Until a decade back, organizations wanting to create a customized SharePoint application to meet their business needs would have only one option available to them – hire a SharePoint developer or an external agency to build the application for them. In both cases, it is a costly proposition for organizations to get the job done.
However, with the introduction of low-code and no-code SharePoint application development platforms, organizations started saving time and effort on custom application development. Additionally, these new applications also enable faster application development and that too at a much lower cost. Low-Code and No-Code solutions are usually provided to customers in a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering so that users do not have to worry about setting up the infrastructure and development environments needed to support their applications.
Low-Code and No-Code SharePoint application development platforms have quickly gained popularity among the organizations seeking to rapidly customize and add new capabilities in SharePoint. This was because organizations no longer had to deal with issues like increasingly mobile workforce and the troubles of finding competent SharePoint developers (don’t forget the cost involved). Let us spend some time understanding a No-Code development platform and how are they different from Low-code development platforms.
No-code development platform, popularly known as NCDPs, empowers programmers, and non-programmers to create applications through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming or coding. No-code development platforms (NCDPs) are closely related to low-code development platforms. This is because both are designed with a common objective to accelerate and simplify the application development process.
At a first glimpse, it is very easy to confuse between low-code and no-code because they sound so similar phonetically and literally. According to Gartner, “no-code” application platforms are part of the low-code sphere, taking them together into its latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms, 2019 (LCAP).
Let us take a deeper dive into understanding the difference and properties of Low-Code and No-Code platforms.
We can define a true no-code platform as one that helps in creating software without coding. Meaning your business applications can be developed without writing a single line of code or requiring any programming. These platforms provide a visual software interface that allows the user to create the application with easy-to-use features such as:
- Drag-drop and Point and click modules
- Picklist selection boxes
- Spreadsheet imports, etc.
A low-code platform functions in a similar fashion to a no-code platform with a visual Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and similar ease of use, however, they tend to be more general-purpose in nature than most no-code platforms.
The difference between a No-Code and a Low-Code development platforms gets blurred depending on the platform’s full set of functionalities. However, several key distinctions set apart No-Code from Low-Code.
- App Creator – No-Code platforms can be used by any business user with an understanding of SharePoint whereas Low-Code platforms require Power users with coding language knowledge who can work within a platform’s constraints to streamline the application development process.
- Core Design – No-Code platforms function as per the driven model, where the end-user commands an app’s design through drag and drop manipulation, point and click, or simple logic. Low-Code platforms often employ a similar development model with a greater dependence on hard code for controlling an application’s core architecture.
- User Interface – No-Code platforms mostly rely on a present User Interfacelayer which simplifies and streamlines an app’s design. On the other hand, a Low-Code platform may provide greater flexibility in UI options at the cost of additional coding requirements.
Additionally, No-Code solutions are primarily built for citizen developers. Citizen developers are those who may not know, nor do they need to know, any actual programming languages to use the No-Code platform. One such product is QuickApps, an innovative No-code SharePoint customization, and development platform.
As a No-Code development platform, QuickApps helps the business users to develop custom applications very easily and rapidly without coding, using a simple point and click configuration. QuickApps is available for both SharePoint On-Premise and Microsoft Office 365. This state-of-the-art platform includes multiple pre-built templates and powerful web-apps for SharePoint On-premise and Microsoft Office 365
By adopting QuickApps, businesses can have many benefits like decreased application lifecycle time, saving in cost and effort required in supporting, maintaining, and upgrading business applications ensuring their long-term impact and high return on investment.
The top benefits of using QuickApps are shared below
Faster Custom Application Development – QuickApps offers point-and-click configuration instead of custom coding to customize SharePoint. This makes the application development process up to 80 percent faster.
Fast Track Time to Deliver – QuickApps’ point-and-click configuration consumes significantly less time as compared to writing, debugging, and compiling codes. Functionalities can be developed and delivered quickly. This helps enterprises meet their development SLAs.
Empower SharePoint Users – Empower your non-technical SharePoint users to develop customized applications easily and safely without any risk to the environment.
Cost – Saving – A No-Code platform like QuickApps makes it easy for any SharePoint users to develop apps on their own thereby releasing costly SharePoint development resources for more important projects.
Improve User Experience – Improve your users’ experience with impactful dashboards and charts easily developed using QuickApps Web Apps. Users can enjoy apps that fit the business needs, along with improved navigation, enhanced UI, and drive high user adoptions.
For more QuickApps information and free trial visit http://quickapps.agreeya.com or write to us at quickapps@agreeya.com
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Associate Director – Product Development
Amit Gupta plays a key role in incubating and establishing best SharePoint practices at AgreeYa. He is closely associated with the Product Development and Delivery team and works to find new solutions based on Microsoft technology and optimize performance and responsiveness for our clients. He can be reached at amit.g@agreeya.com