Say goodbye to painstakingly crafting code for every single little business process. In 2021, you can manage complex data without massive R&D departments.
No-code/low-code is no longer a philosophical idea or ideal that only lives in hypothetical tech talks. It’s arrived as a real concept.
Real low-code platforms are up and running already. They help code-blind creatives, managers, and busy developers build apps much faster.
Let’s do a deep dive and explore the current state of no-code/low-code, examine low-code app examples, and how you can start using a platform within your team or organization.
What does no-code/low-code mean?
No-code and low-code are similar concepts that revolve around using smart tools to create software with — surprise, surprise — little to no actual coding.
Unlike in traditional programming, you build on underlying frameworks or APIs (application programming interfaces) to create the functionality you want.
These typically come in the form of dedicated platforms. Let’s take a look at these tools in action.
What are low-code and no-code development platforms?
These cloud-based platforms let you use an existing framework, API, or functions to create working apps in minutes.
For example, monday.com recently rolled out the Apps Framework. It gives you full access to our API, integrations, and a robust low-code framework. Together, these tools make it easy to create new unique applications.
With a few lines of code — calling on existing functions — you can apply monday.com functions and create a usable app or custom view.
Look at this example. In 5 lines of code, there’s a page with a background color picker, a customizable title, and a message.
To get that type of functionality from scratch would take much longer. You would have to write code accessing and storing information in a database.
And that’s only scratching the surface of what you can do.
No-code platforms focus on a 100% code-free interface for building apps. You can use drag and drop to map out your desired functionality.
It might sound too good to be true, and in some ways, it is. You still can’t create any functionality you want. You have to rely on pre-built segments, much in the same way as with low-code platforms.
Without some base level of knowledge, you could create inefficient or heavy workflows.
What is the difference between low-code and no-code?
The names are pretty self-explanatory.
The main difference between them is that no-code lets you create an application with 0 lines of code written, while low-code provides a framework of existing functions and pre-built adapters for you to build with, but there is some coding.
But that’s not the whole story. There’s also a difference in terms of scope and capabilities.
- With a low-code platform, developers can create advanced backend utilities and integrations. They can also quickly build applications for other devices and platforms.
- With a no-code platform, you can create simple front-end apps using existing integrations and functionality.
Plus, a low barrier to entry isn’t necessarily a great thing.
With no-code, even beginners with no idea about basic concepts like data handling can create functional apps. That can lead to obvious security flaws or apps that operate very inefficiently.
What is HPaPaaS and LCAP?
No-code and low-code platforms are also known as high productivity application platforms as a service (HPaPaaS). It is just a different moniker.
Honestly, low-code and no-code better highlight what the platforms do. But leave it to a consulting firm to make up a complicated acronym anyway — we’re looking at you Gartner.
Luckily, Gartner has since realized their mistake. Since 2019, it’s called these platforms low-code application platforms (LCAP). Finally, they’ve caught up with the rest of us.
With such an intuitive concept and catchy, short name, there’s no need for complicated acronyms.
What low-code means for business application development
These days, startups and enterprises alike use a wide range of different platforms and handle an obscene amount of data. Think petabytes — 1PB = 1 million gigabytes! — and entire data centers.
They’re always working on custom tools and integrations to try to handle these oceans of data.
Building apps from scratch for every use case is impossible. For starters, companies don’t have enough developers. There’s also a crushing time pressure to deliver performance improvements.As a result, more and more developers and businesses are turning to low-code.
In 2019, 37% of developers used or planned to use low-code products for business app development.
And according to Gartner’s predictions, this number will only keep growing. By 2024, experts estimate that the majority of app developers will use low-code frameworks.
And it’s not just Gartner or trend-hungry “experts.” Developers, executives, and employees living in the faster development cycle feel the same way.
With a low-code application development approach, your company can get what it needs from the data. No multi-year testing and waiting process required.
Read more about why we think low-code and no-code are the future of the enterprise application.
5 low-code app examples from the monday.com Apps Framework
Devs created the following apps with the monday.com Apps Framework for low-code development.
Digital whiteboard app
Take a look at the digital whiteboard app. It highlights what you can do with our low-code development platform.
It makes the creative process a lot easier — and more fun — for distributed or fully remote teams.
Instead of everyone taking their own notes during a snooze-worthy call, you can collaborate live. Draw, add shapes, drag and drop items, and edit in real-time. Together.
It’s a must-have feature for both agencies and in-house creative departments alike. And it’s built entirely on top of our Apps Framework.
Remember, that’s only one example of it in action. Let’s check out the next.
GPS-based time tracking app
When you track all hours someone works, it can be hard to categorize what tasks require the most time.
Plus, you probably don’t want to force your employees to clock in and out of categories all the time. Just getting people to clock-in digitally every day is hard enough.
That’s where the GPS-based time-tracking app for monday.com comes in handy. You can add different work sites and tie them to a specific GPS coordinate.
Then, whenever your employees are on-site, you can automatically track their actual working hours.
Simple time tracking alone isn’t enough to gauge how much money you owe a contractor or employee.
Depending on your contracts, you may need the hours they specifically worked on different sites.
This app is perfect for managers as it delivers a new integration with a third-party GPS tracking platform.
Retrospective tools app
A project isn’t over when it’s over. It’s over when you’ve learned everything you could from it.
Anyone who’s ever been part of a Scrum sprint knows that the retrospective is crucial. It’s the best source of game-changing insights in the process.
Knowing what you did right and wrong is the only way forward. You can’t improve without that knowledge.
But just going on everyone’s impression and fallible memories isn’t a good idea.
Enter the retrospective tools app for monday.com. The unique replay view shows you the flow of tasks. Identify where bottlenecks originated and learn how they impacted the overall project.
Cumulative flow diagrams and detailed statistics views help you analyze the smallest details.
It’s the perfect tool to help you improve how you handle complex projects. Engineering, manufacturing, and software project management professionals take note.
Live collaboration app
This live collaboration app focuses on real-time brainstorming ideas and solutions. The main interface is a document that you can edit live, with highlights and icons color-coded by user.
It also includes a unique voting module. All users can vote by numbers on crucial questions.
It was a clear standout in our no-limits coding challenge using our low-code framework.
Board to globe app
The final example is an app that visualizes the location of projects and resources. You can visualize international offices, sales leads, or employees.
It can help you gauge the importance or needs of different regions. With a glance, you can see if you should invest more in a country or city. Or, you can pinpoint a regional office that needs more help.
All these apps built with our Apps Framework showcase what’s possible with low-code.
Start taking advantage of low-code and no-code automations with monday.com
Want to make better use of data without a costly, long-term development project?
monday.com lets you build a smart management platform that suits your business perfectly. Even with no professional developers, you can create the ideal environment for your projects.
Customizable templates, workflows, and tons of native integrations help you get more work done.
Use no-code automations and integrations to streamline your workflow.
Automation is key to creating an efficient workflow. With no human touch, there’s no forgetting, typos, or unnecessary delays.
monday.com offers a wide range of automations and integrations to make your life easier. For example, you can automatically sync data between platforms.
You can also use our automation builder to create the workflow you need from scratch.
With simple tools like this, everyone on the team can become a citizen developer. monday.com democratizes the effective use of big data.
Use low-code to create custom apps for your business needs quickly.
Our low-code app development platform makes it easy to build new tools for your business.
Do you need custom-made features for handling or storing specific data? No problem. We’ve got you covered.
50+ pre-built adapters make it easy to integrate data with other platforms. Even if it’s a custom in-house tool, you can take advantage of our robust API.
We also have built-in version control to help you manage different app releases.
Use our robust project management features to speed up your progress.
monday.com isn’t a platform where you need to build all functionality from scratch. We’re a complete Work OS that also offers a low-code framework.
Don’t forget to take advantage of our suite of project management features.
We offer Kanban boards, Gantt charts, customizable templates, real-time dashboards, and much more.
Join our next challenge — past challenges have included rewards like Teslas.
We believe in a low-code future. And we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is. We invest big in our Apps Framework, and we’ve already held 2 challenges with serious rewards.
Our latest build it better challenge featured 3 Teslas and $180,000+ in prizes.
Give yourself an advantage by starting to learn the platform now.
You could even create an app that changes your career trajectory. No contest required.
Automate workflows and core business tasks without the up-front investment
It’s never been easier to create basic applications. You can quickly automate core business tasks and boost your team’s productivity.
At monday.com, we’ve dedicated ourselves to create an easily extensible Work OS. It’s a robust, scalable foundation that you can build on to create your ideal project management platform.
Check out our low-code development tools to learn more about how you can transform your workflow with custom-made monday.com apps without being a software engineer.
