Overview
The web development industry is changing fast. Over the last 18 months during the COVID-19 era, more businesses moved online, eCommerce surged, and developers were in high demand.
We wanted to know: What is the role of rapid web development (RWD) platforms in this new era of digital transformation? Who are the developers using these web-builders, what projects are they building with them, and most importantly — why?
We surveyed the wider developer community including Velo and Wix users in order to understand how they use these platforms.
Here’s what we learned.
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Entrepreneurs, freelancers and agencies make up the majority of RWD users
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These developers rely on RWD platforms to support and grow their businesses
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They choose RWD platforms for speed and cost effectiveness rather than openness or compatibility
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Users were able to adapt and succeed during the COVID-19 era due to the speed and flexibility offered by RWD platforms
Rapid Web Development 2021 Report
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What Is a Rapid Web Development Platform?
RWD platforms are built to make the lives of developers easier. They include web-builders that take care of much of the setup and basics of a web application or website, so developers can focus on code and functionality.
A RWD platform may provide ready-made solutions or management tools for:
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Infrastructure
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Server
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Database
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Content Management
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Design
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Security and Privacy
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Deployment
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Maintenance
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Business Solutions
{ Results Below }
Why
Rapid Web Development
61% of respondents said they
use RWD platforms because
they "improve efficiency."
The results paint a clear picture that users choose RWD platforms because of the way they support their business goals. "Efficiency" and "productivity" were the two most popular choices when respondents were asked why they use RWD platforms.
Additionally, the fact that many users indicated they use more than one kind of RWD platform demonstrates that they are willing to try new tools as long as the tools support their needs. They aren’t committed to one specific technology, but to practicality.
Why do you like using rapid web development platforms?
Improved efficiency
61.5
Higher productivity
52.1
Staying up-to-date
47.4
Broadens my scope
33.4
Client satisfaction
31.6
Other
12
Number of RWD platforms used
20%
24%
56%
One platform
Two platforms
Three or more
Why do you like
using rapid web development
platforms?
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Improved efficiency
61.5%
Number of RWD platforms used
46%
One platform
64%
Two platforms
66%
More than two
User Story
The Flexibility Needed for “Resilient” Functionality
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we created a module, Resilience During Crisis, specifically to rebuild and sustain educators' and students' resilience and support their long-term recovery. It’s one part of an upcoming professional learning program called Second Step® SEL for Adults, which helps educators add to their social-emotional skills and knowledge, support their daily well-being, and create a positive climate for the entire school community.
This site consisted of three units and 15 student activities.
Each page was carefully curated with Velo to create a workbook-like functionality for educators that maintained their saved responses on the page. When educators completed each module, Velo was used to allow the educator to print their certificate of completion. Each page contained a blend of functionality which ranged from fill in the blank, sliders, multi-check boxes, ratings, multiple choice options, scoring, and create/read/update/delete saved responses. The site had
32,199 unique site visitors (an IP address and another unique identifier). Of those unique site visitors, we had 20,666 people create user accounts. This is a 64.2% conversation rate of site visits into account creations.
The speed of development Velo enabled was critical in helping us quickly respond to COVID-19. Responding quickly was important to fostering true resilience during a crisis.
Melissa Hong
Owner of OMG Code
OMG Code is a development company that provides clients with web and app design & development solutions.
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Markets Where RWD Shines
44% of respondents said
they use RWD platforms
to build eCommerce sites.
As 2020 was truly the year of eCommerce, it will come as no surprise to you that eCommerce proved to be the most popular market for RWD platform users. When asked why they opted to use a RWD platform in their market, 64% chose "cost-effectiveness" as a deciding factor.
Which markets do you create websites or web apps for using RWD platforms?
eCommerce
44.8
Blogging or Media
35.7
Startups or Tech
28.9
Other
24.4
All markets
21.9
Travel or Hospitality
18.1
Food or Restaurants
16.3
Entertainment
12.7
Why is rapid web development important in the markets you chose?
64%
It's more cost effective
61%
Keeps pace with customer needs
46%
Gives a leg up on competition
User Story
Advanced eCommerce Solution in Just 10 Hours
At the end of 2020, our business began to take on custom Wix Stores projects. Using Velo, we knew that we would be able to add some very unique customization to the existing Wix Stores capabilities, which opens the door for many amazing things, such as custom store features and dashboards, member exclusives, and limitless integrations with other services. Every business operates slightly differently, so we wanted to make sure that anyone using Wix Stores has the ability to go beyond the "one size fits all" capabilities and make it work exactly the way they need it to.
In the fall of 2020, we were approached by a client who wanted to create a "recommended items" page on her Wix Stores clothing shop. This feature would provide her with a simple backend to assign recommended products based off of the individual product a customer is looking at.
In about 10 hours, we were able to create a full back end portal, the customer facing "Recommended Items" functionality and a few more little bells and whistles. It probably would have taken 50+ hours to completely re-make the website on a different platform, transfer the products, and redesign the site, etc.
The ROI of this was huge as recommending products to her customers increased sales and 10 hours of development was an incredibly small investment and a cost-effective way to get this feature in her site. We continue to support our client and her amazing products by creating Wix Stores customization, and also advising her on additional ways to add new functionality to her site.
Ben St. John
Owner of Authoritek
Authoritek is a software development agency that specializes in providing highly functional, yet affordable solutions for small businesses and the agencies that serve them.
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What Are Developers Really Looking For?
"Speed" and "cost" were the most important factors for participants in selecting a development platform, with around 70% choosing each.
These answers make clear the main benefits of RWD over traditional development. Despite the common perception that “openness” is a critical factor in choosing a development platform, we were surprised to find that “compatibility or openness” was the least popular choice.
RWD users also have experience using traditional JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue with approximately 45% of respondents indicating they use one of these popular services. This means RWD users are also comfortable with other methods of programming and development.
Additionally, the most popular reason
given for using these frameworks was “familiarity”, and not necessarily for their technical capabilities.
These answers made clear the main benefits
of RWD over traditional development.
Despite the common perception that “openness” is a critical factor in choosing a development platform, we were surprised to find that “compatibility or openness” was the least
popular choice.
RWD users also have experience using traditional JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, with approximately 45% of respondents indicating they use one of these popular traditional frameworks. This means RWD users are also comfortable with other methods of programming and development.
Additionally, the most popular reason given for using these frameworks was “familiarity”, and not necessarily for their technical capabilities.
What do you look for in a development platform?
Speed
71
Cost
70.2
Performance
70.1
Breadth of features
64.6
Security
62.6
Reliability
61.8
Openness
58.7
Other
7.6
Do you use one of these popular frameworks, and if so which ones (top answers only)?
React
65.4
Angular
33.6
Vue
30.9
Why are you using these technologies or frameworks?
They're familiar
42.7
More control
30.5
Their reputation
30.3
I like the product
25.5
Flexibility
24.9
Helpful resources
24.8
Other
22.1
Community
21.2
Company policy
14.5
User Story
Building a Business on an RWD Platform
Being a self-taught programmer, moving to Velo opened up quite a world of possibilities. My first few projects were merely some custom interactions, but later I was able to help clients with more complex customizations and systems. Relying on the built-in security Velo provides, in combination with features like dynamic pages and the ability to use code to create completely custom solutions, it allows us to meet client needs efficiently and cost-effectively.
I had so many clients reach out to me from different channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, direct, referrals, plus there were quite a lot of repeat customers. I realized I couldn't do this all by myself anymore and I needed to hire.
Since then I've been building a team incrementally. I grew from a freelance developer to an agency owner, managing a team of 10 (5-devs, 1-designer, 1-customer relationships, 3-admin) in 24 months between 2018-2020/21, during the time we also 6x-ed our revenue. We got an all-new office space for ourselves, which is already too small for us now.
The journey has been surreal. I still can't believe it, I've met some great people along the way. We've helped a variety from mom & pop businesses to publicly listed multinational companies from all over the world.
Jonathan Lopes
Founder at Bluehance360
Bluehance360 is a web development agency that solves real business problems with creative digital solutions.
Example Projects:
Adjusting to Rapid Change
81% of respondents said that using RWD platforms helped their business during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 38% saying it “greatly” helped.
Like many professional communities, developers were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority said that their work changed due to COVID, with 42% classifying it as either “a large amount” or “extreme change.”
The single most popular answer given for how their work has changed was “higher demand at work”, mainly stemming from businesses moving online during this time.
How much has your work changed over the past year due to COVID-19?
Greatly
25.5
Moderately
24.4
Slightly
17.6
Extremely
16.9
Not at all
15.5
Has using rapid web development platforms helped your business during the COVID-19 era?
It has helped
43.4
It has greatly helped
38
It hasn’t helped
18.3
User Story
Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, but This Was
In May of 2020, a team of private companies came together to host an innovation competition that spanned all islands in the Caribbean with a single theme: How can we hack COVID-19? The hackathon was slated to be an online competition, of course, and all the details were seemingly ready, except one thing. How are we actually going to build this?
We got a call explaining the idea and how we would play a role in it by designing the registration platform for people to register their hackathon teams. The best part? The website needed to be ready by the end of that same day. We had to hustle, but even though we were working remotely, the team came together to find images for the site, gather content, design the layout and implement it all in Wix [and Velo] from scratch all the way to connecting the domain at the end of that day. The Hackcelerate.tech website was delivered, in full working order and on-time.
As the campaign progressed, over a few days we super-sized the site using Velo to allow people to submit their code solutions and the GitHub links for each of the teams into our database, and built a custom system that allowed all the judges to independently score the competition.
Christopher Derrell
Head of Web Development at Adtelligent
Adtelligent is an ambitious full-service marketing company known to push the bounds in marketing, technology, and data. They offer advertising and creative services to help their clients compete globally.
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Who Are RWD Users?
Out of about 1200 respondents, 60% said they are entrepreneurs or freelancers
When it comes to their professional role, there was considerably more diversity as RWD users included frontend, fullstack, and backend developers, as well as other types of roles such as DevOps, product managers, and designers.
How would you describe your current employment?
Entrepenuer
33.32
Freelancer
27.46
Not in development
12.97
In-house developer
12.82
Other
10.18
Agency developer
3.24
What is your current professional role?
Other
34.77
Professional Designer
18.81
Frontend Developer
14.43
Product Manager
10.39
Fullstack Developer
9.68
IT Manager
7.24
Backend Developer
2.77
DevOps
1.25
QA
0.66
User Story
Building a Full CRM in Just Nine Hours
We were approached by a client who owns a large franchise business in the UK. Our client was looking to replace the CRM software he was using due to unsustainable costs of the solution especially as per user costs increased due to the high number of users necessitated by the franchise nature of the business.
To support our client, we moved him to a custom built Velo solution. This has saved our client around £8,000 per year, while only costing him a one-time fee from us.
In terms of time, it took us just nine hours to build this platform. With other platforms it could easily take months to build a similar solution.
It’s important to highlight that even as the CRM was built incredibly fast it still provides the client with robust functionality including integration with Zapier to source leads and assign them to different franchisees.
Scott Purslowe
Owner of Infuze Group Limited
Infuze is a UK based development agency. The agency currently has five employees and is planning to grow to 12 in the next few months.
Example Projects:
