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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
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
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 February 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 8.3%, down from 9.5% 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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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

"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."
"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."
"The solution can build functionalities in a very short time."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The product is easy to use."
"The most valuable features of Oracle Application Express (APEX) are the ease and speed of development. Instead of engaging a large team of middleware, front-end, and database engineers, we can have professional look at the front end and have the user interface up and running in a matter of days. However, if you want to go far and implement very custom features, it doesn't require a lot of knowledge of front-end development, such as HTML, JavaScript, or other aspects."
"The most valuable applications within the organization are primarily data forms and extended reports."
"Oracle APEX allows our company to complete webpage projects easily in a fast turnaround time."
"The initial setup is easy."
"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 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."
"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."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement in Oracle APEX is its workflow orchestration capabilities."
"It would be beneficial to include WebSockets so that you can see real-time updates."
"Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement."
"The solution's layout could be improved for report generation to allow more configuration."
"Fixing bugs is difficult because of how the HTML code is generated. It is not always broadly compatible with browsers."
"Being able to only design with HTML and CSS can be limiting as to what can be accomplished."
"We would like to see tighter integration with the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."
"Currently, APEX doesn't have a building workflow engine. I think that's the most important improvement that could be made at this point."
"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."
"The feature called "action chains" could use a bit of enhancement."
"The tool has minor bugs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is mid-range so is neither expensive nor cheap."
"I believe APEX comes bundled with the database, including autonomous database and other related database products, so the pricing is quite reasonable."
"The solution is moderately priced, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"If you have a license to Oracle database, you can access APEX."
"The product is completely free of cost."
"Oracle Express comes with the Oracle license, it is a bundle."
"Apex is not priced separately; instead, it is associated with the Oracle database. A free option for Oracle database and Apex can be downloaded and installed on this complimentary database version. This aligns with our current approach."
"The solution is free with your Oracle license or database and that is a good value."
"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
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
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
 

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: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.