Which Method to Use – Low Code vs Traditional Development?

According to a study conducted by Appian and Forrester Consulting, 84% of enterprises are using low-code development for –

• Reducing strain on their IT resources
• Increasing speed-to-market
• Involving the business in digital asset development

But does your project require low-code development? Or is your business more suited to traditional development?

We are here to solve your doubts.

In this blog, we explore the low code vs traditional development approaches. Read on to find out if you should hop on the trend of low code or no-code web development or stick to the traditional web development.

Low Code vs Traditional Software Development – Quick Comparison

Before we get into the details of what is low-code development and its pros and cons, here is a quick comparison table of low code vs traditional development. Read to get a quick and easy overview of the blog.

Understanding Low Code and Traditional Development

Let’s take a simple example of Canva and Photoshop to understand the key differences between traditional development and low-code development.

Imagine you want to develop an attractive banner for your business’s website. You have two approaches for the same.

Approach 1 – Photoshop

You can plan and design properly according to your requirements with this approach. The process you follow with Photoshop is –

1. You brainstorm ideas/concepts you want to portray with the design.
2. You plan the content to highlight, the theme to use, the different shapes to use along the colours to properly convey your idea.
3. Design each element from scratch, adding layers to get the desired graphics.
4. Add content if any.
5. Your custom banner is ready.

Approach 2 – Canva

The other approach to designing the banner is using a tool like Canva.

1. You select the ideal dimensions and start designing.
2. Browse ready-made design formats and templates and select the one that matches your idea.
3. Drag and drop the elements you require.
4. Copy the content if any.
5. Add customization – Resize, apply colours of your choice.
6. Your banner is ready.

With robust graphic design tools like Photoshop or AdobeXD, you have to customize each element. It takes time and manpower to get the design ready. But you get a design that is exactly as imagined and planned.

With automated or ready-to-use design tools like Canva, you can design an image within a few hours. It is fast and easy. But you are limited by the templates or elements available. You can add limited personalization.

Now coming back to our topic at hand – traditional vs low code development. Traditional development is a lot like using Photoshop. You plan, you design, you build everything from the ground up.

Low-code development, as you can guess, is more like Canva. You drag and drop pre-configured modules to the graphic interface, add less customization code and your software is ready to use.

Now that you know the concept behind traditional development and low code development, let’s look at the pros and cons of both development approaches.

What is Low Code Development?

Low code development is the software development approach that uses ready-made templates and pre-coded modules. Low code development platforms are for both beginners and professional web developers. They can quickly develop standard applications with very little manual coding. Best no code tools can further simplify the process by eliminating the need for any coding whatsoever.

Low code platforms have a drag-and-drop interface. You just have to draw the flow diagram and the application will be built. With a few code lines to add personalization, the web app is ready to be used.

People with limited coding knowledge can also create web software by just dragging the modules and placing them in order. You can develop a fully-functional web solution with minimal coding using a low code development platform.

Even low code web design is easier. You don’t need to learn advanced tools like Photoshop or Adobe XD to make striking web page designs.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Low-code Development

Let’s analyze the pros and cons of low code development for web projects.

Now let’s look at what the traditional development methods are and how it stands against low code.

What is Traditional App Development?

Traditional application development is a custom software development approach where software engineers code software from scratch.

Traditional development requires technical proficiency, unlike low code. You need to hire professional web developers to manually code and design the software solution.

When you want to develop a completely customized web application or website, you need the traditional development approach. The software developers will write custom code for each feature. There is no place for off-the-shelf software solutions.

A web developer follows all the stages of a web development lifecycle from requirement gathering and research to testing and deployment.

In addition, traditional development projects need a sizable investment of time, money, and resources.

But the product quality is high and everything is built as per your request. The developers can implement advanced features if required with minimal effort as they are experienced and have a wide development knowledge base.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional Development

Let’s analyze the pros and cons of traditional development for web projects.

So Which Web Development Method Should You Be Using?

Choosing the right development approach is very important. The wrong app development strategy can result in a huge loss of money, time, and resources.

For example, you create a low-code application for managing the attendance of an organization. Now you want to integrate new functionalities like an hour-by-hour tracking of employees or their task management. But the low code platform does not have the necessary templates or elements you need.

Now you are in a pickle because you can’t add the tracking functionality in the existing application. Even if you develop a separate application for tracking and managing tasks, you won’t be able to connect the two apps. The only solution is to hire a web development company that develops the whole application from scratch with both the attendance and task management features.

Therefore it is essential that you carefully analyze the pros and cons of both low code and traditional development method before choosing one.

In this section, we list when to prefer low code web development and when it is better to invest in traditional web development.

When to Go for Low Code Development?

Low code development is the right option for you in these situations –

1. When You Require Quick MVP Development

   If you are looking to build prototypes or present a working solution to gain investors, it is not advisable to spend thousands of dollars to develop a custom MVP (Minimum Viable Products). With a low code app, you can quickly create a low-cost, low-risk MVP for your idea. Low-code MVP development is faster, cheaper and easier than the traditional development process.

2. Static Websites And Web Apps

   Low code app development is perfect for simple websites and web apps. When you are developing a static website, there is no need to write HTML and CSS codes. Within just 5-10 hours, you can have a static website or web app up and running.

3. When Trying Innovative Ideas

   You have an innovative web app idea that may benefit your organization. But you don’t want to waste resources and wait for months to try it out. Use low code web tools for developing apps quickly and easily. You can implement the idea in just 1-3 weeks and if it doesn’t work or requires changes, you can roll it back as rapidly.

When is Traditional Development Better for You?

You should prefer going with traditional development when your project has –

1. Require Custom Web Solutions

   Of course, as mentioned above, custom app development is almost synonymous with traditional programming. If you require features and functionalities not found in standard solutions, build your web apps with the traditional approach.

2. Want Scalability and Performance

   If you plan to expand your app in the future, adding in new features and building the app as it goes, then go with custom web development. With traditional web programming, you can optimize each code line to get the highest performance. A custom app can support up to millions of users. So if you require such scalability, invest in traditional web development.

3. When You Want to Streamline Your Business Processes

   If you are looking to automate your business processes, the traditional web app development is suitable for you. For example, if you want to develop a legal contract management software for your company’s internal use, custom app development is apt.

4. Want Integrability and Portability

   If you want to integrate your app with other systems or existing databases, a low code app may not work for you. Similarly, if you plan to have a portable code that can be deployed on multiple platforms, traditional application development is right for you.

   You might have to code for each platform separately, but it is easier to reuse manually written code for a different platform. Instead of using different low code platforms for different platform apps.

5. No Fixed Requirements

   When you are not sure what all features you want in the web solution, low code development is not for you. When working with ever-changing requirements, a traditional web development approach is preferred as you have skilled developers who will code as you need and add in whatever feature you require at any point to build custom apps.

Use Low Code Practices With Traditional Development

When examining low code vs traditional, we have realized that low code development does have a lot of benefits. Although low code can not be a replacement for the traditional approach, there are many advantages of low code development.

And smart businesses will incorporate the beneficial practices of low code into the traditional custom app development lifecycle.

Your skilled developers can work smarter with reusable components, standard libraries, and ready-to-use APIs. For example, there is no harm in using the Google Maps API if you want to integrate location functionality into your app.

Enhance your traditional development with the low code practice of reusing. Let your in-house team focus on making the app unique and leave the repetitive coding tasks to a low-code platform.

Key Takeaways

So let’s summarize traditional vs low code development in brief.

Traditional or custom development is apt for projects that require –

• Custom solutions
• Scalability
• High performance
• Unique features
• High quality

But go with low code development if you are looking for –

• Rapid development
• Low cost – High ROI
• Easy to learn and use
• Quick time-to-market
• Low tech debt

Still, confused about which is right for you?

No worries. Discuss your project idea with us and get advice from technical experts on what is best suited for you. Contact us to schedule a free consultation with a signed NDA (your idea will remain safe with us).