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
AI App Builders Comparison
Mendix vs. OutSystems
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for enterprise IT teams that want AI-generated applications inside a governed low-code platform with its own architecture guard rails.
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Mendix | OutSystems |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | 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 Personal Edition; OutSystems Developer Cloud quoted by the vendor ODC is metered on three things: application complexity in Application Objects, which is the sum of screens, database tables and API methods, with a typical medium app around 150 AOs; the number of internal and external end users; and advanced add-ons. A base subscription starts with one medium production application and 100 internal users. |
| Free trial | Free tier with no commitment and no credit card required | Free Personal Edition, no credit card required, for up to 100 internal users |
| Output | Enterprise web and mobile applications and AI agents, built as visual models executed by the Mendix Runtime | Full-stack enterprise web and mobile applications with data model, server-side logic and UI screens |
| API | Yes, apps publish REST services with OpenAPI documentation and OData or GraphQL services | Yes, API-first with CI/CD APIs and APIs for uploading external libraries |
| Hosting | Mendix Cloud on AWS, Mendix on Kubernetes, Mendix on Azure, SAP Business Technology Platform, private cloud or on-premise | OutSystems Cloud on AWS; self-hosting is available as an advanced add-on |
| What it generates | 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 | Full-stack enterprise applications: Mentor generates the data model, server-side logic and UI screens from a natural language prompt or an uploaded requirements document, shows a visual blueprint before building, and then evolves the app through conversation inside the IDE with human sign-off on each implementation plan |
| Stack and frameworks | 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 | .NET Core on Linux containers, each application isolated in its own container, orchestrated with Kubernetes on AWS; developers extend apps with custom .NET code uploaded as high-code external libraries, whose methods are exposed to the visual editor as server actions |
| Auth and database | 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 | Amazon Aurora Serverless with PostgreSQL compatibility as the managed database; ISO 27001 compliance is included and SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS are advanced add-ons |
| Hosting and deploy | 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 | OutSystems Cloud with development, testing and production runtimes and a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee, upgradeable to 99.95 percent; extra runtimes and a self-hosted option are advanced add-ons. Built-in CI/CD pipelines with monitoring, tracing and logging |
| Payments | 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 | No checkout of its own; payment providers are integrated through components from the OutSystems Forge, including Stripe connectors for both ODC and OutSystems 11 that handle charges, customers and refunds, and a payments plugin covering Apple Pay, Google Pay and Stripe |
| Access to the code | 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 | Applications are built visually rather than in a repository of hand-written source; custom C# and .NET logic enters as external libraries uploaded through the SDK and APIs, decorated so their methods surface as server actions |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars, On-site training | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Integrations | AWS, SAP, Siemens Teamcenter, Stripe | Not stated |
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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 Mendix Free tier; Standard from $1,090 / month OutSystems Free Personal Edition; OutSystems Developer Cloud quoted by the vendor
- Free trial Mendix Free tier with no commitment and no credit card required OutSystems Free Personal Edition, no credit card required, for up to 100 internal users
- Hosting Mendix Mendix Cloud on AWS, Mendix on Kubernetes, Mendix on Azure, SAP Business Technology Platform, private cloud or on-premise OutSystems OutSystems Cloud on AWS; self-hosting is available as an advanced add-on
- Support Mendix Email helpdesk, Phone, Community forum OutSystems Email helpdesk, Community forum
- Output Mendix Enterprise web and mobile applications and AI agents, built as visual models executed by the Mendix Runtime OutSystems Full-stack enterprise web and mobile applications with data model, server-side logic and UI screens
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
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
OutSystems
Strengths
- Mentor generates a complete application, data model and server logic included, from a requirements document rather than only from a chat prompt
- Shows a visual blueprint and asks for sign-off before applying changes, instead of building unseen
- Runs on containerised .NET Core with Kubernetes, managed Aurora PostgreSQL and built-in CI/CD, monitoring and tracing
- Free Personal Edition for up to 100 internal users needs no credit card
- Self-hosting is available, unlike most tools in this category
Limitations
- No published prices at all, so every evaluation starts with a sales conversation
- Pricing is metered on Application Objects and user counts, which makes cost hard to predict as an app grows
- The Personal Edition is a development runtime only and cannot run production apps
- Self-hosting, 24x7 support, higher uptime and SOC 2 or PCI DSS compliance are all paid add-ons rather than part of the base subscription
- Base support is 8x5 business hours
Plans
Pricing
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.
OutSystems
- OutSystems Personal Edition $0 Free, no credit card required. Development runtime only, up to 100 internal users, hosted on OutSystems Cloud. For test applications, not production, and with no uptime guarantee or compliance options.
- OutSystems Developer Cloud Custom Quoted by the vendor, priced on application complexity in Application Objects, end user counts and add-ons. Includes development, testing and production runtimes, professional support 8x5, OutSystems Cloud hosting, a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee and ISO 27001. Starts with 100 internal users and one medium-sized application.
- Advanced add-ons Custom 24x7 professional support, additional non-production and production runtimes, a self-hosted option, a 99.95 percent uptime upgrade, SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS compliance, and additional users or larger applications.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
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.
OutSystems
- 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
Mendix https://www.mendix.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-06
OutSystems https://www.outsystems.com · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.