Appium vs OutSystems comparison

Appium and OutSystems are both solutions in the Mobile Development Platforms category. Appium is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.6, while OutSystems is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9. Appium holds a 4.2% mindshare in MDP, compared to OutSystems’s 20.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Appium users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of OutSystems users who would recommend it.

Appium

Read 30 Appium reviews

641 Views
510 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

OutSystems

Read 51 OutSystems reviews

2,982 Views
1,743 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Appium

OutSystems

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

OutSystems and Appium operate in different sectors of the tech industry, focusing on application development and mobile app testing, respectively. In terms of development, OutSystems holds an advantage due to its rapid low-code features, whereas Appium stands out in mobile testing with its cross-platform flexibility and language support.

Features: OutSystems facilitates development with one-click publishing, robust SOAP and REST API integrations, and the ability to reuse components across projects. It also supports agile development with visual modeling and drag-and-drop functionalities. Appium, leveraging Selenium, enables scripting in Java, Python, and other languages and supports multiple platforms like Android and iOS, aiding efficient mobile testing.

Room for Improvement: OutSystems could enhance the speed of Service Studio and develop more robust mobile app features. It also needs improvements in UI component customization and complex logic implementations. Appium would benefit from improved documentation, better stability, and advanced platform support, such as AI self-healing script features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OutSystems offers flexible deployment options, including cloud and on-premises solutions, and proactive yet sometimes slow customer support. Appium, being open-source, heavily relies on community support and offers a straightforward deployment, mainly on-premises.

Pricing and ROI: OutSystems comes with high costs, approximately $4,000 monthly, which may challenge small businesses, but delivers substantial ROI due to development speed and efficiency. In contrast, Appium is free, making it appealing for those on a tight budget, despite lacking direct official support, providing significant savings in licensing costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Appium vs. OutSystems Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Appium vs. OutSystems

April 2025

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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

Appium

Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Regression Testing Tools (6th)

OutSystems

Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Rapid Application Development Software (3rd), Low-Code Development Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Appium is 4.2%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OutSystems is 20.5%, down from 22.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Mobile Development Platforms

Featured Reviews

Abhishek-Tiwari

Senior Associate at PwC

Has cross-platform flexibility and a record-and-play option

The challenging part with Appium is that installation can be a bit tricky. It can be challenging to set up in Android versus iOS environments. Appium has some limitations in terms of writing code using simulators and online cloud devices. I faced challenges with native based scenarios, battery turn out percentage, battery charging percentage, and memory capacity. The other challenge I faced involved codes changing from device to device. For example, the piece of code that works in iOS version 10.1 won't work in iOS version 6.0. In upcoming releases, if they can reduce some more of the dependencies like SDK, UIAutomator, etc., it would be great. That is, I'd like to see a consolidated package or bundle release that is much more user-friendly.

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Bireswar Das

Business Unit Head - Government Business at YASH Technologies

A low-code platform for the development of mobile and web enterprise applications

To illustrate a case, the customer initially had a private cloud, essentially a data center hosted within it. They needed a disaster recovery solution, which would involve using a public cloud. This situation led to some deployment challenges due to the hybrid nature of their setup. However, once we implemented the solution for them, they were extremely satisfied. The process was not only effective but also quite speedy. To be more precise, we completed it in around 100 days, even though they initially requested it to be done in four months. They were very pleased with the efficiency of the implementation.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The way Appium server interacts with mobile apps is fantastic. It provides all the information about the elements inside the app, Android as well as iOS. I can interact with the element quickly, just type some text or get some text values from the element - whether it's a drop-down, or web text, or a native element."

"What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that............. to test the components in the way I want them to be tested."

"Appium's best feature is that it supports multiple frameworks."

"Appium's wide support of programming languages is valuable."

"The most valuable feature of Appium is it supports iOS and AOS and is open-source."

"The most valuable feature is that it's easy to launch applications. Appium has everything that Selenium has. So many good tools support Appium. We can take some Excel sheets and use them to fill out the text box that's in there. We can also take screenshots of failures."

"The best feature of Appium is that it allows you to inspect the element. With the Appium Inspector, you don't have to install another application to do the inspection. I also like that Appium has Android device connectivity. Currently, most people use Appium as automation software, and I haven't found any other tool that's more powerful than Appium."

"It has great documentation and excellent community support."

More Appium pros

"The most valuable features of OutSystems are the user-friendly platform. The drag-and-drop feature is great. I have used other rapid application development tools before, but they were not as advanced as OutSystems. With the previous tools, I had to manually build certain features, but OutSystems does it automatically."

"It is a stable solution, and the initial setup is straightforward."

"The drag-and-drop feature is very valuable."

"There is literally a ton of stuff it can do. It's very flexible."

"I find it to be a genuinely cool and effective platform for my development needs."

"OutSystems' low-cost approach has positively impacted our productivity, because we were able to develop faster with OutSystems, enabling us to implement many changes during our sprint."

"The most valuable feature of OutSystems with discipline and the development processes. Instead of each developer doing tasks on their own with their own approach, et cetera, the solution would help bring some organization to the development process."

"The solution helps to build mobile and web applications on SOAP and REST. You can integrate it with backend systems by submitting a code."

More OutSystems pros

Cons

"Support-wise, it could be better."

"It breaks down."

"One area where I think Appium could improve is in addressing security concerns for our data. Currently, we're unable to use cloud solutions like CloudForm due to security restrictions on our servers. We also face challenges in updating packages for the same reason. It would be beneficial if the solution could provide better support for auto-reporting and easier connections to mobile device farms."

"It needs to accommodate applications that use React.js and AngularJS."

"We previously worked with native applications, and there weren't any good mobile app testing tools. We started working with React Native, which works well with Appium, but it would be good to see better integration; the way elements are displayed can be messy. React Native is very popular nowadays, so it's essential to have that compatibility."

"An application developed on the Unity platform, such as a gaming application, objects are moving in that case. Interacting with those elements is still lacking in Appium. Appium doesn't have the internal library to play with the Unity platform. That is a huge lack right now."

"The initial setup is straightforward if you have previous experience with the solution, but it can be complicated for a novice user."

"I rarely use Appium nowadays because I'm now at the managerial level, but the last time I used it, whenever I selected and clicked on an element, Appium was very slow. I tried to debug it, but I still couldn't find the problem, so this is an area for improvement in the solution. Another area for improvement lies with the connector and server. For example, the effort to get into the local machine sometimes causes the emulator to become slow, which then leads to failure in testing, and this is the usual issue I've encountered from Appium. An additional feature I'd like added to Appium in its next release is being able to do automation in iOS without using XPath and the name of the element. In Xcode, you can use previous UI tests for detecting elements, but in Appium, you have to use Xpath and the element name instead of being able to directly put the X-UiPath, which is what you can do in Xcode. In iOS as well, sometimes the element doesn't have a name or a path. Sometimes, there's also no element."

More Appium cons

"The documentation needs to be more robust."

"The product could be improved if there was a shortcut, or predefined, predictable templates provided."

"I would like to see OutSystems improve its integration capabilities, especially with emerging technologies like AI and GPT."

"It's difficult to do the component version control. I would like them to add more studying materials."

"I'd like to see AI features integrated into the solution."

"The installation is a bit tedious."

"The integration points need to be increased. People have also started to adopt this solution for their regular needs. That means it's not only the big enterprises that are adopting this solution. There are also small and medium enterprises that are adopting it. I've read that where you have large deployments, OutSystems starts to crumble a bit. That is the idea that no customer would know at the beginning and would also not like to hit the wall there. When it is on the client, there are a lot of applications already on low-code, and then suddenly you realize that you want to do some big applications, and you face hurdles. This is the general feedback for all such platforms."

"OutSystems could improve by being more like GitHub. It would be more helpful for us for division management and version control for our application."

More OutSystems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free."

"I'm unsure if there's any cost associated with Appium. I got the free package which includes the server GUI application and the inspector application, and it was free to download, and that's all I need to get my work done. I'm not aware of any additional costs associated with the tool."

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"We found out that we could explore features of the solution for 30 days trial. We can switch to a permanent license later if we want."

"This is an open source solution so it does not cost anything for licensing or otherwise."

"It's completely 100% free, and there are no hidden fees."

"There is no license for this solution because it is open-source."

"It's open source, so it's completely free."

More Appium pricing and cost advice

"The tool’s licensing is based on the user’s usage."

"There is a free trial to use this solution and other options available, such as enterprise. There are different subscription plans."

"The solution is expensive."

"It is too expensive for small companies."

"The price is okay. OutSystems isn't expensive. It's a mid-range solution."

"There are no additional costs with the standard license."

"For one developer to use, the cost is around $5,000."

"OutSystems is a good solution, but it's not cheap."

More OutSystems pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Educational Organization

29%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Appium?

I do recommend Appium. It is an open-source solution and completely free of charge. We use Appium and Appium Studio as our base for any type of mobile automation for testing. It has a great interfa...

See all answers

What do you like most about Appium?

Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?

My experience with Appium from a pricing perspective is favorable due to it being open source, making it a cost-effective option.

See all answers

Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?

The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...

See all answers

What industries do you think OutSystems is most useful for?

I cannot really name an industry in which OutSystems cannot be beneficial. Who does not want to make top-notch applications that work in no time? And OutsyStems does exactly that. The low-code plat...

See all answers

How did you decide which OutSystems edition was the best one for you?

We started using OutSystems fairly recently, so we are still on the free version of it. My company is still testing how we like the platform, but so far, we have been satisfied with it and will li...

See all answers

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Compared 21% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appium

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

OutSystems

April 2025

Download OutSystems product report

Overview

Appium is an open-source mobile application development tool that is designed to give users complete control of their application development process. It enables them to optimize the development process when the need calls for it, and create the applications that they want in the most efficient manner they can.

Appium Benefits

Some of the benefits that come from using Appium include:

Ease of deployment. Appium is fairly simple for users to set up for the first time. Developers can download Appium and launch it with only a couple of clicks.

Easily track the results of application tests. Appium automatically creates reports when developers run application tests. These reports can give users insights into every aspect of the tests that they just ran. They can include detailed test results, screenshots of the test as it took place, and videos showing the test while it was in progress. Developers can also recall these reports with ease so that the information that was gathered is always at their disposal.

Gain deep insights into your application. Users can easily gain insight into the way that their application is running and how it might be improved. The reports that the system produces can provide developers with all of the data and insight that they need to improve their applications and make informed decisions.

Appium Features

When users choose to employ Appium’s mobile development solution, they gain access to many different capabilities. These features include:

Remote testing capability. Teams that are spread across the globe can collaborate and run tests from wherever they happen to be at the time. They can connect to Appium’s cloud testing feature and always have access to the latest iteration of the project they are working on.

Customizable test reporting capability. Appium enables users to customize the way that information from their tests is reported. They can create the kinds of reports that best reflect their objectives and needs. When specific information is needed, the reports can be formatted to show that particular aspect when the solution generates it.

Parallel testing capabilities. Developers who use Appium can run multiple application tests at the same time. This enables them to save time and resources while still accounting for every scenario that their applications might experience. Users can run all of the tests necessary to ensure that their applications are successful while spending the minimum amount of time doing so.

Reviews from Real Users

Appium is a solution that has a great deal to offer its users. It is a very complete mobile development solution that gives users the capabilities that they need to design their mobile applications with the greatest level of ease possible. Users can scale their application scripts to meet their needs. Additionally, developers can automate testing protocols, which reduces the amount of time and other resources that need to be devoted to the testing process. These two features make Appium a leader in the field of mobile application development.

Jayanta K., automation and nft manager at a computer software company, writes, “The interface for mobile automation is helpful for scripting and execution. It's scalable and there are many testers who would like to automate. In terms of scripting, scalability is very good.”

The head of solutions delivery (systems) at a wellness & fitness company writes, “Obviously, because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts.”

Appium

OutSystems is a platform for low-code application development that unites design, code, and deployment to simplify development so any business can create innovative solutions in a timely manner. There are various use cases an organization can employ with OutSystems, including:

Customer portals: Through OutSystems, companies can easily create customer portals and mobile applications and deploy them faster in comparison to manual coding. The platform offers businesses the opportunity to develop secure, scalable, and customized applications that support their and their customers' needs.
Internal apps: Using this solution, companies can also build internal applications and portals which can be used for their workforce. Using these, organizations can overcome their internal app backlog, bridge gaps between systems, and facilitate their work process.
Core systems: Custom software for running a business can also be developed using OutSystems. The tool shortens the time for developing core systems and delivers them flexible and personalized to each business' needs.

OutSystems offers faster development and deployment times than hand-coding while delivering unique and personalized solutions to its customers. The main focus of OutSystems is high-performance low code which enables businesses to create functional products that answer their needs. It offers clients the ability to develop enterprise-grade applications with a high level of security.

The product stands out from its competitors as it offers:

Serious applications
Serious productivity
Serious scalability

It ensures its clients that the applications built using this platform are as scalable as hand-coded ones while increasing workspace productivity and evolving applications’ capabilities.

OutSystems Features

OutSystems has various features through which users can develop and deploy highly efficient applications and other products. Some of the features include:

Monitoring: The tool has a feature that allows real-time monitoring of the usage of applications and their performance. All insights are reported to companies via the intuitive interface.
APIs: OutSystems is completely scalable through application programming interfaces.
Security: The product offers its users a high level of enterprise security for their applications as well as for their data.
Mobile: Every application created on OutSystems can be deployed for mobile. The product also provides the option to monitor the performance of applications to detect any issues.
DevOps automation: The product facilitates and shortens the development time of applications through various automation which help users create apps without the help of developers, as well as providing developers with additional resources.
Agile development: Every company that seeks to perform agile development can benefit from the native support this tool provides.
Debugging engine: OutSystems has an integrated debugging engine that can be utilized in the development and deployment processes, shortening the time it takes for developers and businesses to look for issues.
Multilingual support feature: Customers can benefit from support in multiple languages, ensuring their questions are answered understandably.

OutSystems Benefits

The solution offers a wide array of benefits to companies that utilize it in their application development. Some of these benefits include:

Visual development at high speed provides increases productivity for both businesses and users.
The option to integrate applications to a large number of systems without additional complications.
The product adds automation to all levels of development, including front end, back end, and integration, facilitating the delivery of complex applications.
Artificial intelligence (AI) validation ensures the high quality of applications.
The tool offers connectivity with more than 400 systems and existing technologies, allowing companies to save money they would otherwise have to invest in new software.
The multi-platform solution decreases costs for organizations by removing the need for third-party software.
It offers whole-team cross-functional collaboration, which can increase the technological knowledge in a company and raise the overall business expertise.

Reviews from Real Users

Harikrishnan R., a technical lead at Netlink Software Group America Inc, likes OutSystems because the tool helps with validation, offers good features, and is reliable.

An owner at a consultancy thinks OutSystems is versatile with great scalability and great technical support.

OutSystems

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote

Randstad, Warner Brothers, HP, Intel, ING, Banco Popular, Thrivent Financial, Bacardi, Kent State University, Bacardi, FICO, ING, Vodafone, AbbVie, Estafeta, Siemens, Vopak

Buyer's Guide

Appium vs. OutSystems

April 2025

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