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Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

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Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#31

Post by joshxyz »

zadokshi wrote: post #13

No code has its role, there are many simple things it can make easier. For most non trivial systems, no code will get you 80%-90% to a solution and the last 20% of your solution will be extremely difficult, complex, or impossible to deliver in any maintainable way. Developers are hostile to these types of solutions specifically because once you go past basic CRUD your no code solutions make everything so much harder…

in my experience this makes sense. really true, hands down.

however the answer still boils down to "it depends" since it intersects with different industries, and companies of different maturity stages.

making a landing page for some simple site? no code works.

need a fast crud for operations team? no code works.

creating a web app prototype to validate a simple idea? no code works.

refining a product with existing users in terms of platform compatibility, scalability, performance? time for specialists on front-end and back-end languages.

i think there comes a time when sales are coming in at the door and at that point throwing money at the problem makes sense, to move from no code to handwritten web apps and mobile apps.

i personally prefer appsmith over budibase. zapier and n8n, cool stuff too.

but in complex stuff i still come back to reactjs and nodejs.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#32

Post by paulgb »

I've used https://val.town as plumbing between webhooks where I needed to restructure a JSON payload, but only wanted to write the business logic. It's great for Zapier/IFTTT-like tasks but where you still want to write code for the business logic, you just don't want to scaffold up the rest of the pieces.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#35

Post by jddj »

capableweb wrote: post #23
gumballindie wrote: post #11

These low code platforms are like blueprints in game dev engines. They are cool for the first 2-3 iterations and a nightmare after.

One huge problem is that with code the usual way of ensuring maintainability is to revisit old code and rewrite parts of it as needed, in order to be able to maintain it properly. One huge problem with no/low code solutions is that people usually think that this doesn't need to be done for no/low code solutions, only for code solutions. But solutions using nodes in order to build stuff also need to be revisited, refa…

And with none of the intelligent tooling which IDEs and version control software have developed to make that process easier / less error prone.

Git commits of node coordinates and minified JavaScript is not my idea of a good time.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#36

Post by kgwxd »

> I know most “normal” developers have a reputation for being hostile to low-code platforms

The word you’re looking for is “experienced”. You’re echoing all the concerns everyone that’s dealt with it shouts from the roof tops, but you’re saying the same thing they did before getting that experience, “this time is different”. See you on the other side.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#37

Post by funerr »

Retool for sure, they are pumping out features really quickly too. The model makes a lot of sense from a developer's point of view. Now that they are also going into public apps I would really consider them seriously.

Hoping for: - Better pricing for public apps. - Better ability to easily customize the frontend design without touching CSS/HTML/JS.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#38

Post by devjab »

I spent around a decade in enterprise digitalisation, and now work with organisations transitioning from startup to enterprise along on their journey, and I’ve never seen a good low-code platform. PowerApps are fine though, it’s certainly a lot better than what came before it, but you’re very likely going to end up with terrible flows that lack documentation, testability, maintainability and are far too dependent on certain employees who will easily find better pastures as their low-code platform skills grow.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the low-code tools in my experience. It has far more to do with your organisation, and how it’s put itself into a position where it has in-house software developers but are now using “unprofessionals” to “make do”. Usually because the development teams can’t deliver business value fast enough for whatever reason, but your process people can. The issue is that low-code applications don’t really scale well over time. They can, if you take them stipulated, but if your organisation did take things seriously then you probably wouldn’t be here because you’re worried about the impact they PowerApps will have on your team. So my guess is that they will have an impact and that you’re likely not in much of a position to do that much about it.

So here are your options the way I see it, and I know that’s not exactly what you asked, but instead of trying to look for a good technology to solve your organisational challenges, try looking at your processes instead. Why is your organisation turning to PowerApps? Is it because your SWR teams can’t deliver value fast enough? If so, then can you do anything to change that? Stuff like that.

I wouldn’t be too optimistic about it though. These issues are very well explored in things like Conways law and more recently in Team Topologies, and their solutions is often going to be alter organisational processes and practices which you sort of can’t do from the bottom up. Because if your leadership took digitalisation seriously you wouldn’t really be worried about whether or not the use of PowerApps, RPA, whatever else, will impact your team.

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#39

Post by gervwyk »

We've developed a low-code solution for building web apps: Lowdefy - A config web stack for business apps.

We've taken this approach because we believe that building in a GUI only, is just not productive and restricts developers. Also, many low-code frameworks do not have first class support for Git work flow, and code review becomes worthless or impossible.

Lowdefy makes code review easy, so you can write low-code web apps like you write code, but with the abstraction benefits of a low-code framework.

We've been using Lowdefy for the past 4 years to build enterprise applications for customers, anything from large multi-company CRMs to call centre solutions, various ticketing and customer support portals, even an MRP in the food production space, and so many dashboard reports. What I like most about working with Lowdefy, is that it abstracts the business logic from the tech and makes maintaining a large number of apps easy.

Check out our website and repo, and let me know if you'd like a demo of what can be built with Lowdefy.

https://lowdefy.com

https://github.com/lowdefy/lowdefy

Re: Ask HN: What low code platforms are worth using?

#40

Post by foxbee »

mbork_pl wrote: post #27
zadokshi wrote: post #13

No code has its role, there are many simple things it can make easier. For most non trivial systems, no code will get you 80%-90% to a solution and the last 20% of your solution will be extremely difficult, complex, or impossible to deliver in any maintainable way. Developers are hostile to these types of solutions specifically because once you go past basic CRUD your no code solutions make everything so much harder…

I am sincerely wondering if this must be the case or is it a shortcoming of the existent solutions, but something that can be overcome. (Disclaimer: I am a programmer who never seriously used any low code product apart from a spreadsheet. Unless you count Emacs as a low code platform, which would not be wrong, I guess.)

Emacs were pretty productive but sometimes overcomplicated imo. Remember TRAMP mode?
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