Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service comparison

Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Oracle Application Express ...

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

4th

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Development Platforms (2nd)

Oracle Visual Builder Cloud...

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

20th

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 8.4%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is 0.9%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rapid Application Development Software

Featured Reviews

Ashraf Hamza

Consultant at International Turnkey Systems - ITS

Efficient with good data retrieval but improvement needed in user interface

Oracle APEX is very easy to use and comes with a lot of ready-made components that speed up the process of creating reports and dashboards. It is part of our agreement with Oracle E Business Suite and offers seamless data retrieval and performance. Additionally, we utilize its dashboard and reporting capabilities.

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Sherif Bashar

Head of Digital Solutions at Wind Integrated Solutions

Offers low-code/no-code concept makes development much easier and faster and offers good community support as the development team actively answers questions on the community every day

There are very minor things, like the feature called "action chains," that could use a bit of enhancement. But the team is perfect; they're working on it. An action chain is a sequence of actions triggered by a button or an event. It executes code in order, from top to bottom. For example, it could call a code, call a REST service, and then insert data into a database. It needs enhancement because it can be a bit complex for fresh grads or new developers to understand. It would be better if it was made more readable. That's the main point. But if you have experience, you'll understand it easily. One more thing I want to add about Visual Builder: up until two years ago, it supported native mobile development. That's not available anymore. They replaced native mobile development with progressive web apps, and most customers are complaining about that. We need native mobile development back – the ability to put apps on stores like Google Play or the App Store. That feature is not available right now, and they deprecated it starting in 2024. It's very important. Otherwise, clients go with Flutter or other mobile development tools. It would be good for Oracle to regain that capability. We need the native mobile development feature back.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I like that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is powerful and attractive, allowing my organization to modernize forms within two months. I also found its PWA feature very powerful because you can produce substantial mobile applications."

"One of the most valuable features is that we can develop everything locally and deploy it for different kinds of operators in different locations, so we can do our job in one piece. The benefit of that is that others can use these applications. They connect to the internet to do these kinds of applications based on the permissions for those users."

"We set up the HTTP server and installed the Apex Xamarin DB using the Mark Hill SQL packages for an older version. That's the extent of our configuration."

"It has a well-designed architecture and is a simple 3rd party application."

"It's fairly easy to make a user-friendly interface."

"Oracle APEX is very easy to use and comes with a lot of ready-made components that speed up the process of creating reports and dashboards."

"The product is fast."

"I particularly enjoy the web builder capabilities, especially the Page Designer. It offers so many elements or components to choose from, which is a major plus for me."

More Oracle Application Express (APEX) pros

"The most valuable feature was the visual drag and drop on the components."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The tool is very easy to use."

"VBS is another tool that allows users to create enterprise applications without needing to store their projects in traditional databases like SQL."

"The action chains are really helpful, and the trigger event, along with those action chains, has been very helpful."

"You don't need a dedicated IDE to develop. You can work from any browser, which is very convenient. And, with the cloud concept, your code is stored in the cloud, so you can modify it from anywhere, at any time."

Cons

"The user interface needs to be improved."

"The workflow engine should be embedded in the solution."

"I would like to see easier integration into active directory authentication. Also, maybe integration of JavaScript frameworks would resolve some issues."

"Visual Builder and APEX should meld in one product."

"There is one disadvantage. When facing problems, it can be difficult to find solutions online (Google/YouTube), unlike with Java coding, where solutions are readily available on Google."

"The collaboration and the workflow engine could use some improvement."

"I've experienced some difficulties when using Oracle Application Express (APEX), particularly when I'm designing forms. For example, when I design a form, I add buttons and controls, but I'm unable to visualize how it'll look unless I run it. You want to design and do things your way, but if you don't have much experience, then you'll find that designing in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a little complicated. This won't be a problem with anyone more experienced, though. If I wanted to create my design, for example, a different table format or some background images, it becomes a problem, and this is an area for improvement in Oracle Application Express (APEX). Designing should be easier, even for less experienced users. An additional feature I'd like to see in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is more plugins, particularly a repository that contains a lot of plugins, so you can go to that repository and download whichever you like and use it or add it to your project. Right now, I create my plugins, so it would be helpful if Oracle Application Express (APEX) has a repository of plugins people can use, download from anywhere in the world, and integrate into projects."

"The product must provide more triggers."

More Oracle Application Express (APEX) cons

"The feature called "action chains" could use a bit of enhancement."

"The tool has minor bugs."

"There was an attempt to enable front-end development, it did what it intended to do, but the side effects were too bad."

"I would improve the license structure as, for some companies, it may seem a little bit expensive, depending on what they're doing."

"There are some bugs in VBCS."

"The initial setup of Oracle VBCS can be challenging for those unfamiliar with DBS."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Oracle Application Express (APEX) is free, so this is another magic of the solution. You just get charged for the database license, which I don't need."

"Pricing is expensive, overall on an enterprise system but we consider that it gives corresponding value in the product."

"I believe APEX comes bundled with the database, including autonomous database and other related database products, so the pricing is quite reasonable."

"There is a trial version available that can be used free of charge."

"It is expensive, but I don't know what the licensing cost is."

"Oracle Application Express (APEX) comes with Oracle. The Oracle price itself. I do not know the exact cost. Oracle is flexible on its price. If you overspend on your hardware, then I don't think you will overpay. I heard that Oracle is more expensive than other databases, but when you consider Oracle is the best traditional relational database out there. You get what you pay for."

"We have a full Oracle E-Business Suite license, and we use that license to develop applications. There's no license required for developing Oracle applications."

"The tool is not expensive."

More Oracle Application Express (APEX) pricing and cost advice

"It's not expensive when you consider what it provides: low-code/no-code development, faster development time, good quality, and good stability."

"Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is much too expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

33%

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Oracle Application Express (APEX)?

The product is fast.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Application Express (APEX)?

Oracle APEX is part of our on-premises solution included in our agreement with Oracle E Business Suite, though I don't know the cost specifics. Power BI is licensed by the user.

What needs improvement with Oracle Application Express (APEX)?

The user interface needs to be improved. It should be more user-friendly.

What do you like most about Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service?

The tool is very easy to use.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service?

I actually don't have much experience with pricing, so I can't comment on it right now.

What is your primary use case for Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service?

There was a requirement to build a custom form to raise AI invoices, using Oracle Fusion. We created a form, and another use case was that users wanted to create and update customers.

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Product Reports

Oracle Application Express (APEX)

Download Oracle Application Express (APEX) product report

Oracle Application Express (APEX) report

Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service

Download Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service product report

Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service report

Also Known As

Oracle APEX

No data available

Learn More

Oracle

Overview

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a low-code development platform that enables users to build enterprise apps securely and scalably. APEX, which offers world-class features, can be deployed anywhere. As part of the Oracle Database, developers can develop superior apps 20x more quickly by using all of the tools provided in a single, extensible platform.

Oracle APEX, a cloud platform that has been around for over 20 years, eliminates complexities associated with app building while delivering results faster and at a lower cost. The low-code aspect offers developers a visual approach to app development that accelerates the development process. Oracle APEX also provides a lively, global, and growing community of developers that can connect and share resources with each other.

Features of Oracle Application Express (APEX)

App building requires complexities and expert knowledge in vast web technologies. With Oracle APEX, these complexities involved with multi-faceted applications are reduced, and developers are provided with the rich features they need to fix business problems and create solutions. These features include:

Data: Oracle APEX offers revolutionary functionality to enable developers to turn data into information, no matter where that data is from. Under this functionality, you can display, chart, manipulate, and process data effortlessly and accurately.

Accessibility: Developers can build highly accessible and inclusive web apps for users with various abilities and requirements. Oracle APEX aims to provide a good user experience for everybody, with accessibility bug fixes and continuous improvements of their testing strategies.

Globalization: Oracle APEX provides the ability to create a framework to maintain well-performing applications in multiple languages and environments.

Smart Filters and Search: users can rapidly reduce searched data and remove clutter with search terms and filter suggestions for a more simplified user experience.

Security: Oracle APEX empowers web application builders to develop apps without compromising on security. Despite the constant increase of attacks and modification of web standards, developers can stay focused on their tasks without leaving applications exposed.

Monitoring: Monitoring and logging are built into Oracle APEX, which provides valuable insight into how users interact with your applications, as well as any hacking attempts, application errors, and performance issues.

User Interface: Developers can build modern web applications that are responsive, easily customizable, highly accessible, and simple to maintain with Universal Theme, a user interface for Application Express.

Reviews from Real Users

Oracle Application Express is a favorite among developers looking to create web applications quickly and securely for many reasons, which include its ease of use and the ability to quickly create public applications

A senior database developer at a tech services company notes, "This is a good application for quickly creating public applications."

Alvaro L., an intelligence coordinator at Grupo Orbis, writes, "Oracle Application Express is easy to use, people don't have to be developers to use it."

Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is a cloud-based software development Platform as a Service (PaaS) and a hosted environment for your application development infrastructure. It provides an open-source standards-based solution to develop, collaborate on, and deploy applications within Oracle Cloud.

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne

Transcom Worldwide, Latham Pool Products

Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service