In 2022 the no code and low code market still appears to be in its infancy. The total revenue of low code application platforms in 2021 was only 5.75bn USD. In comparison, the total market for web design services — which does not account for services produced in-house — is at least one order of magnitude higher. If the 30% annual growth rate of the low code applications market could be sustained until the end of this decade the market would be worth 50bn USD annually in 2030.
There are several trends that are pointing towards a sustained growth for no code/low code applications. In the following I take a look at these trends that eventually might create a significant market share for no code app builders by the end of this decade.
Developer Scarcity
One of the most significant drivers of no code/low code tools adoption is developer scarcity. As the demand for software increases and the supply of developers can’t keep up, salaries of developers are increasing. The higher the salary of developers the greater is the incentive to adopt developer substitutes.
The usage of low code tools such as Outsystems is often welcomed by developers in larger organizations. Low code tools have the potential to remove the burden of repetitive and frustrating tasks from developers while they are able to focus on their core functions. In that sense low code tools make existing developers more productive and enable a business to implement software solutions with a potentially lower developer head count.
On the other hand, no code applications empower businesses to build tools without the need of involving developers at all. The average cost of building a website in 2021 was between 9,000–38,000 USD. Building a website with a no code tool often is possible for only a fraction of that price.
No code tools are also ideal for prototyping and verifying whether there is market demand for a product. Entrepreneurs can quickly build a SaaS app with a no code tool and prove whether there is a profitable market for their app before investing heavily into product development.
Furthermore, by using a no code/low code platform businesses can save between 50–90% of the development time and move way faster.
Citizen Developers
The term citizen developer emerged in the last few years to describe employees inside an organization that build internal tools for their department or company. They typically have no formal technical education and their job description is not related to development. However, they commonly have a solid understanding of software, databases and spreadsheets.
Citizen developers currently use mostly MS Excel, JIRA or Google Spreadsheets for building internal apps or workflows. The management of the majority of medium and large enterprises has not yet recognized the potential of Citizen Developers and has not supplied them with the tools to make them more productive and broaden the range of apps they can build. Additionally internal policies are often designed to prevent employees from developing apps and restrict innovation.
As leadership roles pass over from baby boomers to the next generation the attitude towards employees and internal software tools is changing. It will become more common that management will provide access for their department to no code tools such as Glide Apps or Chartmat so that employees can build their own directories and apps without depending on an IT department. Eventually internal policies will be updated to enable employees to build and run non-critical infrastructure just as they nowadays can use spreadsheets without the approval of the IT department. These tendencies will eventually empower citizen developers to take off.
Composability
No code solutions would be useless if they would be isolated. However, they are not. The most common tools natively support Google Sheets or Airtable as a database for their app. However, this approach has restrictions: no code tools typically work best if the number of users you are trying to serve is below 1,000. If you are trying to build larger apps, spreadsheets don’t work well as the database for your app and it is better to follow a conventional web development approach.
Tools like Integromat or Zapier allow you to easily connect your backend to almost any API or service you would want to. This empowers non technical builders to create sophisticated applications without the requirement of writing actual code.
Once you have built your no code app or dashboard you can easily embed it into your blog or website. Whatever you build with no code tools can natively access data from other services and can be easily embedded into your existing content. This is a very powerful feature of no code solutions and will help this market segment grow considerably over the coming decade.
Awareness
One of the biggest challenges the no code/low code tools face is awareness. Most small and medium businesses which are the main audience for these tools are not yet aware that these alternatives exist in the market.
They have the belief that it is still necessary to start from scratch every time you build a new tool just as you would if you are building an item or a house in the real world.
The lack of awareness points towards the early stage in which the market is in. Adoption of no code/low code tools so far has only occurred by innovators and early adopters. The majority of potential customers has not yet collected any experience with this market segment or is not even aware of it.
There are a number of indicators pointing that things are changing quickly. We are currently observing a rapid shift of application environments from non-cloud premises to public cloud and SaaS solutions. Since no code/low code tools are typically SaaS solutions they are gradually replacing non-cloud and private cloud environments.
Nevertheless the no code/low code niche will need to do a lot of educating and awareness building to position itself successfully over the years to come.
Businesses move online
The Covid-19 pandemic can be considered as the starting point of a massive migration of economic activity towards the internet. After Covid-19 it is very common to open your restaurant menu through a QR code or to attend the Yoga class hosted by your local Yoga teacher through a video conference.
This trend has caused tremendous growth for assets in the innovation and software market such as the $ARKK innovation ETF. While the markets were subsequently giving away much of these gains a lot of the change brought will remain permanent. The trend towards innovation and substitution of established technologies will proceed in the years to come.
The shift towards remote and asynchronous work won’t end after the pandemic is over. This new type of work requires teams to develop internal tools in order to coordinate their work. A lot of these tools will be built using no code applications. Retool offers a great solution to build internal tools for teams within large enterprises while Chartmat enables small businesses or solo entrepreneurs to build their internal tools that matter.
Innovation, remote and asynchronous work and digitalization will be one of the major drivers of no code adoption. In combination with an improving awareness the industry is positioned well to serve the emerging market needs.
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed reading the trends I see for the no/low code market over the next decade. You think I missed anything or got something wrong? I am curious to read about it in the comments section!
In case you happen to be just as passionate as I am about the future of no code I’d like to connect. Please give me a follow on Twitter and reach out to me if you want to — DMs are open!