Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
MSP
Responsive with a straightforward setup and good online training
Pros and Cons
  • "There are free online learning and certifications if a user would like to learn more and better understand the solution."
  • "There's no direct tech support."

What is our primary use case?

In our biggest project to date, we replicated with somebody else. It took three years to do uncompleted, and we replicated it in about six months, to build an end-to-end application for customer use.

Traditionally, it's basically used for anything where there's not an out-of-the-box solution available. We don't recommend people use it for out-of-box solutions, as you're typically going to get better support and value by using something else. This, on the other hand, is something you can customize as you desire. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is just very quick and responsive. 

The initial setup is very straightforward, and those implementing the product do not have to be very technologically advanced in order to manage the process.

Their app store has been revamped in the last year, and it allows basically anybody who creates a widget or a module inside of it, to share it with the whole community. It's got a very, very robust shared community, which is amazing.

There are free online learning and certifications if a user would like to learn more and better understand the solution.

What needs improvement?

There's a new update coming soon, and that will be full of great items.

It's not so much that there's room for improvement on the product. They're creating some custom or some out-of-the-box modules that are going to be a part of it. In particular, they've got a workflow module that we could replicate-build ourselves, so to speak. It's probably a module that would take a couple of months, and then you can tweak it. To have that out-of-the-box potential for certain aspects is going to be really good. Having all that workflow prebuilt will be amazing.

There's no direct tech support. However, it's not the type of product you really would get tech support on. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been dealing with the solution for two years at this point.

Buyer's Guide
Mendix
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Mendix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any issues with it. Internally, we support a very large infrastructure and haven't headed any issues, and our three larger clients haven't had any issues at this point. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's only scalable vertically until you get to an enterprise license. Then, you have horizontal and vertical scalability. I'd recommend in general that people get an enterprise license.

We use it internally for maybe 400 of our employees, however, depending on what its use case is, it could be everybody. My largest one has 4,000 people they supply using it.

How are customer service and support?

The solution doesn't offer technical support at all. There is a community around it, however, and it is quite robust. That's where we do most of our learning. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution is very straightforward, due to the fact that it's all cloud-based infrastructure, and there's low-end stuff that a citizen developer could do pretty easily. For our onboarding, if we have new developers, people who were actually back with their schooling, compared to some other products, and typically they're on their own doing development within one month of starting training. This is compared to some of our more complex solutions. They may be shadowing and have oversight for six to seven months. The onboarding process to learn it is very, very quick. Therefore, a company shouldn't have any issues with the initial setup.

In terms of maintenance, we have a person on the team that creates a backlog of small work to do once a month, and that's it. There are no updates, or new deploying, or anything like that that is necessary.

What was our ROI?

In terms of ROI, the results totally depend on the client. With one particular client, it was much more about time. They had 4,000 people that have to submit documents, and they were submitting them in PDF, and having people transcribe them. They had no digital, and so they're changing everything. One of our other big ones, which is a public use case on Mendix's site, called Zmac, was shown last year, while the trucking industry was in decline, to have experienced over 20% growth. They had ROI in year one, for five years worth of costs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Their licensing costs are on their website. It's easy to find out the overall costs. That being said, I'm under the impression they're getting ready to have a massive overhaul to that, which is going to be a really good thing for the customers. 

From what I understand, they're getting ready to move to a lower platform cost, and it's going to be more focused on the users in terms of how the cost is. That should offer a lower entry threshold than it is currently. It may be as much as 50% lower, and the user base is what their charge will be based on.

What other advice do I have?

I work post-sales doing basically project management and solution design before it hits my developers.

We use a variety of different versions of the solution which we use. Mostly, it's version 8.3 on. That being said, if it's a new customer, they're going to have the most recent. If it's not, we update them as appropriate depending on how it's going to affect the existing environment. We're looking forward to 9.0, coming out this month actually. They're discussing a lot of good, new features we're excited about.

I'd recommend those considering the solution to take the classes, as they're worth it to make sure you understand the solution. It is all online learning. The other program we use with it has been extremely effective for us. There's a program called Datadog and it helps us monitor any kind of error logging at a much more granular level, which has been helpful in pinpointing anything that potentially comes up.

In general, on the platform overall, I would rate the solution at a ten out of ten, and on the pricing model, as it is now, at an eight out of ten. In general, for me, it falls currently at a nine out of ten. That may change once the pricing is adjusted in the near future.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Hardy-Jonck - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at AgileWorks Information Systems
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Low-code platform with good development tools
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the decorative style, model-driven development, and the fact that Mendix validates flows. Mendix is quick to develop because it's a low-code platform. It's very robust, flexible, open, and scalable. It's for a low-code customer. The tooling is also really good and it has mobile capabilities."
  • "An improvement I would like to see is the ability to version manage independent modules. Their version management for software repositories must be better. It's good and you can do it, but it needs work."

What is our primary use case?

We have very broad use cases for Mendix. We use it for internal applications and writing customer applications. We create advanced omnichannel telephony and CRM apps and even have Mendix apps that will be considered big-data apps, like our IoT solution in Agriculture. 

We use Mendix to solve classical business problems, Risk solutions in fintech, Call Center apps, data processing, and used it to solve product development challenges that work well with rapid application processing for new product development. We do both new product development and also full largescale production systems on Mendix. We have solutions deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

How has it helped my organization?

We respond much quicker to challenges, our clients are more profitable and our staff love the opportunity to model and not write boring repetitive code.

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features in Mendix is its declarative model-driven development capabilities. Declarative development is important for the future of business software development; it allows us to rapidly model solutions without having to tell the computer how to do the basics. It allows us to focus on rich business logic rather than spending time managing boring technical details as is required with classical imperative development.  

Mendix helps reduce the total cost of ownership: It validates workflows and system flows and this saves significant time when developing and maintaining apps. Refactoring is much easier in Mendix and done with more confidence. 

Mendix apps are relatively quick to develop because it is a low-code platform. It's very robust, flexible, open, and scalable. It's for a low-code savvy customer. The tooling is also really good and it has good mobile app development capabilities with a platform suited to integration and publishing app services. 

So in a nutshell, valuable features: Mendix declarative modelling, finely-grained security model, easy data modelling, easy app integration, tooling, validation, mobile development features, ease of debugging, extensibility and attention to detail of the Mendix core team. 

What needs improvement?

We would like to see is the ability to version manage modules and not just the app. We need finer-grained version management for software repositories. Version management is good but it needs more work.

Also, because of the licensing model, Mendix apps are too monolithic. It would be great to have a microservices licensing model that works well for microservices especially designed to work with Kafka, Google Pub/Sub and streaming technologies. 

We need much better code refactoring tools, like IntelliJ but for Mendix. For example, if I wanted to maintain all projects and refactor Domain model fields in bulk, it would be good to have intelligent renaming across the whole model with regular expression syntax. The modeller is too clickety-click.

The most important feature I'd like to see is support for is first-rate JSON Schema support and first-rate GraphQL support. Of course, the Modeller must run on Mac, not Windows. 

Lastly, the licensing model does not scale well with many users. This is a huge problem as apps that have many users become very expensive and can kill the business case. Mendix is reasonably negotiable but it's a pain to deal with the licensing for each new project.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Mendix for 10+ years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. This is low hassle, low maintenance technology. We write systems for clients on Mendix and the few support issues we've gotten have been quick to fix. The performance is excellent. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This product is scalable and it's relatively easy to scale. Because of its architecture, it can't scale like microservices that are designed for scaling across the globe, but Mendix has some horizontal and vertical scaling built in. It's not on the same level that you would get with a native cloud first node app. It's a little bit more limited, but there are still scaling options. 

How are customer service and support?

I would say they're good, but I've never encountered a software vendor with excellent support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We tried others and settled on Mendix.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple. It's not difficult to do yourself. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented through an in-house team. There are six people in my company working with Mendix. 

What was our ROI?

High, we do more with highly skilled engineers and love the speed of app development, especially the lower cost of maintaining apps over longer periods.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Mendix seems expensive. But with Mendix, one needs fewer developers to achieve high velocity, and if your environment can achieve that, then the total cost of ownership is fine. It's not cheap, though and not all projects will benefit unless one has a bulk licensing agreement. 

This product is licensed per application, per user. Mendix has other features you can access with a separate license, like Data Hub, but the base license has more than most people need. 

Mendix needs much better React component/widget writing compatibility. it is still more difficult than it should be to add your own components.

Lastly, Low Code Tools are weak at developing multi-tenant apps. One quickly loses the speed advantage and running many apps gets too expensive and a maintenance hassle as these apps tend to be monolithic, partly due to licensing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, Outsystems but we much preferred Mendix's non-code generating style.  Model Driven Development needs to run a model. We also did not like the licensing model of Outsystems.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this product a nine out of ten. If you consider adopting Mendix, rather build a new culture and a new team. Do not just try and use legacy software developers who are passionate about older technologies. Use Mendix adoption as an opportunity to integrate business and IT; build new teams that are supported by first-rate software engineers AND new business engineers who can focus on understanding both business and IT. This allows one to model the business, understand the business, and develop the right software. 

Mendix is excellent for innovation. Whenever one has an opportunity for new product development, it's an excellent choice.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Mendix
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Mendix. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Business Development Manager & Project manager at EGALiT
Real User
The development environment is model-driven, and our business engineers can make information models using it
Pros and Cons
  • "The development environment is model-driven. We can use the information from this for our business engineers to make the information models, and they can also execute the model."
  • "What is lacking is the support of higher level modeling features, like the modeling you do is relatively low level, yet it is still close to programming. We would like to see a more business-oriented modeling environment, like BPMN."

What is our primary use case?

We are an implementation partner with Mendix. We build both custom projects and solutions. One of the solutions that we have provided to our customers is an MDM solution that we were planning to set up as a semi-product which allows for some customization with each customer.

Mendix is a platform. All the solutions that we build, we build in the Mendix platform. We started using Mendix in 2012, and we founded our company in 2013. We are a very experienced Mendix team.

We have two use cases. 

  1. To build complete back-end solutions for smaller companies. They are complete back-end solutions and custom built for smaller companies.
  2. It is for larger enterprises and more for the innovative, differentiating application. So, custom built or semi-custom built innovative, differentiating capabilities on top of ERP and legacy systems. 

Both use cases are a used, and we also built solutions in different companies. So, we have some smaller customers where we do the entire IT with Mendix. In addition, we have some very large customers (enterprise customers), where Mendix is the preferred local platform for all custom tools and innovative applications.

How has it helped my organization?

We built our organization around its capability, so we saw the opportunity of Mendix. We saw how Mendix in the market at that time struggled with the right commercial model. So, we built our organization around the platform's capabilities. We have two business units:

  1. One unit does projects. That is the unit that does end-to-end projects for the customer. The customer, in this case, is the business who wants a cloud-based solution and doesn't care how it is done.
  2. The other service that we provide is in the Netherlands. Many customers who are adopting their own Mendix, low code teams. They need help and support with this. We provide, in a consulting services capacity, our experience to help them build their team. 

We do two things on this level. Many customers start with projects and end up building their own team. This is our progress as we see it right now in the market, at least in the Netherlands, as there is a huge demand for these type of services. It is actually more difficult to find qualified personnel than find customers at this point.

What is most valuable?

  1. The complete stack: You have a complete cloud operations, and everything is included. For every customer, wherever we go, we can provide a solution within a few days with a complete data environment in a very stable, high performance cloud. 
  2. The development environment is model-driven. We really like this because we can use the information from this for our business engineers to make the information models, and they can also execute the model.
  3. We do not need programmers anymore, so it is a small team of business engineers who design and build the application without us needing to program. That makes our teams four to six times more productive, but also a lot smaller with no overhead and very flexible. It is something, and not every Mendix partner does this. A lot of them have still use analysts and programmers in different roles, but we do not do this. I like that we use the platform on this level. We stick within the core of the platform, so we don't do anything with custom Java or custom JavaScript. 

What needs improvement?

Mendix is right now focusing on developer features while we would like to have more features for the information analyst. Mendix is not going this route because they clearly see the developer as their target group, while we like to see it as more of a tool for information analysts. 

What is lacking is the support of higher level modeling features, like the modeling you do is relatively low level, yet it is still close to programming. We would like to see a more business-oriented modeling environment, like BPMN. However, that is not the direction Mendix is going. We are developing our own intellectual property in this direction. Thus, we are building it ourselves.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is very good. The modeling environment has been very predictable since Mendix 5. Between versions 4 and 5, there was a big problem with them. Since Mendix 5 and Mendix 7, it has been very predictable. Every month, there is a new release and it has stable functionality, although it is not only the functionality. If you look at the cloud environment, it is very stable, especially since Mendix cloud is now run on Amazon. It has always been click and go, but it is even more impressive what they can do now. 

Their current announcement that they also run a SAP Cloud and IBM Cloud makes it even more powerful. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are able to run very high performance applications on very small Mendix app containers. That is because we design our solutions to be high performance from a design point of view. We have not used the Mendix horizontal and vertical scaling options that they provide. Therefore, I am not an experienced user with scalability, but I do know that we can make already quite high performance applications with a single app containers and they can be scaled vertically and horizontally. 

Mendix is quite powerful. There are some limitations in Mendix. On the database level, there are still some layers between Mendix and the database. This means that some actions are not efficient, which might seem to be, and they have designed now a stateless architecture which also put some limitations of speed if you use a single instance. However, the stateless architecture allows you to spread horizontally your load. So, it has benefits and drawbacks. In general, it is good enough for what Mendix is supposed to be used for. There have not been any projects where we could not do them because of performance reasons.

How are customer service and technical support?

We use technical support, for example, if there is a performance question, usually in the design phase. In the run time, we are so experienced in Mendix, having such high internal quality centers on what we want the applications to do when we stick within the core of the capabilities of Mendix, that we never contact support about this. In general, we are very infrequently calling support, maybe four times a year. So, we have some contact with support, but it is never about urgent issues. The experience that I have with that support is good, and usually the support engineers know what they are doing. So, no complaints about it.

Because we are an experienced partner, they know that question that we ask are relevant questions. I guess if you are an inexperienced user, and don't know how to ask questions to them, it could be different. However, we know exactly who to talk to and what to ask. As an experienced user, the experience might be different.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It is a little bit different because we have built our company around selling services from Mendix.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

From a commercial point of view, we would like them to change that they currently sell it as a platform, but as a customer you have to decide upfront the usage of the platform. We would like to have Mendix sell it as a pay as you go model: You pay for what you use, and you don't pay for what you don't use. Mendix is currently refusing to do that, but their competition does not do it as well.

I understand that it is a risk for them. I told the commercial management about it, but there are several customers of ours who say, "We would like to adopt this platform, but we want to grow into the platform." Mendix does this, as they have a custom pricing if you buy the platform for multiple years, then you can get discounts in the first years to grow into the platform. However, I would really like them to have an Amazon model, where you can use it and pay per minute or hour, per user, etc. That is not available at this moment. I would like it, but their competition, like Salesforce, does not offer it either. Therefore, there is no real pressure on them to change.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

  1. When we found that we also had the option to choose OutSystems, we chose Mendix for the same reason I always advise my customers: the platforms. Mendix and OutSystems are basically the same, but there are some differences. The main difference for us was Mendix is a Dutch company and has a very large ecosystem of partners. So that there is something to choose from with healthy competition. 
  2. Mendix has always been a more business-oriented platform than OutSystems. OutSystems is more targeted towards improving the developer productivity. Mendix is more about business IT alignment, and supporting the business. This is reflected in the functionality, and the way they build their solutions. Mendix is more like Apple. It is a one click, and everything worked, while OutSystems is more like Android. It is very competitive and great, but it has more technical capabilities and it is a little bit more complicated with too many features for business.

If you're looking for a model-driven low code platform, there are two worldwide leaders, like Mendix and OutSystems. You have some local products in the Netherlands, such as Betty Blocks, which are growing, but they are not as big as Mendix and OutSystems with national brand specific solutions. If you are looking for a global platform that is well established with the right reputation, Mendix and OutSystems are basically the ones to consider. If you are excluding model-driven as a criteria, then Salesforce is by far the largest. Salesforce is much larger than Mendix and OutSystems, but it is not model-driven. It depends whether you want model-driven or not.

Our shortlist was that it should be model-driven and provide all the infrastructure deployment, because we are not likely to hassle with the deployment, infrastructure, etc. Therefore, the main criteria were from a technical point of view:

  • Is it model driven?
  • Does it allow us to build like administrative applications based on databases?
  • What does both the solution provider offer in terms of deployment options and what are all the systems which are available that we have to deploy ourselves? 
  • Did we have to build our own cloud capabilities? We skipped this because it was too much work for us, and we did not want to build such an organization. Mendix provided us with the complete cloud, and we were happy with it.

What other advice do I have?

The learning curve for an experienced software engineer or information analyst, it is quite steep. If you do not have any of these backgrounds, it will take you somewhere between five to eight months to master the platform. It depends on your experience in Java programming or database programming, if you will go fast. If you do have experience in making functional technical designs of software languages, like UML and BPMN, you will learn it quickly. Therefore, it depends on your track record.

If you want to see what it is capable of doing, you have to do a project with it, end-to-end and not just looking at the technology. 

  • Do a project with the focus of learning, not the end result in mind, and learn from what you encounter. 
  • Do a project, not a proof of concept, which does not help. It does not give you the insights you need. 
  • Do a project, and it once you do the project, you have to do the second step, do multiple projects. If you have success with that, then go for platform. 
  • Do a project, but start it with one end-to-end project, which should be small. It should not be too big, maybe between 20 to 50 business days of work. So, it is sort of manageable. If it fails, it does not cost you too much to do a project, that's what it magnifies. 
  • If you have the resources to do a project with the two platforms, try them next to each other and see what the differences are.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementation partner.
PeerSpot user
MinhTran2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Architect at Kyanon Digital
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Useful for quick application building across multiple industries
Pros and Cons
  • "I find the fast development speed and low cost to be very valuable features of Mendix. It's a smart solution for busy developers when we need to apply new changes or fixes quickly. Mendix helps to save time and meet project deadlines faster."
  • "One thing I would like to improve is the support system offered by Mendix. It can sometimes take a while to get the help I need when I'm using Mendix."

What is our primary use case?

We use Mendix for client projects in the retail, e-commerce, and banking industry.

How has it helped my organization?

My team has ten developers, and for one solution, we require three to five developers.

Mendix is useful for various industries, such as retail, e-commerce, and banking. For example, we're currently using the solution for a payment app for retail. It can also be used to create a mobile banking app.

Mendix is a low-code platform, which means that it allows us to build applications quickly and with less coding. It also has various pre-built components and integrations, which can speed up the development process.

Furthermore, one of my team members has Mendix certification and uses it for marketing and sales purposes. The team is learning about how Mendix can be used for queries, which are currently at an intermediate level. Additionally, I have completed 55 queries in Mendix.

What is most valuable?

I find the fast development speed and low cost to be very valuable features of Mendix. It's a smart solution for busy developers when we need to apply new changes or fixes quickly. Mendix helps to save time and meet project deadlines faster.

What needs improvement?

One thing I would like to improve is the support system offered by Mendix. It can sometimes take a while to get the help I need when I'm using Mendix.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Mendix for a bit more than one year. We're using Mendix Eco System version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

I am satisfied with Mendix customer service and support. Although, sometimes, it takes a long time to respond.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

We had Mendix support, with a cycle of five deployments per night. Setting up the infrastructure took us about a week the first time, but it became easier and quicker afterwards. When we deploy for the second time, it only takes a fraction of the time compared to the initial deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We did not need any consistent support in deployment.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend it to others who are looking to start using it. Mendix is a great platform to use. The calls in Mendix are currently of high quality, and there are even some free apps available. I have used it in my previous projects, and it has been a reliable tool for development.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1128819 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Productivity software that facilitates software development and offers readily available components
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a development platform which assists in accelerating your developmental lifecycle. This is one of its most valuable features. This solution also offers a good set of components that are readily available."
  • "A constraint of Mendix is that you have to look for the required plugins which takes up development time. There are a limited number of Mendix experts in the market."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for e-services and for some of the critical applications like enterprise applications for safety department permit applications.

What is most valuable?

It is a development platform which assists in accelerating your developmental lifecycle. This is one of its most valuable features. This solution also offers a good set of components that are readily available. 

What needs improvement?

A constraint of Mendix is that you have to look for the required plugins which takes up development time. There are a limited number of Mendix experts in the market. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We use Kubernetes environment and the scalability of Mendix depends on this environment. 

How are customer service and support?

The customer support for this solution is good. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was fairly straightforward. The time it takes to complete the setup depends on an organization's internal requirements. The maintenance of Mendix is also straightforward butI would recommend using experienced resources to know Mendix. 

What about the implementation team?

This solution was implemented by an external consultant. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our team compared OutSystems with Mendix and confirmed that Mendix was the best solution for our business. 

What other advice do I have?

My recommendation would be if you are looking for a small e-services kind of applications and you need quick delivery, I would recommend Mendix or OutSystems rapid applications. If you have a complex business, I would recommend other programming platforms including Java, GT or .NET.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
CEO / Owner at Aelion - Netherlands
Real User
It is possible to create the same applications that more traditional platforms offer in a fraction of the time.

What is our primary use case?

Developing applications that focus on the business instead of just focusing on the technology. And by doing to achieving a short time to market and quick ROI.

How has it helped my organization?

It gave the organizations I worked for the ability to create far more complex applications with a smaller team and in a shorter time frame. When we brought in external auditors they even confirmed the fact that what we build would take at least 50% more resources to develop in for example Java or .Net. Also, the fact that we don't have to take care of the basics during development, means we can focus on the actual business process and how to make the product work for the business.

What is most valuable?

  • The speed and agility with which you can develop solutions with the Mendix platform
  • It is possible to create the same applications that more traditional platforms offer in a fraction of the time
  • You don't need to worry about the basics surrounding security, CRUD actions, integration, UX and many other things you need to create the same basics for when developing with traditional platforms

What needs improvement?

The document templates definitely need some love, they have been around for a while but no actual improvement have been done since they were released. At least not in terms of additional options like the web counterparts of the elements you have available have. Also, Mendix is even easy for non-developers to start developing apps with, however when the applications grows and gets more complex these type of users are not fully guided in making it as secure and performance as it should.

It would be great if the modeler could also start pointing in the right direction when it comes to that. Although Mendix did introduce the Mendix Application Quality Monitor which could help with this issue.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the past, I encountered scalability issues that caused stability issues. Mendix can scale to multiple application servers but at the time it could not scale to more database servers, the only solution was, to add more resources to the single available database server.

I do believe that Mendix is trying to solve this with HP Helion and Cloud Foundry solutions which are horizontal and vertical scalable. I however haven't had any experience with these platforms in combination with Mendix yet.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In the past, I encountered scalability issues that caused stability issues. Mendix can scale to multiple application servers but at the time it could not scale to more database servers, the only solution was, to add more resources to the single available database server.

I do believe that Mendix is trying to solve this with HP Helion and Cloud Foundry solutions which are horizontal and vertical scalable. I however haven't had any experience with these platforms in combination with Mendix yet.

How are customer service and technical support?

The level of direct customer service and technical support is great when you are a paying customer or a Mendix partner, if you are not the support is limited to the forum which is mostly run by community members, however even Mendix personnel will answer your questions.

So I would say it is alright. They have improved it a lot the last couple of years, and they continue to improve as their user base grows.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've developed applications with numerous products combined or stand alone: PHP, ColdFusion, Java, JavaScript (jQuery, Prototype, Vanilla), CSS2/3 and HTML4/5.

However not a specific platform like Mendix, the major difference is as I mentioned before the fact that you can fully focus on business process development instead of all the basic stuff like login, CRUD, etc. That's why my primary platform to develop with is currently Mendix.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is really easy all you need to do is create a Mendix account, create a project, fill in some basics for the project like the name, choose a base theme and then you are good to go. You will automatically get a sandbox environment connected to it, which is basically a free node in the cloud environment from Mendix to test and share your application with others. Using the Mendix Sprint environment you can also easily share the Mendix model with others to either develop or just review the application.

What about the implementation team?

I've worked at employers that where both the vendor partner team and client which used a vendor partner, currently I'm working on a project in which I'm the third party expert hired to implement the solution. My advice would be to always hire a Mendix partner or freelancer with a couple of years experience before you take over development. Starting the project is easy but it still takes some experience to really set a solid foundry if you look at the architecture of your application. This is something that Mendix Customer Satisfaction Managers can guide any new client with.

What was our ROI?

The fact that your development resources can be greatly reduced compared to those platforms will give you a better ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have personally not been directly involved with pricing/licensing for any of the projects I worked on. However, judging based on experience, I can say that Mendix is not more expensive than any serious competitor solution.

What other advice do I have?

Contact a Mendix partner or Mendix for an initial POC this can usually be done within a couple of days to see the power of the rapid development with the Mendix platform. If you are still not convinced or are a developer yourself check out the developer.mendix.com community and training options that are freely available to anyone that registers for free.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user414093 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It massively speeds up IT projects in comparison to more traditional approaches.

What is most valuable?

  1. The fact that my customer/client can actually understand my ‘code’ – it makes it very easy to discuss and improve newly built software
  2. The online collaboration environment included in the platform, which massively improves the client/software integrator partnership
  3. The speed it gives us when doing a project. It massively speeds up IT projects in comparison to more traditional approaches

How has it helped my organization?

It’s not so much my own organization, but the clients my organization works for. They see faster time to market for new software, improved maintainability, and higher user satisfaction as the main improvements.

What needs improvement?

UX/UI design is still the largest area that can be improved, or at least be made easier. Mendix have been making massive steps in this area since release 5.18 though, so that’s promising. Next to that the integration possibilities have been expanding but can always use more options.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for over four years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We had no issues deploying it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have had no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There have been no issues scaling it for our customer.

How are customer service and technical support?

Excellent. Mendix support is usually fast and very helpful. Next to that, also the user forum is very helpful.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I’ve used OutSystems in the past. We chose Mendix because the UI of the Modeling (Software Suite) environment is easier to use, and the online environment is much more advanced.

How was the initial setup?

Very straightforward from first version of your web-app to deployment.

What about the implementation team?

I work for a systems integrator that uses the vendors of the product to implement it for clients who don’t have an in-house team.

What other advice do I have?

Do the math, and take into account not just the money but also your user’s happiness and the ability to quickly respond to changing circumstances by changing your software.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're an implementation partner
PeerSpot user
Principal Consultant at Palmira
Real User
Has good integration and UI customization
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the integration and UI customization."
  • "There needs to be an increase in the number of the UI components."

What is our primary use case?

We do not use the solution, but manage Mendix's process. We are partnered with Mendix and implement it within the organization, something practiced with prevalence in the UAE. Those making use of the solution are happy with it. 

The Ministry of Digital Economy in Jordan, which is responsible for managing the service portfolio of the Jordanian government, is wholly based on our Mendix application.

How has it helped my organization?

I can tell you how Mendix has improved my organization by discussing the projects with which I am already working. The old service portfolio is based on a Mendix workflow and system.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the integration and UI customization.

What needs improvement?

While it is difficult for me to address which areas of the solution are in need of improvement, as I manage Mendix projects, but do not utilize them, I would point out the transformation of the BPM and the process with other applications. This is because the applications are conceptually what we need, as they concern the RPA Automation Anywhere and UiPath.

Mendix has the potential to redesign its process engine for compatibility with a BPMN tool without any further action being required, enabling seamless integration between the business processes design applications.

As mentioned, there needs to be an increase in the number of the UI components so that other platforms will not be used in place of the UI interface of Mendix, such as Angular.

Improvements should be made to the functionality to increase the number of UI components in the actual software. As such, we occasionally go outside the system to develop certain pages in React, Angular or Vue JS, which we then import to Mendix. This we do because of the limitation in the UI design, but it is not on par with what's happening, for example, with OutSystems or other tools.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. The most important entities utilize it, such as the Dubai Municipality in the United Arab Emirates and the Ministry of Digital Economy in Jordan. This has more than 5,000 services deployed in the system, around 2,000 of which utilize Mendix and OutSystems. We have had no complaints about stability, only of ordinary issues involving use of the system that entail errors or call for troubleshooting. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The Dubai Municipality makes use of Mendix, as well as five out of 40 ministries. They have transferred their core applications to Mendix in their entirety. The remainder are in a transitional phase and this should be completed throughout the entire government of Jordan within five to six years. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The maintenance contract between the entity and Mendix provides for multiple levels of support, similar to the circumstances existing with ARIS. As mentioned, I rate Mendix as an eight out of ten, because there occasionally occur delays in its adherence to the SLA. However, the solution's tech support tries to be helpful and responsive and to do so in a comparable manner. 

How was the initial setup?

Installing the solution took from five to 10 days to ensure proper integration with, say, the active directory and other tools for data migration.

We handled the deployment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing costs are similar to those for all other IT technology, but they vary by region. As such, the United States, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan all have disparate licensing costs, even when it comes to the partners involved. We, for example, are entitled to a 50 to 60 percent  discount on licensing costs, whereas Jordan may be entitled to one of 90 percent. This makes it challenging to properly appraise the cost. ARIS is similar. The average price varies according to region, Jordan being entitled to a 50 percent discount over that of the UAE.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Mendix's support is far superior to that of OutSystems and more competitively priced.

What other advice do I have?

While I can't say exactly which version of Mendix we are using, I can state that it is the latest one. 

The business analyst has a more important role than that of the developer in a Mendix project. He needs a proper understanding of how to design the Mendix process so it may be automatable and executable. The business analyst must be able to use a Mendix platform.

As Mendix needs to improve its product and support, I rate it as an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user