Low-code development ensures business agility and code flexibility. Some tools, though, present vendor lock-in risks. Read more here and see how you can avoid them.
Katie Mikova
8min read
Software development is becoming more agile and flexible than ever before. We’ve seen the rise of low-code tools, AI, machine learning platforms, automation frameworks, and others that have significantly impacted the app-building landscape, making it more versatile and automated. Companies can foster innovation faster, and teams have the power to expand their potential and enhance developer productivity.
But have you ever felt stuck with a tech choice that you’ve made? How can vendor lock-in still exist in a world that promotes flexibility, business agility, user freedom, and platform independence? With low code being about speed and flexibility, how can you get trapped? That’s the paradox.
This article will delve into the concept of vendor lock-in in low-code development. It will address topics like vendor lock-in risks, how to avoid them, and, most importantly, why your low-code platform should prioritize freedom and flexibility.
Vendor lock-in in low code is when you are so tied into one company’s low-code platform that switching to another one is extremely difficult and very costly, even if you want to. The reasons include lack of code ownership, features, and customizations relying on proprietary APIs, data migration challenges, limited integration options, dependency on vendor updates, and more.
Imagine your team has built a data-rich app, but you realize all the data is locked in that vendor system. You don’t own the result; you don’t own the code. And it would cost you a fortune to move it. At the same time, the current platform doesn’t cut it anymore, and suddenly, the pricing terms have changed as well.
Your data is stored in a format only the specific platform can use, called a proprietary format. Then, there are the integration issues, such as the platform not working well with tools from other companies. You are in their ecosystem and rely on their add-ons and extra services. Here, it’s not just about switching software. Your whole business is being held hostage.
Stagnated Innovation
Let’s say you have invested thousands of dollars in a low-code tool that promised to provide cutting-edge capabilities when it was first introduced and used. However, over time, other alternatives started picking up and progressively surpassed your vendor’s software in terms of features, flexibility, code outputs, automation and AI features, and more. Despite the updates of the low-code platform currently used by your company and teams, it still falls behind.
You have to wait for the next software update to get the same array of capabilities your competition already delivers, and therefore, you lose your competitive advantage. This kind of technological stasis can swiftly stifle innovation and business agility, making it challenging to adapt to market changes, dynamic development workflows, app requirements, and customers’ expectations.
Inability to Adapt to Market Changes
With stagnation in innovation, you cannot execute new strategies that align with market trends and progressing user experience. The flexibility of your development team is also restricted. There are no timely updates, leaving people stuck with outdated features.
Think of a financial service organization that uses a vendor-locked, low-code tool. The platform starts to lag in features like cutting-edge data visualizations or advanced AI-powered analytics and, therefore, struggles to respond to market changes and users’ needs for more intelligent analytics tools.
The market and users now require real-time data processing capabilities, AI-driven insights, even more seamless user experience across the web, and scalability. A vendor locked-in low-code tool cannot respond appropriately to those demands.
Substantial Financial Implications
If you’re considering migrating to another low-code platform, be prepared for a significant investment of resources. This move will require time, high switching costs, retraining your development teams to use the new platform, and rebuilding your applications from scratch.
No Code Ownership, Control, and Flexibility
Where’s the freedom factor in vendor lock-in software? The freedom factor is not just about saving money. It’s about being in control of your technology. If your platform prioritizes freedom, you can continue using it and adopt new tools, change your strategy, and remain flexible to changing market conditions without being held back by your vendor. However, a huge vendor lock-in risk is the lack of control and flexibility.
Unfortunately, vendor-locked platforms often operate as a “black box.” Whatever your team and company build and deploy will have restricted access to the source code. In other words, you won’t own the generated code. This can result from the inability to make fixes, code modifications, and updates. Adhering to legal requirements and conducting exhaustive audits when the code can be examined is challenging. This poses a major disruption to the development process.
Technical Debt
A low-code tool shouldn’t be used as just a shortcut to building apps. First, it may be perceived as an advantage and a way for faster iteration. However, at a later phase, your teams will have to dedicate time and resources to correcting errors, leading to accumulated technical debt. For instance, technical debt may occur if developers have to modify a proprietary software system that your company is bound to because the next update might break those changes or overwrite them. As a result, this will hamper your company’s capacity to innovate, adapt, and expand.
Compromised Security & Compliance
Suppose you are committed to a single vendor. In that case, you may have to accept their security procedures and compliance measures, even if they fail to meet industry standards or your organization’s policies. Consequently, you may be exposed to data breaches or legal repercussions.
Vendor lock-in in low-code tools can become a significant problem that leads to reduced competitiveness and decreased adaptability. This might occur when your company cannot scale, implement new technologies, or carry out new strategies because the platform itself restricts what your team can do with it. Your capacity to quickly innovate may be jeopardized, and your teams will not have the necessary tools and capabilities to build the requested applications with code flexibility, scalability, functionality, and cost-effectiveness. Which impacts the team efficiency and developer productivity, cost-effectiveness, and innovation speed.
Here is when App Builder stands out. At its core, our low-code tool provides app freedom, code flexibility, and innovative capabilities (like App Builder AI, Form Builder, etc.) that empower your teams and business to boost innovation without constraints.
There is:
Here are a few steps and questions to ensure the low-code tool you choose and use is future-proofed and there’s no vendor lock-in.
Keeping all this in mind, you can Try App Builder for Free. Your development teams can create an app from scratch, start with a sample app, or upload a completed design file and convert it to a feature-rich web app with the code flexibility they need for Angular, Blazor, Web Components, and React.
Now that we know that low code is here to stay, the question becomes, how is your organization preparing for its next chapter? For the last few years, low-code tools like App Builder have targeted various pain points in app building, enabling C-level executives and Dev Team Leaders to accelerate time to market, automate app […]
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