The right low-code solution can empower organisations of any size to take control of their digital transformation efforts, building applications that meet business requirements in less time using platforms with every tool, functionality, and interface feature that supports all developer levels. Automation is another valuable capability organisations leverage from low-code software solutions.
Research shows that low-code tools can reduce development time by 50-90% while other statistics show that programmers use the tools to speed up the time to market by 100%. A faster time to market is one reason for using low-code tools. Discover more reasons to use the platforms, which tools are the best, what industries they can serve, and more in our complete guide to low-code automation.
What Is Low-Code?
Low-code development tools replace traditional development with visual development capabilities, using visual modeling tools instead of writing textual code. Low-code development operates in a visual development environment using drag-and-drop features to help citizen developers, novice developers, professional developers, business users, and subject matter experts to create applications with ease.
What Is Low-Code Application Development?
Low-code application platforms empower citizen and expert developers to rapidly develop software products from scratch. Low-code solutions require some coding skills but are not overly technical. Low-code software development empowers developers to create applications from scratch with built-in components, collaboration tools, drag-and-drop features, and testing tools.
What Is Low-Code Automation?
Low-code automation simply refers to how citizen developers use low-code solutions to create and deploy business applications and enterprise automation solutions with minimal coding knowledge. Low-code software isn’t the same as no-code solutions, but the powerful platforms often guide programmers through the entire application lifecycle, even being able to automate repetitive tasks.
Low-Code vs. No-Code vs. High-Code
High-code development refers to traditional development that requires extensive coding skills from professional developers. However, the distinction between low-code and no-code platforms is that the former still requires some understanding and coding skills, especially when programmers want to build complex applications with multiple integrations, while the latter requires none.
Low-code and no-code platforms have grown significantly, with low-code software solutions projected to reach a market value of £47.3 billion by 2027. Digital transformation efforts are driving more citizen developers to experiment with low-code environments and no-code development platforms, both using visual software development that takes the technical skills out of the equation.
Both software solutions also allow business users to create applications with drag-and-drop functionality. However, there are other key differences between low-code and no-code development. No-code platforms have limited customization options and can’t work for complex application development or complete legacy system overhauls, whereas low-code solutions can.
The Benefits of Low-Code Automation
The benefits of building software applications in a visual, simple-to-use environment are extensive. Here are some of the advantages of leveraging low-code automation tools designed to streamline everything from how to gather requirements to deploying apps in a live environment:
- Higher Productivity: Both professional developers and everyday business users can improve productivity without having extensive coding knowledge.
- Fast App Development Process: A low-code platform is designed for rapid application development that delivers much faster than a traditional development project.
- Automation Ownership: Low-code automation platforms automatically empower businesses to own how they automate business processes in the visual development environment.
- Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The low-code platform doesn’t require extensive development teams working in high-cost development environments.
- Seamless IT-Business Alignment: Organisations keep projects in-house, ensuring seamless IT-business alignment during the development of software applications.
- Digital Transformation: The low-code platform reduces costs and the time to market, encouraging businesses to innovate and develop more solutions to transform digitally.
- Enhanced Customer Experience (CX): Organisations use a low-code platform to enhance the customer experience with legacy system upgrades and intuitive user interfaces.
- Improved Governance and Risk Management: Empowering in-house teams with a low-code platform helps organisations maintain governance and manage risks internally.
- Easy Maintenance: A low-code development platform simplifies how teams develop applications and maintain them after deployment for full lifecycle management.
Real-World Applications for Low-Code Automation/Development
Low-code capabilities will surprise business owners and citizen developers. Let’s look at some real-world low-code development platform use cases other organisations are already implementing to improve automation, business processes, and modernisation efforts.
Application Lifecycle Management
Organisations enjoy the same benefits of managing the entire software development lifecycle that they would in traditional application development when using low-code automation platforms. Team members can act like business analysts, gathering requirements, while programmers can thoroughly test software applications before deployment as these tools ensure entire lifecycle management.
Business Process Management (BPM)
Business process management is the discipline of discovering, analysing, modelling, measuring, and optimising business processes, and low-code application platforms empower organisations to achieve improved business process management. Low-code software helps businesses standardise existing processes, eliminate data entry redundancies, and streamline support requests in a single platform.
Business Process Automation (BPA)
Low-code functionality includes business automation. Robotic process automation or RPA statistics reveal that 86% of businesses report increased productivity when automating even a single process. Build business applications that automate repetitive tasks and integrate automated workflows using low-code automation tools designed to automate business operations with simple functionalities.
Industry-Leading User Interfaces
The drag-and-drop capabilities of low-code app development allows programmers to design user interfaces that meet industry standards while being intuitive and dynamic enough to enhance the user experience. UX statistics show that 90% of users will stop engaging with apps that don’t perform well. Enhancing the user interface with software that meets industry standards solves the problem.
Modernised Legacy Systems
Low-code automation tools also allow in-house teams to modernise legacy systems for older business applications while enabling the expansion of current services. Modernisation is one step closer to digital transformation, which is taking the world by storm. Digital transformation spending already exceeded £1.3 trillion in 2022. Businesses must transform, modernise, and meet evolving demands.
App Development
Low-code tools empower anyone, with or without manual coding skills, to build mobile applications and leverage web application development in a variety of projects. Low-code statistics show that 65% of apps developed will rely on the platforms this year. Here are some examples of mobile applications businesses can build using low-code platforms:
- Customer Engagement App Development: Use low-code automation to develop applications that engage customers with intuitive interfaces, personalise content, and respond to queries faster.
- Operational Efficiency Applications: Develop and integrate enterprise-grade applications that automate workflows, align departments, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency.
- Team Collaboration Applications: Use low-code development environments to streamline collaboration tasks, automate certain workflows, schedule tasks, and manage reviews.
API Generation and Integration
Low-code development teams use the platforms to streamline API generation and integration, reducing the DevOps continuous integration and deployment workloads. APIs are the secret sauce that allow developers to create software with low-code solutions that define how it interacts with other tools. Low-code platforms have pre-built and customizable APIs to connect different business workflows.
Data Integration and Analysis
Low-code platforms transform how data is used and analysed by integrating data analysis tools quickly and efficiently. The state of enterprise data integration shows that 80% of leaders use it to streamline critical ongoing operations. Data can provide valuable insights about future developments, market demands, and more. Low-code platforms can simplify how citizen developers integrate data.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Low-code tools enable business users to access artificial intelligence technologies, with some platforms using natural language processing to understand descriptions before developing products. A recent state of AI survey found that 78% of their respondents said they use AI in at least one process. Low-code tools help both professional developers and citizen developers infuse advanced technologies.
Vertical-Focused Automation
Vertical AI agents are becoming the norm for industry-specific automation. However, citizen developers can unlock the features of low-code development platforms to automate specific vertical tasks like workflows that align with industry best practices or customer-facing processes that meet privacy standards. The capabilities of these platforms can work for multiple industries.
Industry-Specific Use Cases for Low-Code Automation
Low-code automation and development tools have industry-specific use cases to inspire businesses to achieve and innovate more through internal team members creating competitive applications. Here are ways low-code development can serve different industries:
Pharmaceuticals
Low-code development environments are used to build apps that manage complex workflows, automate routine tasks, and streamline inter-department communications.
Education
The education sector can use the easy-to-maintain services for operational automation, automated student onboarding, and student support services that keep them engaged.
Healthcare
Professional developers are using low-code tools to design healthcare apps that streamline patient management, compliance tracking, records keeping, and appointment scheduling.
Banking
The banking and FinTech sectors are automating customer support workflows, loan processing, and even fraud detection with low-code tools that integrate emerging technologies.
Mortgages
The mortgage industry can use low-code app development to automate tedious and time-consuming tasks that require complicated decisions about lending or borrowing money.
Retail
Retailers use the services to seamlessly manage supply chains, improve e-commerce or online stores, build apps with custom inventory management, and respond to customer queries faster.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing companies use the platforms to streamline daily operations, monitor equipment performance using advanced technology integration, and optimise production schedules.
Enterprises
Create enterprise applications designed to improve the customer and employee experience with automated collaboration tools, customer support services, and simplified operations.
Breaking Common Low-Code Platform Myths
There are some common myths about low-code platforms, including how they don’t require the skills of professional developers or how they’re unsuitable for automating complex business processes. Let’s set the record straight about using a low-code platform to build software solutions.
Myth 1: Low-Code Platforms Aren’t Flexible
On the contrary, low-code development platforms are highly flexible and allow business users to visually design their ideas following an Agile approach to the development process. These platforms also seamlessly integrate with others and provide extensive scalability for apps.
Myth 2: Low-Code Application Development Doesn’t Require Developers
Low-code app development may use drag-and-drop interfaces that allow non-technical users to create solutions that replicate the work of professional developers. However, understanding some coding can help citizen developers truly unleash the low-code platform’s capabilities.
Myth 3: Low-Code Is Only Suitable for Small Businesses
Low-code development platforms have extensive tools, templates, and modules even professional developers use. The comprehensive set of low-code tools on the right low-code platform will ensure enterprises and multinational businesses can use the tools for small to large-scale businesses.
Myth 4: Low-Code Is Only Good for Lightweight Development
Leading low-code platforms with comprehensive toolkits work for any software development approach, even when building complex applications. Low-code automation solutions even enable robotic process automation as these low-code development platforms use AI and other advanced tech.
Tips to Use Low-Code Automation and Development Tools
Use our tips to access and use low-code platforms to create any application for automation, competitiveness, or market reach:
- Define the Processes and Data: The underlying functionality of any application should be how it processes data. Define how applications will define processes in a way that aligns with your business needs and goals, empowering the app to structure data and process it as necessary.
- Create User-Friendly Forms: Every development process should focus on the user experience. Design forms that make the user’s experience seamless and intuitive. Create forms with intuitive functionalities and different field types to keep user engaged and proactively learning from apps.
- Design Fully Functional Apps: These platforms give developers every tool, template, module, and feature they require to develop fully functional applications. Leave nothing out, and give users everything they need to complete tasks, automate operations, or simplify workflows.
- Execute and Test the Application: Software testing is important, even when using platforms with visual tools designed to streamline the process. Do not skip the testing process, using every test the program has to offer and using third-party programs to test it outside the platform.
The Key Features of Low-Code Development Environments
Low-code development platforms differ from no-code platforms, but they have a specific set of features that help even novice developers through to professional developers create applications using a set of tools. Here are the typical features to consider for choosing the right low-code platform:
- Application Lifecycle Management: Reliable platforms support the entire application lifecycle to ensure developers benefit from seamless project management during any stage. It should include requirements engineering, version controls, testing, and deployment.
- Collaboration Tools: Low-code platforms enable streamlined collaboration with built-in components that simplify the development process. The tools include feedback loops, user stories, revision tracking, and messaging to ensure all developers stay on track.
- Drag-and-Drop Interfaces: Visual software development capabilities should enable citizen developers to access various visual tools that streamline the process. The drag-and-drop functionality is what helps citizen developers with minimal skills optimise applications.
- Pre-Built Components: Low-code automation and development platforms have pre-built components, reusable components, pre-configured modules, templates, connectors, and logic developers seamlessly infuse into the software development project for faster development.
- User Access Controls: Reliable platforms integrate security and compliance so that development teams meet industry standards and build software solutions with pre-built components that can withstand evolving cyber threats.
- Visual Modeling Tools: The drag-and-drop interfaces with visual modeling tools allow citizen developers to build applications visually while professional developers can build apps faster using less technical coding skills. Low-code uses model-driven development with one-click deployment.
Low-Code Industry Statistics and Forecasts
Low-code industry forecasts from Precedence Research reveals the following key insights, statistics, and projections that make low-code solutions even more appealing:
- The low-code market is valued at £9.36 billion in 2025.
- The market is projected to reach £59.97 billion by 2034.
- It will grow at an estimated compound annual growth rate of 22.92%.
- North America owned 32% of the low-code market in 2024.
- The BFSI segment held the greatest market share at 24% in 2024.
- The demand for artificial intelligence in low-code continues to grow.
- 83% of organisations use low-code to practice Agile development.
Low-Code Automation Conclusion
Low-code application platforms replace traditional coding when businesses wish to manage the entire application lifecycle, increase productivity among internal teams, and automate processes with ease. There are differences between low-code tools and no-code solutions, with the former still requiring some experience with traditional coding.
Still, these platforms enable businesses to take control of their automation processes, project management, and application lifecycle management using the Agile methodology. Pre-built components let organisations create enterprise applications faster than traditional development while low-code functionality has the tools necessary to build even more complex solutions.
Low-Code Automation FAQs
What is low-code development?
Low-code development uses a visual, model-driven approach to build applications. Business users and expert developers with any skill level can develop anything from business process automation tools to core system applications using low-code environments. Low-code tools empower organisations to become more productive, practice an Agile approach, and break down data silos.
What is low code automation?
Low-code automation simply describes how business users and citizen developers with minimal coding experience can use built-in tools and functionalities in a visual environment to automate repetitive tasks or design automation solutions for business processes. The environments are intuitive and accessible to various users and programmers, allowing anyone to automate tasks that improve business operations.
What are the key benefits of low-code application development?
The benefits of using low-code to develop applications is that professional developers become more productive while inexperienced programmers find support through a comprehensive toolkit that automates many of the tasks during the application’s lifecycle, including testing, version control, deployment, and more. Finally, low-code automation empowers businesses to control development.
