Developers!

Compare LowCode from the developer's perspective!

LowCode for the developer

When comparing LowCode it's very important to understand the nature of the developer. 'Citizen developer' is a great term, but when you expect citizen developers to build you applications and solve all the problems on your LowCode platform of choice, forget it. Are professional developers better than citizen developers? Yes and no: citizen developers tend to be more involved with the actual business process. That makes them very valuable in the design phase of any application, as most likely the citizen developer has to use their own fabric. 

That said, citizen developers fail miserably in commonly adopted development best practices. Ever heard of spaghetti code? Train a citizen developer and give them unlimited access to your LowCode platform and you will soon find out that all benefits of LowCode will disappear because the citizen developer has no conceptual knowledge of redundancy, re-use architecture, etc. 

Has your platform not avoided spaghetti code? Some do better than others, however, it always requires a sturdy regime and discipline to keep architecture in check. That is where most companies fail, and for good reason. They were told that with LowCode everything is faster, and so it is: you can create spaghetti code 10 times faster than compared to traditional coding. 

Regime and discipline can also be embedded in the platform, as with no-code platforms. This is good for citizen developers, but it does come with capability limits and leaky abstractions.

Traditional developers are often very sceptical at first, but once they do see the benefits of the LowCode platform they tend to find their way around the challenges of the platform easily, because they can always turn to traditional coding if the platform lets them. And yes, some platforms do that better than others.

Typecasting developers

Citizen developer | A developer without traditional coding experience or even ICT knowledge.
Professional developer | A developer with a minimum of three years' development experience in a certain language.
Experienced developer | A developer with a minimum of 10 years' development experience across multiple languages like C# . Net, Java or ABAP.
LowCode hater | Some developers hate the idea of not being in charge of the code. These developers tend to be the best and are easily convinced by tooling most resembling or even including traditional development.
LowCode adopter | Some developers, many of them experienced developers, just don't care anymore; they will program in any language and with any tool, however, they do like to be in charge when leaky abstractions occur.

LowCode developer rank

Citizen

No formal programming education or experience; trained in using a low-code platform. Might be a business person with good Excel skills.


Professional

Formally trained in programming, in low-code platforms or traditional coding with at least three years' experience and a minimum of one year with LowCode.


Experienced

Formally trained in programming with a minimum of 10 years' of experience coding in multiple development environments, including a minimum of one year of LowCode platforms.

Best platforms for citizen developers

Mendix Low Code

Mendix

Without compromising professional development, Mendix is the best for citizen development.
Betty Blocks No-code

Betty Blocks

Great platform if you know nothing about coding and you believe in no-code promises.
power apps

Power Apps

Microsoft unleashed Excel formula-based LowCoding in their power apps strategy. Great if you love Excel!

Best platforms for professional developers

Wavemaker low Code platform

WaveMaker

The best platform for professional developers, as they will love the open architecture and unlimited control without lock in.

OutSystems Low Code platform

OutSystems

Not as open as WaveMaker or Flutter, but still a good option for C# .NET-minded developers. The learning curve with OutSystems is fast.

mendix Low Code platform

Mendix

Without compromising professional development, Mendix is the best for citizen development.

Best platforms for experienced developers

Wavemaker low Code platform

WaveMaker

The best platform for experienced developers, as they will love the open architecture and unlimited control without lock in.


OutSystems Low Code platform

OutSystems

Not as open as WaveMaker or Flutter, but still a good option for C# .NET-minded developers. The learning curve with OutSystems is fast.


Google Flutter

Flutter

Fastest way of delivering multi-experience apps. Experienced developers love it. Not LowCode but certainly multi-experience.


Mobile developers seem to have more problems with LowCode than web developers. Why? Because LowCode platforms seem to have more trouble keeping leaky abstractions out of mobile development. When bugs enter the development cycle, developers want control over the code and that is where LowCode platforms have issues. For mobile development, Flutter and WaveMaker are the only platforms where developers are in full control.

Some recommendations from our experienced developers

As a general advice we would like to recommend that you try platforms before you buy. Don't waste time on a demo by the vendor - everything will work and everything is possible until it isn't!


Make sure your developers can play around with the platforms for some time - a few weeks is not enough. Make sure your platform has a large enough community so that solutions to platform problems can be found easily.


Let developers tell you which ones they like the best. They are the ones who need to work with the tool. Don't use LowCode platforms for complex mobile apps, as they are far more complex than web apps when you encounter bugs. Developers want control over the code.

General recommendations

Try before you buy.

Don't use LowCode for complex mobile apps.

The more open the better.

Check the developer community.
More expensive is NOT always better.