Low code Vs. Traditional Development
Have you ever found yourself on a fix wondering which development solution is ideal for your application needs? How is low code beneficial for you? When to go for traditional development solutions? Read on to find out the answers and learn everything you need to know about low code Vs. traditional development in this comprehensive guide.
Let’s begin with the basics.
What is Traditional Application Development?
While there are many aspects of software development focusing on databases, back-end logic, application programming interface (APIs), architecture, and servers. Deciding on which methodology to follow i.e. Waterfall, RAD, Agile development. Traditional Application development is the approach to software development where engineers have to code from scratch. For example, you must hire professional web developers to design, code, integrate, deploy and iterate software solutions manually to build a highly customized web application or website.
The approach requires working with a team of programmers to gather specific requirements, prepare the development plan and closely work with the team to create custom code. This approach is a great way to build your dream application, but these projects are often complex and time-consuming. In addition, you need a dedicated team to maintain and keep the application up-to-date.
What is Low-Code/No-Code Application Development?
Low-code/No-Code is the modern approach to application development where users can build powerful custom applications with drag-and-drop UI components and ready connectors. Low-code/No-code applications are an ideal tool for the internal teams of businesses and organizations to experiment with app building and give vision to their ideas.
Low code is a visual app development process where users design the frontend using drag-and-drop ready UI blocks, ready database connectors, ready business logic blocks for action and workflows, validations, and one-click deployments. They offer agile app development and are easy to customize and iterate. . IT and software developers deliver powerful applications within a matter of minutes.
When should you use Low Code?
Internal Innovation and Agile Transformation of Business Processes
Low code empowers internal business users to explore, innovate and integrate various systems to build a centralized custom system, and build operational tools for various business teams. . The internal users best know the issues, needs, and lags. Low-code platforms help democratize app development and empower these members to address the problems in the way they want and improve department functionality. These platforms can be IT and CISO-approved, offering enterprise-level security, user provisioning, granular permissions, and authentication modules. Low code enables businesses to practice agile transformation by facilitating a tool to cater to specific department needs without depending on IT.
Reduction of the burden on IT teams
An IT-approved low-code platform can reduce the gap between line-of-business and IT teams. It enables business’s ability to take advantage of new opportunities or respond to sudden changes in market demand
There is a growing demand for process automation. It’s a trend that is helping businesses not only accelerate their operations but also reduce costs, improve customer experiences, and lay the foundation for new data-driven revenue streams.
But things are starting to change with the introduction of low-code development. The simple, intuitive, and easy-to-use interface enables internal business teams to play with their ideas and innovate applications that suit their needs exactly they want. It also reduces the burden on the IT teams to focus on core IT activities while internal users innovate their applications.
Unique and Customizable Solutions
As previously mentioned, businesses may have problems unique to a particular department requiring customizable solutions. The traditional development method is not ideal in this scenario considering the time and investment it will require. For example, let’s say the HR department is in need of a tool to streamline and manage records of the recruitment process. They look out for ready solutions or ask the IT team to build one. If you use the traditional development method, there will be long development times, and longer feedback cycles, or the IT team may not be able to identify the exact ready solution that their team needs.
With low-code solutions, business users can easily build and update apps as per their evolving requirements. Sometimes some problems require urgent solutions that only low-code platforms can offer. Users can quickly configure applications from the range of pre-built components and address specific needs successfully.
To sum it up, with a low-code platform you can-
1. Minimize your IT backlog by simplifying and streamlining the development process and reducing project lead time.
2. Enable junior IT employees or subject matter experts to build sophisticated internal solutions so that experienced developers are available for core IT projects.
3. Modernize your hard-to-update legacy ERP systems by creating on top of old and inflexible code inheritance from previous IT initiatives.
4. Digitize crucial company processes and maintain your competitive edge. Innovate tools for your teams and their unique needs rather than forcing them to use the existing tools.
5. Build your internal tools on a shared, secure, and centralized app platform and easily track all your company data.
When is Traditional Development an Ideal Solution?
For Open-Ended Solutions
Low-code solutions are great for generating specific and immediate solutions, while traditional approaches are ideal for business problems requiring open-ended thinking. The traditional method works best with problems that have an unstructured core. It encourages collaboration of ideas and discussions before jumping into the app development process.
For Applications Requiring Advanced and Specialized Interactivity
Traditional solutions offer infinite functionalities and are ideal for business applications requiring a high level of specialized interactivity. In the traditional approach, IT engineers tailor-make and fine-tune solutions with exclusive specifications. While low code works best as a supplementing tool to enhance efficiency and productivity, traditional solutions are great for building highly customized solutions that cater to a bigger audience.
Low Code Vs. Traditional Software Development
We are comparing the core factors differentiating the two approaches. Have a look-
Tools (User Interface)
Low code supports business users, developers, and citizen developers to rapidly build applications reflecting their vision. Low-code development takes place with the help of tools such as DronaHQ.
There are no specific tools to aid the traditional development process. Instead, IT engineers use web frameworks and programming languages to hand-code applications.
Developer skills
Low code platforms can be used by developers who are both experts and beginners. Experts can experiment with different components to build customized applications while beginners get the best support for building applications without any hassle or complexity.
On the other hand, traditional coding appeals to only experts with high technical skills. Therefore, professional web developers with advanced coding skills are hired to build applications. For operating such applications correctly, the user must be highly trained and understand the know-how in this domain.
Development speed
Low code applications can be built within weeks with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. As a result, they are popular among developers for their rapid development capabilities.
Applications developed using the traditional method can take up to 2-8 months for delivery since they involve a lot of planning and complex coding.
Customization
Developers can easily customize their applications to reflect their brand value, vision, and ideas with a range of prebuilt components offered by the platforms.
The traditional approach offers a high level of customization since applications are coded from scratch to meet specific requirements.
Agility
Low code solutions promote agility since you can make changes easily and quickly. With built-in features, reusable templates, and automated testing, developers can accelerate the process of app building. Low-code applications can also be updated and retouched easily with no difficulty.
Applications built using the traditional approach are less agile than low-code solutions. Any updates or changes in the application are slow and require a dedicated team to update the changes every time.
Deployment
Low-code solutions can be deployed rapidly across platforms. Furthermore, they can work effectively in mobile, web, and cloud environments, whereas applications built using the traditional approach should be developed separately for each platform.
Quality
Low-code applications offer standard performance. In addition, they are error-free with live debugging and integrate seamlessly with other productivity tools.
Traditional solutions are highly scalable that can integrate well with other applications. Their performance and speed are high, but testing and debugging require time.
Maintenance
Low-code solutions are comparatively easy to maintain. All the low-code web apps will be automatically updated when the company updates the low-code platform. There are minimal expenses for regular maintenance.
Whereas traditional solutions are difficult to maintain and update regularly. Due to the coding complexity, you need a dedicated team to update the code each time. As a result, they cannot be updated as frequently as low-code applications.
Traditional development pros and cons
Pros
Highly scalable
Traditional solutions offer high scalability. Developers can scale the app as per requirements. Since all the code is written from scratch, the applications are scalable and portable from their inception.
High-level customization
It offers a high level of customization. You can get whatever feature or functionality you desire and complete personalization with the help of experienced developers in your team.
High-quality applications ensured
Developers can re-code if there are some issues with the application or the performance is not up to the mark, ensuring the quality is always high. This is also because a lot of time goes into the planning and development process to code the perfect application.
Custom UX/UI design
You can design the UI/UX with the help of developers in exactly the way you want. Moreover, you can get a full custom and unique UI/UX to make your application stand out from the rest.
Cons
High development cost
To get a highly effective application, you have to invest heavily in resources and time to get a highly effective application. The cost of hiring and maintaining IT engineers can be quite high.
Requires a dedicated development team
You will require designers, web developers specializing in web frameworks and testing engineers to develop, maintain and update your application.
Time-consuming process
As previously mentioned, it can take around 2-8 months since you are coding from scratch and involves a lot of planning and feedback loops. There can also be delays and errors due to the complexity of custom application development platforms.
Low code development pros and cons
Pros
High development speed
Low-code development uses the drag-and-drop interface to build the application of your choice. This means you can develop applications at accelerated speeds leading to quicker time-to-market and improved agility.
Low cost for app development
The cost of development of low-code applications is much lower than the traditional solutions. Since low code empowers your existing talent to build solutions, you can save a lot on the outsourcing cost of engineers, which is very expensive.
Agility
Low-code platforms are agile which means they facilitate easy changes and integrations to fit the demanding requirements of the team. It empowers organizations to experiment with multiple efficient methods to interact with stakeholders. They are fast to go from an app concept to a full-featured app using a visual dev approach. They also offer 100% flexibility to make amendments and push updates without impacting the live app.
Integrations
A key challenge for the modern workplace is the proper integration of tools and databases. Low code platforms with their in-built API and DB integration capabilities save the engineers/developers time to join disparate systems together and create a unified frontend on top of the same
Visual app development
Low code platforms are visual modeling tools that offer a drag-and-drop interface and empower developers to code and create appealing applications. Developers can design UI, write queries, model workflows, and declare front-end logic.
Low risk with high ROI
You can develop a web application with minimum investment that has strong features like data management, testing modules, and high security.
Cons
Low customization
Even though low-code platforms offer extensive customization possibilities, they are not as flexible as traditional solutions. Furthermore, low code depends on the platforms and plugins’ built-in features, so if a particular functionality is not provided the developers may struggle to meet relevant criteria.
See how you can create highly customizable apps on DronaHQ > Control Editor
Limited scalable options
Although there are low-code solutions that are highly scalable, not all platforms offer the same kind of scalability. So if you want to build scalable solutions, you may have to invest time to filter out and find efficient low-code platforms. Low-code solutions are ideal for targeting specific problems and audiences but it is not as scalable when it comes to serving a large audience.
Limited deployment options.
Again not all low-code platforms offer wide deployment options. Some of them may not be responsive on the web or mobile platforms. So you have to be very careful while choosing the low-code platform for yourself.
Low-code offers limited deployment options. Additionally, code migration is very difficult if you want to change the platform for some reason.
When No-Code/Low-Code Wins?
Low-code solutions may not be as flexible as traditional ones, yet. Though multiple aspects make them an ideal solution for businesses looking for faster solutions to various internal and external challenges. Here is how a no-code/low-code wins over traditional solutions-
Automation
With the help of low-code platforms, you can instantly establish workflow automation. The variables and flow control make it simpler for data management across platforms. In addition, users can automate any digital business operation with the help of pre-built integrations and API accessibility.
Digitization of tedious tasks
If your business requires constant communication with the customers, you must know how difficult it is to manage the records and follow-ups manually. Low-code allows you to digitize crucial business processes such as data collection, approvals, automatic responses, etc. to reduce the manual burden on employees.
Legacy Modernization
Most of the legacy business systems offer rigid and inflexible archaic solutions. As such, it becomes difficult to keep up with the modern technological landscape and identify solutions to modern business problems. With low-code platforms, you can build applications on top of your legacy system to address business issues productively with a modern approach.
Development Resources for Engineers
Low-code platforms can be used by citizen developers as well as IT engineers, who are preoccupied with core IT functions. Low-code platforms relieve them of such activities by empowering internal users to develop apps. In addition, these platforms offer resources to engineers to build mission-critical applications.
Use cases for low-code vs. traditional development
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
It makes no sense to plunge resources into making an MVP using a traditional approach. In the end, if it does not work out, you will be left with a huge hole in your pocket and no progress. That is why most businesses build MVPs using low-code solutions to demonstrate application possibilities to investors with minimal losses.
Employee or partner-facing apps
These applications enable businesses to automate paper-based processes and improve workflow. For example, physical surveys, data collection, and data storage can be digitized and circulated using digital forms. These applications also support cross-departmental operations if integrated into the core internal systems.
Omni-channel integrations of standardized solutions
Omni-channel is a multi-channel approach to sales that focuses on providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Many companies use low-code platforms to develop omni-channel payment solutions. It can fetch data from multiple data sources, process it, and display it on mobile or web dashboards.
Microservice-based apps
Low-code solutions have facilitated platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and Flipkart to create several micro apps that can incorporate with each other. In addition, microservices allow organizations to autonomously scale services instead of scaling the entire monolithic platform.
What to look for when choosing the right option for your project?
Before deciding on the appropriate solution, here are some vital questions that you need to answer-
Is this a mission-critical project?
Low code platforms are a great way to verify a concept and supplement additional support and functions to mission-critical projects, But if you want to develop an app that is the core of your business, a traditional approach can be adopted.
What issues do you want to address?
If you want your application to develop over time and scale up easily, you can choose traditional development. But if you want to focus on improving department functionalities and automating standard business processes, low code will be an ideal fit.
What kind of device output are you looking for?
With the current business landscape, everyone desires applications that are responsive and accessible smoothly from any device. The traditional approach would require additional time and effort to code applications for separate devices, while low-code can be quick in replacing outdated systems with custom business apps for both web and mobile. If you are looking to build highly responsive across devices, low -code is the right choice with minimum time and effort.
How important is automation for your business?
If you are looking for quick automation capabilities in your application, low-code can be an appropriate solution that allows you to automate the flow of tasks and data between all of your business applications while giving full flexibility to customize business logic. While in traditional development, you will have to write a thousand lines of code which are time-consuming and not an ideal fit for urgent requirements.
Are you willing to spend extra on analytics?
Most of the top low-code platforms like DronaHQ are equipped with full-featured data analytics and enrichment capabilities. Users can get detailed and accurate visualizations to form the data in your app for both internal uses through reports and dashboards, or externally, via customer-facing portals without any extra costs. While in traditional development, you may have to make extra investments for developing custom analytics.
How much can you invest?
It is important to consider your financial and manpower capabilities before making the final decision. For example, low code does not require heavy investment but still manages to offer productive functionalities. On the other hand, traditional investment requires a heavy investment that may require additional outsourcing of skilled programmers.
What is the expected time to market?
Low-code is the appropriate choice if you want your product to move faster in the market, while traditional solutions will take considerably longer to deliver.
Choose DronaHQ for your Low code app development
DronaHQ is the perfect low-code solution offering 100+ pre-built components, 50+ integrations, ready API, and database connectors to empower users to build their dream application by dragging and dropping elements.
What’s more? Applications built using DronaHQ work on both web and mobile (Android +iOS), enabling cross-functional teams to build internal tools, operational apps, custom UIs, etc. Businesses can address critical business issues by developing applications like customer support tools, employee onboarding, admin panels, and more. Sign up now to explore more with a 14-day free trial option!