Benefits of low code: 10 reasons IT leaders are fast-tracking adoption

The benefits of low code development for enterprises include 60 to 90% faster application delivery, 50 to 70% lower development costs, citizen development with IT governance, legacy system modernization, and improved business agility. Low code platforms solve the core challenges enterprise IT leaders face: growing backlogs, talent shortages, and pressure to deliver more with less.

Application demand is growing five times faster than development capacity (Gartner). Business teams want solutions yesterday. Developers are spread across too many projects. And the backlog keeps growing.

Low code development platforms have moved from a nice-to-have experiment to a core part of enterprise IT strategy. The global low code market is projected to cross $50 billion by 2028 (Forrester), and 70% of new business applications are now being built on low code or no-code platforms. The shift isn't hype. It's happening because the benefits of low code directly solve the problems that keep CIOs up at night: speed, cost, talent shortages, and operational agility.

This guide breaks down the real-world advantages of low code platforms for enterprises, what to watch out for, and how to evaluate whether a low code platform fits your development strategy.

What is low code development?

Low code development is a software development approach that uses visual interfaces, drag-and-drop components, and pre-built templates to create applications with minimal hand-coding. Instead of writing thousands of lines of code from scratch, developers and business users assemble applications using reusable building blocks and configure logic through visual workflows.

Unlike traditional development, which requires specialized programming skills for every layer of an application, low code platforms abstract away much of the repetitive, boilerplate work. Professional developers can still write custom code when needed, but they spend their time on business logic and differentiation instead of infrastructure.

Low code platforms typically include a visual app builder, workflow automation engine, integration connectors, form and UI builders, role-based access controls, and deployment tools. The best platforms also offer governance features, API support, and AI-powered capabilities that make them suitable for enterprise-grade applications.

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10 benefits of low code development for enterprises

1. Dramatically faster application delivery

Low code platforms reduce application development cycles by 60 to 90% compared to traditional methods. Applications that would take six to twelve months using conventional coding can often be delivered in weeks.

This speed comes from visual development, reusable components, and automated deployment. Your team isn't writing boilerplate code or configuring infrastructure manually. They're focusing on the parts that actually matter: the business logic, the user experience, and getting the solution in front of users.

For enterprise IT teams drowning in backlogs, this changes the entire dynamic. You can prototype quickly, get feedback from stakeholders early, and iterate in real time instead of spending months building something based on assumptions.

2. Significant cost reduction across the development lifecycle

Enterprises using low code platforms report development cost reductions of 50 to 70% across the full application lifecycle. This includes lower maintenance overhead, reduced infrastructure costs, and less dependence on expensive specialized talent.

Consider the full picture. Traditional enterprise application development involves business analysts, technical architects, front-end and back-end developers, testers, DevOps engineers, and project managers. Low code compresses many of these roles and automates repetitive tasks, so you need fewer people to deliver comparable (often better) outcomes.

The cost savings go beyond initial development. Applications built on low code platforms are easier to update, less expensive to maintain, and simpler to deploy. Organizations also report up to 70% fewer resources consumed on ongoing operations compared to traditionally built applications.

3. Empowering citizen developers without losing IT control

Low code platforms enable business users with domain expertise to build applications while IT maintains full governance over security, data, and architecture. This is called citizen development, and it directly addresses the developer shortage most enterprises face.

Here's a reality that most IT leaders already know: the people who understand business processes best are rarely the ones who can code. The operations manager who knows the fulfillment process inside out, the finance director who understands every approval chain, the HR lead who sees gaps in onboarding workflows. These people have the domain expertise to design great solutions. They just lack the technical tools.

Low code platforms change that equation. By 2025, Gartner projected that 70% of new applications would be built using low code or no-code technologies, with business users playing a growing role. Citizen development doesn't mean chaos. The best low code platforms include governance layers, role-based permissions, and IT oversight tools that let business users build while IT maintains control over security, data, and architecture.

Your professional developers don't get replaced. They get freed up to work on the complex, high-value projects that genuinely require their skills. Meanwhile, departmental apps, process automation, and data dashboards no longer sit in the backlog for years.

4. Stronger collaboration between business and IT

Low code platforms create a common visual language between business stakeholders and IT teams, reducing the translation gaps that cause project delays and misaligned deliverables.

Traditional development creates a translation problem. Business teams describe what they need. Analysts translate that into requirements. Developers interpret those requirements into code. By the time the application ships, it often doesn't match what the business originally envisioned.

Low code platforms break down this barrier because visual development creates a common language. Business stakeholders can see what's being built, provide feedback on working prototypes, and even participate in the build process. This fusion-team approach leads to applications that more accurately reflect business needs from day one.

The result is fewer revision cycles, faster sign-off, and stronger alignment between what IT delivers and what the business actually wants.

5. Business agility and faster response to change

Low code platforms give enterprises the agility to modify, extend, or rebuild applications in a fraction of the time traditional development requires. This allows organizations to respond to market shifts, regulatory changes, and internal demands without multi-sprint development cycles.

Markets shift. Regulations change. Competitors launch new products. In every case, the organizations that adapt fastest have the advantage.

Need to update a workflow because a regulation changed? That's a few hours with low code, not a multi-sprint development effort. Want to test a new customer portal concept before committing a full engineering team? You can prototype and launch it in days.

This agility isn't just theoretical. Companies using low code platforms consistently report that their ability to respond to market changes and internal requests has improved dramatically. For IT leaders under pressure to deliver more with less, that kind of responsiveness is a strategic advantage.

6. Easier legacy system modernization

Low code platforms allow enterprises to modernize legacy systems incrementally by building modern interfaces on top of existing infrastructure, creating integration layers, and replacing outdated components without full-scale migration risk.

Most enterprises are running critical operations on legacy systems that are expensive to maintain and difficult to update. Full-scale replacement is risky and time-consuming. Low code offers a practical middle path.

With a low code platform, you can build modern user interfaces on top of legacy systems, create integration layers that connect old systems with new ones, and incrementally replace outdated components without disrupting operations. This approach reduces the risk of big-bang migrations while still moving the organization forward.

For industries like financial services, manufacturing, and healthcare, where legacy modernization is often a multi-year initiative, low code makes the transition manageable and measurable.

7. Better customer and employee experiences

Low code platforms improve customer and employee experiences by enabling faster deployment of portals, mobile apps, and self-service tools, and by making continuous iteration based on user feedback practical rather than aspirational.

The speed advantage of low code doesn't just help IT teams. It directly improves the experience for customers and employees. When your organization can build and deploy customer-facing portals, mobile apps, and self-service tools faster, the people using those tools benefit.

Low code also makes it practical to iterate based on real user feedback. Instead of waiting months to address usability issues, you can update interfaces, adjust workflows, and add features in days or weeks. This kind of continuous improvement keeps experiences fresh and responsive to actual user needs.

Employee-facing applications benefit in the same way. Onboarding workflows, internal request systems, approval processes, and knowledge bases can all be built and refined quickly, improving productivity and reducing frustration across the organization.

8. Improved developer productivity and retention

Low code platforms increase developer productivity by eliminating repetitive work and improve retention by letting engineers focus on complex, high-value problems. Research shows developers using low code tools report 58% higher job satisfaction.

Developer burnout is a real problem in enterprise IT. When skilled engineers spend their days maintaining legacy code, building CRUD applications, or writing the same boilerplate for the tenth time, they disengage. And when they disengage, they leave.

Low code platforms eliminate the mundane work and let developers focus on problems that actually challenge them. That satisfaction translates directly to better retention, which matters when hiring senior developers is already difficult and expensive.

Low code also lowers the barrier for junior developers to contribute meaningfully. New hires can build their first working application much faster, which accelerates onboarding and gives them early wins that build confidence and engagement.

9. Seamless integration with existing systems

Enterprise low code platforms include pre-built connectors for systems like SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, and Microsoft 365, along with API integration tools that eliminate the need for custom integration code.

Enterprise applications don't exist in isolation. They need to connect with ERPs, CRMs, databases, cloud services, and dozens of other systems. Low code platforms come with pre-built connectors and API integration tools that make this straightforward.

Instead of writing custom integration code for every connection, your team can configure integrations visually and deploy them alongside the application. This reduces development time, minimizes errors, and makes it easier to maintain connections as systems evolve.

For enterprises running complex technology ecosystems (which is most of them), this integration capability is often what makes low code practical at scale.

10. Quick maintenance and easy change management

Low code platforms reduce application maintenance costs and complexity through reusable components, visual logic interfaces, and one-click deployment tools. Changes that take weeks in traditional development can be completed in hours.

Building the application is only half the story. In traditional development, maintaining and updating applications often costs more over time than the initial build. Code dependencies break, updates require regression testing across the entire codebase, and small changes snowball into major engineering efforts.

Low code platforms simplify this dramatically. Reusable components mean changes propagate consistently. Visual interfaces make it easy to see what's happening in the application logic. And one-click deployment tools reduce the overhead of pushing updates to production.

For IT leaders managing large application portfolios, this reduced maintenance burden frees up resources that can be redirected toward innovation instead of upkeep.

What can you build with low code?

Modern enterprise low code platforms support a wide range of applications beyond simple forms and workflows. Here are the most common categories of applications enterprises build:

Workflow automation: Approval processes, purchase orders, employee onboarding, IT service requests, and multi-step business workflows with conditional logic and escalation rules.

Customer-facing portals: Self-service portals, account management interfaces, claims submission systems, and support ticket trackers.

Internal business applications: Expense trackers, project management tools, compliance dashboards, asset management systems, and HR request workflows.

Data collection and reporting: Forms, surveys, inspection checklists, and reporting dashboards that pull data from multiple sources.

Process digitization: Replacing paper-based, email-driven, and spreadsheet-reliant processes with structured digital workflows.

Mobile applications: Field service apps, warehouse management tools, and on-the-go approval systems.

The key is that low code excels for business applications and workflows. Highly specialized applications that require deep custom engineering (think high-performance gaming engines or advanced ML model training) are still better suited for traditional development. But for the vast majority of enterprise use cases, low code delivers.

Low code vs traditional development: how they compare

Low code and traditional development serve different purposes in an enterprise IT strategy. Here is how they compare across eight key factors:

The smartest enterprise IT strategies don't treat low code and traditional development as either/or. They use low code for the 80% of applications that fit the model, and reserve traditional development for the 20% that genuinely require it.

Learn more: Low code vs traditional development

Challenges to consider (and how to address them)

No technology is without trade-offs. Being honest about low code challenges helps organizations plan for them and avoid common pitfalls.

Vendor lock-in: About 37% of organizations express concern about becoming too dependent on a single platform. Mitigate this by choosing platforms that support open standards, offer data export capabilities, and don't restrict you from accessing your own application logic.

Scalability for complex use cases: Some worry whether low code applications can handle enterprise-scale workloads. Modern platforms have addressed this significantly, but it's worth evaluating performance benchmarks for your specific use case during the selection process.

Security and compliance: Security shouldn't be an afterthought. Choose a platform with built-in compliance certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR), robust access controls, and audit trails. Enterprise-grade platforms take this seriously.

Governance: When more people can build applications, governance becomes critical. Establish clear policies for what can be built, who can build it, and how applications get reviewed and approved before deployment. The best platforms include governance tools that make this manageable.

Learning curve: While low code is far easier to learn than traditional coding, there's still a ramp-up period. Research shows that most users can become productive within a month. Invest in training and create internal champions to accelerate adoption.

How Kissflow helps enterprises unlock these low code benefits

Kissflow's low code platform is built specifically for enterprises that need to move fast without losing control. The platform combines a visual workflow builder with app development capabilities, so you can automate processes, build custom applications, and manage approvals from a single environment.

What makes Kissflow different for enterprise IT teams is the balance between power and simplicity. Business users can build departmental applications and process automations with a drag-and-drop interface. Meanwhile, IT teams maintain governance, set permissions, manage integrations, and oversee the entire application portfolio from a centralized dashboard.

Whether you're streamlining purchase approvals, building a vendor management portal, digitizing field operations, or replacing a legacy system with a modern workflow, Kissflow gives you the tools to go from idea to deployed application in days, not months.

Frequently asked questions about the benefits of low code

1. How long does it take to implement a low code platform?

Most enterprises go live with their first production application within 4 to 8 weeks. Platform setup takes 1 to 2 weeks, training your first team of builders takes 2 to 3 weeks, and the first app build adds 1 to 3 weeks. Start with one high-impact workflow like procurement approvals or employee onboarding, then expand from there.

2. Is low code secure enough for enterprise use?

Yes, enterprise-grade low code platforms meet the same security standards as traditional enterprise software. Look for SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and GDPR compliance at minimum. For regulated industries like healthcare or financial services, confirm HIPAA or PCI-DSS support, data residency options, end-to-end encryption, and audit trail capabilities before selecting a platform.

3. Does low code replace traditional developers?

No. Low code changes what developers work on, not whether you need them. It eliminates repetitive tasks like building CRUD apps and basic forms so your developers can focus on complex integrations, architecture, and custom logic. Most enterprises use low code to extend their development capacity, not to reduce headcount.

4. How do you calculate ROI on a low code platform?

Measure across three areas: cost savings (development cost per app vs traditional methods, reduction in contractor spend), speed gains (time from request to deployed application, backlog reduction rate), and productivity (number of apps delivered per quarter, active citizen developers). Set baselines before launch and benchmark quarterly. Most enterprises see measurable returns within the first two quarters.

5. Can citizen developers really build production-ready applications?

Yes, when the platform provides proper guardrails. Citizen developers with domain expertise regularly build and deploy production applications for workflow automation, approval processes, data dashboards, and internal tools. The key is platform governance: role-based access, IT review gates for apps touching sensitive data, and monitoring tools that give IT visibility into everything being built.

6. How do I choose the right low code platform for my company?

Evaluate across seven areas: governance and role-based access, integration depth with your existing systems (ERP, CRM, databases), scalability under real workloads, compliance certifications, balance between citizen developer ease and professional developer extensibility, vendor lock-in risk, and total cost of ownership. Ask vendors for reference customers in your industry and at your scale.

7. What happens to my apps if I switch low code vendors?

This depends on the platform's portability. Some platforms let you export application logic, data, and workflows in standard formats, while others lock everything into proprietary structures. During evaluation, ask specifically about data export capabilities, API access to your application logic, and what format your workflows are stored in. Choosing a platform that supports open standards significantly reduces migration risk.