Best for
Best for engineering teams that want self-hosted internal tools with the source under an open licence.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI App Builders Comparison
Appsmith vs. Mendix
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for enterprise IT organisations that want AI-generated applications as governed visual models and the freedom to run them on their own cloud or servers.
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Appsmith | Mendix |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free; Business $15 / user / month Business is billed monthly by credit card for up to 99 users. Enterprise starts at $2,500 per month from 100 users and is usually billed annually. The self-hosted community edition is free. | lower value Free tier; Standard from $1,090 / month The Standard tier is $1,090 / month for a One App plan and $2,725 / month for Unlimited Apps. Cloud resources are charged on top of the subscription in both cases. Premium is quoted by the vendor. |
| Free trial | Free plan for up to 5 users, plus a 15-day Business trial for new cloud signups | Free tier with no commitment and no credit card required |
| Output | Internal web apps: admin panels, dashboards and service tools | Enterprise web and mobile applications and AI agents, built as visual models executed by the Mendix Runtime |
| API | Not stated | Yes, apps publish REST services with OpenAPI documentation and OData or GraphQL services |
| Hosting | Appsmith cloud or self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS AMI) | Mendix Cloud on AWS, Mendix on Kubernetes, Mendix on Azure, SAP Business Technology Platform, private cloud or on-premise |
| What it generates | Internal tools: admin panels, dashboards, customer 360 views and IT or service-management apps, assembled from a widget library | Enterprise web and mobile applications, AI agents and orchestrated processes. Maia is the agentic AI built into the platform, and Maia Make executes multi-step development autonomously from requirements to working software, generating into visual models rather than raw code |
| Stack and frameworks | Drag-and-drop widgets with JavaScript available in every binding; an in-product AI copilot helps write queries, JavaScript and interface changes rather than generating a whole app from a prompt | An application model built in Studio Pro and executed by the Mendix Runtime, not a generated source tree. Custom logic is added through Java Actions and JavaScript Actions |
| Auth and database | 25+ databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, Snowflake, Redshift, DynamoDB, Databricks), REST and GraphQL, and 30+ SaaS connectors; Google SSO on the free plan, SAML and OIDC SSO with SCIM provisioning on Enterprise | Apps deployed to Mendix Cloud run on PostgreSQL and cannot be configured to use another database; self-managed deployments support MySQL and MariaDB, Oracle, SAP HANA and SQL Server |
| Hosting and deploy | Appsmith cloud, or self-hosted with Docker, Kubernetes or an AWS AMI; an air-gapped edition on Enterprise | Mendix Cloud on AWS in multiple regions, with at least an acceptance and a production environment per licensed node and daily backups kept up to a year depending on the plan. Also Mendix on Kubernetes, Mendix on Azure, SAP BTP, private cloud and on-premise. Free apps sleep after roughly an hour of inactivity, run a single instance and get 0.5 GiB of database storage |
| Payments | No built-in payments; Stripe is one of the SaaS connectors an app can call | No payment handling in the platform itself. A provider is added from the Marketplace, where Mendix publishes a Stripe Checkout Connector and partners publish further Stripe and Adyen integrations |
| Access to the code | Apache 2.0 and self-hostable, with Git version control against GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure: 3 repositories on the free plan, unlimited on Business | The artefact is a visual application model rather than a repository of hand-written source; custom Java and JavaScript enter as Java Actions and JavaScript Actions |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars, On-site training |
| Company size | more entries Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Snowflake, Redshift, DynamoDB, Elasticsearch, Redis, Firestore, Databricks, Amazon S3, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Jira, Asana, Notion, Google Sheets, Airtable, Stripe, monday.com, Linear, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI | AWS, SAP, Siemens Teamcenter, Stripe |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Appsmith Free; Business $15 / user / month Mendix Free tier; Standard from $1,090 / month
- Free trial Appsmith Free plan for up to 5 users, plus a 15-day Business trial for new cloud signups Mendix Free tier with no commitment and no credit card required
- Company size Appsmith Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Mendix Enterprise
- Hosting Appsmith Appsmith cloud or self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS AMI) Mendix Mendix Cloud on AWS, Mendix on Kubernetes, Mendix on Azure, SAP Business Technology Platform, private cloud or on-premise
- Support Appsmith Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum Mendix Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Appsmith
Strengths
- Apache 2.0 licence with a free self-hosted community edition
- Connects to 25+ databases plus REST, GraphQL and 30+ SaaS services
- Git version control, including on the free plan
Limitations
- AI assists the person building rather than generating a whole app from a prompt
- Enterprise starts at $2,500 a month and 100 users
- SAML and OIDC SSO and SCIM provisioning are Enterprise-only
Mendix
Strengths
- Free tier with unlimited users and one environment per app, no credit card and no commitment
- Runs on public cloud, private cloud, Kubernetes or on-premise, unlike most tools in this category
- Bring your own LLM, whether frontier, open-source or private, and connect existing data without migrating it
- Apps publish REST with OpenAPI documentation as well as OData and GraphQL services
- Backed by Siemens and named a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for enterprise low-code nine years running
Limitations
- The step from the free tier to Standard is $1,090 / month, with no small paid plan in between
- Cloud resources are billed on top of the subscription, so the listed price is not the total
- Standard support runs 9 AM to 5 PM with a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee; 24/7 support, high availability and multi-region failover need the quoted Premium tier
- Free apps sleep after about an hour of inactivity and are capped at 0.5 GiB of database storage
- Apps deployed to Mendix Cloud are locked to PostgreSQL
Plans
Pricing
Appsmith
- Free $0 Cloud, up to 5 users: 5 workspaces, 3 Git repositories, Google SSO, community support.
- Business $15 Per user per month, billed monthly, up to 99 users. Adds unlimited workspaces and Git repositories, workflows, premium integrations, custom roles and audit logs.
- Enterprise $2,500 Per month from 100 users, typically billed annually. Adds SAML and OIDC SSO, SCIM, CI/CD, private app embedding, an air-gapped edition and support with SLAs.
- Community (self-hosted) $0 Open source under Apache 2.0, self-hosted.
Mendix
- Free $0 No hidden fees, no commitment, no credit card. Full platform access for exploration, prototypes and small applications, unlimited users, one deployment environment per app.
- Standard, One App $1,090 Per month, starting price, cloud resources extra. Agile project management, collaborative multi-user development, up to 3 environments per app, operations dashboard, identity provider integration, vertical scalability, support 9 AM to 5 PM and a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee.
- Standard, Unlimited Apps $2,725 Per month, starting price, cloud resources extra. The same platform capabilities as the One App plan; the difference is scope, not features.
- Premium Custom Quoted by the vendor, cloud resources extra. Adds a private marketplace, flexible environments, horizontal scalability, high availability and fallback, multi-region failover, 24/7 premium support and a 99.95 percent uptime guarantee.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Appsmith
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Mendix
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Appsmith https://www.appsmith.com · no check date recorded yet
Mendix https://www.mendix.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-06
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.