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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

"If I have a database and therefore structured data, and I want to create an application to work with it, it's the quickest possible environment that I can do it in."
"What I like best about Oracle Application Express (APEX) is that it doesn't require hard coding for reporting and building applications. It's a GUI-based application builder that even end-users with little development and language knowledge can develop applications on Oracle Application Express (APEX). The software is also very user-friendly, which I find valuable."
"The most valuable features are security, stability, and ease of implementation."
"Personally, I would say that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a powerful tool...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"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."
"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 solution can build functionalities in a very short time."
"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."
"I really like the one-click publish feature in OutSystems. In other development tools/languages, it's not as easy. I also like how easily I can manage all my projects in one place."
"The product is mostly stable."
"The integration capabilities have benefited my customers by providing many connectors out of the box, allowing for the integration of external applications or business applications."
"Integrations with external systems with SOAP and REST are easy to implement off-the-shelf, but a developer can always implement specific libraries for other integrations."
"The most valuable feature of OutSystems is the drag and drop and toolchains in the small AI developing environment. Additionally, the documentation is helpful."
"Our previous solution had other overheads such as release management, version management, code management, monitoring, etc., all of which are built-in with OutSystems."
"It is a stable solution, and the initial setup is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it allows users to easily build applications."
 

Cons

"The product must provide more triggers."
"It can only be deployed on Oracle Database."
"It has a bit of a strict framework, you have to make all the time adjustments in their JavaScript. Another downside is that it's only available for Oracle databases."
"In terms of improvement, there should be a greater focus on AI and machine learning tools in Oracle APEX."
"You also need an APEX specialist for deployment because not many people use it."
"The solution has some stability problems that need to be resolved."
"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 collaboration and the workflow engine could use some improvement."
"Since we first started using OutSystems, they switched their language support from Java and .NET to .NET only, which was a bit of a surprise. Their language support could be better in this sense, although on our resource side it is now a bit more flexible."
"It's difficult to do the component version control. I would like them to add more studying materials."
"The product could be improved if there was a shortcut, or predefined, predictable templates provided."
"The documentation needs to be more robust."
"OutSystems could improve by being more like GitHub. It would be more helpful for us for division management and version control for our application."
"The tool needs to improve the efficiency of its widgets."
"The largest obstacle currently associated with OutSystems is its high cost and limited availability of skilled personnel. Despite being a rapid application development platform, having a highly skilled individual familiar with the platform can be much more beneficial than an inexperienced individual. Because there is a shortage of people with the necessary OutSystems skills, utilizing the platform can become expensive. This makes little sense, considering that a rapid application development platform should be accessible to the average person. However, having a highly skilled individual can greatly increase productivity, making the cost worthwhile."
"The solution's testing framework needs to be improved, and the workflow should be slightly more mature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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 pricing is mid-range so is neither expensive nor cheap."
"I believe that the solution's pricing is high."
"If you have a license to Oracle database, you can access APEX."
"I rate the product's price as ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"There are no additional costs with the standard license."
"OutSystems was open to a deal that worked for both sides."
"Pricing could be a concern. You have to pay yearly, even after you have completed your development."
"It is still very expensive, so small companies can’t generally afford it... Still, the time saving on development and delivery is worth the value."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is too expensive for small companies."
"I believe they are very strict with their pricing platforms, or the pricing policies, and it changes."
"I would rate it five to six out of ten."
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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.
881,346 professionals have used our research since 2012.