---
title: "Only 37% of Gartner’s US$26.9bn low-code market was app builders"
summary: "Gartner’s 2023 low-code forecast split by segment, what became of the 65% prediction, and the DPDP duty a citizen-built app carries in India, as of September 2026."
url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/rise-low-code-development-implications
format: Note
desk: "SaaS & business software"
published: 2025-09-09
facts_checked: 2026-09-30
author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal)
tags: ["low-code","Gartner","citizen development","iPaaS","RPA","Power Apps","Zoho Creator","governance","DPDP"]
cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/rise-low-code-development-implications.png
---

# Only 37% of Gartner’s US$26.9bn low-code market was app builders

*Gartner’s 2023 low-code forecast split by segment, what became of the 65% prediction, and the DPDP duty a citizen-built app carries in India, as of September 2026.*

Note · SaaS & business software · By TechBag · Published 2025-09-09 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/rise-low-code-development-implications

In Gartner’s forecast for 2023, the drag-and-drop app builders this blog called low-code in 2023 were US$9.96 billion of a US$26.9 billion market: 37%. Integration platforms and robotic process automation, which most buyers would not call low-code at all, were US$10.07 billion between them.[1] The “rise of low-code” is real, but the headline number measures a much wider shelf than the one a business user builds an app on.

## What Gartner counted as low-code

Gartner’s December 2022 forecast splits “low-code development technologies” into seven segments. Low-code application platforms, the builders such as Power Apps, Zoho Creator, Mendix and OutSystems, were forecast to grow 25% to nearly US$10 billion in 2023. Integration platform as a service was US$6.67 billion, robotic process automation US$3.40 billion, multiexperience development platforms US$3.00 billion and business process automation US$2.76 billion. The segment closest to the 2023 post’s story of non-programmers building apps, citizen automation and development platforms, was the smallest named one at US$953 million, though the fastest growing at 30.2%.[1]

**Figure: App builders were 37% of Gartner’s 2023 low-code forecast; integration and RPA together were larger**

*Forecast worldwide revenue by segment, US$ million, 2023, as published by Gartner in December 2022*

- Low-code application platforms9,960 US$ million 37%
- Integration platform as a service6,668 US$ million 25%
- Robotic process automation3,401 US$ million 13%
- Multiexperience development platforms2,999 US$ million 11%
- Other3,840 US$ million 14%

|  | Value (US$ million) | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Low-code application platforms | 9,960 | 37% |
| Integration platform as a service | 6,668 | 25% |
| Robotic process automation | 3,401 | 13% |
| Multiexperience development platforms | 2,999 | 11% |
| Other | 3,840 | 14% |

Source: Gartner press release, 13 December 2022, Table 1, as reproduced by TelecomTV · as of 13 December 2022 · A forecast, not a measured result; Other is business process automation (US$2,761 million), citizen automation and development platforms (US$953 million) and other low-code technologies (US$126 million)

TechBag countTechBag arithmetic

9,960 of 26,869 is 37.1%. Integration and RPA together are 10,069, slightly more than the app builders. The same table forecast the whole market at US$31.9 billion for 2024.[1]

## The 65% was a forecast, not a count

The 2023 post opened with Gartner’s prediction that by 2024 low-code would account for more than 65% of application development activity. That was a prediction, and we found no published follow-up from Gartner checking it. What the December 2022 release did add was a forecast about who builds: developers outside formal IT departments would be at least 80% of low-code users by 2026, up from 60% in 2021.[1] That second number is the implication that matters for a business, and it is about ownership, not speed.

Our view

Our view: the useful question is not whether low-code is rising but who owns an app when its author leaves. An app built by a sales manager on customer records is a production system with no on-call, no backup plan and no one to delete it. Buy the platform that lets IT see every app, its data source and its owner, and treat that view as part of the price.

## What it means if you are buying in India

Published seats run from US$8 to US$25 a user a month, and two of the five platforms we read print no price at all; our [earlier note](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/does-application-development-software-help-organization) has the pricing pages.[2] At ₹83 to the dollar, a US$20 seat is ₹1,660 a month, or ₹1,959 with 18% GST; the vendors bill in US dollars, and a reseller invoice gives you rupees with the GST shown. The rule that bites is the DPDP framework: an app holding customers’ or employees’ personal data makes the company a data fiduciary, and the DPDP Rules, notified on 13 November 2025, bring the security-safeguard and breach-notice duties into force on 13 May 2027.[3] Every citizen-built app on personal data falls inside that, whoever clicked “publish”.

How we did this

Figures as of 30 September 2026

Segment figures are Gartner’s forecast for 2023, published on 13 December 2022; Gartner’s own page refused automated fetches, so the table is read from TelecomTV’s reproduction of the release. They are forecasts in US$ million and are not converted into rupees. The 37.1% share and the integration-plus-RPA total are TechBag arithmetic. The 65% prediction is quoted from the 2023 post; we did not locate Gartner’s original 2019 text and found no later measurement of it. Seat prices are from the earlier TechBag note; INR uses ₹83 to the dollar and adds 18% GST.

Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece.

Sources

1. [Gartner, Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Low-Code Development Technologies Market to Grow 20% in 2023 (Table 1; 80% of users outside IT by 2026), as reproduced by TelecomTV](https://www.telecomtv.com/content/digital-platforms-services/gartner-forecasts-worldwide-low-code-development-technologies-market-to-grow-20-in-2023-46204) — 13 December 2022 Gartner's own release page did not load for us.
2. [TechBag blog, Low-code costs US$8 to US$25 a seat; 2 of 5 platforms won't print a price (Zoho Creator, Power Apps, Mendix, OutSystems, Appian pricing pages)](https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/does-application-development-software-help-organization) — facts as of September 2026
3. [DPDP Rules 2025, commencement timeline (notified 13 November 2025; safeguard and breach duties from 13 May 2027)](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — 13 November 2025

**Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.

Go deeper on TechBag

- [Developer tools guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/devops/developer-tools) — the pro-code side of the same build decision
- [Zoho vendor hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho) — the suite Zoho Creator sits in