In 2022 the no code and low code market still appears to be in its infancy. The total revenue of low code application platforms in 2021 was only 5.75bn USD. In comparison, the total market for web design services — which does not account for services produced in-house — is at least one order of magnitude higher. If the 30% annual growth rate of the low code applications market could be sustained until the end of this decade the market would be worth 50bn USD annually in 2030.

There are several trends that are pointing towards a sustained growth for no code/low code applications. In the following I take a look at these trends that eventually might create a significant market share for no code app builders by the end of this decade.

Developer Scarcity

One of the most significant drivers of no code/low code tools adoption is developer scarcity. As the demand for software increases and the supply of developers can’t keep up, salaries of developers are increasing. The higher the salary of developers the greater is the incentive to adopt developer substitutes.

The usage of low code tools such as Outsystems is often welcomed by developers in larger organizations. Low code tools have the potential to remove the burden of repetitive and frustrating tasks from developers while they are able to focus on their core functions. In that sense low code tools make existing developers more productive and enable a business to implement software solutions with a potentially lower developer head count.

On the other hand, no code applications empower businesses to build tools without the need of involving developers at all. The average cost of building a website in 2021 was between 9,000–38,000 USD. Building a website with a no code tool often is possible for only a fraction of that price.

No code tools are also ideal for prototyping and verifying whether there is market demand for a product. Entrepreneurs can quickly build a SaaS app with a no code tool and prove whether there is a profitable market for their app before investing heavily into product development.

Furthermore, by using a no code/low code platform businesses can save between 50–90% of the development time and move way faster.

Citizen Developers

The term citizen developer emerged in the last few years to describe employees inside an organization that build internal tools for their department or company. They typically have no formal technical education and their job description is not related to development. However, they commonly have a solid understanding of software, databases and spreadsheets.

Citizen developers currently use mostly MS Excel, JIRA or Google Spreadsheets for building internal apps or workflows. The management of the majority of medium and large enterprises has not yet recognized the potential of Citizen Developers and has not supplied them with the tools to make them more productive and broaden the range of apps