A few years back, people used to build websites for a living. Yes, website builders are a thing that is in the market for decades now. Earlier, there used to be a difference between drag-and-drop tools and a fully-fledged website development. At present time, it is very comforting to see new innovative website templates in WiX along with heavy code options to their collection.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made everyone to shift from offline mode to online. Be it shopping in malls, dining in restaurants, going to a clinic for a check-up, and so on is available online. People have been seen browsing, working, dating, and socializing by spending more time on the internet than ever. Businesses realized this sudden change very soon and started serving their customers through online mode.
This has further made an increase in the demand of the website developers as well as the use of development tools. In a study, a team of experts wanted to monitor the rapid change that the digital world has been experiencing. For what website development platforms are being used for? Who is using the website development platforms and why?
To find the answers to the aforesaid questions, the team conducted a research in which they called in 1200 website developers and the results were quite comforting. And that is, the demand is unexpectedly high for drag-and-drop web builders and full-stack web developers.
Meaning of Rapid Web Development Platforms
Before we dig into what the report entirely says, let us find out the meaning of RWD – Rapid Web Development as defined by the experts. In comprehensive terms, rapid web development refers to using builders and tools to simplify the web development process.
Everyone is familiar with the scale such things depend upon; however, we haven’t yet given it any name. From platforms providing low and no-code like Weebly or WiX assist visual tools like Well, Velo by WiX, etc. are the ones web developers use when they simply need to develop websites and web applications quickly. In other words, it is helpful when a web developer is looking to build a site without getting involved in heavy coding and doing all the tasks from the scratch.
For a long time, practicality and readiness have been seen as the selling point for RWD – Rapid Web Development platforms. The reason being, they are good at handling a lot of basic factors of websites so that the developers, activists, bloggers, or business owners can directly focus on ensuring the smooth functioning of the project they are working on.
Ready-made solutions or built-in solutions are provided for the website such as –
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- Business Solutions
- Web Maintenance
- Deployment
- Web Security and Privacy
- Web Servers
- Web Design
- Web Content Management
- Web Databases or Data storage
- Infrastructure
To brief, complete care is given by providing the basics for the site while still giving the complete control of it. Moreover, every aspect mentioned above can be full-time jobs on their own thus; the value of the development tools is remarkable.
Key Findings of the Report
Now, let us look at the key findings of the report before putting a spotlight on the essentials.
The data used to write the report was of 1200 web developers or builders.
More than half of the respondents i.e., 60% represented themselves as freelancers or entrepreneurs. Integrating them with the companies, they result in the majority of rapid web development users. Some of the respondents were surveyed specifically and the results showed that they used rapid web development platforms in order to grow their businesses. Speed, Flexibility, and cost-effectiveness were the respondents’ main interest areas given the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Changing Period
Such a keen focus on running and growing a business is understandable given the situation of coronavirus. Even the web world that is always on the edge of evolvement was shaken from its roots. Less than half of the respondents claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a time of a big change. The shift from offline mode to an online mode or increasing need for the e-commerce has been seen a lot than before. The reason being, people preferred using an online system for the majority of daily tasks that made many businesses to go online to fulfill their customers’ demands.
Some of the businesses could afford to take months to build an intimate web presence. Commercial websites were always best suited given the RWD –rapid web development platform’s smooth, practical, readiness and scalability. This is also reflected in the survey’s report that around 80% of web builders accepted that RWD – rapid web development tools have helped them grow their business at the time of the pandemic.
Why Rapid Web Development Tools?
More than half of the respondents i.e., 63% claimed that using rapid web development platforms or tools is important to improve efficiency and productivity in work. Further, the report showed that around 57% of the respondents used rapid web development platforms whereas the rest – 43% of the respondents used multiple. You should also know that not every web builder is the same i.e., different web builders work differently with different abilities. However, it is still fascinating to see that there are web builders who work hard to improve efficiency but use multiple platforms as well.
Rapid Web Developments are used for Which Markets?
With that being said, it is never about the money. Many think that rapid web development platforms are used for monetization purposes but this is not true. One of the most common usages of RWD – rapid web development is media as well as blogging, followed by technology. Having a poor online presence is useless and invaluable for which website builders or developers are the highly popular means of achieving a good virtual spot in the digital world.
Fastening Frameworks
In the report, there was an element that clearly showed the importance of rapid web development platforms in various frameworks of the ecosystem. The time has changed completely now i.e., earlier website builders were only used by those who did not have knowledge of coding but gone are those days. Presently, everyone is using that regardless of whether the person knows how to do coding or not. Rapid web development’s productivity and readiness have made it a perfect fit for every coder and non-coder website developer.
Talking about the data collected during the survey –
- React framework was the most used among all.
- Two-third of the respondents claimed that they were familiar with the usage and knowledge of the framework – React.
- The second most used framework was Angular with the users about 33% of the respondents.
- The third most used framework was Vue with the users about 30% of the respondents.
Usually, frameworks are used by everyone not because of they are loved by all but because of their familiarity. Only 25% of the respondents claimed that they use other frameworks simply because they were fond of the product.
Cost is Always a Major Factor
If you think hiring a web development team is less costly or easier to find then you are highly mistaken. Setting up a team of experts knowing the best about web development cannot fit in everyone’s pocket. It is a huge investment to make not only in terms of money but time too.
To conclude, it will be fascinating to see would-be web developers going from complete beginners to full-blown experts, making web development tools a useful resource for people to go online.