The current AI revolution has significantly impacted businesses, leading to an increased interest in automating processes and accelerating digital transformation. 

This increased need for automation and transformation is driving industries to adopt AI-powered technologies to streamline workflows and boost operational efficiency and as a result, low-code platforms are emerging as powerful tools to complement AI’s capabilities and offer faster, more flexible application development.

In this article, we want to quickly evaluate several steps and criteria to consider when selecting a low-code solution to match your technical and business needs. It’s important to state that this guide assumes a business use case where the chosen platform serves an in-house dev team. 

Evaluating low-code platforms based on the criteria listed below should help ensure that you choose a solution that enhances your organization’s agility without compromising scalability, security, or customization flexibility. With that said, we begin with:

Platform Capability

  1. AI Integration: When choosing a low-code platform, ensure that the platform can seamlessly integrate with AI services, especially if you need to build machine learning, predictive analytics, or natural language processing features. Further, 
  2. Extensibility: Look for platforms that allow advanced developers to extend the functionality with custom code when necessary, so the platform’s native features do not limit you. 
  3. Process Automation: Beyond these, make sure to evaluate the platform’s ability to automate workflows and processes since this is a major driver for adopting low-code solutions in the first place.

Usability and Flexibility

  1. User Interface: Determine how easy it is for both technical and non-technical (yes, non-technical) users to navigate and build applications on the platform. A good low-code platform should enable collaboration across departments.
  2. Pre-built Components: Assess the quality and variety of pre-built templates, widgets, and connectors of your top choice platforms. They allow faster deployment.
  3. Customization: Next, ensure that your chosen platform allows for granular control over customization. Even though it’s «low-code,» you may still need to customize elements for specific business needs. 

Scalability  

  1. Enterprise-Readiness: As you know, low/no-code platforms use declarative programming which is a big part of what fuels their notoriety as “tools [that] lack the enterprise features and custom code capabilities to build apps that serve business users.”

As such, ensure that the platform of your choice can handle large-scale applications and complex business requirements without performance degradation. Read reviews. 

  1. Cloud Integration: Also, you may want to look for platforms that offer strong cloud support for storage, deployment, and scaling applications. This includes integration with cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.
  2. DevOps and CI/CD Integration: If continuous integration and delivery are critical for your use case, evaluate how well your platform of choice supports DevOps practices, including automated testing and deployment pipelines.

Security and Compliance

  1. Data Security: Check for the platform’s adherence to data security standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or industry-specific regulations.
  2. User Authentication: Your choice platform should provide robust user authentication and access control mechanisms, ensuring secure access to sensitive data.
  3. Audit Trails: Verify whether the platform maintains logs for compliance audits and traceability.

Cost and Licensing Model

This is a no brainer. When deciding which low code platform to use, compare subscription models, licensing fees, and potential hidden costs (some platforms charge an overage fee for scaling). Low code platforms may charge based on the number of apps built, or the number of users or data processed.

Further, you may want to consider the long-term costs of usage. Including platform support costs, customization, and potential training for users if you plan on migrating citizen developers from your team to the platform. 

Community and Ecosystem

In addition to accessing the pricing model of choice low code platform, you want to ensure that the platform offers comprehensive documentation, community forums, and technical support that may go a long way in shaping your experience with the platform, especially in the long run. 

Also, If you rely heavily on third-party services such as CRM and ERP platforms, you may need to verify that the platform supports easy integrations with these systems.

Conclusion

To wrap up, it is important to acknowledge the diversity of low-code platforms available to choose from. And just as with a lot of things, evaluating a provider’s track record and opting for a platform with strong backing, either from a large enterprise or one that has a consistent history of updates, support and a clear roadmap of development is a good strategy to employ when evaluating low-code platforms for your organization’s unique use case.