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Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs OutSystems 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
3rd
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd)
OutSystems
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
4th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Low-Code Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 5.2%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OutSystems is 4.8%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Low-Code Development Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
OutSystems4.8%
Oracle Application Express (APEX)5.2%
Other90.0%
Low-Code Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Rodrigo-Mesquita - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software developer at QV Systems
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.
MA
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
OutSystems facilitates rapid application development and effective project management
What I find valuable about OutSystems is that it has a very good learning curve for developers. Within two weeks, we can gain knowledge in OutSystems, and it is very easy to learn. With my background being .NET, OutSystems is straightforward to learn, which is beneficial. Developing applications in OutSystems is good, and the flexibility allowed by OutSystems for application development is excellent compared to my experiences with other low-code technologies, where I've faced some challenges. The clean separation of concerns in the architecture provided by OutSystems is a key benefit compared to other platforms. OutSystems integrates with our existing tech infrastructure and provides flexible integration. If we want to integrate with third-party services, OutSystems has SOAP and RESTful services that allow us to consume external services, integrate with external databases such as SQL or Oracle, and includes integration studio for writing custom .NET code. After developing a .NET component, we can reference it in service studio, creating a reference file that makes integration easy. OutSystems officially supports various integrations and also includes an API discovery tool for consuming and exposing services, providing a lot of information about incoming URLs, similar to how we use Postman.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It helps us create web pages quickly."
"With only a browser, it is very easy to develop in a web environment."
"This is a good application for quickly creating public applications."
"Oracle APEX improved our organization by making it possible for us to implement agile project development."
"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."
"What's most valuable in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is its secure coding functionality, and the solution also has good features."
"One standout feature of Oracle APEX is its seamless integration with backend procedures, allowing for quick updates without changing the front-end interface."
"You can customize the solution to create a console where only business users can access and download files if they want to extract the data."
"The product is mostly stable."
"I find it to be a genuinely cool and effective platform for my development needs."
"It is a scalable solution...The initial setup of OutSystems is easy."
"The most valuable feature of OutSystems with discipline and the development processes. Instead of each developer doing tasks on their own with their own approach, et cetera, the solution would help bring some organization to the development process."
"Once built, web/mobile components can be reused in all new developments. In addition, the OutSystems Forge is very useful. We can exchange components and even already-built applications, reducing costs to build specific solutions."
"Our previous solution had other overheads such as release management, version management, code management, monitoring, etc., all of which are built-in with OutSystems."
"The most important features of this tool are its visual modeling capabilities and drag and drop functionality. You can see what you are coding which makes it easy to understand and maintain. They have also created a big revolution in digital transformation by introducing native mobile app development under the same IDE."
"One of the valuable features of OutSystems is the very small lead time for the delivery of projects."
 

Cons

"The migration process is difficult in Oracle Application Express."
"The solution does not include a default or custom template like other products."
"The solution could provide more AI functionalities or AI assistance."
"There is a bit of a learning curve involved when first using the solution."
"Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement."
"For beginners, understanding the installation process can be challenging because documentation is limited."
"Regarding features, the solution lacks the ability to integrate with different databases. Also, I feel that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is exclusively designed for other Oracle tools."
"Being able to only design with HTML and CSS can be limiting as to what can be accomplished."
"In my opinion, the support and the pricing could be better."
"There are not enough resources on the market."
"The product could benefit from improved connectors to integrate with outside platforms."
"I'd like to see AI features integrated into the solution."
"I think OutSystems needs to improve in many areas. First, sometimes Service Studio becomes really slow and even hangs for long periods. Also, if I have not published my module in some time, and some kind of Service Studio exception occurs, I lose my work."
"While I can't speak to the market impact, as a developer, I've seen significant reductions in development time across different versions of our applications. One area for improvement would be the UI controls in Service Studio. Sometimes, controls don't appear in the IDE, requiring us to check them in the web browser instead. Overall, our experience with OutSystems has been positive, though improvements in UI development would be welcomed."
"When shared extensions are updated, all the applications are redeployed."
"The documentation needs to be more robust."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"APEX itslelf is a free product, but you will need to license peripheral components."
"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."
"If you have a license to Oracle database, you can access APEX."
"Oracle Express comes with the Oracle license, it is a bundle."
"I believe APEX comes bundled with the database, including autonomous database and other related database products, so the pricing is quite reasonable."
"We have an Oracle basic product license, and then we can use Oracle APEX for free. We have many licenses for Oracle for approximately 20 processors."
"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."
"You should contact OutSystems for more details but my opinion is that it is not for small business budgets."
"The subscription is billed on a yearly basis."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to OutSystems. It is an expensive product."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is too expensive for small companies."
"OutSystems is an expensive product. My company has to make monthly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"I think the pricing for OutSystems is comparable with similar solutions. I would place it somewhere in the middle. We pay for the bundle and don't pay anything extra in terms of licensing and other fees."
"There are no additional costs with the standard license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Oracle Application Express (APEX)?
I have only tried it with an Oracle database, not with other databases. For beginners, understanding the installation process can be challenging because documentation is limited. It is hard to unde...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
What industries do you think OutSystems is most useful for?
I cannot really name an industry in which OutSystems cannot be beneficial. Who does not want to make top-notch applications that work in no time? And OutsyStems does exactly that. The low-code plat...
How did you decide which OutSystems edition was the best one for you?
We started using OutSystems fairly recently, so we are still on the free version of it. My company is still testing how we like the platform, but so far, we have been satisfied with it and will li...
 

Also Known As

Oracle APEX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
Randstad, Warner Brothers, HP, Intel, ING, Banco Popular, Thrivent Financial, Bacardi, Kent State University, Bacardi, FICO, ING, Vodafone, AbbVie, Estafeta, Siemens, Vopak
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. OutSystems and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,565 professionals have used our research since 2012.