Lonti Blog

Measuring Developer Productivity Gains with Low Code APIs

Written by David Brown | June 2, 2025

Let’s be honest—when most developers hear “low code,” they think of oversimplified tools that only help non-developers drag a few boxes around. But if you’ve worked with Lonti’s platform—especially tools like Martini—you know that’s not the case here.

This is low code done right. Low code that’s API-first, developer-focused, and built to scale. And today, I want to show you how to actually measure what matters: developer productivity.

Because the truth is, when you’re building APIs the traditional way—writing boilerplate code, wrangling Swagger files, dealing with scattered auth systems and brittle integrations—you’re bleeding hours. With Lonti, you’re not just saving time. You’re reclaiming focus.

Here’s how to quantify the productivity gains you get by building APIs and integrations the low-code way—with real steps, not hand-wavy marketing fluff.

Step 1: Benchmark Your “Old Way” of Building APIs

Before you can measure time saved, you need to understand what you’re currently spending.

Let’s say your team typically builds an internal API like this:

  • 1–2 days designing the schema

  • Another day writing boilerplate to connect to a database or third-party service

  • Half a day setting up security and auth

  • Another day testing and documenting it

  • Then deployment, monitoring, and tweaks…

That’s about 3–5 days per API, assuming it’s not some monster of a service. Multiply that by the number of APIs you deploy in a sprint, and you’ve got your baseline.

Write it down. Own it. That’s your before state.

Step 2: Build the Same API in Martini (Seriously—Same Requirements)

Now it’s time to put Martini to the test.

With Martini, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re:

  • Visually modeling the integration instead of writing boilerplate

  • Auto-generating endpoints based on services or data sources

  • Using built-in authentication modules instead of rolling your own

  • Testing and deploying with a few clicks, straight from the IDE

In our own team tests, building the same API in Martini took less than a day, start to finish. Sometimes a few hours if the data sources and business logic were straightforward.

The result? What used to take 30–40 hours gets done in 4–8. That’s a 5–10x speedup.

And no—this isn’t speed that comes at the cost of flexibility. You can still drop third-party libraries, write custom code, and version your APIs. You just don’t have to babysit every step.

Step 3: Factor in Integration and Reuse

Here’s where it gets even better: Martini’s low-code APIs are built for reuse.

Once you’ve modeled a workflow or integration, it’s not a throwaway. It’s a first-class, versioned, authenticated API you can bind to in Bellini, trigger in automations, or expose to external systems.

Compare that to the traditional route, where you often reimplement logic across services because reuse is too painful. With Martini, it’s just: build once, bind anywhere.

This kind of reuse doesn’t just save time. It reduces bugs. It improves consistency. And it lets your team focus on real business value instead of plumbing.

Step 4: Add Up the Savings Across a Sprint or Project

Okay, so building one API goes from 30 hours to 5. Great. But let’s scale that.

Let’s say you:

  • Build 10 APIs in a sprint

  • Save ~25 hours per API

  • That’s 250 hours saved per sprint

Even with just two developers, that’s 3+ weeks of dev time you just got back. Time you can spend building smarter workflows, tightening user experiences, or finally tackling that long-requested integration everyone thought would take too long.

This is where low code gets serious. When you zoom out, you start to see real ROI.

Step 5: Don’t Forget Developer Happiness (It Matters)

Let’s not overlook the obvious: developers hate repetitive work. We want to build cool stuff, solve hard problems, and create impact—not copy-paste code from Stack Overflow just to set up OAuth again.

When I work in Martini, I’m not stuck writing the same patterns over and over. I’m solving the actual problem: How do I connect this service to that system, automate this process, and expose it cleanly to the rest of the org?

That shift in mindset—from builder of boilerplate to architect of flows—is everything. It keeps us engaged. It makes work satisfying. And yeah, it just plain feels better.

Final Thought: If You’re Not Measuring It, You’re Guessing

Low code isn’t just about moving faster—it’s about measuring the speed you gain. And with Lonti, especially with tools like Martini, you’re not just getting velocity. You’re getting reusable APIs, stronger integrations, and a happier dev team.

So go ahead—grab a stopwatch. Build your next API with Lonti. Measure the before and after.

I promise, you’ll never want to go back.

Curious how much time you could save?

Try the Martini Free Edition and find out. You might just measure your way into your most productive sprint yet.