Media Query Source: Part 53 - Tech Monitor (UK digital magazine); Vibe coding & low-code / no-code

• Tech Monitor (UK digital magazine)
• Vibe coding & low-code / no-code
• Vibe coding is a progression on low-code / no-code
• Current vibe coding tooling is best for one-off applications

The query responses I provided to Tech Monitor on June 4, 2025:

Tech Monitor: I am writing a story on vibe coding in the enterprise space, looking at what it is and how it's different to low code/ no code platforms. [omitted] What are the benefits and pitfalls of using it in the enterprise space? [omitted]

Gfesser: As a longtime consultant and former director at Deloitte, I've seen many open source and commercial attempts at replacing the process of manual generation of code by programmers. Some have been more effective than others, with some being more appropriate for only certain phases of the development process.

Vibe coding can be viewed as a progression on low-code / no-code. Low-code and no-code tooling typically offer the ability to use visual interfaces to drag-and-drop canned components together to form the user interface for a given new application, as well as the code that gets executed when interacting with this user interface. However, the difference between these two largely involves the flexibility that is offered. Low-code tooling, for example, permits the ability to either view the code that is generated, with the option to manually modify it, or to use custom written code from the outset, typically alongside the code that is generated.

Regardless of whether low-code or no-code tooling is used to create an application, programming is still involved, but it's important to understand that there's a spectrum of tooling, and each individual open source or commercial product that enables this functionality sits somewhere on the spectrum from no code at all, to some level of code that stops short of manually programming the entire application.

Now, across this spectrum, it's important to understand that manual design is still involved. Non-technical individuals typically make use of low-code / no-code tooling because these offer convenience for users who don't have programming expertise. There's a trade-off between delegating a large portion of the development process to tooling, because while this offers convenience for users, it also doesn't permit the fine-grained control typically sought by programmers. Although, this said, it's not uncommon for low-code applications to be hybrids in the sense that these can typically be integrated with other applications manually written by programmers.

Unlike low-code / no-code tooling which typically offers drag-and-drop visual interfaces that require non-technical users to understand, for example, user interface design, vibe coding instead provides the ability to generate applications using natural language prompts.

The early generation of vibe coding tools currently available can generate code quickly with far fewer limitations than low-code / no-code tooling, and all the generated code is typically accessible, meaning it can be subsequently modified by programmers, but the quality of the code is dependent on the code used to train the underlying AI models, and it may be challenging to maintain. As such, current vibe coding tooling is best to build one-off, short-lived applications (if there is such a thing), including proofs of concept (PoCs) that help inform future application iterations that will eventually be made available to customers.