Day 7: Future of the No-Code / Low-Code Landscape

Hello again, and welcome back to our 30-day exploration into "Exploring the No-Code and Low-Code (NCLC) Landscape: A Founder's Unfiltered Insights!"

Today, I would like to take time to answer a great question posed by someone in the LinkedIn comments of the Day 5 post: "Exploring the No-Code and Low-Code Landscape (Part 2 of 3)."

This is a question I was hoping someone would ask, as it allows us to delve deeper into what truly constitutes NCLC and where this landscape is headed.

You can click the link above for the specific question, but let me summarize:

The comment was that the Landscape Listing I provided was inaccurate and suggested that I included products in the listing that should not be considered NCLC products.

This is a valid question, so let's dig into this topic by first discussing the three high-level categories of the products that were included in the listing: Point Solutions, No-Code Solutions, and Low-Code Solutions.

Categories Within the NCLC Space

By noting these categories, I hope to help you understand the multi-faceted nature of NCLC products, illustrating how they are rapidly evolving based on user demands.

From specialized point solutions embracing NCLC features to purpose-built NC and LC platforms that streamline development, these categories highlight the diversity and flexibility inherent in NCLC tools.

• Point Solutions: I view “point solutions” as specialized products that have been built to address very specific market needs around a specific process. Although not traditionally considered NCLC products, many of these products now have feature sets that allow their data to be shared or synced between other third-party products.
  
  This feature set is gradually bringing them into no-code conversations. These remain distinct point solutions but now include a subset of no-code or even low-code capabilities.
  
  

Examples of products in this category include Salesforce, Hubspot, Intercom, Bamboo HR, Jira, Pipedrive, Figma, as well as products I included in the listing around podcasting, newsletters, online learning, public relations, social media, Video editing and more.

• No-Code Products: These are purpose-built platforms that generally enable users to create dynamic workflows, apps, websites, forms, portals, and integrations - without writing code.
  
  What is interesting about this category is that we are seeing traditional no-code products adding low-code elements that cross into the traditional low-code category. An example of this would be the ability to use scripting to perform actions within a workflow.
  
  The result is that newer no-code platforms are really 90% no-code and 10% low-code.

Examples of products in this category include SmartSuite, Make, Zapier, Webflow, Noloco, Softr, Fillout, Knack, Airtable, Monday, and more.

• Low-Code Products: These are purpose-built platforms that also allow for creating dynamic workflows, apps, websites, forms, portals, and integrations - however, coding skills and a higher technical understanding are required in most cases.
  
  What is interesting here is that we are seeing many low-code products are also focused on finding ways to allow users to perform actions using drag-and-drop capabilities that do not require coding skills.
  
  The result is that many of these platforms are really 90% low-code and 10% no-code.

Examples of products in this category include Bubble, Glide, Pegasystems, Betty Blocks, Flutterflow, and more.

Future of the NCLC Landscape

1. Traditional Point Solutions Are Changing

The trend toward integrating no-code capabilities into traditional point solutions signals a shift in market expectations. I believe that not only will most new point solutions likely include no-code elements, but they may evolve into industry-specific no-code platforms, reflecting the demand for customization rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

2. Rise of Pure No-Code Products:

The clear demarcation between No-Code and Low-Code is blurring as products evolve to encompass features from both spectrums. However, we may also witness a resurgence in the development of pure no-code products that focus solely on enabling citizen developers and non-technical users to harness technology without any coding involvement. This resurgence could be a response to the growing recognition of the distinct value that pure no-code offers, especially in terms of accessibility and simplicity.

Conclusion

The dynamics within the NCLC space are evolving. As point solutions adopt NCLC features, no-code platforms incorporate low-code elements, and low-code platforms embrace no-code functionalities, the lines between these categories are becoming blurred.

The convergence of these categories represents not merely a trend but a fundamental shift in how technology is developed and utilized.