Low code development services, with each platform's limits and running costs set out first

What is low code development?

Low code development means building an app on a platform that already supplies most of the code. IBM’s explainer, dated June 23, 2026, describes low-code as a way to build applications with minimal hand coding, using visual tools such as drag-and-drop interfaces, prebuilt components, workflows and templates. No-code goes a step further and builds apps and automates processes without writing any code. IBM adds that professional developers often use low-code to automate the generic aspects of coding, which moves their effort to the last mile of development.

The platforms on this page sit at different points along that line. Airtable and Notion start from a database: tables or pages of records, with views, forms and automations on top. Bubble builds web apps with their own user accounts, screens and logic. Low code application development on any of them is mostly data design and rules, with code written only where the platform runs out. Our guide to no-code vs low-code vs custom code sets out the differences in full.

Who are low code development services for?

Businesses whose work has outgrown a spreadsheet, a shared inbox or a tool someone put together years ago, but doesn’t yet need a system built in code:

• Established local businesses: a job tracker, a quoting sheet or a client list that a few people edit at once and nobody fully trusts. A low-code app gives it structure, permissions and one version everyone works from.
• Multi-location and regional businesses: one app the locations share, so each works from the same records through its own view. Airtable’s Team plan holds up to 50,000 records per base, so a busy shared app needs a plan for what happens past that.
• National businesses: a department app or an internal tool that has to sit inside company sign-in and access rules. Airtable offers SAML single sign-on on its Enterprise plan.

When the app is really a system of record the business can’t run without, the platform’s limits and prices become yours, and we’ll say so on the call.

Which low-code platform fits: Airtable, Notion or Bubble?

The platform follows from the app, so start with what the app has to do:

• Airtable: records that link to each other, such as jobs, customers and invoices, worked through views, forms and interfaces, with automations that run when a record changes. It suits operations data a team edits every day.
• Notion: processes that live beside documents, such as a project’s notes, tasks and approvals kept in one place. Its database automations cover the simpler steps.
• Bubble: an app with its own users and screens, such as a client portal or a booking flow, where you need more control over layout and logic than a database tool gives.

None of the three is right for every app, and some apps don’t belong on any of them. The sections below take each platform in turn, then the signs that an app needs code.

Is Airtable enough to run your operations?

For many operations apps it is, up to its written limits. Airtable’s support pages list them by plan:

• Free: 1,000 records per base, with 100 automation runs and 1,000 API calls per workspace each month.
• Team: 50,000 records per base, with 25,000 automation runs and 100,000 API calls per workspace each month.
• Business: 125,000 records per base, with 100,000 automation runs per workspace each month and no cap on API calls.

Those numbers arrive sooner than they seem once an app is in daily use. What we would build on Airtable starts from the volume: how many records the app adds each week, how many automations run on each one and which plan that puts you on a year from now. Where a cap is in sight, the plan for it comes first, whether that’s archiving old records, splitting the work across bases or moving the heaviest table into a database the app reads from.

Can Notion run a business process?

A simple one, yes. Notion’s database automations start from a page being added, a property being edited or a schedule, and they can edit properties, add or edit pages, send a notification, send mail, send a webhook or post to Slack. They run on paid plans, and guests can’t create them.

That suits processes that sit beside documents: a project moving through stages with its notes and files attached, an approval that needs a page of context, or a content calendar. What we would build in Notion keeps the process’s records in one database, with an automation for each change of stage. A process with heavy record volumes, strict permissions or many connections to other systems is usually better placed on Airtable, on Bubble or in code.

When is Bubble the right low code app development platform?

When the app needs its own users, screens and logic, and a database tool would struggle to give them: a client portal, a booking or ordering flow, or an internal tool with several roles. Bubble prices usage in workload units, with 50,000 on its Free plan, 175,000 on Starter, 250,000 on Growth and 500,000 on Team. It emails you at 75% and 100% of your allowance, and overages can be switched off, though the Free plan can’t take overages at all.

Two things to weigh before building on it. Bubble’s manual says its apps can run only on the Bubble platform and can’t be exported as code, and that Bubble keeps the underlying code. The data can leave as CSV files or through Bubble’s API, so moving off Bubble later means rebuilding the app and carrying the data across.

How far can a low-code app grow before it needs custom code?

Often a long way, until one of a few signs shows up:

• The caps: records, automation runs, API calls or workload units keep pushing you up a plan.
• The rules: permissions or calculations the platform can only express through workarounds nobody wants to touch.
• The connections: the app has become the hub between several systems, and each sync needs looking after.
• The bill: the platform’s plan, multiplied by your users or usage, keeps climbing each year.

When those signs appear, the next step is often a system in code: a custom CRM for customer records and deals, business process automation for the steps between systems, or dashboards and reporting for numbers spread across tools. What we would build on low-code sets out the data model and how it exports from the start, which is where a later move to code would begin.

Is a low-code app secure enough for business data?

The platforms publish their own security work. Airtable says it has a SOC 2 Type 2 audit and offers customer-owned encryption keys for data at rest on its Enterprise plan. Bubble says it is SOC 2 Type II compliant and offers a GDPR data processing agreement, and it encrypts data in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256.

The platform is half of it, and the other half is how the app is built. Bubble’s manual describes privacy rules as conditions you set up on each data type, and says it’s up to the developer to use them correctly. Getting them wrong can show records to people who shouldn’t see them. The app we would build sets those rules for each kind of record, and checks them for each role, before it goes live.

We don’t build systems that create, receive, keep or send patients’ health information, on a low-code platform or in code.

What if the platform changes its prices or closes?

Both happen. Google announced in January 2020 that App Maker would close: no new apps from April 15, 2020, and existing apps stopped working on January 19, 2021, with no direct way to migrate them. Amazon launched Honeycode, a no-code app builder on a spreadsheet model, in June 2020, and its beta ended on February 29, 2024.

A low-code app’s running cost is the platform’s price list, so a change there lands on your bill. The protection is the same for a price rise and a closure:

• Know how your data leaves: check each platform’s export before you build. Bubble’s, for one, lets data out as CSV files or through its API.
• Keep the logic written down: the rules, permissions and automations listed outside the platform, so a rebuild starts from a spec.
• Read the platform’s own promises: Bubble says that if it is discontinued it will release its code as open source, so apps can run on a self-hosted Bubble server.

What we would build writes these down from the start: how the platform exports the data, where the logic is recorded and what a move to code would involve.

When should you choose custom code over low-code?

When the app is central to how the business runs, when its rules or volumes keep running into a platform’s limits, or when the platform’s plan keeps climbing with your users. Custom code takes more to build, and it frees the app from a platform’s caps and price list. A low-code app is often a sensible first version too: it shows what the business needs before anything is written in code.

Our custom software page covers that work, and the guide to build vs buy software weighs the two paths. What a build costs at each level is on our custom software cost page.

What happens after a low-code app goes live?

The platforms keep changing, and so does the business. Bubble emails you as usage nears your plan’s allowance, Airtable’s record and automation counts creep up, and new teams ask for views of their own. An app that was right at launch drifts unless someone looks after it.

A low-code app we build is kept up on a monthly plan, and your proposal spells out what that covers.

If a spreadsheet or an old tool is holding your team back, book a 15-minute call. Bring it with you, and we’ll tell you whether low-code can carry it or whether it needs code.