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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

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
59
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd)
Oracle Visual Builder Cloud...
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
21st
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
16th
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 April 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 8.2%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is 0.9%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

Rodrigo-Mesquita - PeerSpot reviewer
Rapid application development empowers big projects in months
The ability to quickly develop applications without needing to code a lot is very valuable. It is very quick to create a page, and one can use AI to speed up software development. It is easy to learn. In my company, we could develop a very big application in a couple of months.
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 most valuable applications within the organization are primarily data forms and extended reports."
"Oracle is always adding very important updates"
"The solution can efficiently translate from English to another language including Arabic using the XLIFF format."
"Oracle APEX improved our organization by making it possible for us to implement agile project development."
"This is a good application for quickly creating public applications."
"The valuable features are charts, reports, and search engines."
"The product is easy to use."
"Intuitive with a user-friendly UI."
"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."
"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."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The action chains are really helpful, and the trigger event, along with those action chains, has been very helpful."
"The most valuable feature was the visual drag and drop on the components."
 

Cons

"Connections to the application pages are not handled well and at times more than one user can be accessing an application with the same ID."
"We would like to see tighter integration with the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."
"The solution’s pricing is high if you use it on the OCA platform. It’s also a little bit costly. However, if we use it on an on-premises Oracle database, the pricing is cheaper."
"The collaboration and the workflow engine could use some improvement."
"Oracle Application Express would be improved if you could use it on a mobile platform."
"Currently, APEX doesn't have a building workflow engine. I think that's the most important improvement that could be made at this point."
"You also need an APEX specialist for deployment because not many people use it."
"Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement."
"The feature called "action chains" could use a bit of enhancement."
"The initial setup of Oracle VBCS can be challenging for those unfamiliar with DBS."
"There are some bugs in VBCS."
"There was an attempt to enable front-end development, it did what it intended to do, but the side effects were too bad."
"The tool has minor bugs."
"I would improve the license structure as, for some companies, it may seem a little bit expensive, depending on what they're doing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I do not think this would be an ideal option for a small sized company or a startup when considering the salary requirements for Oracle DBA'a and developers."
"The product is completely free of cost."
"When you have a licensed database in an Oracle environment, APEX is free."
"I would rate it around an eight in terms of price, with one being low and ten being high."
"The solution is cheap. It's a free solution. I rate the solution's pricing a six or seven out of ten."
"The solution is free if you are using on Oracle database."
"The solution is free with your Oracle license or database and that is a good value."
"Pricing is expensive, overall on an enterprise system but we consider that it gives corresponding value in the product."
"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
30%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Government
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)?
Using AI to analyze data without needing much code would be better. Also, although the interface is easy to change, it could have more features.
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
 

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: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.