When people say that every organization is a software company, they are not joking. The significance of enterprise app development can be judged by the fact that every company, whether large or small, is expected to have an application in this digital era.
In order to achieve business goals and ensure maximum customer satisfaction, businesses have to focus on developing enterprise applications. The traditional development approach requires a lot of resources and time to develop an enterprise app.
Nevertheless, no-code tools are available to facilitate individuals as well as businesses in fulfilling their requirements through quick and easy app development without any coding. Many organizations still don't fully realize the importance and potential of no-code tools. Therefore, this article aims to thoroughly discuss how you can build enterprise software with the help of some of the best no-code platforms.
Understanding low-code and no-code platforms
All of the low-code and no-code platforms allow developers to save time by streamlining the development process. Professional developers, as well as individuals with zero technical knowledge of development, can a no-code software.
There are some significant differences between low-code and no-code platforms that you should know about to select the best development approach.
- Low-code platforms require limited coding, but it is still much easier and faster than traditional development.
- No-code platforms are meant to allow anyone to develop an enterprise app without any coding skills or experience. They come with powerful drag-and-drop features to easily assemble the applications.
Since cybersecurity is a major part of all businesses and IT systems, both low-code and no-code platforms pay special attention to building safe and secure applications. The ultimate goal of such code platforms is to ensure rapid application development, along with maximum efficiency and security.
Why low-code and no-code are the future of enterprise applications?
Since traditional development approaches have dominated the application development sector for a long time, a lot of people don't realize the massive potential of low-code and no-code tools.
These code platforms play an integral role in boosting the autonomy and productivity of non-development business teams within small businesses as well as multinational enterprises. Small business owners can now afford to build an app on their own without relying on expensive app developers.
Similarly, you can turn your business into a large-scale enterprise with the help of an enterprise app developed through the low-code or no-code platform. The massive rise of the low-code and no-code tools can also be judged by the fact that the average forecasted global worth of the low-code/no-code market is about USD 84.8 billion by 2027.
Importance of 'Citizen Developers
Low-code and no-code platforms have also popularized the concept of citizen developers. A citizen developer is an individual who can create apps for consumption by themselves or others. In simpler words, a citizen developer is not a specific post or role in a company. Instead, it means having the capability and tools to create different types of applications, including enterprise apps. With time, no-code platforms are becoming even more efficient and user-friendly with different drag-and-drop features.
It means individuals without any technical knowledge can use such visual application builders and become citizen developers. An increasing number of citizen developers will eventually alleviate the massive burden on the IT and business teams.
At the same time, professional developers can also use low-code and no-code platforms to streamline their development methods and expand on the existing functions to create a sophisticated enterprise app.
What are enterprise applications?
Now that you are familiar with the basics of low-code and no-code tools let's discuss what exactly enterprise applications are. Large-scale organizations use enterprise applications or enterprise software apps to automate workflows such as marketing, supply chain, and business intelligence. A well-built enterprise app typically deals with all sorts of business processes.
The purpose of such apps is to modernize the organization and keep the business users happy and satisfied through reliable business processes performed by the enterprise app. Enterprise apps typically combine with another system to create an entire sophisticated enterprise system.
Characteristics of an enterprise app
When it comes to building an enterprise app, there are no hard-and-fast rules. Generally, an app that is meant to serve hundreds or thousands of business users of a large-scale company is considered to be an enterprise app.
Such apps typically deal with workflow automation to streamline complex business processes and enhance productivity. Moreover, enterprise apps have integrated cloud databases to deal with the different departments of large companies. Since large-scale organizations are all about constant growth and innovation, enterprise apps have the scalable global infrastructure to fulfill the changing requirements.
Two major types of apps
Whenever a company is buying software or developing an enterprise app, a major decision to make is whether they should go for an off-the-shelf app or create custom apps. Let's distinguish between these two major types of applications.
Off-the-shelf applications
As the name suggests, off-the-shelf apps are already built with predetermined functionalities. Such apps are meant to serve a large base of users. Legacy systems are also a type of off-the-shelf software.
The functionalities of these apps can also greatly vary because the original software might have a lot of functions, but an organization can make use of the limited features. A significant benefit of using off-the-shelf apps is that they are cost-effective and easy to implement.
However, the drawbacks of implementing an off-the-shelf solution in an organization can be drastic. These systems typically come with great limitations related to updates and modifying the business conditions. It can severely disrupt the workflow of business users and severely impact the organization's productivity.
Custom applications
Custom apps are a popular and reliable alternative to off-the-shelf applications and legacy systems. Many organizations choose to create custom apps to ensure maximum efficiency and productivity by fulfilling the specialized features of a company. Moreover, now it is possible to create even the most sophisticated custom applications and achieve enterprise-grade security and efficiency with the help of low-code application development tools.
Business users' adoption also tends to be easier and quicker with custom enterprise apps. Generally, custom enterprise applications are built according to the existing business systems and workflow of an organization. Drag-and-drop platforms make it easier to modify the interface and suit the specific requirements of a business.
How are low-code/no-code platforms disrupting enterprise application development?
Low-code and no-code platforms are certainly disrupting enterprise application development procedures in many different ways. These code platforms have emerged as powerful and reliable alternatives to traditional app development approaches that are expensive and time-consuming.
According to a study by Gartner, by 2024, about 65% of the development activities will be covered by low-code app development platforms. Similarly, large enterprises are expected to use at least four low-code and no-code tools by 2025 to develop enterprise apps and fulfill their IT requirements.
A major reason why low-code and no-code platforms are disrupting the traditional development industry is that they focus on democratizing software development by allowing citizen developers to build apps without learning how to write code. Hence, anyone who is interested in becoming an app developer can do so with the help of low-code and no-code platforms.
SaaS enterprise applications examples
There is a long list of SaaS enterprise applications that are operating around the world. Studies show that by the end of 2022, the SaaS industry will grow to a massive $151 billion. SaaS products are a major part of enterprise applications and will continue to dominate the market for a long time.
Following are some of the most popular examples of SaaS enterprise apps that you are likely to come across:
- Zoom – a video conferencing app that greatly increased in popularity during the global pandemic.
- Zendesk – a customer service software used by many organizations worldwide.
- HubSpot – email marketing platforms.
- Zoho, Salesforce, and Oracle CRM – customer relationship management systems.
- Microsoft Dynamics AX – enterprise resource planning software.
No-code platforms equip enterprises to fulfill the demand
Dealing with different IT development procedures, such as app development, web app development, and deployment can be overwhelming, even for large-scale companies. Hiring a large team of developers, designers, and testers can be difficult and expensive.
Nevertheless, using low-code/no-code platforms does not involve going through lengthy and expensive development procedures. As a result, you can rely on these code platforms without overburdening your IT department. The good thing is that you can achieve optimum enterprise-grade security and efficiency with no-code platforms as well.
Ultimately, no-code tools speed up development procedures and allow enterprises to fulfill the demand of business users quickly and efficiently. The ability of citizen developers to use drag-and-drop features to build apps is highly useful in unlocking greater performance and speed. Automating the workflow through user-friendly visual editing tools of no-code platforms is a great opportunity for enterprises to expand their reach and streamline business processes.
What kinds of applications could be built with no-code?
When it comes to no-code app development, there are no significant limitations you have to face in it. You can expect to incorporate all the features you want through no-code platforms, just like the traditional development approaches.
Many people assume that enterprise apps are limited to management systems and enterprise resource planning systems. However, such systems are only a small part of the numerous enterprise apps you can create with a no-code platform.
Business users typically rely on many different apps to fulfill business goals, such as marketing, advertising, customer support, social media planning, tracking content, and financial analysis and planning.
Whatever the requirement might be, you can expect an efficient no-code platform to fulfill your needs due to its wide-ranging drag-and-drop features. Choosing a powerful tool to create apps is important to get the best results.
Role no-code in enterprise application development
Having an effective enterprise management system is critical for the success of an enterprise. If companies keep investing in traditional development approaches, they will have to keep spending a lot of time and money on it.
Nevertheless, using no-code development methods is a smart way to build apps without any coding skills. No-code software is also evolving at a great speed, making it easier to build mobile apps and web applications.
Individuals using no-code tools to build apps and uploading them to mobile app stores like Google Play and Apple App Store are contributing to the rising popularity of no-code platforms.
Since using no-code tools cuts down the time of app development, it also significantly reduces the time to market an enterprise app. It allows business owners and managers to focus on other core business activities.
Enterprises can also rely on no-code technology to overcome the challenges involved in the development and satisfy the users' unique needs through customized solutions in the form of mobile and web applications.
The best no-code tools for enterprise software development
Now that you are fully familiar with low-code/no-code development and the role it plays in enterprise app development, let's discuss some of the best no-code platforms.
AppMaster
AppMaster is by far the most powerful no-code app development tool available in the market because it deals with both front-end and back-end. You can use AppMaster to create mobile and web apps with a powerful back-end generated in Golang by AI algorithms. As a result, AppMaster is capable of building a large collection of custom apps for many different niches.
Moreover, quick application development with AppMaster allows business teams and enterprises to streamline their development procedures. By using the powerful features of AppMaster, you can build even the most sophisticated mobile apps without writing even a single line of code.
User-friendliness, efficiency, high-level security, and scalable features of AppMaster are some of the many characteristics that make it the best tool to use to create apps with a no-code development approach.
AppMaster offers the following pricing plans:
- Startup
- Startup+
- Business
- Enterprise
AppSheet
AppSheet is a popular no-code development platform from Google Workspace. It allows you to create apps without having to write code. Its useful features allow you to make original apps with this software quickly. Work may be automated and made simpler using AppSheet.
Mobile applications may be developed and maintained by anybody in your Google Workspace. Therefore, it is a reliable no-code development tool to use when you are building an enterprise app with your business team or want team collaboration features.
The user-friendly interface of AppSheet makes it accessible to all people who are interested in enterprise application development with minimum user onboarding and training. Moreover, you can create Android apps as well as iOS apps with AppSheet and upload them to app stores. The entry-level plan costs $5 a month for each user. The basic plan is $10 a month per person.
Appy Pie
Appy Pie is a no-code enterprise software used to create apps for businesses and individuals. It is drag-and-drop app builders available currently available in the market. This app developer, which is well known for being user-friendly, can assist you in creating applications in only a few minutes. You may create Android, iPhone, and PWA apps.
Skuid
Skuid is a popular and efficient tool for both low-code and no-code development. It is quite different from the other code platforms because it allows you to connect to different data sources and create apps of your choice without going through any extensive user onboarding. As a result, you can rely on multiple data sources and business teams to create custom apps for different mobile devices and fulfill your requirements.
Skuid enables extremely easy application creation without any technological expertise. In contrast to other platforms, one aspect that should be highlighted is the one that provides us with a personal mentor who will assist us before, during, and after the publication process to settle any of our questions.
Visual Lansa
Utilize the Visual LANSA low-code platform to streamline the process of creating exceptional goods and operating your business engine more quickly and efficiently. It uses the same IDE to blend conventional coding with low code, making it easier to create desktop and online apps with shared resources.
It makes it possible for applications to be developed, deployed, and operated more quickly. Silos between IT and development may be removed. Create the whole project within the IDE and quickly migrate other language-written applications by using LANSA's bridge features.
You can interface with services using Visual LANSA without spending time on workarounds. You don't need to look for separate front-end and back-end developers if you let any developer start from scratch while building a web application.
By fostering corporate-wide productivity, control, and innovation, it has a favorable influence on practically every aspect of the business. Additionally, the repository for Visual LANSA has the elements needed for app development. To save time and increase developer productivity, it enables you to utilize and resume the modules and components.
Bubble
Using Bubble to create apps without having to write code is a quick method of creating an app. Moreover, the official YouTube lessons from Bubble make sure that using this no-code app creation platform has a smooth learning curve.
You have excellent control over the overall layout and design of the app because of its drag-and-drop interface. Additionally, a user may visually configure the app specifications to determine what occurs on each screen as they travel through it.
Bubble's extensive collection of graphic components keeps things fresh. It has the modern Oauth 2.0 authentical system. Furthermore, you can also create JavaScript plugins for free to further customize the functionality. Applications created by Bubble are mobile-responsive. There are over 80 different languages available in which you can translate your app.
Airtable
Combine the power of Airtable with your creativity to create remarkable apps. You can get going since it combines the ease of using spreadsheets with the strength of an amazing database. It gives you the ability to create solutions with more capability and complexity.
You also get a huge variety of templates. These templates can be used for different purposes, such as planning, cataloging, tracking, and marketing. Using personalized alerts and automating repetitive chores, you may speed up cooperation.
Integrate your applications with different services and platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail to increase your productivity. You can simply work with anyone from different locations with Airtable to collaborate on a project. The native apps can be used to edit, comment on, and sync changes across all platforms.
Conclusion
Low-code and no-code tools are changing the applications development market in many different ways. Powerful drag-and-drop app builders like AppMaster are paving the path for these changes as professional developers, and citizen developers have started realizing the significance of no-code platforms in speeding up development.
Ultimately, the current development trends clearly indicate that the low-code and no-code development approaches will be the most common development approach in the mobile app development industry. Therefore, this is the best time for individuals as well as enterprises to start using enterprise app development platforms to create and maintain enterprise apps.
