The terms low-code and no-code are often confused with each other. While both low-code and no-code have some similarities, they’re actually two completely different solutions for app development.

With that said, some low-code development platforms also offer no-code capabilities. Other platforms that are branded as no-code tools have some low-code options built in. (It’s no wonder that even savvy business users confuse these terms).

If you need help distinguishing the difference between low-code and no-code platforms, you’ve come to the right place. 

This guide covers everything you need to know about low-code vs. no-code, including a clear definition of each, the differences between them, the pros and cons of no-code/low-code, and the best no-code/low-code platforms for development. Let’s dive right in.

What is Low Code?

Low-code makes it possible for professional developers of varying skill levels to quickly build applications with minimal hard-coding efforts. 

Using no code to create software can best be compared to traditional development. The only difference is that no-code platforms offer different shortcuts that streamline the process. Rather than spending time coding repetitive tasks from scratch, low-code platforms have basic software elements and infrastructure already built. 

Low-code platforms follow a rapid app development (RAD) approach that includes things like automated code generation through drag-and-drop interfaces, pull-down interfaces, and other visual building blocks. 

Developers can focus the majority of their efforts on writing code for the smaller parts of the application that make it unique compared to other apps on the market. But all the boilerplate and repetitive code is handled by the platform. 

As a developer, you can still write custom code over the automated code provided by a low-code tool. 

What is No Code?

No-code is exactly what it sounds like. It enables anyone, regardless of technical knowledge or programming experience, to create applications without writing a single line of code. 

The possibilities of no-code development stretch far and wide. They’re trusted by citizen developers to create apps for business processes, entrepreneurs launching new websites, and business owners building mobile apps to expand.

Similar to low-code, no-code development also uses a RAD approach. But it’s completely hands-off when it comes to coding and programming.

No-code platforms are 100% dependent on using visual tools, plugins, modules, and drag-and-drop builders to create an app. 

In simple terms, anyone can use no-code platforms without any specialized skills or training.

Some of you might have experience building websites with platforms like Wix or Squarespace. Both of those tools fall into the no-code category. 

What’s the Difference Between Low Code and No Code?

There are definitely some similarities between low-code development platforms and no-code app makers. But at a granular level, you’ll see that there are major differences between low-code and no-code when you look at the details.

Let’s take a closer look at these differences below:

End-User

Low-code solutions are made for professional developers. These users need to have a background of programming and development to use a no-code tool. But they’re just looking for a shortcut that doesn’t require 100% custom code from scratch.

Anyone can use a no-code platform, including average business users who don’t have any development experience. While professional developers could technically use a no-code tool, most would prefer a low-code system—as it allows them to use their unique skills.

Open vs. Closed System

Low-code leverages open systems that allow users to add functionality to an application by writing code. For example, developers can create a custom plugin or feature on an open system and then re-use that code later for another project. 

Traditional no-code platforms are close. This means that you’d need to rely on pre-built plugins and templates for functionality. There’s no manual code written that can customize anything beyond the platform’s capability.

With that said, there are some no-code platforms that do offer custom extensibility through an open system. 

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7 Tried and Tested Strategies to Make Your Website a Lead Magnet, Building a customer base is one of the biggest challenges that new businesses face. While large enterprises will spend thousands of dollars on pay-per-click ads and social media campaigns, small businesses don’t have those kinds of budgets and often have to rely on organic ways to find their customers. However, this should not dissuade you from starting your business. 

Fortunately, there are several easy-to-implement and inexpensive methods of capturing useful leads for your business, such as your official website. The advantage of using your site as a lead magnet is that you have full control over what you publish and how you track visits and conversions. Moreover, it just improves the overall quality of your website, which is crucial when you are competing in cyberspace. 

If you are looking for ideas on how to turn your website into a lead magnet, read on for seven useful tips.

1. Pick the right domain name

This may seem unusual, however, it is a great strategy to attract quality leads. Your domain name is the first thing people will see when they search for you. Finding the right one is a small yet crucial first step towards creating a strong web presence. By making it easier for people to find you and remember you, you increase the likelihood of converting them into leads. 

When thinking about your domain name, you must consider the following:

Is it short?

Long and clunky domain names are hard to remember, prone to being misspelt, and may also seem spammy. For instance, if you are looking to buy a secondhand car online and find two links in the search results, would you rather click on www.used-carz123.com or www.usedcars.store? 

Pick a domain name that’s short and simple, ideally not more than 18 characters. Avoid using a hyphen, numbers, or modified spellings that may confuse people.

Is it contextual?

Avoid going with something random and completely unrelated to your business just because the domain name of your choice wasn’t available. Try finding your top preferences on new domain extensions such as .STORE, .ONLINE, .SITE, .SPACE or .TECH. 

Not only are they easier to acquire, but they also provide more context to your domain name. For instance, if you come across the domain name www.getgrocery.online, you immediately know what the website is about and the domain name has an appealing ring to it too.

Is it creative?

You need a domain name that sets you apart from your rivals and intrigues people to click on your URL and learn more about you. Try to be creative without being cryptic. For instance, www.yourzen.space is a great choice for a wellness and fitness center. 

2. Focus on your website’s design

Your website’s design should be clean, aesthetically appealing, and easy to navigate. Cluttered layouts can be off-putting for visitors and also make you come across as unprofessional, whereas a well-designed site shows your visitors that you are skilled, experienced and care about the finer details. 

Your design should inspire confidence in the visitors’ mind that they have come to the right place. It should reflect your industry and your brand’s personality. For instance, a website that sells children’s learning aids should use playful elements and bright colors, while a news website should focus on high picture quality and clear, easy-to-read fonts with less distracting elements.

3. Reduce the loading speed

The Internet is all about instant gratification. If your website takes a long time to load, the bounce rate is bound to be high. According to this 2020 report by Ezoic, loading speed of 1-3 seconds may lead to a 32% bounce rate, while a speed of 1-10 seconds may lead to a 106% bounce rate. Make sure that your website pages load within seconds by finding the right web host, compressing your images, installing fewer plugins and minimizing HTTP requests.

4. Start and maintain a good blog

Customers spend a lot of time researching the products they need online. Why not provide them with everything they need on your own website? Starting a blog is not only a great way to engage, educate and inform your audience but also to strengthen your credibility as an expert in the field. 

Post content related to your industry and products, such as latest trends, product reviews, guides and how-tos in different formats such as articles, videos, infographics, and even podcasts. For inspiration, check out these blogs by Walmart, ExxonMobil, and Hewlett Packard

5. Provide clear call-to-action (CTA) in your blog

Make it easy for visitors to take the desired action by providing relevant product links and CTAs throughout your blog posts. For instance, if you are an online fashion store and your blog post is about 5 stylish must-haves this monsoon, you can provide links to the products mentioned in your post along with short and simple CTAs, such as “Buy these boots at flat 10% off”.

6.Optimize your website for mobile

A lot of online browsing and shopping takes place on mobile phones these days. According to a report published on Broadband Search, mobile traffic in 2019 had gone up by 222% compared to 2013. With so much online traffic coming from mobile phones, every website needs to ensure that it is optimized for use on phones. You don’t want visitors bouncing off your website just because it takes too much time to load or the layout looks weird on their mobile devices. 

Test your website on various mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to see how long it takes to load, how simple the navigation is, whether the layout looks good, and whether the pictures look high-quality and the text readable. You can even run it through an online test such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to get a report on what are the strong points of your website and which areas need improvement.

7.Ask for their email addresses

When visitors create accounts on your website, provide you with their email addresses, and subscribe to your newsletter, it helps you get repeat business from them. You can use their information to track what they are browsing, which products and services are of interest to them, their purchase history and whether or not they have abandoned their shopping carts. 

This will help you retarget them with relevant information and products that they are likely to buy and even get them to complete the purchases in their abandoned cart through discounts and other special offers. 

Your website would be the ideal place for capturing people’s email addresses. However, new visitors will most often be wary of divulging personal contact details unless you give them an incentive to do so. For instance, you could offer them a free product such as an ebook, access to tutorial videos and other premium content or attractive deals (Sign up now and get flat 30% off on your first purchase!). Once you have their information and have a fair idea of their shopping and content consumption behavior, your chances of converting them into leads and eventually into repeat customers will increase manifold. 

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Software as a Service (SaaS) has earned a high reputation in the market owing to which startups are joining the software industry on a wide scale. However, when it comes to developing software and releasing it in the market, having a simple idea is not sufficient. There are a bunch of failed software products in the market. But not all of them are successful in satisfying the target audience. Owing to this, software companies are suffering from hefty losses. In accordance with CISQ reports, the cost of development of poor quality of software in the market amounts to more than $2.84 trillion in the United States.

There is deterioration in the quality of the software for a plethora of reasons. One of the top reasons which can contribute to the cost is the failure of the software. The tech start-up industry is rapidly progressing whereas the competition is at its peak. In such a condition, launching a product of top quality is consider to be a start-up survival kit.

If a product, launch in the market is filled with bugs, a lot of time is wasted in the marketing of the product and a lot of money is spent from the pocket. Thus, software companies have to push the deadline for fixing the bugs. Such kind of issues are not affordable for start-ups and newbies in the market.

Immaculate Software Testing

Quality Assurance after the development of the software is useful to the team in detecting a bunch of potential defects which, in turn, helps in avoiding extra loss. Development of detailed software testing plans along with the effective strategies offers a wide array of advantages such as saving resources and time and ensuring the development of a quality product at the same time.

Development of strategies for software testing depends on the process which is adopt for software development. At present, the majority of the products are develop with the aid of microservices architecture which is known to be a variant of SOA. In such a scenario, it is recommend to opt for microservices testing strategies that are suitable for the product.

Third-party services might slow you down

Owing to the innovative technologies such as API integrations, it is possible to hook the website up with a plethora of service of your choice. For instance, you might use a plugin which is helpful in developing a promotional banner or customer analytics. Owing to these services, your website might start malfunctioning or slow down. Though it might not be apparent on the devices, real users with various geographical locations and browsers might get affect. Here is a list of the software testing strategies which helps in ensuring that a perfect and high-end  product is being released in the market:

Let’s look at software testing strategies to boost business growth

1. Aligning the Quality Assurance strategies with the objectives of the business

Specific software is releasing in the market while keeping specific achievements in mind. The growth of the business is generally determine through various achievements. It is essential that the business owners ask different questions like the objective of software testing, the effect of the process on the achievement of the goals of the business. It is necessary to communicate such goals to the whole company which are inclusive of QA services, as well as, the software development team.

2. Developing a detailed plan for Quality Assurance and testing processes

It is a prerequisite that the QA companies devise unique strategies which are align with the objectives of the business. It is possible to execute the strategy effectively if the whole process of testing is document completely. Documentation is consider to be the key to the maintenance of consistency in quality. Thus, it is possible to divide the plan into four segments, which include a quality management plan, testing strategies, test plan, and test case.

3. Creating an ideal work environment for the software testing team

Developing a quality work environment is know to have a positive effect on the attitude of the testers. To ensure a healthy and sound work environment for the team, you require opening communication, expanding the knowledge base, involving Quality assurance team during the product development.

4. Testing for user acceptance

Good quality software is develop while keeping the requirements of the potential audience in mind. The quality assurance team should have a prerequisite understanding of the defined user persona for the test and product, on the basis of user types. In this scenario, it is possible to engage the end-users in the last stage of development. It is also necessary to conduct user acceptance during the time.

To achieve the same, you require defining a method for the User Acceptance Testing procedure. After this, you need to conduct the testing in a proper and organized way. After this, you require documenting the process. There are a plethora of applications which are know to include user onboarding prior to its entry into the app. In addition to this, it also provides a brief about different functionalities and how to use the app.

5. Measuring the quality of the code

Ensuring the quality of code is vital for software testing, there are specific metrics which play a vital role in ensuring the same. The code is free from bugs and errors and is running smoothly. According to the CISQ software quality model, there are certain metrics which are effective in measuring the quality of the code which include security, performance efficiency, rate of delivery, and reliability.

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