Are you a startup founder looking for a low code or no code solution?
Probably you want to reduce your time to market so you can generate revenue as fast as possible. Low code has indeed been proven very effective to reduce platform development.
However, up until recently, low code was plagued with several important drawbacks that could hinder the growth of your business…
Drawbacks of traditional low code
Many of our customers are platform builders that looked at low code solutions before they came to us.
All of them had the same fears: by relying on traditional low code platforms, they feared to be constrained and locked-in. Builders of two sided platforms in particular were also disappointed that low code did not actually accelerated their go-to-market.
You are constrained
If you build your platform on a low code software tool, you are constrained by the functionality that this tool allows. While this might not be a problem today, it can become one in the future. As a start-up founder, you need to listen to customer feedback and adjust your platform based on your customers’ needs. What if your customers want a feature that you cannot deliver because of the low code solution you’re using?
You are easily locked-in
Agreed. Many low code platforms do allow you to access the code they’ve generated for you. However, this code might be difficult to read or to maintain. What if you are not happy anymore with your low code provider and want to change?
Building a two sided platform?
The bravest of our customers operate a two sided platform. This means that their platform serves two different markets (e.g. both people and businesses). Such platforms take a long time to implement because they require two different interfaces: one for each side of the market. In this case, low code could seem like an ingenious way to reduce your time-to-market. However, often, the enterprise side of the platform has very stringent requirements regarding compliance and integration with existing APIs that cannot be answered by low code tools.
Bottom line: while low code solutions allow you to speed up your go-to-market, they often lack the flexibility that is required for you to scale.
Solid and Web 3.0 to the rescue
Many of our customers first considered low code, but decided to build their platform based on Solid and Web 3.0 instead.
A few words about Solid and Web 3.0…
Solid is a standard for personal data exchange and leads to Web 3.0. Solid is not based on blockchain technology, but relies on tried-and-tested web technology.
On the Solid-based Web 3.0, your platform and users each get a WebID. WebIDs are used to exchange data in a standardised way. Just like email addresses enable you to exchange messages in a standardised way. If your users would each have their own WebID, they can share their data with the WebID of your platform or any other platform that follows the Solid standard.
Your users can then connect their WebID to their Solid compatible personal data vault(s) and login method(s).
Web 3.0 and Low Code
But how does this all relate to low-code and how can it speed up my time-to-market?
Well, Solid compatible data vaults are not simply vaults. They are also containers for structured data and thus function as a database. This means that you can actually use those WebIDs and data vaults as a back-end for your application.
Because Solid and WebIDs are open standards, you don’t have to worry about being locked-in and about constraints that would limit the growth of your platform.
If you have a two sided platforms, Solid and WebIDs are particularly interesting. That is, when you want to onboard companies, you just have to let them register a WebID themselves. When these companies have a WebID, you can share data with them. To access the data that has been shared with them, they can use open-source tools to browse their WebID.
Yet, up until now, it was hard to get a WebID and participate in Web 3.0.
use.id
Digita has designed use.id so people and platforms can easily participate in Web 3.0.
use.id does not only provide WebIDs, but is also a complete solution for each type of participant. For example, platforms can use use.id’s API to easily create a use.id account for their users from within their application. People can easily manage their data vaults, login methods, data and authorisations. And, in addition, your platform can easily synchronise, manage and query the data and metadata that was shared with you.
This way, you can speed up application development and reduce your time-to-market whilst retaining flexibility and avoiding a vendor lock-in.
