What is LCNC platform? Coding is now no longer limited to programmers, especially during a time like COVID-19, when it was hard to maintain a full development team, in terms of finance and physical locations! COVID-19 time was specifically stressful for companies selling traditional services and products!
The rise of no-code low-code development has significantly blurred the lines between traditional hard-code, low code and no code, as it’s now more accessible for non-programmers to access SaaS products and services!
The hard code programmers take on a new role, to develop a ‘robust construction environment’ for citizen developers to create different applications based on their business purposes!
Who are the citizen developers?
The citizen developers are company owners, entrepreneurs, managers with little code knowledge, but full background knowledge of business contexts!
They know who the customers are, their insights, the consumer trends, the characteristics of each market in different locations, or during different times of the years.
But, they’re lacking in technical knowledge, that’s when the low-code no-code platforms could help!
Before using no code platforms fluently, you should properly have a little bit of the background of development of Hard Code - Low Code - No Code from time to time!
What is Hard Code?
Hard-code development is the process of building an actual code element, which should be reusable, scalable and customizable!
To write hard-code, you will need to have an advanced understanding of programming languages, software development principles along with long years of experience!
So yes, building apps with hard code programming is hard. That's why around 2019-2020, easier ways to build apps, named low-code no-code, became very popular!
Reference: Hard-coding, according to Wikipedia
What is Low-Code Development?
Low Code development is the next level of hard code; inclusion of pre-made code elements, sections and blocks, all ready for you to build! From there. You could put components together to form a solution (which should be well captioned), but you don’t need to create every piece from scratch!
Of course, some customization in low-code apps still requires coding skills, low-code developers would have less control over single components compared to hard-code, and so as to manage and optimize app performance!
What is No-Code Development?
No-code means no-coding, literally, everything’s converted to reusable blocks for non-programmers! No-code development only has 3 workflow steps as below:
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An organized data source: your business input should be broken down into data models. The data source should be cleaned and structured with care! To be honest, this initial step is tiring, but it lays the groundwork for efficient data utilization throughout the process!
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An interface: How do you want your app to look? For this step, you will have to identify the fields and answers you want to get out of your users. Outcome of this step is a modeled prototype, which should align with your purposes and goals.
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Integration is while no-code development works, as now the app owners could connect their app with different platforms, including a CRM, inventory system, a chat app or a payment gateway!
Relevant: What is no-code development?
What is the LCNC platform?
Low code no code platform (LCNC), means a software platform which involves both no-code and low-code development. The LCNC platform should have an intuitive interface, allowing users with little technical knowledge to build applications visually by drag-and-drop features and pre-built components.
More code is required as customization goes deeper into the application core functionalities! App owners now would need to write code for specific features, but the platform still handles the core logic.
No-code pros and cons
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No-code Pros |
No-code Cons |
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An easy solution to streamline specific business processes, to improve productivity, and enhance customer experiences |
Integrate no-code apps with others may be difficult, which requires basic programming. App owners also rely on the vendors, if they support to share data and workflows with third-party platforms |
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Require little to no training to create, edit and manage no-code apps. |
Limited usability, as no-code typically doesn't extend to support complex data processing capabilities. |
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Save costs and resources for the organization. |
Potential for vendor lock-in is a concern. Migrating applications and data between different no-code platforms is complex and limited, making it difficult to switch vendors when needed. |
Low-code pros and cons
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Low-code Pros |
Low-code Cons |
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Faster and more customizable development, as it’s quicker to build from scratch (compared with hard-code), but you’re still able to customize and optimize, compared with no-code! |
Security concerns may be a big problem, as programmers should choose a platform with robust security features, to handle data well! |
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Accessibility: Citizen developers can still use the applications with little knowledge backgrounds |
Performance limitations: as low-code applications are under-performed on handle tasks with intensive amounts of complexed data. |
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Collaborate better, to enhance communication between citizen developers and professional IT teams, where they develop applications on the same environments! |
Hard to scale, to effectively accommodate larger databases or significant increases in usage and data volume. |
Is the LCNC platform a trend?
Yes, you would probably say so! Firstly, LCNC platforms save tons of time for business owners, project managers, product owners and developers! Now they don’t need to think about the ‘How’, but only the ‘What’ and ‘Why’!
Low-code development platform vendors
Check out three low-code development platforms, recommended by G2 in 2024!
- Mendix are designed for both citizen developers and experienced programmers, this is a powerful platform for building complex enterprise applications.
- Microsoft Power Apps is part of Microsoft products, a popular choice for businesses already using the Microsoft ecosystem.
- OutSystems: well-known for its scalability and security features.
No-code development platform vendors
- Airtable has user-friendly interface with large flexibility, this is a popular choice for building collaborative workspace tools, project management applications, and simple databases
- Bubble offers a visual development environment to build applications without coding, but still allows customization. Bubble flexibility is amazing, but also challenging in terms of handling workflows.
- Webflow is top-known for building websites and UI, as it allows a high level of design control without needing to write code.
- Glide is easy to use, with the ability to create mobile applications from different data source, like excel files or Google Sheets. Users only need minimal technical knowledge to build Glide apps, as Glide offers pre-built templates for common use cases. Find out What Glide is, and top 14 Glide apps alternatives in 2024 today!
- Caspio offers both low-code and no-code solutions; it excels in building database-driven web applications without coding.
Use cases of using LCNC platforms
Mobile app builders are a great way to create a central platform which is suitable with department needs, which leads to faster business internal operation! Below are the few key no-code platforms and main features needed by departments:
Human resource management
- Top candidates are Airtables or AppSheet.
- Main features: applicant trackers, mid-day feedback forms, clock-in clock-out management or salary timesheet…
Marketing Campaign Automation
- Top candidates: Webflow, Mailchimp
- Main features: design platform, workflow tools, email marketing, web builder..
Finance and Books
- Top candidates: Bravo, Zoho Books, Sage, Xero
- Main features: accounting and book management
Portals and dashboards
- Top candidates: Monday, Zoho Creator
- Main features: workflows, data management
Sales and CRM
- Top candidates: Bubble, Airtable, Saleforce, Zoho
- Main features: workflows, task management, shift management
Project Management tool
- Top candidates: ClickUp, Zendesk
- Main features: workflows, task management
AppAlloy | AI-Powered Mobile App Builder
If you’re looking for a LCNC platform, which’s easy app creation with minimal efforts to handle, AppAlloy is your best choice!
Instead of building an app with lots of useful but complicated features (which’s hard to optimize), AppAlloy focuses solely on one goal: Create a quick app which is entirely based on your data input, by perspectives from both app creators and end-users!
AppAlloy uses AI to streamline your Excel data import. It automatically converts your spreadsheet into a user-friendly table on its dashboard and ensures the columns (aka your intention to end-users) align with your app's goals.
FAQs
- What is Hard Code?
- Hard-code development is the process of building an actual code element, which should be reusable, scalable and customizable!
- Who are the citizen developers?
- The citizen developers are company owners, entrepreneurs, managers with little code knowledge, but full background knowledge of business contexts!
- What is No-Code Development?
- No-code means no-coding, literally, everything’s converted to reusable blocks for non-programmers! Users don't need a technical background to become a no-code developer.