Mendix is a low code platform-as-a-service offering with mobile and social extensions. Mendix was acquired by Siemens August 2018.
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Oracle APEX
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Oracle APEX (or Oracle Application Express) is an online low-code application builder that allows users to develop a database-drive application, customize the application's UI, and then give their users access to the application via URL. Oracle APEX includes a suite of pre-built productivity applications and examples, such as a Survey Builder, Bug Tracking, P-Track project management, etc
I think it's well suited if you have data available and you want to create customized solutions for different types of users. Mendix is very good at doing that. It allows you to do it very easily. So those are good use cases.
It is appropriate for database application development supporting data driven processes, online transaction processing, BI/reports/analytics ... for addressing about any business data processing need I can think of. Oracle Application Express is fantastic for creating beautiful rich user interfaces with support for all major browsers rendering well on a range of devices. It is less appropriate for applications requiring native low level access to device peripherals and is less appropriate for applications that must execute offline without network/internet connection to supporting application and database servers.
For complex APEX applications you need to be a pro expert in PL/SQL
Debugging in APEX can be complicated if there is a logical error. Syntax errors will end up shown as ORA errors
Lack of designer interface. Even though you are designing a form you need to do it by means of APEX interface using a series of steps, no UI for design
Oracle specific not applicable for other databases
I felt very comfortable using Oracle Application Express from the start. I designed my data model and quickly developed the basic CRUD pages for master tables. Then I designed the main functionality and was able to test and deploy it in a couple of days work. I will probably share the app with other members of the team and continue adding some features in the short term.
Drawing from my hands-on experience with Mendix, I can confidently state that the platform aptly fulfills our needs for web application development. Mendix stands out by providing a marketplace replete with pre-built templates and widgets. This feature empowers users to leverage readily available components, hastening the development process and contributing to an enhanced overall usability of the platform.
Because it's very easy to develop, fast, secure, has a lot of features. It's like a prototyping tool such as figma, but it can be used as a real product. Dynamic action, plugin, rest api, minimize a lot of coding, a lot of templates, PWA, really bring Oracle APEX functionality to be able to solve most common internal users pain points.
I think their support system is really professional. They answer question quickly and accurately. They have a ticket system that allows to track the current status of a request. The only point for imporvement is a way for me to postpone an answer. Tickets get closed automatically after some time. I feel that the user should have the option to change to an on hold status, allowing for more time to respond to a ticket.
Very active and knowledgeable community support includes quick and helpful responses from the Oracle employees on the product development team. I've never had to raise an official support request - everything is dealt with via forums and user groups - or via direct emails. The supposrt commuinty is one of the great things about Apex.
Using it on the cloud is really simple, the entire process of configuring and provisioning an Oracle Database takes only a few minutes (less than 10) and then Oracle APEX is already deployed on the database, so you just have to start using it. I would strongly recommend using APEX on Oracle Cloud Free Tier.
Because most of our apps work closely with our main system (ERP) and other tools, we went with Mendix. It's good at easily connecting with lots of different systems, which is exactly what we need. Another thing we like about it is that it can handle growth well, and its pricing is straightforward and easy to understand.
Oracle APEX and Oracle Visual Builder are both low-code development platforms within the Oracle ecosystem, but they serve different purposes. Oracle APEX is more suited for the people who are familiar with SQL, PLSQL. It provides rapid application development features based on data residing in Oracle database. It's a low code platform and best suited for web based applications/extensions based on Oracle DB that may use REST APIs and other web services. It also provides mobile application support. Oracle Visual Builder is best suited for web applications based on Oracle Cloud services. It utilizes javascript based drag-drop UI builder. It's very deeply integrated with Oracle Fusion Cloud platform.
Without Mendix we could not have been where we are now. A development platform as Mendix can make the difference in a constantly changing environment.
Upgrading to newer versions of Mendix is a breeze when you stay within a main version (e.g. M6.x to Mx6.x+1) and even between versions (Mx5 to Mx6) most of the time it is no problem at all and there are only minor changes needed to upgrade.
Learning Mendix is simple. Just start playing with it and see for yourself how easy it is and feel the joy of developing applications.
It has increased our development output over Forms greatly. For instance, when starting at my current company, I was able to replace our aging ASP Intranet site within 4 months when our IT manager had budgeted over a year for the task.
We've been able to standardize under one technology, incorporating previously unsupportable disparate systems under one roof.
It's free with an Oracle Database so the only investment was our time, something we now have more of thanks to Application Express.
