Google AppMaker was a low-code development environment. App Maker is included with G Suite Business and Enterprise editions, as well as with G Suite for Education. It was discontinued in early 2021.
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Mendix
Score 7.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Mendix is a low code platform-as-a-service offering with mobile and social extensions. Mendix was acquired by Siemens August 2018.
App Maker is really kind of new in its own space. We haven't seen the level of functionality, nor the deep integrations, with anything else. It can replace a lot of products, and we've seen it in place in many applications across our organization, so it's been able to reduce …
Microsoft is on the higher side of the cost and less user-friendly compared to Mendix. Mendix enables front-end, back-end, and data modeling on a single platform, offering flexibility to utilize custom code where necessary.
Because most of our apps work closely with our main system (ERP) and other tools, we went with Mendix. It's good at easily connecting with lots of different systems, which is exactly what we need. Another thing we like about it is that it can handle growth well, and its pricing …
Although I have never worked with Outsystems, Mendix is seen as a platform that can be used more easily by people that do not have an IT background. Mendix is indeed a platform that makes it possible for people with a business background (and are IT minded) to create beautiful …
Mendix is more flexible and custom making oriented than Appian. OutSystems is almost the same as Mendix but more directed to the traditional developer, whereas Mendix is trying to make it possible for everyone to be able to model.
Powerapps is much harder to learn. It lacks the robustness of Mendix; if a detail is lacking in Powerapps the app won't run and it takes much time to debug. Mendix is build to work for Scrum teams. I think Microsoft could learn a lot from the way working on one app by diverse …
We got in touch with Mendix due to a project at a former company I and my companion worked. That company went bankrupt and we decided we could start our own software company with Mendix. We never really had the opportunity to compare it to others, because all other software …
You can create applications faster as compared to other products, You can code easily just by creating flow charts, instead of thousands of lines of code. You can manage databases from the domain model of Mendix, you can also manage webservices very easily with Mendix Modeler.
I have spent many month/years evaluating and discarding products. Some have cost me time (developers) and money to use the software. The development approach with Mendix means I don't have to pay for developer licenses and only pay when I have an approved solution ready for …
Mendix would be my preferred system all the way. The system is designed for these kinds of works. I've worked with WP and DNN but they should be used just for websites. To create an app for a business value, I would suggest Mendix. Also, the offline capabilities of Mendix have …
App Maker is exceptionally strong when you need things to just get done, but your internal development team has a full queue. Or maybe you don't even have an internal development team! If you need a check-in system, an applicant tracking system, an office cleaning checklist with notifications and reports, etc. you can use App Maker to throw something together and make sure your team can use it. You can also collaborate on it, so teams can make this part of their process improvement goals.
I think it's well suited if you have data available and you want to create customized solutions for different types of users. Mendix is very good at doing that. It allows you to do it very easily. So those are good use cases.
Minimal coding experience required. Javascript is a must-have, but the documentation is excellent, and once you're past the learning curve, it's great!
Great WYSIWYG editor. It's easy to see the layout and still have deep control over what you're putting together.
Excellent integrations with G Suite. There are methods built-in that allow you to easily authenticate and work with the G Suite APIs.
Definitely not for beginners. App Maker certainly isn't usable by "everybody," but it's excellent for those who are willing to learn and get their hands dirty!
Experienced developers will have issues. The target user is someone who doesn't want to (or know how to) use something like App Engine or Kubernetes. People with more experience will certainly see limitations and find it difficult to use to the fullest extent.
Data sources can be iffy to manage. It used to be that App Maker would use a sheet or "Drive table" as a data source, but it now requires a GCP data source like CloudSQL.
Drawing from my hands-on experience with Mendix, I can confidently state that the platform aptly fulfills our needs for web application development. Mendix stands out by providing a marketplace replete with pre-built templates and widgets. This feature empowers users to leverage readily available components, hastening the development process and contributing to an enhanced overall usability of the platform.
App Maker is a very "do it yourself" platform. There is a huge amount of documentation and plenty of examples to begin learning, plus a vast community support through StackOverflow that can assist anywhere that you're stuck, but the great thing is that it's all up to you. If there are specific features that don't work, Google is always there to help troubleshoot.
I think their support system is really professional. They answer question quickly and accurately. They have a ticket system that allows to track the current status of a request. The only point for imporvement is a way for me to postpone an answer. Tickets get closed automatically after some time. I feel that the user should have the option to change to an on hold status, allowing for more time to respond to a ticket.
App Maker is really kind of new in its own space. We haven't seen the level of functionality, nor the deep integrations, with anything else. It can replace a lot of products, and we've seen it in place in many applications across our organization, so it's been able to reduce our spend on products that offer specific functionality and still need to be customized.
Because most of our apps work closely with our main system (ERP) and other tools, we went with Mendix. It's good at easily connecting with lots of different systems, which is exactly what we need. Another thing we like about it is that it can handle growth well, and its pricing is straightforward and easy to understand.
We have seen a reduction in time spent on manual processes by being able to automate functions in Google Sheets, take input with special functionality, and have App Maker do the work for us.
We have seen the internal development queue decrease, which allows us to focus on larger projects that couldn't be handled by App Maker.
We have seen ownership and process improvements increase in certain departments, as they are able to get to work themselves.
Without Mendix we could not have been where we are now. A development platform as Mendix can make the difference in a constantly changing environment.
Upgrading to newer versions of Mendix is a breeze when you stay within a main version (e.g. M6.x to Mx6.x+1) and even between versions (Mx5 to Mx6) most of the time it is no problem at all and there are only minor changes needed to upgrade.
Learning Mendix is simple. Just start playing with it and see for yourself how easy it is and feel the joy of developing applications.
