The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers, Q2 2023

Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

Key features and pros and cons of top Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers products:

Mendix - Leaders

Pros:

Best-in-class data modeling and management tools combining the Mendix data catalog with fully diagram-driven development experience
Leading agile management features that win deals
Rich UX and mobile development with unique industrial features like HoloLens support
Strong version control and CI/CD with Git-based branching, merging, visual diffs, and positive customer scores
Mendix runtime certified on multiple Kubernetes distributions
Large community marketplace of over 5,000 platform add-ons
Innovation history including the data catalog feature

Cons:

Roadmap was low on details and vague on delivery commitments compared to other Leaders
Retiring integrated Studio citizen developer IDE, effectively ceding broad citizen development strategies to competitors
Weaknesses in content tools and citizen developer experiences
Should scrutinize SAP partnership given SAP's announced intention to enter the low-code market

Microsoft - Leaders

Pros:

Most widely adopted product in the low-code market
Increasingly well integrated across Microsoft's entire technology stack
Best-in-class features for AI development
More than 1,000 market-leading premade integration connectors
Superior features for reporting, user experience development, and generative AI assistance
Vision for platform as universal development toolset for spectrum of professional and citizen developers is credible and being delivered
Track record of innovation in AI and collaboration
Exploding ecosystem with free version in rapid adoption
Reference customers universally positive, describing platform as 'natural,' 'perfect,' and 'seamless'
High suitability for both serious enterprise apps and scaled citizen development

Cons:

Only available as a service - customers cannot deploy to other infrastructure
This limitation is of little consequence to most Forrester clients but is a key point for some

OutSystems - Leaders

Pros:

Widely respected as a serious rapid engineering platform
Recent acquisition of Ionic and prominent partnership with AWS
Only Leader completely focused on low-code and rapid development
Commitment to innovation proven by early investments in AI assistance and aggressive roadmap
Huge community marketplace of over 5,000 platform add-ons
Superior tools for data modeling and management, integration (600+ connectors, multiple message brokers)
Rich toolset for UX and native mobile app development
Multiple preintegrated AI services with tools for using them
Unusually broad list of coding languages supported for extensions and customizations

Cons:

Near-exclusive focus on professional developers is disappointingly narrow
Weaknesses in content management and citizen developer experiences (IDE unsuitably technical for businesspeople)
Reference customers criticized version control and CI/CD features despite being solidly competitive
Community marketplace add-ons slant toward mobile development

ServiceNow - Leaders

Pros:

IT credibility with focused, useful low-code innovations
Excellent workflow, automation, and orchestration tools and metaphors
Quickly closing gap with high-end digital process automation rivals
First-rate out-of-the-box governance and portfolio management features providing controlled end-to-end view of app portfolio
Strong integration tools with over 600 connectors
Full functional testing framework
Very large partner ecosystem
Vision rooted in sound IT service management
Speed of innovation praised by customers

Cons:

Pricing is unpublished and Forrester clients complain about 'nickel-and-diming'
Licensing model is complex, changes frequently, and enterprise version doesn't contain everything
Only available as a service, unacceptable for some customers
New feature releases are 'not actually finished' and require waiting for second release before functionality is truly useful

AgilePoint - Strong Performers

Pros:

Exceptional process automation features with intuitive ease of use
Strong developer governance and portfolio management features with granular access controls
Comprehensive governance settings for every platform component
Significant range of prebuilt reports for governance purposes
Published pricing praised as 'most cost-effective' by customer references
Visionary approach to citizen development, fusion teams, and high-scale production of development assets

Cons:

Small, bootstrapped firm with comparatively small investment in product and go-to-market
Developer ecosystem, add-ons, and partners lag significantly
UX development is form-centric and below par (customers hand-code UX instead)
Data modeling is limited, lacking entity diagrams or similar features
Weak AI-assisted development and testing tools

Appian - Strong Performers

Pros:

No major functional weaknesses compared to others evaluated
Excellent integrated DPA features covering orchestration, rules, decisioning, process mining, and robotic process automation
Top-notch content tools with out-of-the-box document management, doc intelligence, and preintegrated content management systems
Notable security certifications matching target market
Deeper-than-average features for developer governance
Improved guided development experiences earning on-par rating for citizen development
Well-balanced and highly practical general toolset for professional enterprise app development
Sound strategic decisions with sensible roadmap and pragmatic, timely releases

Cons:

Only superior in automation features, not other areas
Partner network not as large as vendors with better scores
Customer references noted finding Appian developers in the market is difficult
Historical neglect of citizen developer trend (though recently improved)

Pegasystems - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strongest process automation feature set in this Forrester Wave
Most intuitive, integrated, and beautiful citizen developer experience in AppStudio product
Superior features for version control and CI/CD, agile planning, governance, AI development, and security certifications
Proven innovator with unique features like 'opinionated development' approach
Top automation platform and consistent Leader in Forrester DPA Wave

Cons:

Published pricing based on very high per-user fee and/or minimum deal size (legacy of BPM history)
$2 billion judgment under appeal against Pega awarded to competitor Appian creates uncertainty
Opinionated, automation-first approach eschews traditional bottoms-up data modeling
Below par for data-first development patterns
Not convenient for high-volume data tasks according to customers
Requires deep pockets and customer risk tolerance

Salesforce - Strong Performers

Pros:

One of the largest and richest software marketplaces and partner ecosystems
Superior range of security certifications for cloud
Competitive features for data, automation, AI, content, reporting, agile planning, governance, and portfolio management
Industry-leading CRM platform

Cons:

Strategy sees itself as app company first, development platform primarily for extension/customization
Strategy conflicts with low-code development platform market expectations
Version control and CI/CD weaknesses - requires leaving Salesforce to work in GitHub for DevOps tasks
Customers wish for 'better version control inbuilt' and 'better tool support for deployments'
UX and mobile development tools are below par
New features released with bugs/limitations making adoption risky
Should be considered primarily by existing Salesforce app customers

GeneXus - Contenders

Pros:

Can generate apps in many front-end and back-end coding languages from low-code tooling
Many options for coded customization of apps and platform
Generative AI for data modeling from natural language input
Solid for UX development, DPA, mobile apps (fully native), and reporting
Recent acquisition by respected global engineering firm Globant
Rich marketplace of 700+ platform add-ons
Over 30 years of proven use in mission-critical contexts
Access to source code

Cons:

Dated medium-code IDE
Vision, roadmap, and innovation history conflict with general low-code market demands
No plans to cater to enterprise decentralized and democratized low-code development
Enterprise pricing not published
Small partner network
Weak integration (fewer than 100 out-of-the-box connectors)
Version control and CI/CD issues - external repositories require obtuse setup
Customers cite 'cloud deployment' as top challenge
Below par testing, agile planning, and nonexistent portfolio management
Inherently unsuitable for citizen developers
Overreliance on written code hampers even good features

HCLSoftware - Contenders

Pros:

Leading low-code features for web and mobile UX development in attractive Iris IDE
Impressive pixel-perfect control of screens and depth of style settings
App runtimes certified on multiple Kubernetes distributions
Laser focus on modern cloud-native apps
Thorough and well-researched vision for enabling many app channels including wearables
Intuitive citizen development tool (Leap) included with platform
Improved partner ecosystem now on par

Cons:

Developer community and ecosystem still quite small despite improvements
Functionally skews toward front end
Subpar data modeling
Weak AI development, reporting, agile planning, and portfolio management
DPA engine minimal with poor customer references
No support for written CSS according to customer references
Citizen development tool (Leap) not deeply integrated into professional dev tools

Oracle - Contenders

Pros:

Superior security certifications
Excellent tools for managing large number of apps with prebaked monitoring reports
Solid governance and access controls developed from managing thousands of internal citizen developers
Simplest and cheapest pricing model in the market
Large and enthusiastic developer community
Nearly 20 years of existence
On-premises deployment available
Development speed and clean IDE UI praised by customers

Cons:

Heavy reliance on PL/SQL and SQL seen as flaw for low-code
Complex UI development described as 'challenging' and 'not possible'
Absence of version control and CI/CD (requires third-party service)
Weak mobile features
Supports Oracle database only
Below-par scores for data modeling, version control/CI/CD, testing, integration, UX and mobile development
Roadmap omits critical areas of improvement
No recent history or plans for meaningful market-relevant innovation
Partner list doesn't include leading enterprise low-code services firms
Community has only led to modest platform marketplace

Thinkwise - Challengers

Pros:

Optimized for bottoms-up (data-first, entity-diagram-driven) development
Out-of-the-box agile planning, version control/CI/CD, and testing tools fluidly integrated
Development speed praised - 'business analysts have difficulty keeping up with developers'
Stability praised by customers
Suitable for building enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Unique innovations like upcycler for migrating apps and automated UI generation
Established formal product management team with on-par roadmap

Cons:

Mission limited to large core-record-keeping applications, not relevant to broader low-code market
Small delivery partner roster and developer ecosystem
Weaknesses in UX development confirmed by references
No DPA workflow engine provided (though planned)
Minimal AI development features
Weak mobile development tools
No AI assistance for developers
No tools for managing large portfolio of apps (understandable given focus on single large apps)

Unqork - Challengers

Pros:

UX development with many style settings
Workflow engine appreciated by references
Modular approach to reuse
Architecturally progressive 'codeless architecture' vision
Unique innovations like hyper-modular approach to asset reuse
Expanded from financial industries to healthcare and government

Cons:

Pricing unpublished
Growing but still small ecosystem (partners, add-ons)
Implementation described as 'very difficult, expensive, and unreliable' due to few qualified professional services firms
Roadmap 'still being defined'
Data-driven development not supported (no data modeling from diagram)
Version control and CI/CD not generally available despite being built
Small list of premade connectors despite claims of open architecture
Below-par integration and features for content management, AI development, and testing
No mobile-specific tools available
No features for agile planning, portfolio management, or AI assistance

WaveMaker - Challengers

Pros:

Code generator based on open standards (HTML, Java, JS, Angular, Spring)
Solid tools for web UX and mobile development with component reuse
Imports for Figma designs available
Data modeling has strong points including diagram-driven development and two-way syncing with databases
Competitive version control and CI/CD features
Notably attractive IDE experience
Suitability for creating customizable commercial software products praised by customers
Strong choice for software companies building products with low-code

Cons:

Small firm with niche focus on enabling software firms to build products and white-label the platform
Deliberately has not cultivated partner or community ecosystem
Product vision and innovation don't match broad decentralized low-code strategies
Few prebuilt connectors for integration
No DPA features at all
Weak AI development, content tools, and testing
Lack of data discovery features and visual modeling across data sources

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

A: Mendix, Microsoft, OutSystems, ServiceNow

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave for Low-Code Development Platforms for Professional Developers are vendors that offer the strongest current offerings combined with the strongest strategies. These vendors demonstrate superior capabilities across key functional areas including tooling for data and integrations, process automation, user experience, DevOps and collaboration, and governance. Leaders also show strong strategic vision for enabling faster time to value, credible innovation roadmaps, robust partner ecosystems, active communities, and transparent pricing. They are well-positioned to help enterprises achieve transformational low-code strategies that empower both professional and citizen developers working on fusion teams, while addressing critical needs for collaboration, DevOps, governance, and AI-assisted development.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers in 2023

Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

Reference