Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Low-Code Development Technologies Market to Grow 20% in 2023

The worldwide market for low-code development technologies is projected to total $26.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 19.6% from 2022, according to the latest forecast from Gartner. A rise in business technologists and a growing number of enterprise-wide hyperautomation and composable business initiatives will be the key drivers accelerating the adoption of low-code technologies through 2026, according to the report entitled, “Forecast Analysis: Low-Code Development Technologies, Worldwide.”

“Organizations are increasingly turning to low-code development technologies to fulfill growing demands for speed application delivery and highly customized automation workflows,” said Varsha Mehta, Senior Market Research Specialist at Gartner. “Equipping both professional IT developers and non-IT personas — business technologists — with diverse low-code tools enables organizations to reach the level of digital competency and speed of delivery required for the modern agile environment.”

Low-code application platforms (LCAPs) are projected to be the largest component of the low-code development technology market, growing 25% to reach nearly $10 billion in 2023.

Other low-code development technologies include rapid mobile app development (RMAD) tools and rapid application development (RAD) tools.

Gartner defines a no-code application platform as an LCAP that only requires text entry for formulae or simple expressions. The LCAP market, therefore, includes no-code platforms.

While LCAP is the largest market segment, citizen automation development platform (CADP) is projected to grow at the fastest pace, with a 30.2% growth forecast for 2023. Typical use cases of CADP include automating workflows, building web-based forms, bridging data and content across multiple software-as-a-service applications, and creating reports and data visualizations.

“The high cost of tech talent and a growing hybrid or borderless workforce will contribute to low-code technology adoption,” said Jason Wong, Distinguished VP Analyst, at Gartner. “Empowered by the intuitive, flexible and increasingly-powerful features of low-code development tools, business technologists and citizen technologist personas are developing lightweight solutions to meet business unit needs for enhanced productivity, efficiency and agility — often as fusion teams.”

Gartner predicts that by 2026, developers outside formal IT departments will account for at least 80% of the user base for low-code development tools, up from 60% in 2021.

Gartner forecasts that the spending on hyperautomation-enabling software technologies will reach $720 billion in 2023.

Channel Impact^®
Investments in low-code technologies that support innovation and composable integration will also grow as organizations embrace the composable enterprise.