Integration is a big deal for software companies, to say the least. The average business uses hundreds of software apps to manage and streamline its day-to-day operations. That puts constant pressure on software companies to deliver solutions that seamlessly integrate into enterprise tech stacks. Usually, that calls for custom coding to develop an application programming interface (API) that allows different apps to communicate with each other in real-time.
Coding an API is a time-consuming and costly process that requires software development expertise. This is especially true for complex business use cases like creating an API for embedded payments, allowing customers to make simple one-click payments on your website. That’s why software providers have been turning to low-code and no-code integration options that allow them to achieve robust results at a fraction of the cost and without requiring extensive development skills. Read on to explore how low-code and no-code integration can streamline your development lifecycle, substantially cut costs, and help you build essential payment features into your software products.
What is Low-Code Integration?
Low-code integration solutions give software developers a way to connect software systems without the extensive coding that would normally be required. Low-code platforms often include automated workflows that can be performed without any coding. They also have more robust development features that do require some coding, though significantly less than a developer would normally need to write to connect software applications.
When software companies need to build payment features into their products, low-code solutions are appealing due to their:
- Intuitive dashboards: Low-code platforms feature sleek and streamlined dashboards that put everything developers need for integrations on a single screen. This makes it easy to get organized and reduces the time and cost involved in API development.
- Collaborative benefits: Low-code integration solutions are usually meant for developers or people with at least some basic coding knowledge. However, they often have features that can be used by people with no coding experience, making it easier for your developers to collaborate with other teams at your company.
- Flexibility and adaptability: Low-code options offer software companies a greater degree of customization and flexibility. They’re a great choice if you want to change the look and feel of your payment solutions to match your native environment, or add additional payment features when developing a product.
Low-code integration is a great fit for businesses and teams with in-house developers and access to coding expertise. It allows developers to automate and streamline their simpler workflows while drastically limiting the amount of coding required for more complex projects.
However, individuals with zero coding knowledge might struggle to build custom APIs and key payment features with low-code integration options. That’s where no-code integration comes in.
What is No-Code Integration?
As the name implies, no-code integration solutions allow companies to integrate software apps with absolutely no coding. No-code integration is a great choice when a company or team is working with limited software development expertise, or simply wants to launch a new product as quickly as possible, with minimal customization along the way.
Software vendors tend to opt for no-code integration when they’re looking for:
- Drag-and-drop integrations: Similar to low-code integration platforms, no-code options feature user-friendly dashboards. However, no-code dashboards often offer drag-and-drop integration functionality. This makes customizing a hosted payment form as simple as dragging icons across your screen.
- Pre-built software connectors: No-code integration options include pre-built software connectors to immediately integrate different apps and platforms. All the code has already been written. This allows even non-technical teams to quickly add the payment features that their customers expect.
- Extremely rapid deployability: No-code integration allows companies to rapidly release software products and product updates. If you’re looking for speed and you’re ok with being limited to simple on-off toggle switches to quickly make minor alterations, this is probably the best approach.
If you don’t have the resources onboard to handle complex development workflows, or you’d rather invest that effort elsewhere, no-code integration is ideal.
Low-Code vs. No-Code Integration
Even though there’s a fair bit of overlap between these two integration options, there are also some key differences you’ll want to be mindful of when comparing different solutions for your business.
Below are some key points to keep in mind:
- Low-code is mostly for developers who have prior coding experience, and no-code is better for teams with no coding knowledge .
- The primary benefit of low-code is that it allows developers to speed up complex coding processes, but the main draw of no-code is its simplicity.
- Low-code is flexible and enables you to add custom payment features to your products, whereas no-code is better suited to much less technical projects.
Both integration options give software companies a way to streamline their development lifecycle and cut costs. At the end of the day, the right choice depends on your overall goals and the kind of development expertise you already have access to.
What Are the Benefits of Using Low-Code/No-Code for Integration?
Regardless of whether you go the low-code or no-code route, integration platforms offer a range of important benefits for software companies. They can streamline your operations, significantly free up your developers’ time, and help your business remain agile enough to compete in today’s crowded software market.
Intuitive Visual Development Dashboards
Both low-code and no-code integration options give software companies access to user-friendly development dashboards. These useful screens put everything developers and business owners need to integrate apps right at their fingertips. In the case of no-code integration platforms, you can integrate two apps by just clicking an icon and dragging it somewhere else on your screen.
Fewer Development Errors
When software providers handle all their API coding and software integrations manually, a large number of errors are likely to arise. Even if you have a team of expert developers, you’ll inevitably run into problems during the testing phase that you’ll need to go back and resolve. Especially when it comes to your product’s payment functionality, you can’t afford to let development issues slip through the cracks.
Because they feature automated and streamlined workflows, no-code and low-code integration options can significantly reduce the number of problems software companies have to go back and fix when developing a product.
Keep Your Business Nimble
By speeding up the enterprise integration process, low-code and no-code platforms save considerable time and money. But they also have deeper strategic benefits. No-code and low-code integration options streamline the entire development lifecycle, from planning and design to deployment and maintenance.
This enables rapid product deployments to help companies better respond to customer feedback and patch issues or release new features, which is essential in today’s fast-paced technology landscape.
Low-Code/No-Code is the Future of Software Integration
With the average business using hundreds of software apps to fuel its tech stack, enterprise integration capabilities are absolutely essential for software companies. Vendors are increasingly turning to low-code and no-code integration platforms to give themselves an important competitive edge.
MSG Payment Systems has decades of experience helping companies integrate essential payment features into their products, so they can focus on growing their business instead. We can help you build fully-customized payment flows that integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, and we offer a full menu of integration solutions to fit every need.
Interested in streamlining your software integration workflows? Reach out to the MSG Payment Systems team today.
