Low-Code and No-Code Platforms: How to Empower Innovation Without Developers
A startup develops a digital platform in just three days and attracts hundreds of users within a few weeks. Scaling the business starts immediately. Exactly this happened to the Ensemble19 startup. This social entrepreneurial project was released within three days during the COVID-19 pandemic using a no-code platform. In 8 weeks, the project helped over 1,000 businesses collect approximately CHF 600,000.
This example shows that innovations do not require years of development or hundreds of thousands of dollars in budget. MVP development services are now available to everyone with no need to be a coding expert. In this article, we will highlight how low-code platforms help businesses solve the most challenging problems and enhance efficiency.
What Is Low-Code and No-Code: Quick Overview for Your Understanding
Imagine that the owner of the cafe wants to integrate the online system for orders. Previously, there was a need to partner with a custom software development company. Now, the owner simply opens Glide or Bubble and drags the blocks, such as “menu”, “payment”, or “delivery”. Within a weekend, a ready application is available for clients to use.
So, low-code and no-code mean creating innovations without engaging tech experts. The only thing you need is an idea. Easy-breezy.
Low-Code VS No-Code: Major Differences
The purpose of both low-code and no-code approaches is to make the development process easier, so that everyone can feel like a programmer, without actually being a programmer. However, using low-code, you still need to have some kind of engineering background. No-code is relatively more straightforward: no coding expertise at all, just your desire to collect a picture from puzzles.
Here is a short low-code vs. no-code comparison table for better understanding:
Key Business Challenges in 2026 and How Low-Code Platforms Solve Them
The value of low-code and no-code development platforms is huge. Low-code/No-code development agencies create profitable solutions with a minimal budget. To clarify, let’s examine the key challenges that the low-code and no-code approaches can help address now and in 2026.
Problem: Tech Talent Shortage
Companies worldwide struggle to find qualified specialists. The demand for tech talent exceeds the marketʼs ability to supply. This is why the development of digital solutions is hindered, MVPs are released with delays, and budgets constantly increase.
Solution
Low-code platforms help marketers, managers, or analysts who are not technically strong to independently create applications, automate workflows, and facilitate integrations. At the same time, it helps eliminate the need for a programmer to be involved in these tasks. This reduces the load on the IT department, allowing for the rapid implementation of ideas.
Problem: Slow Digital Transformation
For most companies, digital transformation feels like a marathon through mud. Businesses generate lots of ideas, but making them real takes a long time. The IT team is overloaded with tasks, the budget is limited, and the development of a new tool takes months. Thus, the business stands still, while its competitors are already testing new solutions.
Solution
With low-code and no-code platforms, you can turn digital transformation from a painfully slow process into a high-speed experimental cycle. Instead of waiting for a necessary tech expertise, teams can create, test, and scale solutions in days. And this is real.
Problem: High Dependence on IT Departments
In many organizations, digital initiatives are entirely dependent on the IT teams. To launch even a small project, for example, an internal CRM system or data collection form, you need to send a request, wait for approval, get into a backlog, and finally expect the realization of your idea in several months. Businesses lose flexibility, while IT departments are constantly under pressure from an endless array of tasks.
Solution
With low-code development platforms, you can avoid this IT bottleneck, enabling business departments to build solutions independently. Citizen developers can use drag-and-drop tools to create apps, forms, analytics, and automation, all without requiring complex coding.
The IT department does not vanish – it assumes a new role: to manage control, integration, and technical standards. Result: business teams become more independent, while IT people turn into strategic partners.
Problem: Growing Engineering Costs
The salaries of engineers continue to grow from year to year: in the USA, the average programmer’s salary is now $100,000 per year. Traditional product development involves a large team of developers, high costs for support and maintenance, and a budget for scaling. Companies typically have limited resources, while the demand for digital solutions increases, creating significant financial pressure.
Solution
Business teams or citizen developers can create solutions without the help of tech experts. They can spend fewer hours on development as low-code and no-code platforms provide access to pre-built templates. Thus, the costs associated with development are minimal.
(For complex problems needing expertise, here are vetted app development companies.)
Problem: The Need for Flexibility
Traditional development means that any change, even the smallest one, can have a domino effect. To add a new field in the form, update the booking process, or change the calculator logic, you need to involve an engineer, make changes to the code, test it, and deploy the update. It often takes weeks or months. As a result, the business has no time to react to market changes; new features are released with delays, and the IT department spends more time on minor fixes instead of focusing on innovation.
Solution
Low-code development platforms create a flexible environment that allows you to make changes instantly, without requiring code modifications. Business or product teams can individually change logic, fields, or workflows through a visual interface. There is no need to wait for sprints or releases – changes can be made in real time. Platforms automatically update the backend and frontend code without breaking existing functionality. Thus, companies become flexible, adaptive, and fast, even with small teams in place.
No-Code / Low-code Development Examples
1. The first example is the PG&E company from the USA energy sector. Their task was to streamline manual processes and reduce the workload on the support team. They did not want to hire more specialists. As a result, over 4,300 of the company’s non-tech employees created more than 2,000 Power Apps, 4,200 Power App Flows, and a Peggy Chatbot to simplify the work of the support department.
2. Let’s see another example here. Zurich Insurance, the global financial company, aimed to scale citizen development without losing control. The company launched the “Center of Enablement,” a platform that enables every employee to create internal apps using Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate. Thus, 4,500 employees became app makers; overall, they built 35,000+ automated flows, and more than 25,000 employees regularly use their own low-code apps to increase productivity.
This case demonstrates that a low-code and no-code approach can unlock innovation in large organizations, where bureaucracy often hinders transformation.
3. Globe Telecom, a telecom company based in the Philippines, integrated Google AppSheet, a no-code platform, to host a hackathon for non-technical employees. The goal was to teach them how to create apps without requiring technical expertise. Over 450 employees completed the educational process, and 180 of them became active app makers. For a short period, they developed 350 internal applications.
4.HTM, the public transportation company in the Hague region, is also among the low-code development examples. They utilized a low-code platform, Mendix, to develop 15 applications, including MyHTM, which supports 2,400 users.
5.And the final case. Estafeta Mexicana, one of the biggest logistics companies in Mexico, needed to launch a new logistics application for managing deliveries, drivers, and clients’ requests. Traditional development would have taken up to 6 months. As a solution, they decided to use OutSystems, a low-code platform for enterprise apps. They engaged a team of just four people to build a fully functioning application with a backend, integrations, and UI. The MVP was ready in 11 weeks, with the possibility of integrating changes, adding new features, and flexibly managing the app upon demand.
Low-Code/No-Code Platforms: What Trends Are Coming in 2026
As companies recognize the value of low-code and no-code platforms, they are becoming more adept at using these tools to drive business growth and success. However, as adoption rises, new trends are emerging that will redefine how organizations do business in the years ahead.
AI-Assistant Development with Low-Code Platforms
AI assistants have been popular before. However, the time for their development took months. Now, you can create an AI bot in days due to low-code/no-code app development capabilities. Let’s see what the process looks like:
1. Set the objective: what your assistant should do (answer clients’ questions, generate texts, find documents, or plan events).
2. Select the platform. For example, these include Voiceflow, Botpress, Landbot, ManyChat, and Flow XO.
3. Build logic with the help of “if/then” blocks, integrations with CRM, databases, APIs.
4. Set an AI model through API OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, or other models for natural language.
5. Assistant learning: adding content, knowledge, or documents, based on which the assistant will learn.
6. Testing and deployment: placing an assistant in the web, messenger, or internal company system.
Where is this trend moving? Towards integrating generative AI into CRM/ERM systems, creating an individual assistant for each department, and connecting LLM (Large language models) with visual blocks for managing data without coding. (To integrate advanced-level AI, explore top AI development companies.)
Low-Code/No-Code Platforms and Automation
Businesses expect that automation will not only make processes faster, but also serve as a core for flexibility, adaptability to market and regulatory changes, as well as innovation. Automation will become more intelligent – low-code platforms will increasingly utilize AI components for decision-making, data analysis, and predictions.
Who will most benefit from automation based on a low-code approach?
- Enterprises. Those companies are under pressure to increase effectiveness, accelerate digital transformation, and cope with limited IT capacity.
- Small and medium businesses. When there is no large IT team, you need to launch automation tools quickly with minimal costs.
- Various industries include fintech, healthcare, manufacturing, and client services. For example, in fintech, this involves automating credit request processing, and in healthcare, it consists in automating administrative tasks.
(For automation-heavy use cases, here are the leading RPA companies.)
Composable Business Apps with Low-Code Architecture
Being composed of modular components, composable business applications provide a high level of flexibility. Instead of a monolithic program or platform, businesses use a set of ready-made light-weight blocks that can be used to build apps covering a specific business need.
Low-code and no-code development platforms have some key elements that align well with the idea of compositeness:
- Visual constructors, drag-and-drop interfaces, ready-made templates. This is app development without coding.
- Access to libraries of components, templates, and ready-made integrations (APIs, connectors) enables the creation or reuse of app blocks.
- Platforms with low-code capabilities enable citizen developers to build apps or modules, while the IT team provides components that can be combined.
- While components can be autonomous, they can be replaced, changed, or combined, which corresponds to the principle of compositeness. And low-code instruments simplify that.
When a business uses composable apps with a low-code/no-code development approach, it can respond to market fluctuations more quickly than its competitors, minimize risks, increase process flexibility, and facilitate better integration with existing systems.
Security-first platforms
In 2026, the transition to security-first platforms will become one of the key trends. Companies will combine the speed of low-code app development with in-built data protection mechanisms, access control, and automated risk management. It will help develop digital products without compromising innovations and cybersecurity.
How can the low-code and no-code approach be used for security-first platforms?
- Less code means fewer risks. Low-code/no-code solutions are built using secure components, which include built-in authentication, encryption, and data verification.
- Such platforms provide templates for secure applications, automated vulnerability scanning, and standard low-code architecture, which accelerate development without compromising security.
- Citizen developers can create solutions without requiring technical expertise, working in an environment that has built-in security mechanisms, thereby promoting innovation.
- Security-first platforms have accurate access policies, roles, and logging, which enable the control of who creates apps and how, thereby minimizing the risks associated with “shadow IT”.
How to Select Relevant Low-Code Development Platforms for Your Business
Let’s identify key principles of how to choose a low-code platform to meet your business needs:
1. Define goals and requirements. What do you want to achieve? It can involve process automation, low-code development of internal tools, client-based solutions, or other approaches.
2. Estimate the level of convenience and availability. How intuitive is the platform for users, whether it has drag-and-drop functionality, or how much tech expertise do you still need to have to use it?
3. Check integrations and the ecosystem. Is it easy to connect existing systems, API, and databases, or does it have ready-made modules?
4. Pay attention to security, scalability, and management. Is the platform ready to scale? Does it have policies, regulations, and correspondence with relevant authorities? Does it have clear roles/accesses?
5. Estimate costs and licensing. Is the price transparent, or are there hidden expenses? Does the platform align with your budget and development model?
6. Test it. Launch a small project to check the platform in action and see all aspects of usage.
Low-code and no-code solutions are not only a trend today, but also a strategic instrument for businesses eager to grow faster. They help companies fight the challenge of talent shortage, cut costs, provide flexibility, and reduce dependence on IT departments.
Thanks to the most popular low-code platforms, innovations are no longer limited by tech resources – the teams that best understand their business goals and organizational processes can create top solutions. Low-code changes the logic of digital transformation: now, it is not vertical; it emerges from inside the business, every day.