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Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs Salesforce Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 2025

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd)
Salesforce Platform
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
5th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (10th), Mobile Development Platforms (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 7.5%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Platform is 5.8%, up from 5.5% 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)7.5%
Salesforce Platform5.8%
Other86.7%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

Rodrigo-Mesquita - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sharmila-K - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration processes improve but scripting requires effort
The updates, pricing part, and upgrades to the products are some of the most valuable features with the Salesforce Platform.With the Salesforce Platform, I have minimal experience of approximately one and a half years. I get minimal exposure, once every three or two months, especially during holidays. The Salesforce Platform is connected to the cloud, which is beneficial. When it is integrated with different tools such as Microsoft BI Analytics, it helps us analyze much better. Currently, the integration itself is tricky as we have to use extensive scripting. It should be more of a plug-in and use solution. That is the only issue I see, but otherwise, I appreciate it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle APEX is its comprehensive set of features for creating user-friendly and visually appealing applications."
"Personally, I would say that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a powerful tool...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"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's fairly easy to make a user-friendly interface."
"Oracle APEX is very easy to use and comes with a lot of ready-made components that speed up the process of creating reports and dashboards."
"One standout feature of Oracle APEX is its seamless integration with backend procedures, allowing for quick updates without changing the front-end interface."
"It has a well-designed architecture and is a simple 3rd party application."
"The reporting tools are very solid."
"A very flexible solution."
"The queue management of the solution is its most valuable aspect."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its overall ability to manage everything, including the sales pipeline and quick creation of sales reports."
"It is a great platform. It's definitely an improvement from the GCP application that we were using previously."
"The solution can scale."
"It works beautifully. I haven't had any errors."
"It is a fairly useful and user-friendly tool for salespersons. It is very extensive and flexible. You can customize it for your needs, and you can use whatever you want. I like Salesforce."
 

Cons

"It would be highly beneficial if APEX were an all-in-one platform capable of handling all aspects of application development."
"Fixing bugs is difficult because of how the HTML code is generated. It is not always broadly compatible with browsers."
"Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement."
"Apex has effectively incorporated new market trends into its features. The platform's user-friendly nature is notable, guiding developers through the development process. While advanced customization of the user interface with HTML and CSS is possible, the out-of-the-box options often suffice, providing 80-90% of the required functionality. The IDE is commendable, yet an enhancement in the Page Designer to allow a real-time preview of layout changes would be beneficial. Currently, running the page is necessary to visualize layout adjustments, but an immediate preview during the design phase would be a valuable improvement."
"Some of the application interfaces of Oracle Application Express are not very attractive and could be improved."
"The product's stability has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Currently, APEX doesn't have a building workflow engine. I think that's the most important improvement that could be made at this point."
"It has been reported that the technology is very hard to learn, and the service is expensive."
"I think the search needs to be improved so as to allow for a broader keyword search."
"The previous version had a complicated interface where multiple pages and data entries were required, which was not pleasant for sales teams or business users."
"The interface could be more user-friendly and offer more customization."
"Instead of creating our own template, if we had some nice templates that we could pick up - if there were some Microsoft Word templates or Microsoft Excel templates in a repository in Salesforce, that would be great."
"We have a lot of strategic accounts and large accounts that are tied with all the growth and acquisitions across North America, being able to tag parent-child accounts in an easier fashion would be better. This is the biggest pain point is associating parent to child and being able to align and manage it better. Overall a better parent-child relationship between accounts would be a benefit."
"Their reporting needs to be improved. It should be easier. I don't know how, but it needs to be easier."
"Simplification is something it needs. Every time you get the engineers involved, they make things a little too complicated. It might be more beneficial to simplify everything for quick and easy reference."
"Better flexibility in editing emails created from templates would be great, and being able to add hyperlinks in emails for scheduling meetings would allow us to automate more."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is free with the Oracle Database license."
"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."
"The solution is cheap. It's a free solution. I rate the solution's pricing a six or seven out of ten."
"I do not think this would be an ideal option for a small sized company or a startup when considering the salary requirements for Oracle DBA'a and developers."
"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."
"It is expensive, but I don't know what the licensing cost is."
"I believe that the solution's pricing is high."
"If you have a license to Oracle database, you can access APEX."
"It is very expensive. Its licensing is on a monthly basis."
"I haven't had to buy Salesforce, however, I have heard it's $1500 a user."
"I don't know anything about its cost, but I'm sure it has got a nice little price tag that goes along with it."
"It is an expensive program."
"Pricing and license differ and depend on how much license you are purchasing from them."
"The cost of this solution depends on negotiations. It is somewhere between expensive and reasonable. There is always additional costs for consulting services. It's the kind of solution that requires consulting, but it is not a licensing cost. It is a consulting cost. It is CAPEX versus OPEX."
"Pricing for the Salesforce Platform is too expensive."
"The solution is fairly priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise38
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Application Express (APEX)?
I consider Oracle Application Express (APEX) to be good value for the money because it has infinite quality for money since it's included in any Oracle database license. It's free once you have the...
What needs improvement with Oracle Application Express (APEX)?
One of the things that could be done to improve Oracle Application Express (APEX) is if Oracle decided to open it up to other databases. It needs to be an enterprise database; therefore, it needs t...
How would you choose between Microsoft PowerApps and Salesforce Platform?
I think it depends on your use case. If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise products, PowerApps will work better in your environment. Similarly, if you have a Salesforce integration in pla...
How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?
Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of application that you are trying to use the platform to build. Organizations tha...
Do you build applications using low-code or pro-code builders on Salesforce Platform?
At my organization, we have only used Salesforce Platform's low-code builder. The reason for this is not because we do not like the pro-code option, but because we do not see the need of using it, ...
 

Also Known As

Oracle APEX
Salesforce1, Force.com, Salesforce App Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
ADP
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. Salesforce Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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