The Power Platform solutions that include Power Apps, Power Pages, and Power Automate, offer low code/no code solutions for application builds. This is fantastic when you have quick and simple implementations (like a generic form that can be quickly accessed by a wide range of users) that don’t require you to get fancy.  

The low code/no code solution can be extremely useful for mid-complexity implementations as well but can struggle as complexity increases. This blog will discuss the limitations and myths surrounding low code/no code solutions and serve as a guide to highlight how Improving can help with choosing when and how to use low code/no code solutions.  

Low Code/No Code Solutions Pushed Past Their Limits 

A significant downside for the low code/no code only solution is that these tools are often pushed way past their limits. The very nature of low code/no code solutions mean they have built in limits to allow for how the solutions are built. For example, these types of solutions have difficulty dealing with large datasets, or complex business rules.   

Yet, many people choose to use low code solutions for these builds. Doing this will push the limits and constrain the low code system. If, say, you’re dealing with large amounts of data, this could be an issue. If numerous automations run when a particular type of data is added or modified, or highly complex calculations or processing must occur.  

The limits of the system can become strained. If you need to handle many concurrent users, this also increases the complexity of the final solution. When you do this, you are overworking the low code solution. It was not built or designed to handle a build of such a large scale. It would be easier to go with a custom-built or hybrid solution.  

Choosing when and how to integrate low code/no code into solutions must take these limitations into account. There are times when hybrid or complete custom solutions can actually save development time and improve the final result. 

Managing These Solutions After Developer Departure 

Low code solutions, as mentioned, are great for small to medium sized projects. But many people fall into the trap of thinking Why use a developer when I can use someone who is knowledgeable about the system? You save money, you use someone in house, what’s the problem? 

Many times, when you use or empower a citizen developer (someone internal who is familiar with the system) to build their own solutions is great to quickly address business needs. However proper governance and training is essential. When citizen developers use their personal account to build the system and there isn’t proper application lifecycle management. When that employee leaves, you’re stuck. 

You need to secure that employee’s account because they can’t have organizational access anymore, but they used their account to build the system. Your business processes are shackled to an employee’s account that needs to be disabled for security reasons. 

Citizen developers often don’t have the eye for life cycle management, the architecture, or design of the underlying systems. In a worst-case scenario, you will have to rebuild everything once that person leaves. 

When to Use a Low Code/No Code Solution and When to Consider Custom Code  

When considering whether to use a low code solution or hire an external developer is the scale and complexity of your required build. As we mentioned before one of the big pitfalls is large datasets. Depending on the integration data sets as small as 2000 items can start to require additional considerations. 

There will be cases where you realize something already exists in your data source. You won’t be able to look it up and bring it back because you can’t return enough items. Or you can risk your ‘low’ code solution not being so low code anymore to get around the limits. 

You end up doing more work to get around the limitations of a low code/no code solution, which is going to slow down the app, cost more development time, and require more testing. 

You should also consider performance when determining whether to use a low code/no code solution or a developer.  In PowerApps, if you’re dealing with a variety of data sources and complex UI, that impacts the responsiveness and can slow down your solution. With a custom build, you can streamline everything to run faster. 

In Power Automate, when there’s a lot of processing happening, like updating fields, you’re looping different items and combing through large amounts of data from different locations. This can cause slowdowns because Power Automate has limits on how many actions recommended per flow.  

Once it surpasses that threshold, Microsoft can suspend your flow. Now a possible critical part of your business process is not working, and you’re really out of luck. 

Low Code/No Code Solutions are Faster to Build (Or Are They?)

There’s a common misconception that low code solutions are faster to build. Developers have several tools that can be used for rapid development. Yet some people have convinced themselves that they need to use a low code solution. 

When there is more complexity to the build, custom code solutions can many times be built faster than low code/no code solutions. You also run the risk of the low code solution performing poorly because you’ve stepped into high complexity territory.  

The low code solution is great for small and simple developments. Anything beyond that and you can start to run into unintended challenges. Custom solutions don’t have the same kind of constraints and restrictions, making them overall more flexible. 

Additionally, many times people use the low code solution and then decide they want more add-ons than initially planned for. What you thought was a simple solution, turns out to be more nuanced and complex than originally thought. It becomes a slower build, and you increase the risk of poor app performance.  

The Benefits of Low Code/No Code Solutions

Bottom line, these tools are amazing. The purpose of this blog is not to turn you off them completely. You need to create a flow to schedule something that checks new entries in a database for certain conditions, great. Use these tools. But just remember that they have limits. Knowing those limits, and when to use low code/no code solutions, a custom or hybrid solution is the key to success.  

Understanding the transition point of when it’s appropriate to go with the low code/no code solution vs. a custom build or hybrid solutions is critical. This is where consultants, like us at Improving, can help. Because there are consequences down the road if these tools aren’t used properly. Don’t fall into that trap.  

Thanks for reading! If you are looking for a custom application, get in touch by filling out the form at the bottom of this page. Make sure to subscribe to our blog. We publish technology tips, tricks, and updates every week.  

Discover More