The other issue with low-code apps is the crappy data models they promote. If you are creating a very simple app with one or two relationships at the most you can get away with them. But anything more complex and you end up jury-rigging too much. Which makes getting any of your data out in a meaningful way very difficult. What makes it worse are supposedly low-code platforms like Salesforce which are actual apps that they have opened up. So it usually means that there is an existing data model and most people just rename the tables, resulting in CRAZY data quality issues. Like in a vehicle tracking app I had the misfortune to analyze, you could enter driver information in two different places so while you could easily report on vehicles you never really knew how many drivers you had.

What should happen is start with excel, run out of that and move to low code apps like Quickbase or Caspio, run out of that and then move to custom development or specific COTS once you know what you need and don’t need.