Gartner estimates that spending on low-code technologies will grow 19.6% year-over-year to $26.9 billion in 2023.
Gartner believes that companies that use low-code — which requires fewer skills from developers and less knowledge of programming languages — are used to accelerate application delivery and create custom automation flows.
The analyst expects strong growth across all low-code sectors, with the largest category being Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAPs). It forecasts that LCAP market revenue will grow 25% in 2023 to $9.9 billion.
“Achieving the digital proficiency level and speed of delivery for the modern agile environment”
Gartner’s list of LCAP vendors include OutSystems, Appian, Microsoft Power Platform, Salesforce Platform, Oracle Express, Mendix, Soho, Pega, and ServiceNow.
The other categories of sectors developed by Gartner concerning low-code are:
- Business Process Automation (BPA)
- Multi-experience Development Platforms (MDXP)
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS – integration Platform as a Service)
- Citizen Automation and Development Platforms (CADP)
- Other low-code development technologies (LCD – Low-Code Development).
“Equipping both professional developers and non-professionals with various low-code tools enables organizations to achieve the level of digital proficiency and speed of delivery required for the modern agile environment,” said Varsha. Mehta, senior market researcher at Gartner.
Towards hyperautomation
Gartner estimates that 80% of people using low-code development tools will not be part of IT departments by 2026. This figure is up from the 60% projected in 2021.
PCA’s category for “citizen developers” – i.e. non-professional developers – will generate an estimated $732 million in 2022, but it is the fastest growing category and is expected to increase by 30.2% in 2023 to reach $953 million. According to Gartner, use cases include automating workflows, creating web forms, reconciling data and content between multiple software-as-a-service applications, and creating reports and data visualizations. .
The analyst considers low-code to be part of the set of software technologies driving hyperautomation, which he predicts will reach $720 billion in revenue by 2023.
No-code is a category of low-code
Gartner notes that it defines “no-code” application platforms as Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAPs) that only require text entry for simple formulas or expressions. However, Gartner notes that “no-code” is not suitable for development by trades and pros who are not developers. Why ? Because many complex tool configuration tasks are “no-code”, but still require specialized skills.
Jon Collins, vice president of research at analyst GigaOm, recently told ZDNET that “low-code” technology doesn’t entirely eliminate the need for developers. The spectrum of low-code extends from simple drag-and-drop interfaces on various tools to complex technical platforms with a low-code mode of operation.
“Low-code can’t do everything to hide the underlying complexity, which makes it ideal for simpler environments, integrating multiple sources, or launching a new application, but sooner or later , you’ll need deeper engineering skills,” he said.
IT professionals are the main users of “low-code” or “no-code”
So is this really the end for developers? Unlikely. A recent survey by software company Capterra revealed that IT professionals are the primary users of “low-code” or “no-code” platforms.
Another survey conducted by platform provider OutSystems revealed that the majority of users of these platforms also use traditional coding languages. Some 65% said they use at least one traditional language, such as PHP, JavaScript, Python, HTML/CSS, and C/C#/C++.
Source: “ZDNet.com”