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Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Development Platforms (2nd), Low-Code Development Platforms (2nd)
ServiceNow
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
221
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Oracle Application Express (APEX) is 8.0%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 10.8%, up from 10.4% 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.
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility
I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the way that it automatically goes into the spreadsheets and the users can deal with it."
"What I like best about Oracle Application Express (APEX) is that it doesn't require hard coding for reporting and building applications. It's a GUI-based application builder that even end-users with little development and language knowledge can develop applications on Oracle Application Express (APEX). The software is also very user-friendly, which I find valuable."
"The virtual patching feature is valuable."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Oracle Application Express is easy to use, people don't have to be developers to use it."
"The solution can efficiently translate from English to another language including Arabic using the XLIFF format."
"I like how we can actively develop and customize APEX because it's on the same database."
"The most valuable features of Oracle Application Express (APEX) are the ease and speed of development. Instead of engaging a large team of middleware, front-end, and database engineers, we can have professional look at the front end and have the user interface up and running in a matter of days. However, if you want to go far and implement very custom features, it doesn't require a lot of knowledge of front-end development, such as HTML, JavaScript, or other aspects."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"In my experience, ServiceNow's most valuable feature is its flexibility. If you have a DevOps or development team, you can customize it to meet your specific needs. The tool's dashboard categorizes incidents, making managing it much easier."
"The solution has very good automation tools."
"We used ServiceNow for change management, release management, and event management."
"The flow designer for application development is the most valuable. The newest version of flow designer allows us to develop applications quite fast. We can have custom and mobile applications. It has an interface for mobiles, and it also has a good reputation."
"It enables us to meet SLAs, track issues across the environment, and report those issues."
"It's a straightforward and effective approach that minimizes the need for extensive explanations."
"The flow designer feature of ServiceNow has had the biggest impact on our productivity because it has helped me reduce manual efforts by creating automation and robotics."
 

Cons

"Being able to only design with HTML and CSS can be limiting as to what can be accomplished."
"Connecting with Oracle and the relation with Oracle at the database as a procedure needs improvement."
"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."
"During the upcoming versions, we can modify the current configuration."
"The solution could provide more AI functionalities or AI assistance."
"One area for improvement in Oracle APEX is its workflow orchestration capabilities."
"Occasionally when trying to un a page, I would be faced with an error number; however, not much information would be provided on the error itself outside of the programming language. It would be nice if more information could be provided."
"The product must provide more triggers."
"When we are using the solution on mobile phones on their networks the performance is reduced with a delay of approximately 8 seconds. There is less delay using the desktop computers connected to the WiFi or to the network directly."
"For me, there's a real opportunity, especially within the IT Service Management suite, to give a much better overall view of the workflow that individuals have across the different applications. At the moment, a lot of information is quite siloed in the different tables in ServiceNow."
"All the screens are similar. It's the same platform for everything and you need to familiarize yourself with it. In the past, you used to have one screen per application. Now, you have everything integrated into one. Everybody will manage the same screen and they need to navigate into the same screen as the Internet Explorer with a toolbar with the categories and look for the things you want to see or the models you want to use."
"It should have more artificial intelligence for business and work capabilities. The community is not so active. There must be initiatives to make the community talk more and share more information."
"The contract module is quite rudimentary and doesn't support contract line items."
"The solution could improve by making the CMDB integrate with a CI better to allow it to be seen across multiple platforms."
"The major area for improvement for our needs would be monitoring the metrics of the times to acknowledge and resolve issues and escalations."
"The solution’s pricing is expensive and could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a free solution with no additional costs."
"The product is completely free of cost."
"Oracle Application Express (APEX) is free, so this is another magic of the solution. You just get charged for the database license, which I don't need."
"I believe APEX comes bundled with the database, including autonomous database and other related database products, so the pricing is quite reasonable."
"Pricing is expensive, overall on an enterprise system but we consider that it gives corresponding value in the product."
"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 in comparison to other products."
"I rate the product's price as ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."
"We know that ServiceNow is not cheap, it's more expensive than other solutions. But we are trying to increase our ability to handle tickets so that the cost per ticket is less."
"The first impact for the customer is that it is expensive, but do not forget that it is a solution that includes infrastructure; a single cost, easy to justify."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"Some time ago it was expensive, but large companies have special contracts. It's enterprise prices, and we're talking about millions per year."
"The cost is quite high."
"It is fairly expensive."
"I know that it's not too bad because people continue to use it and they are happy to renew up their contract."
"The price of this solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
16%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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.
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...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Oracle APEX
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hepart AG, pharmasol, SATLOG, Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.