OutSystems to Mendix Migration

The OutSystems licensing model is based on the number of Application Objects (AO) for each application. Each page, data entity, and integration are counted as AOs, increasing the price. Small applications starts at a relatively low cost, but if it’s successful and grows in size, functionality, and complexity, the license cost grows accordingly.

More specifically, existing OutSystems’ customers going up for contract renewal this year have reported licensing fees multiple times that of the original yearly licensing cost, without any significant changes to the OS platform. This has upset many existing OutSystems customers. Mendix on the other hand, has a fixed license fee for use of its platform, regardless of application size, functionality, and complexity. 

Major releases of a software platform are common and necessary to keep up with security, performance, and technological advances. OutSystems 11 and Mendix 10 are the latest major versions of both platforms.

Mendix migrated to a Cloud-Native architecture years ago, giving Mendix customers access to concepts such as microservices architecture, containerized apps, serverless apps and continuous deployment OutSystems is now making the move towards a Cloud-Native architecture too with OutSystems Developer Cloud (ODC), the successor to OutSystems 11. They now have to bridge a huge gap in ‘technical debt’. However, where Mendix made upgrades to its platform version with Cloud-Native architecture seamlessly and with ease years ago, OutSystems 11 customers stand before a big, impactful choice due to architectural choices within the OutSystems platform itself.

They can either:
– Stay with OutSystems 11 and risk running out of support, or
– They have to completely rebuild their entire application landscape and codebase in ODC, because the current version of OS11 is not easily compatible with ODC.

This process of upgrading and rebuilding is very expensive and thus not appreciated by existing customers.

Many companies still struggle to close the classical gap between their Business and IT departments. In a competitive market with a shortage of skilled people on both sides and a drive to minimize the time to market for new products and services, speed and collaboration are key. Whereas OutSystems focuses more on enabling developers, Mendix focuses more on bridging the gaps between Business and IT, involving both parties and making use of their in-depth knowledge and experience.

In an ideal world, your IT helps your Business accelerate and innovate. Your organization wants to develop value-adding products and services, not merely technical features. The software platform of choice should support this with features that enable both sides to collaborate, ideate, design, and develop together. This opens up the ‘black box’ of software development and enables entire teams to work together closely.

The Mendix platform offers more features than OutSystems focused on Business-IT collaboration, which is another reason customers choose to migrate to Mendix.