8 Things Developers Need To Know About No Code Development

The demand for automation and modernization has grown hugely over the last couple of years, and businesses are having trouble with the limited number of engineers and developers for hire. That’s where no code development comes in.

Whether they’re building a new startup from scratch or building on top of your cloud-based telephone system, no-code development enables anyone to build new software as easily as they’d make a spreadsheet formula. How can developers leverage no-code to their advantage, and what exactly can you create with it?

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What is no-code development?

“No-code development” refers to a new category of software creation that’s more accessible to non-experts. By using platforms like Plasmic and Webflow users can easily design and build webpages and software. These platforms often make use of “what you see is what you get” (“WYSIWYG”) editors that use drag-and-drop components instead of a programming language.

Not only is this more accessible, it’s also much faster than traditional programming and has less room for error. These robust, drag-and-drop components are also more “lego-like” than written code, meaning you can import ready-made programs from other users on the platform and include them in your own work. A user only has to write the program once, and everyone else on the platform can use it. This enables anyone to build custom functionality much faster than they otherwise could, even if they were a senior software developer.

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8 Things Developers Need To Know About No Code Development

So, what are the most important things developers need to know about these methods? Do these platforms threaten to put developers out of a job, or will they make developers more effective than ever?

1. No-code development has faster launches

No-code development enables faster launches of both user-facing products and internal business tools. On a web app’s user-facing front end, services like WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify let businesses quickly spin up attractive ecommerce sites.

On the backend, no-code gives users total control over the information flowing in and out of that site. With easy-to-use interfaces, the no-code platforms let developers and non-developers quickly stick together new functionality. With much less room for error than “manual” coding, these systems enable a business to go from an idea to a working product much faster than traditional development methods.

2. No-code development requires less production cost

No-code development reduces production costs by eliminating the need for manual coding by developers. By utilizing no-code tools, businesses no longer need to hire expensive engineers and developers to get their projects up and running.

This is great for small businesses that don’t need to keep expensive freelancers around. For big companies, no-code also reduces the need for debugging and refining code. This makes the entire development lifecycle easier, faster, and more cost-efficient for everyone.

3. No-code development offers more autonomy

No-code development offers more autonomy to software developers and their non-technical colleagues. It allows developers to create bespoke solutions without having to write complex code, thus freeing up their time to focus on more important tasks. When their colleagues need to change or build on top of these solutions, they have the autonomy to just go ahead and do it without having to ask managers to reallocate resources.

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4. No-code development doesn’t require deep programming background

No-code development is an increasingly popular technique developers use to quickly and efficiently create applications, products, and services without a deep programming background. With powerful integration APIs like IFTTT and Zapier, it’s possible to integrate no-code software into anything from CRM databases to caller ID software.

5. No-code development only requires one person (not a whole team!)

No-code development is ideal for businesses that want to quickly build apps and services without having to invest in a team of developers.

A single person with some basic technical knowledge can create and customize a project as needed. If someone in marketing or sales needs the system to change to suit a new process, they don’t need to ask the development team for help. This saves developer time on both the writing of code and on gaining an understanding of user requirements.

6. No-code maintenance is easy to do

No-code development makes programming accessible to all. No experience is required. Sometimes users don’t even need to build their own programs. They just assemble some components that people with the same problem have written already. The user interface makes creating applications, websites, software, and simple bots easy.

7. No-code development gives you freedom to adjust and pivot accordingly

No-code development allows users to pivot quickly as the demands of the customer change. Without having to spend time and resources rewriting complex code, users can take advantage of no-code tools to make changes quickly.

8. No-code development can cut your development timeline in half

According to RedHat, no-code development services can “potentially shave 50-90% off development time vs. a coding language. We believe low-code DAPs will craft nearly half of all applications developed in the coming years because they take less time to prototype, test, and deploy to production. They are also adaptive and can rapidly enable intelligent process automation when combined with machine-learning and AI capabilities.”

What can you build with no-code developments?

No-code platforms can build anything from a simple landing page or handy automations to a working ecommerce site, as we’ll see below.

Landing pages

For many businesses, no-code development has quickly become popular as it provides an inexpensive and time-efficient way to create a high-quality landing page.

With no-code development, developers can quickly construct a well-designed landing page with no coding experience whatsoever. It allows for the use of drag-and-drop features to create aesthetically pleasing pages with powerful features. No-code development makes it simple to integrate those frontends with arbitrary functionality like signup forms, lead capture, ecommerce checkout, and customer service portals.

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Member-only sites

You can even use no-code development to develop members-only sites. It allows developers to quickly build and launch an exclusive web portal for a limited number of users who can access exclusive features and content.

With no-code tools, anyone can create gated membership areas, allowing registered or paying members to access premium content. The no-code tools can create user registration and login forms, so members can securely access the site, or verify user ownership of accounts or crypto wallets used to gate access.

Web and Mobile apps

You can build web and mobile apps quickly and affordably using no-code development. With no-code development platforms, developers can use various components within the platform to quickly build and deploy dynamic applications. These components include drag-and-drop interfaces, form builders, and APIs for third-party integrations. This makes it easier for developers to create complex web and mobile app features without having to code from scratch.

No-code software can also improve website performance and protection when it’s used to build one. The “no-code” logic you’re putting together is a UI metaphor for a lot of code running in the cloud. Because of the modularity and scalability requirements of that no-code company and the number of times that code is stress-tested in real usage, the code has to be very robust. Where it isn’t, users will discover bugs quickly, and the company’s dedicated team will fix them. Security issues will also get flagged up and solved quickly. As Linus’s Law goes: “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”

Workflow automations

Workflow automation can be a huge cost-saver for businesses, whether it’s a fully-automated IVR system or a lot of small time-savers that stop employees getting stuck in manual tasks like data entry that don’t drive value. No-code development can help businesses automate processes and reduce the need for developers. From managing customer data, customer service, and customer onboarding to product launches and analytics, no-code can help remove tedious manual work from a developer’s plate.

Newsletters

Marketers already use services like Mailchimp that include readymade templates and frontend functionality. With no-code development, marketers can more deeply integrate these emails with their ecommerce sites. They can even more deeply integrate these email services with themselves: if a customer clicks a particular “Buy” button, no-code can give that customer a specific tag. This enables much more granular audience targeting that wouldn’t otherwise be possible without custom scripting from a developer or hours of manual data entry in the spreadsheet.

Online stores and marketplaces

No-code development can be a great boon to businesses looking to build online stores or marketplaces without hiring engineers and developers.

Services like WordPress and Squarespace enable business owners to quickly and easily create user-friendly websites with visual page builders. And with no-code tools integrations, they can assemble backend functionality with the same drag-and-drop principles that made frontend “development” so accessible.

In ecommerce, this means sellers can automatically manage product categories, populate their site with inventory from their own database, and populate their CRM with information from customers.

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Internal business tools

No-code development is especially useful in the DevOps system development lifecycle. Not only can no-code tools make developers’ lives easier, but it makes it easy for other departments to improve their own workflows in the way developers can. This is an easy way for departments to work more effectively as time goes on: once they improve one process that was bugging them, the target moves to the next most inefficient part of their work.

Conclusion

No-code development platforms are only getting better, so they’ll only become more attractive to entrepreneurs and employees as time goes on.

Plasmic acts as a bridge between the no-code and code world. It allows you to build websites and applications that integrate with codebases (allowing developers more control, while giving no-code pros more freedom to build without needing to wait on the backlog.

This allows non-programmers to set up automatic processes across the business, freeing up massive amounts of time for developers to focus on work that only they can do.

Grace Lau - Director of Growth Content, Dialpad

Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad and AI-powered cloud communication platform for better and easier team collaboration with features like phone call waiting. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, and partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Here is her LinkedIn.