Mendix vs OutSystems vs Xamarin Platform comparison

Mendix is a low-code application development platform that helps your organization accelerate its application development lifecycle. The solution is designed to enable you to create software faster by abstracting and automating the development process for better business outcomes at speed and scale. Mendix has many key capabilities, including a tailored IDE for every developer, built-in collaboration tools for team development, feedback management, agile project management, the ability to build a truly responsive design across devices, and much more.

Mendix Features

Mendix has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• App development
• Multi-experience
• Artificial intelligence
• Intelligent automation
• Data integration
• Atlas UI framework
• Cloud-native scaling
• Single-click deployment
• User-based security
• Version control
• Automated testing
• Comprehensive admin suite

Mendix Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Mendix. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Efficient and easy to learn: Mendix allows business users and developers to build and deploy sophisticated multi-channel apps with a model-driven development platform that is much more efficient and easier to learn than traditional technologies.

• Simple and responsive UI: Mendix allows business engineers to create an optimal user experience through predefined layouts for smartphone, tablet, and desktop user interfaces.

• Native device functions: Mendix offers out-of-the-box widgets for native device functions. Mendix developers who are building a hybrid app can easily drag and drop a widget as a building block into an app without any further coding.

• End-to-end mobile app dev flow: Mendix supports the end-to-end mobile app development flow, which makes it simple and intuitive for any developer to build mobile apps that can be part of larger multi-channel applications integrated with back-end apps and services.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Mendix solution.

PeerSpot user Somnath G., Solution Architect and LowCode Practice Lead at a tech services company, says, "What I found most valuable in Mendix is that it's very much suitable for mobile apps such as native Android or IOS supported mobile apps. The multiple features of the platform are very, very attractive and very popular. Mendix has technical features such as microflows and nanoflows. You can also access data models in the platform. These are the features that are very, very strong in Mendix. I got my hands dirty on other low-code platforms, but I have not seen such strong features in them compared to the microflows, nanoflows, and data model access that are in Mendix, including creating and integration. The platform has out-of-the-box adapters or out-of-the-box-connectors that you can integrate with different interface applications such as SAP, Salesforce, Oracle EBS, etc."

Sameer V., Consulting Manager at Deloitte, mentions, “Their native mobile capability is very good. In general, the way they launch the product has been great. Their product launching strategy is far better than any other platform. I work in OutSystems and Mendix. They tend to be more on the legacy side, OutSystems. With this solution, the product launching strategy is very, very agile. I really like when they roll out their updates, which are very, very frequent.”

Robert B., Solutions Architect at a computer software company, explains, The solution is just very quick and responsive. The initial setup is very straightforward, and those implementing the product do not have to be very technologically advanced in order to manage the process.”

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.

Xamarin is an open-source platform for developing modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows using.NET. Xamarin is an abstraction layer that manages how shared code is communicated to the platform's underlying code. Xamarin is for developers with the two following goals:

• Cross-platform sharing of code, tests, and business logic.

• Writing cross-platform apps in C# with Visual Studio.

Xamarin allows developers to share an average of 90% of their program across platforms. This enables programmers to achieve native performance, look, and feel on each platform while writing all of their business logic in a single language (or reusing existing application code).

Xamarin applications can be created on a PC or a Mac and compiled into native application packages, such as an .apk file for Android or an .ipa file for iOS.

Xamarin Platform Features

Xamarin Platform has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Complete binding for the supporting SDKs: Xamarin includes bindings for almost all of the underlying platform SDKs in iOS and Android.
  
• Java, C, Objective-C, C, C++ Interop: Xamarin gives you the ability to use a variety of third-party code by providing tools for directly invoking Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ libraries.
  
• Modern language constructs: Xamarin applications are written in C#, a modern language with many capabilities that Objective-C and Java do not have, like lambdas, LINQ, parallel programming, generics, and more.
  
• Strong base class library (BCL): Xamarin apps use the .NET BCL, a large collection of classes with streamlined features, like powerful XML, database, serialization, IO, string, and networking support, among others.

Xamarin Platform Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing the Xamarin Platform. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

• Native UIs and APIs: Xamarin delivers comprehensive access to each platform's native SDK and UI controls, projecting the entire native API of each device into C#. Therefore, the apps you develop are native instead of write-once/run-anywhere programs that look alien on every platform. Xamarin provides you access to all of the capabilities that distinguish each platform.

• Share code between platforms: With Xamarin, you can share all code across platforms while providing a native user interface tailored to each individual device. With Xamarin, you can execute the same C# code on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. With Xamarin, your software is compiled to a native binary rather than being interpreted, in contrast to other cross-platform frameworks. Even in the most demanding situations, native compilation provides users with excellent app performance. Xamarin provides responsive, multi-user input and feedback, fluid scrolling, sophisticated graphics and animations, complicated data visualization, and realistic high frame rates for games.

• Code with C#: Write shorter, more concise, and more maintainable code by leveraging advanced language features, such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ), delegates, lambdas, events, garbage collection, and many other features. With Xamarin's fully extensible platform, you can include libraries written in C, Objective-C, C++, or Java. In C#, you have access to the entire native ecosystem of components and libraries.