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Magic xpa Application Platform vs SAP Mobile Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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

Magic xpa Application Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Server (9th), Application Infrastructure (16th)
SAP Mobile Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Mobile App Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Magic xpa Application Platform is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Mobile Platform is 3.9%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Mobile Platform3.9%
Magic xpa Application Platform3.1%
Other93.0%
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Mylsamy T. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate - IT at Himalaya Wellness Company
Enables us to develop more than 90 applications in-house, which are used across our organization
It's a bit difficult to work with purely web-based applications to get the data and display it. There have been a few times when the connection was disconnected between the server and your browser. The connectivity on browser-built applications needs to be improved. The mobile application development could be easier. They could include different external applications, like finger sensors. I'm not sure whether it's in version 3.8 or not.
ShahzadRafique - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Product strategy (Mobility & Islamic Banking) at AutoSoft Dynamics Pvt Ltd
Have faced challenges continuing use due to support discontinuation despite past effectiveness
There was no reporting functionality in the version we used. It all had to be done by another BI or reporting platform, so we used to actually migrate data from SAP Mobile Platform to that platform. Inherently, that product at that time had no reporting capabilities. It had to be done through some other platform. The only issue arose when SAP actually marked it as end-of-support. Otherwise, as a platform, it was fantastic. I don't think there was any major concern we had with the product itself. But when you mark any platform as end-of-support and we, being the OEM partners, it definitely created significant challenges for us.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Magic’s unique approach to development ensures that the programmer stays focused on the objective of the program (i.e. display all customers in California), instead of the repetitive tasks that surround it (i.e. connect to database, open customers table, create the query to retrieve records within the specified criteria, fetch the result of the query, connect it to a data grid, etc.)."
"Magic is rapid, it's a tool which we use to develop, change and maintain our programs. xpa has a lot more features onboard and it gives us the opportunity to do such things so that we can easily adapt and maintain our programs. It gives certain benefits to stay with our customers and the market."
"I think this is a good tool for making some nice applications independent of the operating system, database, and environment."
"Being able to make changes to existing programs to comply with last minute changes in requirements, and/or being able to fix, test, review, and deploy new code in a manner of hours instead of days, definitely gives us a huge advantage over our competitors and this is only possible thanks to Magic’s speed of programming."
"My employees can develop and deploy something in a matter of hours."
"What I found most valuable in the Magic xpa Application Platform is that it has a client-server and web browser technology that's perfect for company users."
"Magic is rapid, it's a tool which we use to develop, change and maintain our programs, and xpa has a lot more features onboard and it gives us the opportunity to do such things so that we can easily adapt and maintain our programs, giving us certain benefits to stay with our customers and the market."
"Being able to make changes to existing programs to comply with last minute changes in requirements, and/or being able to fix, test, review, and deploy new code in a manner of hours instead of days, definitely gives us a huge advantage over our competitors and this is only possible thanks to Magic’s speed of programming."
"If we work with the mobile extension of the ERP platform, we save time."
"Ericsson is still working in Pakistan, running one of the biggest mobile wallet platforms in the country, and if SAP hadn't marked it as end-of-life, we could have penetrated this market for at least two to three more customers."
"It's a wonderful solution from a design perspective and from a scalability perspective."
"The platform independence is great; I can use it across mobile devices, it's stable, and technical support is helpful."
"Solid development platform that allows you to automate functions from different backend systems."
"Technical support is helpful."
"With mobile services, they just carry the mobile phone with them, do it straight on the device, and it updates the SAP system, saving quite a lot of time for the end users."
"One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems."
 

Cons

"Support is very bad."
"The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers."
"The configuration of the xpa RIA mobile environment is complex and a discouragement to new developers. Also, Magic's documentation can be less than complete at times which leads to frustration for new developers. (I encourage new Magic developers to join the Magic Users Group)."
"When you have several tasks, you open a screen in a task in developing mode, and you don't see the parent screens. Debugging lacks the effects to solve problems. You have to do it first in a kind of studio. Then you have to be sure that you can do it in Magic because there is almost nothing to debug it. It's practically impossible to debug. You have to be sure before you put your snippets."
"The company has now released version 4 for web development, but this new release is still pretty hard to use for mobile and web development because it was not improved as much as we expected in the areas of user-friendliness or development-friendliness."
"Magic has a tradition, when it adds new technologies/features to the Magic development tool, to provide either no documentation or documentation that does not provide an organized approach for bringing this new technology/feature to experienced Magic programmers."
"It is missing basic charting tools for bar/pie/series charts. It is left to the developer to acquire and deploy charting tools or the customer to purchase a third-party reporting tool to produce charts."
"The Android environment is missing a number of functions for file/folder manipulation, sending receiving text messages (SMS) and the menuing options are limited. For now, it is left to the developer to write his/her own Java functions to include in the APK."
"If I have to go for hybrid development, it is still too complex of development, per se."
"The licensing model is a bit dated."
"Installation is extremely painful."
"The cost of the SAP Mobile Platform is high, and there is room for improvement in its pricing."
"The toolkit to develop front end applications, especially native applications, is not that good."
"SAP has announced that they'll be ending the support on the SAP platform."
"The licensing model is a bit dated."
"We don't have wider reporting capabilities within mobile services. There is some reporting functionality, which I would classify as very basic, just to indicate how many devices are being connected, but it's not that comprehensive in terms of reporting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My clients have to purchase additional licenses in order to use what I built. It's not a fair approach."
"The licensing cost varies because nowadays Magic has tailor-made offerings for clients. I think the solution is worth the money."
"There are different licenses, we have the application and the online application. There are two different licenses for two different program sites for the Magic xpa Application Platform."
"It's not cheap. The licenses are not cheap. Not at all. They cost much money. There are other tools with free licenses but Magic asks for a lot of money."
"The licensing is too costly."
"The cost for developers is high because you have to pay for licenses as well as runtime."
"The main problem with the Magic xpa Application Platform is pricing. You have to pay a lot of money for development, and you also have to pay a lot for the deployments and runtime, while in most competitors, you have to pay a lot for one of the two and not both."
"Magic is not the cheapest IDE out there. If you are considering Magic xpa, you should do a cost-benefit analysis to feel comfortable with your decision. The Magic sales staff is very helpful in providing pricing."
"If you already paying for an SAP license and have SAP products that you are using, the price for SAP Mobile Platform is negligible."
"The cost of SAP is extremely high, and it's not affordable for everyone."
"The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Retailer
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Logistics Company
6%
Non Profit
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about SAP Mobile Platform?
One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Mobile Platform?
The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with SAP Mobile Platform?
There was no reporting functionality in the version we used. It all had to be done by another BI or reporting platform, so we used to actually migrate data from SAP Mobile Platform to that platform...
 

Also Known As

uniPaaS
SAP Syclo Agentry Mobile Platform, Sybase Mobile Development Platform, Sybase Unwired Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ADD, Cape plc, Adecco, Kuno Kinzoku Industry Co., GE Capital, Dove Tree, CBS Outdoor, Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center, Allstate Life Insurance Company, Titan Software Systems
Swarovski, CareFusion Corp., Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Magic xpa Application Platform vs. SAP Mobile Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.