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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024
 

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
58
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd)
Oracle Visual Builder Cloud...
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
20th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 8.6%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is 0.9%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

David Darte - PeerSpot reviewer
A low-code platform which is easy to use
If our company tries to fit into the product exactly what the end users request, then the UI part can get complicated, making it an area of concern where improvements are required. I experience a few problems when trying to send emails through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, but I don't think it is an issue that is directly related to Oracle Application Express (APEX). The problem of sending emails arises when Oracle Application Express (APEX) is inside Oracle Cloud Infrastructure since it is a bit complicated or difficult to understand where to take care of the setup part to be able to just send out emails properly. The aforementioned details can be considered for improvement in the product.
Sherif Bashar - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution can build functionalities in a very short time."
"Oracle Application Express is easy to use, people don't have to be developers to use it."
"The solution can efficiently translate from English to another language including Arabic using the XLIFF format."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"The database is super easy to use for creating tables."
"Quick development and the connection with the database are the most valuable and useful features. It is also very stable, scalable, and easy to set up. Its support is also good."
"Oracle APEX's reporting features are simple yet powerful. The ability to quickly create CRUD screens has simplified many RAD discovery processes, while the APEX environment allows the product owners and dev teams to quickly understand the complex solutions and employ usage statistics to identify areas requiring improvement. The option to add external JavaScript tools in screen development enables the development of complicated mobile or web usage scenarios in rare cases where the APEX UX is not enough."
"The product is easy to use."
"The tool is very easy to use."
"The most valuable feature was the visual drag and drop on the components."
"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."
"VBS is another tool that allows users to create enterprise applications without needing to store their projects in traditional databases like SQL."
"The initial setup is easy."
 

Cons

"An area for improvement in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is the slow reporting because pulling the report for two months, one year, three years, etc., is very slow. It takes more than thirty minutes to download the report. There's also room for improvement in integrating Oracle Application Express (APEX) with other vendors, such as open-source solutions through API integration. I believe Oracle is working on this feature, or the issue could be because my organization is using an older version of Oracle Application Express (APEX). The Oracle database also has to be improved because it's still lacking in some packages, triggers, and indexes."
"I don't like the URL syntax."
"Currently, APEX doesn't have a building workflow engine. I think that's the most important improvement that could be made at this point."
"The solution does not support the Linux platform."
"Occasionally when trying to un a page, I would be faced with an error number; however, not much information would be provided on the error itself outside of the programming language. It would be nice if more information could be provided."
"Another issue I used to encounter was with the debugging functions. I believe this is an area where Oracle APEX could improve significantly in terms of displaying error messages or error pages. It is very difficult to detect bugs or which bugs you are having when it comes to errors or which errors you have."
"The user interface needs to be improved. It should be more user-friendly."
"The problem of sending emails arises when Oracle Application Express (APEX) is inside Oracle Cloud Infrastructure since it is a bit complicated or difficult to understand where to take care of the setup part to be able to just send out emails properly."
"The feature called "action chains" could use a bit of enhancement."
"The tool has minor bugs."
"There are some bugs in VBCS."
"The initial setup of Oracle VBCS can be challenging for those unfamiliar with DBS."
"I would improve the license structure as, for some companies, it may seem a little bit expensive, depending on what they're doing."
"There was an attempt to enable front-end development, it did what it intended to do, but the side effects were too bad."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The tool is free with the Oracle Database license."
"When buying the data license, APEX is included."
"It is expensive, but I don't know what the licensing cost is."
"When you have a licensed database in an Oracle environment, APEX is free."
"Oracle Express comes with the Oracle license, it is a bundle."
"The solution is moderately priced, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"If you have a license to Oracle database, you can access APEX."
"Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is much too expensive."
"It's not expensive when you consider what it provides: low-code/no-code development, faster development time, good quality, and good stability."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
32%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 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.
 

Also Known As

Oracle APEX
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
Transcom Worldwide, Latham Pool Products
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.