If you’re anything like the average person, you probably don’t know how to code. But don’t feel bad! With today’s technology, there are plenty of app development no-code platforms out there that can help you build amazing app products without needing any coding skills whatsoever.
Forrester reported in 2019 that 84% of firms had used low-code/no-code platforms because it’s proven to reduce strain on IT resources, boost speed-to-market, and engage the company in digital asset creation.
What exactly are these low-code or no-code platforms, anyway?
We’ll look at this in more depth in the next section and how it may benefit your company. Then, we’ll go over the finest low-code or no-code platforms for you.
What is a Low-Code or No-Code Development?
Both low-code and no-code development doesn’t require extensive coding skills. Each of them has particular capabilities:
Low-code development platforms
These types of platforms focus on automating the process of software development. As a result, it requires less code than traditional programming and is more accessible to those who may not have coding experience.
Some low-code platforms can create sophisticated iOS applications with graphical user interfaces and minimal drag-and-drop capabilities.
No-code development platforms
As the name suggests, no-code development platforms don’t require any coding knowledge whatsoever. These platforms allow you to create enterprise-grade digital solutions without writing a single line of code.
Some no-code solutions focus on automating the process of software development, while others let you create applications without any programming.
No-code and low-code platforms are closely related as they both aim to make the app development process more accessible and faster. So, don’t be surprised when people are using it more and more.
For aspiring startup owners, these platforms are extremely popular. Imagine no longer spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create mobile apps or any software you need for your business. All you’d need is these no-code tools!
However, that’s not to say that you won’t need any coding skills at all. A basic understanding of programming concepts would still be beneficial in using these platforms.
8 Benefits of Using Low-Code/No-Code Mobile Apps
You may have a great idea for a startup, but other companies have the same vision. How would you make sure that your product stands out in a sea of competition?
Today’s market is competitive. If you’re not fast, you’ll be left behind and get lost in the shuffle. That’s where the no-code platform comes in to give you a competitive edge.
Here’s how it can help:
1. Building apps is 10x faster
Custom applications are difficult to create since you start from the bottom. If you don’t have a lot of expert-level skilled resources, creating code, building CI/CD pipelines, and setting up infrastructure may cause delays.
Creating a team of people with the required skills is another problem to tackle. The recruitment process may take time for your web or mobile app development because you want to get the best. In other situations, a lack of these resources may pressure you to hire staff that doesn’t do the task correctly, wasting time in the process.
These are the problems that a no-code platform can resolve! Whether you have experienced or novice developers, the simplicity of these platforms can rapidly deliver simple to complex mobile and web applications half the time and even faster in many situations.
2. Reduce development costs
Conventional and DevOps approaches to creating mobile and web apps are undoubtedly expensive. You have to consider hiring specialists to up the stack, such as front-end and back-end developers, business analysts, security consultants, and infrastructure or cloud experts.
You don’t need to worry about these when using low-code/no-code development platforms. They eliminate the intricacies of front-end and back-end programming, but you can still employ a front-end or back-end developer to create the whole stack. This flexibility makes code app development cheaper and faster.
Since you’re working on a platform, you don’t have to worry about using multiple infrastructure tools like servers, instances, containers, and databases or securing them. Simplification allows you to deploy your developers across the stack, reducing development time as well as employee requirements.
Underlying costs, such as office rent, benefits, and other employee-related costs, are also much lower as you can have a leaner team. Instead, you may re-invest this consumer spending into adding more features and improving the user experience!
3. Pivot without problems
The demands in businesses are constantly evolving. Fortunately, shifting gears is easier with a no-code or low-code platform. You may modify the app’s target audience or market at any time after its launch. For example, you may notice that your app is much more popular with a different audience than you first thought.
You can quickly refocus the app to reflect this new target audience without any issues. This is incredibly difficult to do with conventional mobile apps since you need significant changes to the code with the help of software developers, which takes valuable time and money.
Furthermore, you can harness your momentum and start to build apps right now and make necessary changes or redirections later. As a result, you won’t have to spend countless hours putting the process in place before starting to develop so that you can make changes as needed.
4. Empowers businesses
Organizations can now operate more independently because of rapid application development using the no-code technique. No matter the business size, you no longer have to wait for iOS or Android app developers to begin your app!
Even if your company has a full team of professional developers, no-code development can still be helpful. Your team can communicate what they need precisely and how to increase productivity by getting rid of unnecessary inefficiencies.
Lastly, since the tools are easy to use, you can quickly train your staff on how to utilize them. As a result, they’ll be able to take full advantage of the app’s capabilities, empowering your business as a whole!
5. Prioritizes user experience
A fundamental problem with the DevOps approach is that some teams focus so much on functionality that they forget what their users need. This causes their mobile app to have a poor user experience and not meet expectations.
With a no-code application, you don’t have to worry about the functionality of your code. Instead, you can focus on what consumers truly need and build the app around that.
You can prioritize the design, flow, and other user experience elements that make your app stand out amongst the competition. After all, no one wants to use an app that’s difficult to use!
6. Break structural barriers
If you think about the business framework, the higher-ups provide suggestions, but IT teams are usually the ones who make them a reality. The result? Under-resourced IT departments and delays.
Many companies have this problem, and it will only take one no-code app development platform to break this barrier. It allows everyone to contribute to the development process.
Not only will this save time and money, but it will also lead to better applications! Imagine being able to quickly develop your mobile app and get it in the hands of your users without any delays.
7. Reduce legacy maintenance
Coding projects can be complex and costly, not just in terms of the developers you need to hire but also in terms of future maintenance.
Maintaining legacy systems can be a huge drain on an IT department’s resources since businesses have to spend significant amounts of money on expensive developers just to keep things running as they are.
Whether you run a web or mobile app, using a no-code app platform will reduce these maintenance expenses. You can develop custom apps without writing any code, which means your developers can keep what works and fix what doesn’t.
8. Improve productivity
Web services emerged because of the demand to complete IT projects without sacrificing internal resources that could compromise regular business operations.
In other words, we want to get things done without disrupting our productivity. This is where no-code application platforms come in since they let you quickly build the mobile and web apps you need without any coding.
The best part? You don’t have to be a tech expert to use these tools. Using a no-code app development platform lets you build your web or mobile app in less time.
Our Top 10 Picks for No-Code Platforms
No-code app development is the future, and it’s starting to revolutionize how we write code.
According to a recent Gartner report, by 2024, 80% of tech products and services will be developed by professionals who are not in technology. So, it’s only time that we start to invest in platforms that will enable us to build these products without any coding knowledge.
And thankfully, there are quite a few of those! We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 no-code development platforms that will help you create amazing app products without any coding skills.
1. Zoho Creator
Simple and straightforward, Zoho Creator is easily our top choice among low-code platforms today. It allows you to build customized, tailored solutions that can unlock the full potential of your business operations!
With an intuitive code editor, visual builder, attractive pre-built templates, and more, you can create apps for your business system without a sweat. Also, it’s been used to build millions of apps for top brands like Amazon, Lyft, and Volkswagen.
Simply install their app templates for any type of management software, then customize it to meet your business needs. Moreover, you can easily migrate your data and scale it dynamically by importing your Google Sheets or Excel data!
Pricing
Offers a free 15-day free trial
Professional: $25/month per user
Ultimate: $400/month billed annually
Enterprise: Custom
2. Quickbase
Trusted by several industry leaders, Quickbase comes second in our picks. Here, you can create quality apps with a wide range of features and functionality to fit all businesses of different sizes.
With Quickbase, you can rest easy knowing that your apps will be easier to maintain and update without depending on legacy systems with a suite of integrated capabilities designed to work together and enhance your applications.
It prides itself on helping operationally agile organizations like Gartner and Forrester grow, with the former having the highest score in citizen development. Automate your workflows, connect data, and integrate your apps with its comprehensive integration platform!
Pricing
Offers a free 30-day trial
Team: from $600/month for up to 50 custom business apps
Business: from $2000/month for up to 100 custom business apps
Enterprise: Custom
3. Bubble
With Bubble, you can develop an app quickly and efficiently without writing a single line of code. And if you’re worried about the learning curve, don’t be! This no-code app platform provides excellent YouTube tutorials to ensure that getting started is easy and straightforward.
You will get great control over the design elements of your application with its drag-and-drop interface. With this app, you can design the visuals for each screen and control what a user sees as they navigate.
Furthermore, creating a mobile app in Bubble ensures flexibility and responsiveness. If you want total freedom to extend the functionality with javascript plugins and API integrations, this platform will easily become your favorite too!
Pricing
Offers a free version
Personal: $25 a month (paid annually) or $29 a month (paid monthly)
Professional: $115 a month (paid annually) or $129 a month (paid monthly)
Production: $475 a month (paid annually) or $529 a month (paid monthly)
4. Knack
Whether you want to build apps for your business or automate workflows, Knack is the platform to use. This is another recommended no-code tool with powerful features that help build powerful apps.
You don’t need to learn how to read or write programming languages with its simple interface. With just a few clicks, you can select from dozens of stunning templates and pre-built objects for orders and contacts.
Not only does Knack make it easy to update and edit data, but you can also maintain, migrate, import & export it with ease. You can even change history or restore it if needed!
Pricing
Free version: two weeks only
Starter: $39/month for 20,000 records and 2GB storage
Pro: $79/month for 50,000 records and 10GB storage
Corporate: $179/month for 125,000 records and 50GB storage
5. Microsoft Power Apps
Building low-code applications and sharing are strong suits of Microsoft Power Apps, and it’s why this belonged to our top 5. You can move on quickly to deployment with its drag-and-drop feature and performance improvements along the way.
It has many connections that make it simple to link your app with hundreds of diverse data sources. You may also utilize Office 365 and Dynamics 365 to expand web application capabilities and personalize them as you choose.
With this platform, you can solve challenges while renovating business processes to increase agility. With Azure DevOps, you can effectively manage your app development while exploring components that can be reused, data estate management, and AI services.
Pricing
Per-app: $5/month
Per user: $20/month
Pay-as-you-go: $10/month per active user
6. Airtable
Modernize your business workflows with Airtable. This is another low-code app platform with an impressive database familiarity with spreadsheets.
You’ll find several useful templates that are great for managing projects, tracking inventory, and launching products. Also, your team will not lag behind with its custom notifications and automating redundant tasks!
Syncing and integrating your apps with services like Gmail, Facebook, Teams, and more can be done in a breeze with Airtable. If you’re looking to develop an app without compromising quality or features, give this low-code platform a go.
Pricing
Free version: unlimited bases, 2 GB space, and 1200 records per base
Plus: $10 user/month (paid annually)
Pro: $20 user/month (paid annually)
Enterprise: Custom
7. Salesforce Lightning
Salesforce Lightning allows you to accelerate your digital transformation process. It employs a drag-and-drop technique for a seamless design experience!
This platform also offers a low-code app builder that makes it possible to create an app in minutes. Thanks to its simple user interface.
You don’t have to worry about the learning curve because this app is designed for busy professionals or citizen developers. So, if you need to create an app quickly, this is the platform you should use.
Pricing
Starter: $25/month
Plus: $100/month
8. MailChimp
Automating your email marketing is now possible with Mailchimp. This no-code app platform makes it a breeze to develop beautiful and responsive email campaigns!
Even though MailChimp is a powerful email marketing tool, it does more than that. You may also use its audience management tool, content studio, automate your marketing procedures, and look at analytics with analytic tools.
What we like about this is you can easily access MailChimp as a mobile app as well, making it easy to market your products or services wherever you go!
Pricing (based on 500 contacts)
Offers a free version
Essentials: starts at $11/month
Standard: starts at $17/month
Premium: starts at $299/month
9. Webflow
We can’t leave out Webflow off this list. If you’re looking into creating a web app for your business, you can do it with this platform!
Webflow lets you build your website from scratch with its drag-and-drop controls, customizable templates, and attractive designs. You don’t need to hire a professional web developer because you can do it yourself!
Additionally, this platform is jam-packed with development tools that make website development quicker and easier. With its CMS, you can easily manage your web content and even e-commerce!
Pricing
Basic: $12 /month, billed yearly
CMS: $16 /month, billed yearly
Business: $36 /month, billed yearly
10. Thunkable
Last but not least, build your mobile apps without coding at all with Thunkable. With this powerful no-code tool, you can create apps that work on both iOS and Android platforms with its easy-to-use interface!
You can either choose from starting from scratch or remixing it with existing sample projects. Whichever you choose, you don’t need to have any formal knowledge of custom code or mobile app development.
Instantly test your app in three cross-platforms as you build it with its live preview feature. You can also share it with potential users for feedback before launching it on app stores!
Pricing
Free plan: 200MB of space
Starter: $13/month (personal plan)
Pro: $38/month (personal plan)
Business: $167/month (business plan)
Team: custom (business plan)
Enterprise: custom (business plan)
Develop Your App with Us!
No-code app isn’t a one-time fluke or a passing fancy. No-code application development is here to stay, and it’s only getting started!
If you don’t want to be behind the trend, you should start now.
As an experienced software development company, StarTechUP can help you with that. We offer a complete no-code app solution from app design to app store submission.
Our team of developers will take care of the entire process for you while you focus on your business goals.
Contact us now, and let’s get started with your dream web or mobile applications!
