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LOW-CODE DEVELOPMENT

What is low-code development?

Low code delivers significant productivity boosts by enabling developers to build applications visually with little to no code while offering the ability to customize as required.

Where low code can have an impact

Developers can build software applications faster and with less effort, leading to significant productivity improvements in the software development cycle.

Architecture

Low-code comes with a pre-packaged best-in-class modern computing and application architecture, eliminating the need to spend valuable time designing and implementing these.

  • Easily integrate with other applications, databases & systems through simple configuration screens
  • No need to build integrations from scratch, reducing development time and improving productivity

Design

With a low-code platform you can build a style guide and a few key screens instead of designing every screen and user interface interaction. The guide and key screens can then be implemented with detailed design happening inside the application rather than in the design tools.

  • The visual development environment lets users create applications via a drag-and-drop interface
  • This WYSIWYG approach reduces the reliance on manual coding and lets developers instantly see the final product

Development

Low-code tools help developers work differently, configuring pre-packaged components whenever possible and creating custom code as necessary. To satisfy compliance requirements, version control and environment capabilities can even be accommodated. Many platforms are also fully extensible, supporting custom component types and external libraries.

  • Extensive visual component catalogs enable developers to configure as they wish without any coding
  • Gone are the days of identifying and incorporating external component libraries while becoming familiar with their complex code base

Runtime

Low-code platforms enable instantly-available, DevOps-free, scalable and secure computing and storage runtime environments. This reduces the burden on IT administrators and reduces cycle time from development to production.

  • Incorporate built-in features for application hosting, database management, and infrastructure configuration.
  • Push applications into production environments with minimal effort​, seamlessly and securely.
  • Significantly reduce time from development to production, accelerating the go-to-market process.
EMPOWER DEVELOPERS

Why low code makes sense for your projects

Low-code platforms are designed to make the software development process more accessible and accelerate empowering developers to intuitively create and maintain applications.

Templates

Templates

  • Many low-code platforms provide pre-packaged templates of entire. applications or parts of applications
  • Helps users rapidly understand how the platforms work.
  • Enables “code avoidance,” allowing users to achieve an end result rapidly.
Templates
App Services

Application services

  • Many low-code platforms come with pre-packaged & configurable services for common application functions.
  • Takes the focus off complex and error-prone application services, saving time and frustration.
  • Includes authentication, single sign-on, role-based access controls, notifications, messaging & more.
  • Liberates users to spend their time on the most relevant and differentiated parts of their application.
App Services
Iterate & Deploy

Rapid iteration and deployment

  • Low-code platforms eliminate the DevOps setup & support that is common in traditional development environments.
  • Allows developers to iterate, test & deploy applications quickly.
  • Enables developers to get near-instant feedback & easily make changes to the application.
Iterate & Deploy
AI

Artificial intelligence

  • Many low-code platforms have embedded AI capabilities to speed development while reducing errors
  • Technologies like OpenAI’s Codex LLM will further accelerate these capabilities
AI
Scalability

Scalable and future-proof computing infrastructure

  • Many low-code platforms support all of the computing infrastructure needs, including important security concerns
  • Handles the auto-scaling of application demands
Scalability

Taking Low Code to the Next Level

Built for JavaScript Developers

The JavaScript ecosystem is 17.5 million developers strong. We built 8base around an already thriving language and developer ecosystem rather than invent a brand-new language and manufacture developers around it.

Drop into Code Anywhere

8base lets you develop visually and enables developers to drop into code when necessary or desired.

Build any Type of Application

Build a variety of application and solution types from consumer-facing apps to internal apps and enterprise solutions.

Serverless API-First Architecture

Auto-scaling infrastructure, separation of backend and frontend enabled via GraphQL API.

Full Design Control

Enables the development of digital products in addition to internal apps with styling control down to the individual UI element level, including custom CSS.

Pricing

Almost all low-code products charge per end-user, which renders them unusable for consumer-facing apps and digital products.

Frequently Asked Questions

What cloud provider does 8base utilize?

8base utilizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) for workspace databases (Aurora MySQL), file/object storage (S3), realtime events and notifications (SNS), and serverless computing (Lambda).


Does 8base utilize an open source GraphQL engine?

8base uses some open source tooling, like Apollo Server. However, we’ve invested heavily in building our own GraphQL Engine that is a core innovation of the 8base platform. This GraphQL Engine is not open source and we continually work on advancing its feature functionality.

What is GraphQL?

GraphQL is an open-source data query and manipulation language for APIs, and a runtime for fulfilling queries with existing data. GraphQL was developed internally by Facebook in 2012 before being publicly released in 2015. In 2018, the GraphQL project was moved from Facebook to the newly-established GraphQL Foundation, hosted by the non-profit Linux Foundation.

It provides an approach to developing web APIs that’s different from REST and other web service architectures. GraphQL consists of a type system, query language and execution semantics, static validation, and type introspection. 8base GraphQL automatically supports reading, writing (mutating), and subscribing to changes to data (realtime updates – most commonly implemented using WebHooks).

This What is GraphQL Video helps to describe the concept.

What is the value of 8base?

Developers can...

  • Easily get up and running with an instantly available backend and auto-generated GraphQL API.
  • Avoid having to spend any time maintaining infrastructure.
  • Pull data into any front-end or mobile client, building fully-functional applications.
  • Work faster while enjoying a great developer experience.

‍

Non-developers can...

  • Quickly build powerful digital products.
  • Use less money and smaller teams to develop scalable, professional-grade applications.

Is 8base open source?

The 8base team maintains the software and infrastructure behind 8base and provides support. We love the open-source philosophy and we use and develop a lot of open-source tools ourselves, but the 8base platform itself is not open source.

What programming languages does 8base support?

8base serverless functions utilize Node.js, an open-source, cross-platform, JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code on the server-side. 8base's serverless environment supports backend functions written in JavaScript and its superset, TypeScript.


What type of database does an 8base workspace use?

Each 8base workspace provides an Aurora MySQL Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The standard database is provisioned as a dedicated  instance in a shared cluster that’s hosted in the AWS East Region. In our custom pricing tier, 8base offers the ability to upsize the database environment, move to a dedicated cluster, move to another AWS region, and even create a global cluster.


What do people make with 8base?

8base was made to support the needs of professional-grade applications. To us, this means applications that are for business or are the business, as is the case with a startup or scale-up's digital product. Professional-grade applications typically support multiple personas (roles). These applications are also typically data-intensive and workflow-intensive while supporting web and mobile clients.

Common types of applications include:

  • Multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications
  • Marketplaces, social networks and other network-centric applications
  • Portals and customer experience application
  • Internal applications where off-the-shelf SaaS products either do not address the need well or are too expensive to be used
  • Administrative parts of virtual / augmented reality applications
  • Games
  • API-only applications
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