity to build an app that fits its requirements yet. The result is overlapping applications that duplicate content and sometimes use different styles, from graphical to textual, which can cause consistency issues.
Orchestration
Companies need to have ways to properly orchestrate and integrate different low code and no code initiatives within a company to avoid the formation of islands as well as protect brand consistency and ensure compatibility with other solutions in the technology stack.
Security and Privacy Considerations
Citizen developers building using low code tools should get educated on privacy requirements such as GDPR and security requirements for handling data within the organization. Every application built must be properly analyzed, tested, and validated by IT and cybersecurity teams, just like any other application, to prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited.
How to Maximize Low Code Functionality with the Right Headless CMS
Low code and no code tooling can positively impact the content management space, offering speed, agility, and cost savings. However, not every CMS is built the same. To avoid the challenges and limitations of low code and receive benefits, you need to select the right platform and approaches to match your requirements.
Content Bloom offers decades of expertise in headless, mobile, and app development and can steer enterprises in the right direction when adopting low-code tools or a headless CMS with low code or no code features.
Our approach also helps organizations to think about the bigger picture, such as how low code will affect you down the line, not just solving the immediate problem or accomplishing tasks solely related to content management.
We assess how to incorporate this technology to aid content management as well as inside the wider technology stack of a company, as opposed to building ‘islands’ or ‘silos’ that provide immediate benefits for one department or team but lead to some of the challenges that can harm the business.
FAQs
What is low code development?
Low code development is an approach to software development that emphasizes visual interfaces and abstraction of traditional programming code. It enables developers to create applications using graphical interfaces and pre-built components, reducing the need for manual coding.
What is no code development?
No code development takes the concept of low code a step further by allowing users to create applications without any coding or programming knowledge. No code platforms typically provide a visual interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and pre-built templates, enabling non-technical users to build and deploy applications.
What are the differences between low code and no code development?
While both low code and no code development aim to simplify application development, the key difference lies in the level of technical expertise required. Low code platforms are designed for developers and typically offer more flexibility and customization options. No code platforms, on the other hand, target non-technical users and focus on ease of use, often with limitations on customization.
Can low code or no code development replace traditional coding?
Low code and no code development aim to simplify the application development process and reduce the need for traditional coding. While they can be used to create a wide range of applications, they may not completely replace traditional coding in all scenarios. Complex or highly specialized applications may still require custom coding to meet specific requirements.
How scalable are low code or no code applications?
The scalability of low code or no code applications depends on the platform being used and the underlying infrastructure. Some low code and no code platforms offer scalability features, such as cloud-based deployment and automatic scaling, allowing applications to handle increased user load. However, it’s important to assess the scalability capabilities of the chosen platform and consider potential limitations for handling large-scale or complex applications.
