Oracle Application Express (APEX) Reviews

We have several projects with 200 to 300 users. 

It is used by developers, building applications for people who want to track things in spreadsheets.

The most valuable part of this solution is the database design features. We are able to create tables and prototypes for people during design meetings.

The use of the platform seems straightforward.

It's easy to use.

I like the way that it automatically goes into the spreadsheets and the users can deal with it.

There is not a lot of Wiki help or in Google, but there is some.

I have been working with Oracle Application Express (APEX) for a year.

We are still on version 5.1. We are trying to upgrade and move to the cloud.

It seems pretty stable.

This is an area of concern, as we are not sure. We have not explored its scalability.

We have the source code in the database and also produce the forms at the same time.

I don't believe that it is a problem. In most of our use cases, we are either going to have small amounts of people and small amounts of data. 

We have many different teams using it in different areas. For example, we have a big glassware ordering team that uses it, a national management team that uses it to schedule groups and managing programs or agricultural programs. There are nine or ten different teams.

I was not a part of the installation, but it is straightforward when deploying the updates.

We have a team of three or four developers and one admin to maintain this solution.

There is a trial version available that can be used free of charge.

I would suggest trying it for free on the web to see how well it works. You start with the free version, which is version 5.,1 and it's really good. Once you download it and implement it, you have the newest version.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I use the solution for creating a lot of applications and functions. In my company, we need a lot of forms, a lot of queries and a lot of reports, and I must develop these things very fast. Oracle APEX makes it very easy to do fast development. For example, I can quickly build a financial report, a product report and I can use it for quickly creating approval workflows. Oracle APEX helps a great deal with these tasks.

I started to develop all of the reports my company needs in Oracle APEX. Because the APEX product has a lot of features like automating chart and graph creation, depending on what you want to do, you can easily assemble reports. Another thing that is very helpful is the easy creation of forms for approval and approval workflows. For example, when you must get approval from a manager something, you can easily create the form and the manager can receive it a mobile device and you can get approval for anything quickly. It is helpful for speeding along the process of development.

The first feature that I think is very important is that the product is able to safely deploy on the web. You can develop any application and you can share it on the web without any installation by the end client. The second-best option in Oracle APEX is that it is very easy and very fast. You can quickly create forms and reports and in the reports feature there are a lot of options to help complete tasks. In some ways, it is the same as in Microsoft Excel. You can create charts or create almost anything that has the same features as Excel and it will be immediately available for the end client to use it.

In APEX, they changed the layout which is good because in earlier versions it was a little difficult. In Oracle APEX 18 and 19 it is very much improved and I think it is much better for the improvements. Things are easier to use. For example, when I want to change a form field, form button and anything else on a form, the layout of the product now makes it easier. They could continue to make improvements like this.

I think I only have one problem that I can think of with Oracle APEX in the layout. I can create a cool and beautiful layout. But there are times I want to change something, but I only can use CSS and HTML. Sometimes this makes it so I am not able to accomplish what I want exactly. I think it is better to keep changes to the layout in Oracle APEX only, not use any additional things because something might go wrong. It would be nice if APEX supported Java and everything sold with Java capability.

We don't need to use the Oracle technical support because there is a lot of good information in the Oracle APEX forum. We can use the area to resolve the problems that we run into and there is no need to connect to the technical support and wait for a response.

To learn more about APEX, I use websites, a lot of forums and books. I have a lot of books on the internet and I read and use them. On YouTube, there are a lot of videos for learning about Oracle APEX and other Oracle products. It is a good resource.

I remember the first installation and that time the installation was a little difficult and maybe even very complex. But after maybe 10 or 15 installations now, it is very easy because I know the product better. After gaining some experience, it is very easy.

What was a little difficult the first time is that you must create the network on the database. You must create a different tablespace. After installation, you must use the WebLogic server to launch Oracle APEX form. Then you set the web service and then create WebLogic services. There are a lot of steps there and it is a little different and a bit difficult when you have not had the experience.

When creating projects it might take five or six months for a big production. But I have also completed some products in only two weeks of development.

It is very different for different projects. The project that took only two weeks for developing was because of the size of the project. It was small and I only had five or six forms to build. On the big project that took six months for development, it was because there were a lot of forms, a lot of objects and the project was a lot more complicated.

We are doing all the deployment and deployment on our own. I have a team in my company of four people who are experts in Oracle APEX and we help each other. We don't need to seek outside the company.

Even with four in the team, a small project it could be that one person is enough to complete it. Two different projects will not be the same. In my company, I am involved with different departments. I have a database department and development department. I'm in the development department and the use of resources for big projects will depend what has to be done and what expertise is needed. In one big project, I used a five-person team and also needed two DBAs to help them.

In my country I don't pay any license fees for Oracle APEX. Oracle APEX is a free license, but only Oracle APEX. The database and other products you need to go with it have a licensing fee.

As far as additional costs, there are a lot of patches that we needed on the database and I think a lot of additional costs for peripheral things.

I think it's a very good solution for developing web applications. It's very easy to expand the web application and have strong security in the functionality and availability on the Oracle APEX. I think if some company chooses Oracle APEX as a solution, it's a better base for any web development.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate APEX as absolutely a 10. When I started to work in my company they solved a lot of problems for creating a small application, a small form for reporting for anything by using Oracle APEX. Now that I use Oracle APEX I think it is the best solution for my development.

In some cases, it is a difficult tool. However, we have found that Oracle is more of a database and not a good tool for application development. As a result, we are currently facing some challenges, and we have not received enough help from the community. We are working hard to find solutions.

We had developed a CRM for the public and companies, and we were facing a few problems. The first problem was encrypting the customer's data so that it could not be seen. The second problem was integration, which was not as easy as Salesforce, even though we are also a partner of Salesforce. Salesforce is much easier to integrate compared to Oracle APEX. And the third challenge we faced was with the UI.

These are some of the challenges I am currently facing. We have been investing a lot of time and money into Oracle Apex. However, we are facing difficulties in integrating it with third-party applications. For example, if we want to integrate a payment gateway or accounting tool like Zero or QuickBooks. We are struggling to find a solution to this. Additionally, we want to integrate AI-based chatbots that can accept and create records through voice commands. We were considering working with Oracle APEX, but we may not be able to test it.

Databases are the most valuable feature in Oracle APEX for me. The database is super easy to use for creating tables.

The most important thing, in my opinion, is that it should allow end-users to create their own custom fields. For example, if you are my customer and you want to create custom fields, you should be able to do that yourself.

Secondly, it should be easy to map fields with other objects like CRM. If you are creating custom fields in the lead and want to create a few custom fields going further on the account contact opportunity, the end customer should be able to do this themselves rather than depending on us every time.

In the next release, we would like to see easy integration with third-party applications. Currently, Oracle is lacking big time in the marketplace. If you look at Salesforce, they have more than four thousand applications that you can easily download and configure with their platform. On the other hand, Oracle Apex has a limited marketplace, with only a few companies offering basic applications. Moreover, the existing marketplace applications are not fancy or AI-based. AI is a big thing, and Oracle is currently working on it.

I have been using this solution for three years. We are using version 22.5.

It is a stable solution. I would rate the stability a seven out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Oracle APEX a four out of ten. Oracle is more of a database-oriented solution and is not very flexible in app development.

We have only received support from MaxApex people, who have been pretty helpful. Sometimes we get stuck with configuration issues, and they advise us on how to resolve them. They also showed us how to encrypt our data. However, if Oracle APEX has a professional community, it would be great to get more help because no company in the world has a UI like the one we have in our CRM.

We haven't received any support from Oracle. We've only received support from MaxApex.

We used Salesforce before. However, we switched to Oracle Application Express because it's not user-based but rather database-oriented. With it, we can create users and set prices based on our preferences rather than being limited by Salesforce's CRM options. Someone from an Oracle background suggested we try it out during our initial phase, and it was super easy for us to create pages, layouts, and fields. However, we need help as we move forward.

The initial setup was straightforward. However, as we started doing more development work, we faced a lot of challenges. I rate the initial setup at eight on a scale of one to ten.

Down the road, at a later stage, I would rate it a two or three at maximum. The initial setup was easy, but as the complexity of the project increased, we encountered several difficulties. Currently, we only have two people who take care of maintenance and development. We have slowed down our development since we have been doing this for the past three years.

The deployment was done in-house since we have our own team of developers who took care of it. The deployment didn't take much time because MaxApex was really good, and they helped us in different areas. We have deployed it in the cloud version and used MaxApex as our cloud provider. We contacted MaxApex, and they provided us with enough space on the cloud. The rest of the deployment was handled by our technical team. Moreover, we only needed two experienced people who help us deploy on the cloud.

I would rate it around an eight in terms of price, with one being low and ten being high.

We only tried Salesforce. Salesforce has a platform called Force.com, but there was a limitation on the number of objects we could create. If we had to create more than ten objects, Salesforce would start charging twenty-five dollars per user per month. If we wanted to create an unlimited number of objects, Salesforce would charge a hundred dollars per user per month. As we were targeting a market with customers who may not have a big budget, we were trying to find a more cost-effective solution. So we were looking for a more affordable and cost-effective solution for these customers.

I would rate this product as a five out of ten, right in the middle. Number one, it is easy to scale for simple matters. However, when it comes to complex development, it can be challenging and time-consuming.

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is being used in customer companies. My company is a consultant for the solution.

What's most valuable in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is its secure coding functionality, and the solution also has good features.

I've experienced some difficulties when using Oracle Application Express (APEX), particularly when I'm designing forms. For example, when I design a form, I add buttons and controls, but I'm unable to visualize how it'll look unless I run it. You want to design and do things your way, but if you don't have much experience, then you'll find that designing in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a little complicated. This won't be a problem with anyone more experienced, though.

If I wanted to create my design, for example, a different table format or some background images, it becomes a problem, and this is an area for improvement in Oracle Application Express (APEX). Designing should be easier, even for less experienced users.

An additional feature I'd like to see in Oracle Application Express (APEX) is more plugins, particularly a repository that contains a lot of plugins, so you can go to that repository and download whichever you like and use it or add it to your project. Right now, I create my plugins, so it would be helpful if Oracle Application Express (APEX) has a repository of plugins people can use, download from anywhere in the world, and integrate into projects.

I've worked with Oracle Application Express (APEX) for the new project for the last three months. I  work in DevOps, and my team is currently going through the new release, version 21.1, and focusing on the new BPM and also a lot of other upgrades.

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is stable, but twice I faced JavaScript errors when I used the sample application. JavaScript normally works, but when I do a lot of exhaustive usage of the grid, controls, and sorting, the solution hangs or becomes stuck. It won't do anything unless you refresh the page, so I have to refresh the entire page, then restart it. I have to reset Oracle Application Express (APEX).

Oracle Application Express (APEX) is scalable and you can grow it, but its UI gets a little bit complicated. The solution is comparable to Visual Studio and Eclipse, where you don't need to install anything because you can just use it on a browser, but if you're into enterprise-level applications or higher-level applications, you have to look at the bigger picture, and this means that if Oracle Application Express (APEX) has a studio or proper ID'ing, it can go huge potentially.

I didn't contact technical support that much because, in the last three months, my team handled issues on its own. Right now, there's no need for technical support for Oracle Application Express (APEX), but soon, my team might need to contact support.

The initial setup for Oracle Application Express (APEX) was very straightforward. I didn't find any problems with setting it up.

I worked on other .NET-focused solutions as well as JAVA-focused solutions, and I'd recommend Oracle Application Express (APEX) for small-scale projects. It's okay for the enterprise level or if you want to develop big applications, but it could be very difficult, though I didn't explore the solution much, I feel that for big applications or enterprise applications, it could be a little challenging.

Oracle Application Express (APEX) can be suitable for enterprise-level applications, but that would require a lot of work and a lot of effort to develop and maintain the applications. The solution has some cool features, but some features could be a bit complicated. The debugging is cool because you just click on the page and directly edit a component on it.

I'm not a partner of Oracle Application Express (APEX). I work in a company that uses Oracle products.

As Oracle Application Express (APEX) seems to be a good solution, I'd rate it seven out of ten. It has some issues that, if fixed, would make it better.

We use the product for customizing applications for our organization. We use it for legal affairs, customized reporting, and KPIs.

The product is easy to use. It accelerates development, and it is powerful. The report gives all the insights we need within a few steps.

The product must improve the transaction features. It is difficult to integrate the solution into other databases. It is a data-driven tool. It can only be deployed on Oracle Database.

I have been using the solution for five years.

The tool is very stable. We have been using some applications for five years without any serious issues. The tool is stable even as the data grows.

The tool is scalable. We have around 40 users in the organization. Sometimes, the number of users might reach 60, depending on the modules.

The community is very helpful. We do not raise many tickets to Oracle because the community solves most issues.

The initial setup is very straightforward.

The deployment took us one to two hours. If you already have Oracle installed, it will save you time. We have to run some files related to the product and store them in Oracle Database. Then, we can deploy and configure it with the application setup. We can use open-source platforms like Apache Tomcat or GlassFish. We need a solution architect and two developers for deployment and maintenance.

The product is completely free of cost. We have to pay for Oracle Database. Some people use Oracle Database Express Edition, which is free. They run the transactions through APIs.

The solution is directly connected with Oracle Database. Without Oracle Database, we can't develop it. I fully recommend the solution to users who have Oracle Database. We can use the solution for free if we have access to Oracle Database. It also covers some enterprise features. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We use the solution to build and customize applications for our clients. We use it internally and for external clients.

The solution can build functionalities in a very short time. It is web-based. The tool contains a set of reports for managing databases. We have integrated the product with SAP and MySQL databases. The integration is productive.

The grid reports contain a lot of bugs. The dynamic reports must contain drill-down features. It will be easy to use the reports with such features. Microsoft, SAP, and QlikView provide such functionalities.

I have been using the solution for ten years.

The tool is very stable. I rate the product’s stability a ten out of ten. We had a problem with the database that interrupted our work, but Oracle Application Express did not face any issues. We were concerned that the application would crash, but it didn’t happen. The tool is quite reliable.

I rate the product’s scalability a ten out of ten. All the new versions maintain the tool's compatibility and have all the functionalities present in the previous version. We have ten customers. Our customers are small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses.

The support is very good. The team provides quick responses and resolves our issues.

Positive

It is very easy to install the tool. I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The product can be deployed on Oracle’s cloud and on-premises. The deployment can be done within eight hours. To deploy the tool, we install the database object, forms, and reports. The deployment can be long or short, depending on the number of objects. We cannot install the tool without an Oracle Database license.

If the product is installed on the cloud, the support is included in the license we pay. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The tool is free with the Oracle Database license. We cannot use it without the Oracle Database license.

I am an integrator. People who want to use the tool must use structured programming. The code must be structured and disciplined. I recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

I use the solution for rapid application development.

The product is fast. It takes less time to go from development to production. It takes just a few minutes. Progressive Web Apps is the best feature of the product. It is helpful both on the cloud and on our mobile devices. The low code aspect of the solution has improved our productivity significantly. The security features have helped our applications to be secure from all dimensions.

There are not many triggers available. The product must provide more triggers.

I have been using the solution for six years.

We had issues with stability earlier when we were using the 19th edition. Now, we are using 23. It is far better than 19. Now, the product is stable. I rate the stability a seven out of ten.

We have 3000 users in our organization. The product is scalable. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The product was easy to deploy.

I rate the pricing a three out of ten. The tool is not expensive.

Earlier, we were using Oracle applications. Now, we are using APEX. I will recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Our business applications include healthcare, administrative, and planning tools. The environment consists of on-premise databases with an Oracle ORDS Tomcat stack and other JavaScript utilities on top of Linux Virtual Machines. There are legacy solutions, such as Oracle 11 with APEX 5.1 and Oracle 19 with APEX 20. These solutions have proven to be quite stable, but you need to do proper planning and profiling of heavy database transactions for more significant queries and heavy transaction processing.

Oracle APEX has proven to be a solid "low-code" solution that works quite well for simple and complex scenarios of data-intensive applications. Integrating the tool with the robust underlying Oracle Database allows a team to quickly create and deploy functionality iteratively. Running the tool on top of Linux-based virtual machines can slow things down, but the work gets done, and using the Oracle XE editions for some clients has been an adequate solution for POCs or even small non-critical production apps.

Oracle APEX's reporting features are simple yet powerful. The ability to quickly create CRUD screens has simplified many RAD discovery processes, while the APEX environment allows the product owners and dev teams to quickly understand the complex solutions and employ usage statistics to identify areas requiring improvement. The option to add external JavaScript tools in screen development enables the development of complicated mobile or web usage scenarios in rare cases where the APEX UX  is not enough.

Oracle should implement vertical and horizontal data segmentation in APEX's security framework, so Dev teams don't need to do any heavy lifting in the APEX screens. This is a common issue in enterprise apps. It would be nice to seamlessly integrate Git repositories into the development process since the current solution can result in overlapping work or an eventual overwrite. The provided example apps are great, but they could benefit from some added documentation in the "explanation screens".

I've been using Oracle APEX since 2006.

Oracle Apex is stable.

Oracle Apex scales well, but you need a good admin who knows how to work with DBA and Linux.

Oracle support has room for improvement.

Neutral

Setting up APEX requires Oracle and Linux admin experience.

We implemented APEX with an in-house team.

APEX is free, but Oracle Database is not.

I rate Oracle APEX eight out of 10. It's a good tool that needs more promotion, particularly the cloud solution.