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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
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)
Oracle Visual Builder Cloud...
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
19th
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 January 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 6.1%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is 1.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle Application Express (APEX)6.1%
Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service1.3%
Other92.6%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

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.
Sherif Bashar - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Digital Solutions at Wind Integrated Solutions
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

"I like how we can actively develop and customize APEX because it's on the same database."
"I like the fact that it is natively integrated into the Oracle database."
"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."
"Oracle is always adding very important updates"
"The virtual patching feature is valuable."
"In our experience with Apex, we find that minimizing reliance on HTML and JavaScript is preferable, especially considering our background as seasoned programmers adept in PL/SQL. Incorporating HTML and JavaScript can pose challenges due to potential compatibility issues when updates are made to JavaScript. We also make use of JAPER report integration for generating reports, a practice integral to our reporting procedures."
"It has a well-designed architecture and is a simple 3rd party application."
"It's low code, or even no code. It's very flexible, allowing you to achieve what you want. You can customize applications with very little code, which is the best part."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"The format is not recognized by Microsoft Word products."
"You also need an APEX specialist for deployment because not many people use it."
"I don't like the URL syntax."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The product must provide more triggers."
"For beginners, understanding the installation process can be challenging because documentation is limited."
"Oracle is more of a database-oriented solution and is not very flexible in app development."
"One area for improvement in Oracle APEX is its workflow orchestration capabilities."
"The initial setup of Oracle VBCS can be challenging for those unfamiliar with DBS."
"The tool has minor bugs."
"There was an attempt to enable front-end development, it did what it intended to do, but the side effects were too bad."
"There are some bugs in VBCS."
"The feature called "action chains" could use a bit of enhancement."
"I would improve the license structure as, for some companies, it may seem a little bit expensive, depending on what they're doing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is moderately priced, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"Oracle Express comes with the Oracle license, it is a bundle."
"To my understanding, my organization is using the free version of Oracle Application Express (APEX), but I'm unsure because I haven't checked the pricing or licensing cost for it."
"The pricing is mid-range so is neither expensive nor cheap."
"The solution is free with your Oracle license or database and that is a good value."
"When buying the data license, APEX is included."
"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."
"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."
"Oracle Visual Builder Cloud Service is much too expensive."
"It's not expensive when you consider what it provides: low-code/no-code development, faster development time, good quality, and good stability."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise28
No data available
 

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...
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: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.