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Capability |
Alpha Anywhere |
OutSystems |
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Fast Onboarding to the Platform [+] Show / Hide Details |
It takes a beginner about 90 minutes to build a sophisticated mobile CRUD app in Alpha Anywhere by following a tutorial. Developers in Alpha Anywhere typically become competent (and confident) in about 2 months, and faster with more focused training or mentoring. |
It takes a beginner about 20 hours to develop a basic mobile CRUD app by following a tutorial. OutSystems recommends that developers participate in a highly structured 12-month adoption process that includes full time tutoring to develop competency. |
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Support for Citizen Development [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere fully supports no-code citizen development by allowing users to create screens, buttons, fields and objects and perform CRUD operations, as well as loging/logout with built-in genies; as well as offering hundreds of predefined actions that developers use use via a list metaphor. Low code blocks can be interspersed with traditional coding. Alpha Anywhere also offers mentoring, which allows citizen developers to work directly 1:1 with a "personal trainer" as they build their apps or get up to speed with the product. |
Outsystems offers no-code capabilities, but only offers developers a few dozen predefined actions through a flowchart metaphor - greatly limiting citizen developers. Low code blocks can be interspersed with traditional coding. Outsystems does not have mentoring. |
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Ability to Add Code as Needed [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere allows a broad range of control in application design by exposing hundreds of event hooks. [Client-Side: Built in JavaScript Editor features Autosuggest, makes it easy to reference objects used in the applications. Low JavaScript skills required. Server-Side: Built in Server-Side Editor specifically tailored for building Alpha Anywhere Applications, features Autosuggest and other helper tools to make server-side scripting easier. Low programming skills required.] |
OutSystems provides less control by providing far fewer event hooks. [Client-side: Built in JavaScript editor is simple text editor, without Autosuggest or ability to easily reference objects used in the application. Moderate to High JavaScript skills Required. Server-Side: No Server-Side editor provided. Developers must use Eclipse or Visual Studio – general-purpose tools that are not specific to OutSystems. Moderate to High programming skills required.] |
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Speed of Developing/Updating Apps [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere includes a local version of its server that runs on the developer’s machine and can instantly show changes, just by clicking the refresh button. |
OutSystems requires you to use their “1-Step Publishing” system, which requires files to be pushed to a remote server – adding significant wait times and reducing efficiency in the develop/test cycle. |
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Ease of Data Integration [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere provides many tools for working with REST services, JSON Data, XML, SOAP and oData. Plus it lets you quickly change data sources when you switch from development to deployment. [Working with External Data: Alpha Anywhere includes native SQL drivers for all popular SQL backends (SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, and many others). Alpha Anywhere uses connection strings that allow access to thousands of tables at once. For Web services, Alpha Anywhere supports the oData standard to allow developers to inspect and connect to external data structures. Working with Internal Data: Alpha supports ONLY external databases – so there are no restrictions in the use of 3rd party BI and reporting tools.] |
Integration tools are not built into OutSystems and functionality needs to be coded by hand. OutSystems does not support quickly changing data sources. [Working with External Data: OutSystems requires integration components to first be constructed, adding to complexity. External Table Integration must be done one table at a time. OutSystems does not support oData. Working with Internal Data: If you use OutSystems’ internal database, there are significant hurdles to using that data with 3rd party BI and reporting tools.] |
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Robust Offline Capability [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere has robust offline capability built-in, with data synchronization and intelligent conflict resolution included. Citizen developers can implement this fundtionality without code. |
OutSystems does support offline storage, but requires some coding for even the most basic of synchronization scenarios. |
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Built-in Analytics and Reporting [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere includes a built-in banded report writer for server-side reporting. Client-side templating reports can also be generated and viewed offline on a mobile device. |
Outsystems does not include reporting. |
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Handling and Storage of Large Image, Audio and Video Files [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere allows images to be stored in either local storage or in the devices file system. Media files can be transferred directly between the device and Amazon S3 without going through an application server. |
OutSystems does not have Amazon S3 integration and does not have special functionality for dealing with large media files. |
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Built-in Mobile Optimized Forms Builder [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere includes mobile optimized form technology. Mobile forms offer speed data capture for forms workers with features like: larger buttons or swipe capablities for one-handed input; customized keyboards for numbers-only data fields, digital ink, and image capture and annotation that can be done without a stylus. |
OutSystems does not offer custom keyboards, image annotation, or other mobile optimized controls. |
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One Button Deploy to the Cloud [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Cloud takes care of installing and maintaining server software needed to run your Alpha Anywhere applications, with one-button deployment to the cloud. |
Outsystems does not offer one-button deployment to the cloud. |
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Predictable Pricing [+] Show / Hide Details |
Alpha Anywhere offers transparent pricing based on the number of application servers needed for deployment. As a result, development costs and ongoing costs (TCO) are easy to predict. |
OutSystems pricing ties to the number of objects you consume, and abstract measure that makes costs hard to predict. |
OutSystems competitor Alpha Anywhere speeds development for all users. It does the routine coding for experienced developers, and builds the apps for citizen developers. The software also has built-in genies that speed data integration, offline capability and security. But, Alpha Anywhere rapid mobile app development always gives developers the ability to add code, if needed. We call this "coding-optional."
Alpha Anywhere is the emerging standard for enterprises looking to help IT developers increase their pipeline while empowering business users to build sophisticated, web and mobile business apps fast.
Why do customers see Alpha Anywhere as a viable alternative to OutSystems?
When you're comparing OutSystems to Alpha Software or other competitors, you'll hear a lot of good things, but you're not always getting the full story. Here are some questions you should ask to be sure you're getting all the facts.
When you hear: "We do offline."
Understand that all "offline" capabilities are not equal. Be sure to ask:
If the answer is "No," then it means your apps will likely have severe limitations that could hurt your ability to intelligently capture store and sync data.
When you hear: "We serve citizen developers."
You can't expect business users to code to build or deploy their apps, or productivity will suffer. Be sure to ask:
If the answer is "No," you'll likely burn a lot of time and money on data integration and security issues.
When you hear: "Our apps are cross-platform."
Understand that responsive isn't necessarily cross-platform. Be sure to ask:
If the answer is "No," then users experience will most likely not have a native-like experience on the apps.
"The platform has shown me how easy it can be to build enterprise-grade, mission-critical apps. My colleagues are telling me I deserve a 'Best Programmer Award,' but the real honor goes to Alpha Software."
"Alpha Anywhere ticked all the boxes. It offered numerous out-of-the-box advantages, of which offline-capability on mobile devices was the most significant --- most other platforms didn't have that capability built-in."
"If I had used a tool rather than Alpha Anywhere, it would have taken me twice as long to launch Fast Mirror, and possibly miss a market opportunity."
“Alpha Software has robust enterprise integration capabilities & rich client-side workflow & custom logic creation in its coding-optional development tool...”
– Gartner Magic Quadrant, Mobile Application Development Platforms, June 2016
Alpha Software Corporation
781-229-4500
The Alpha platform is the only unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” components. Using the Alpha TransForm no-code product, business users and developers can take full advantage of all the capabilities of the smartphone to turn any form into a mobile app in minutes, and power users can add advanced app functionality with Alpha TransForm's built-in programming language. IT developers can use the Alpha Anywhere low-code environment to develop complex web or mobile business apps from scratch, integrate data with existing systems of record and workflows (including data collected via Alpha TransForm), and add additional security or authentication requirements to protect corporate data.
Alpha Software Corporation, based in Massachusetts, produces award-winning software that speeds mobile and web app development and deployment for business and IT. The core technology includes two components. Alpha Anywhere®, a full-stack low-code app development platform for building and deploying web and mobile apps. In just hours, Alpha TransForm® turns complex paper forms into powerful mobile forms that speed data collection.
Alpha Software is an InfoWorld Technology of the Year award winner, and scores near-perfect reviews from customers on crowdsourced review sites.
Customers rate Alpha Software highly for its speed of development, flexibility, offline apps, rich feature set and ability to scale predictably. For more information, visit https://www.alphasoftware.com/
