No-code tools allow anyone to build apps and automate workflows using a visual interface—no coding or technical skills required, the team at Zapier noted in a recent update.
According to Zapier, these tools experienced a dramatic rise “in adoption over the past few years due to the acceleration of digital transformation from the pandemic, and that growth continues to gain momentum.”
This study seeks answers to many of these questions, “evaluates total industry impact, and makes business predictions for the short, medium, and long term.”
As mentioned in the report from Zapier, key takeaways are:
- 82% of no-code users started using no-code tools during the pandemic
- 90% of no-code users think their company has been able to grow faster due to its no-code usage
- 76% of no-code users use no-code tools for their own personal projects
- 85% of no-code users plan to use no-code tools more in the next year
Zapier claims that it is the leader in no-code automation—”integrating with 5,000+ apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization’s technology stack.”
As explained in a blog post by Zapier, the data shows an enormous rise “in the use of no-code tools from the beginning of 2020 to the beginning of 2022.” In fact, the majority of no-code users started “using these tools during the pandemic—with over 4 out of 5 having their first no-code experience within the past two years.”
According to Gartner, not only “are new users continuing to flock to no-code tools, but existing users are increasing their usage: currently, nearly 60% of all custom apps are built outside the IT department.” And by 2025, 70% of new applications “developed by organizations will use no-code or low-code tools, up from less than 25% in 2020.”
As stated in the updte, 90% of no-code users “think their company has been able to grow faster due to its no-code usage.”
Zapier results show that “not only are the bulk of no-code users self-taught, but many are taking the initiative to watch free videos (26%), paying for an online course (23%), or simply teaching themselves through trial and error (18%).”
For those who benefit from additional learning resources, “leveraging work resources is the most common method, with 31% receiving formal training at work and 6% informally asking someone else at work to teach them.”
To understand how the current set of business, industry, and societal circumstances fueled the adoption of no-code tools, Zapier asked users “why they started using no-code tools and the underlying factors that drove their interest.”
The results support the conclusion “that the time-savings benefits of no-code tools are primary drivers of usage.” But those time savings were “identified by a wide range of people: individuals for their professional work, individuals for their side projects and businesses, and company managers and leaders.”
And as these users become more savvy with no-code tools, they have a better understanding of the types of potential benefits. Zapier wanted to “know which of these benefits was most important to the continued use of these tools.”
While task-oriented time savings (83%), automation (76%), and flexibility (74%) rank as the top three reasons for continuing to invest in no-code tools, many users “were finding multiple benefits from their usage—solving multiple business problems simultaneously.”
Once an individual uses no-code tools for one aspect of their personal or professional life, they are “increasingly likely to use the tool again for another task in a different setting.”
Despite the benefits of no-code tools to those “without a technical background, nearly 9 in 10 users have some type of prior technical knowledge.”
This supports the conclusion that “despite the rise in no-code tool usage, the industry still has widespread growth ahead of it, as millions of non-technical users—those who likely could benefit most from no-code tools—discover its potential power.”
Even though many professional developers or engineers could code their own technical solutions, “more than 1 out of 3 no-code users are currently technical professionals who choose to use the tools anyway.”
Notably, more than 8 out of 10 no-code users use no-code tools “at least once per week, with nearly two-thirds using them multiple times per week.”
With weekly usage considered the gold standard “for many software as a service (SaaS) providers, the extremely high usage rate with minimal fall-off over time suggests the high value being delivered by such tools.”
For the 1 out of 4 no-code users who are “using such tools daily, that frequent level of usage suggests that no-code tools have become indispensable to the operation of their businesses and job functions.”
More than one-third of respondents identified issues “related to troubleshooting—including not knowing what to do when something goes wrong (36%) and unexpected errors that impact others (34%)—as the two most common challenges.”
Following up in a close third position, respondents identified a lack of examples to follow or model after (32%). Increasing access” to instructional and troubleshooting content, including official resources and help from other no-code users, should be a significant industry goal.”
Overall, the results reportedly “indicate high new user adoption of no-code tools, very high frequency of usage by existing users, impact across the entire business organization, and large amounts of potential users who could greatly benefit but haven’t yet taken the plunge.”
As far as no-code tools have already come, the industry is still “at an early stage: as more people try out these tools and experience the benefits first-hand, high adoption rates will fuel high repeat usage rates that will further increase the prevalence and reliance on these tools.”
In fact, the data shows that “more than 8 out of 10 no-code users plan to increase their usage during the coming calendar year.”
