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Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs Pega Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd)
Pega Platform
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
9th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Business Rules Management (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Process Automation (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 7.6%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pega Platform is 6.4%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
Mallik-Kesavaraju - PeerSpot reviewer
Significantly improves the overall cycle time, and offers robotic automation, and the BPM workflow
The extensive availability of ready-made gadgets in Pega BPM is a double-edged sword. While it offers convenience, it also leads to a steeper learning curve. Our developers and business analysts need to invest significant time and effort to fully understand and utilize the platform's capabilities. In essence, it's a complex product that demands a deep understanding to be used effectively. So, it cuts both ways. This complexity can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the user's expertise. So, the learning curve is pretty high! So, it's very good if you are a professional user, but you need to be a really good professional user to use this solution effectively.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Intuitive with a user-friendly UI."
"This product will speed up development time with helpful production aids."
"The valuable features are charts, reports, and search engines."
"I particularly enjoy the web builder capabilities, especially the Page Designer. It offers so many elements or components to choose from, which is a major plus for me."
"You can customize the solution to create a console where only business users can access and download files if they want to extract the data."
"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."
"Oracle APEX improved our organization by making it possible for us to implement agile project development."
"Personally, I would say that Oracle Application Express (APEX) is a powerful tool...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Pega BPM's most valuable feature is the use of CDX to solve problems."
"Pricing is a little on the high side."
"The best part of Pega, for me, is that they let you reuse a lot of the aspects in the product."
"In general, we use web services to integrate this solution with our other tools. It is the main approach we use with this solution and it integrates with all tools that we need. If you want to integrate with other solutions such ThreatFire or similar, it is possible as well."
"The new PEGA underwriting platform replaced the former underwriting system and helped to integrate other legacy systems and functionalities in one application. It also helped to save licence costs for other legacy systems."
"The user interface and the ease of developing the workflow for an application are valuable features."
"In certain circumstances, it can be fairly straightforward to execute and deploy new modifications."
"It cuts down the time taken for coding. Earlier it used take for us four hours to do a particular code. Now this can be done in less than 30 minutes. That's the kind of productivity gains you can get."
 

Cons

"When exporting, we can't export dynamic reports, only static reports. For example, when we want to export charts or tables it is only exported as a static report so we can't drop down on these reports; however, we can see this information when we are on the dashboard itself."
"The collaboration and the workflow engine could use some improvement."
"It would be highly beneficial if APEX were an all-in-one platform capable of handling all aspects of application development."
"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."
"It has a bit of a strict framework, you have to make all the time adjustments in their JavaScript. Another downside is that it's only available for Oracle databases."
"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."
"The product must provide more triggers."
"The workflow engine should be embedded in the solution."
"The extensive availability of ready-made gadgets in Pega BPM is a double-edged sword. While it offers convenience, it also leads to a steeper learning curve."
"In the Middle East and Africa region, Pega was not very strong from the user experience standpoint."
"PEGA claims that they provide a LOW-CODE-PLATFORM which is easy to use - even for "citizen developers" (i.e. business employees). If you really want to use all the features out of this platform, you definitely need a lot of experience and a lot of training."
"There is room for potential improvement in the performance of PegaRULES, as well as the need to address any existing security concerns. It should be noted that working with an older version of Pega, rather than the latest 8.x versions, may limit certain capabilities and leave room for vulnerabilities that could benefit from increased attention. Furthermore, the user interface (UI) could be a candidate for enhancements. It is worth mentioning that newer versions of Pega may have introduced improvements in these areas."
"The product's artificial intelligence capabilities could be improved. More advanced AI features could further optimize process automation and decision-making."
"I would like to see Pega BPM improve the user experience."
"It needs more integration with other platforms."
"What PegaRULES should work on is the integration aspect. I can integrate it with other platforms, but that can take time. It would be good if integration could be automated or if the tool had more out-of-the-box integration features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is free."
"The product is completely free of cost."
"The solution is moderately priced, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"We have a full Oracle E-Business Suite license, and we use that license to develop applications. There's no license required for developing Oracle applications."
"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."
"It is expensive, but I don't know what the licensing cost is."
"The tool is not expensive."
"The tool is free with the Oracle Database license."
"It's a user-based license where, as you scale the numbers of users, the price increases."
"This upgrade process is very expensive; although I haven't been on the sales team responsible for the pricing, I know it costs millions of dollars."
"In terms of the price, if I were to compare Pega to other tools, it would be more expensive, but it would also provide you with the same features."
"Its pricing is on the higher side, but they have come up with different plans and different small products that can be used by smaller organizations that don't have that much money to spend. They have different pricing packages depending on the number of users or depending upon the number of cases created in the production or live environment."
"They have both on-premise and cloud licensing. If you are a small to medium company, go for the cloud option because that eliminates a lot of the setting up of your DevTest and performance environments, multiple environments, because you can buy that from Pega with the cloud option. So your setup time really goes down. If you're a large company, then you're better off putting it within your company. You have other skill resources within your company to create environments."
"The price is a bit expensive."
"Pega is expensive."
"PegaRULES is a good product, but its pricing is a bit on the premium side, especially for professionals."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Application Express (APEX)?
Oracle APEX is part of our on-premises solution included in our agreement with Oracle E Business Suite, though I don't know the cost specifics. Power BI is licensed by the user.
What needs improvement with Oracle Application Express (APEX)?
Using AI to analyze data without needing much code would be better. Also, although the interface is easy to change, it could have more features.
Is Pega BPM easy to work with and can beginners utilize this software?
You do need some preparation to be able to use all functions of Pega BPM. However, all users of this platform are in luck as it comes with good documentation and you can learn pretty much everythin...
Have you encountered any issues while using Pega BPM and were you assisted by the company?
My company has been using this tool for years and the only issue we have had, if you can call it that, was while setting it up. When we were setting it up initially, we had some drawbacks and could...
When you consider the features and benefits of Pega BPM, would you say this product is fairly priced?
Pega BPM can be considered overpriced for some; it all depends on the size of your company and the requirements of your customers. Sure, there are products out there that do the things that Pega B...
 

Also Known As

Oracle APEX
Pega BPM, Pegasystems, SmartBPM, PegaRULES
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
The State of Maine, ANZ, Coca-Cola, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), ME, New South Wales, OptumRx, Texas Department of Transportation, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. Pega Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.