Betty Blocks vs. Outsystems | Low-code No-code platforms compared

Empowering builders

Build complex apps without coding

Radically shorten time to market

Empower your Citizen Developer workforce

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Innovate smarter with Citizen Development

Citizen Developers are users who build applications to facilitate the processes of business operations while following the development guidelines of IT. Citizen Developers take full ownership of their needs, know exactly what they want, and accelerate innovation by building business applications themselves. This way, every business user is able to contribute to the innovation process of the organization, moving things forward in a fast, secure, and fun way.


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Citizen Development
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Target audience
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Betty Blocks	OutSystems
Fully automated and instant over all applications	User must update, test and migrate every version himself
Number of end-users	Number of end-users + support level

Start right away in the browser. On any client or device. It doesn’t matter if you are operating on either Windows, Mac or Linux.	The Outsystems development suite has to be downloaded first and installed on a Windows client
Personal contact with our team. We help you find the right partner or support you with developing your application.	OutSystems has an extensive network of partners and also takes on projects
Business applications, innovation, Citizen Development	Focus on ERP replacement in Fortune 500 companies
None, privately owned	KKR and Goldman Sachs

Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave ™ for Low-Code Development Platforms For Business Developers, Q4 2021

We’re proud to be recognized as a key thought leader of the enterprise citizen development movement. We received the highest scores possible in nine criteria, which in our opinion demonstrates our ability to help businesses build beautiful and advanced applications.

The key differences between Betty Blocks and OutSystems

To build applications rapidly, you need a high-productivity and user-friendly platform. There are some key differences between Betty Blocks, a no-code platform, and OutSystems, a low-code platform. What’s the right fit for you depends on your goals, who will be using the platform, pricing, and features. Here are the six key differences decision-makers take into account when choosing the right platform for their needs (we’ll try to be as neutral and objective as possible, but of course we are biased!).

No-code vs. low-code

Betty Blocks

Betty Blocks stands out from platforms like OutSystems by being both easy enough that anyone can use it while boasting capabilities powerful enough to build secure, complex, enterprise-grade applications. Building applications is done with the visual drag-and-drop interface and pre-programmed building blocks. This way, you are guaranteed to build applications that work flawlessly, in a fast and fun way.

Unlike most no-code platforms, it’s no-code with an escape hatch: While it is not necessary to write any code to develop complex applications, Betty Blocks also supports JavaScript or HTML integrations for added customization.

Outsystems

Low-code platforms like Outsystems reduce the amount of coding needed to create applications. Some degree of coding is required to build complete applications, but developers can save a lot of time. Low-code platforms are intended for professional developers, aimed to speed up the development time of already existing software applications and IT infrastructures.

The Outsystems platform can be very helpful if you have a team of .NET or Java developers at your disposal, but they represent a significant barrier for non-developers. Recently, Outsystems introduced an option for citizen developers as well

Read all about the differences between no-code and low-code right here.

Ease of use

Betty Blocks

Betty Blocks is one of the easiest to use no-code platforms. All developing with Betty Blocks is done through visual modeling and a drag-and-drop interface of application logic, completely suitable for Citizen Developers.

No-code platforms like Betty Blocks close the gap between software needs and available developers by creating a new kind of developer: the Citizen Developer. This class of developers are eager to innovate, bring about new ideas and build quickly without needing to code. Because of the platform’s ease of use, a professional developer is not needed on every project.

Outsystems

On the other hand, low-code platforms like OutSystems require knowledge of coding, specifically proficiency with .NET, to build applications. Professional developers are often OutSystems' target audience. OutSystems, in particular, is ideal for teams of .NET developers to use to speed up project time to delivery.

Because OutSystems does require a professional developer who can code, it does not address the developer shortage problem. While it allows developers to work 2x faster, there is a limit to the degree that a low-code platform can reduce IT’s backlog. When developing, the entire solution needs to be published, even when testing a small part of the application. Customization is quite difficult and Javascript is often needed.

Pricing

Betty Blocks

Betty Blocks offers flexible and competitive pricing to suit a variety of business needs and to help you best leverage your company’s resources. We base our pricing on the number of users but ensure your applications are fully supported without incurring extra costs. That means no-code application ecosystems built with Betty Blocks provide you with all the tools you need without cutting into your budget.

Betty Blocks doesn't include a tiered system for the platform that limits access to features. Instead, every user has full access to the entire our entire offering from the start. Why? Because our BHAG: "By 2023, we can all build applications" means our pricing should cater to all types of businesses and developers. Read more about the pricing plan here.

Outsystems

OutSystems boasts a complex platform with many, many functionalities, and that is reflected in the cost, whether or not you need or use most of them. Pricing is based on the number of end-users for the applications you build as well as hosting impact. Licensing fees may also increase significantly each year. Currently, the Standard License with 100 end-users included, starts at $120,000 in annual costs.

Aside from Outsystems' pricing based on the number of end-users and the service level, Outsystems charges extra for a variety of cloud, infrastructure, and database add-ons.

The price for your application can vary widely, depending on the complexity and number of users for both platforms. Run the numbers so you’re sure you’re making a calculated decision.

Security

Betty Blocks

Betty Blocks is the first no-code platform with ISO 27001 certification. With this certification, Betty Blocks objectively demonstrates to the world that we comply with the International Standard for Information Security (ISO 27001) and that we have taken all necessary precautions to protect sensitive information against unauthorized access and processing.

To keep your applications 100% secure, it's absolutely mandatory to always keep them updated. Betty Blocks operates 100% from the cloud and has no deployment. Whenever an update is available, all applications running on the platform are automatically updated instantly, ensuring maximum security of your data.

Outsystems

Unlike other low-code vendors, OutSystems generates standard code from the visual application models, enabling standard security assessment tools, such as static code analysis, to vet the runtime code. When new code vulnerabilities are found in generated code, fixes are included in subsequent releases of OutSystems. After upgrading their current OutSystems release, customer applications automatically incorporate the new security fixes, reducing the cost of maintaining OutSystems applications.

Users are responsible for keeping their applications up-to-date, which costs time and money, and when you are behind on updates, security is at risk and a data breach could be right around the corner.

Culture

Betty Blocks

Playful, down to earth, independent. That’s Betty Blocks in a nutshell. Originating from a small village in the Netherlands, the Betty Blocks family works passionately to make enterprise-grade application development fun and accessible for everyone. An audacious goal, but we’re getting it done before 2023, pinky promise.

While the competition focuses on scaling and selling fast, we focus on building our legacy and being of value to the community. Working with Betty Blocks means you are part of our family and you feel that in everything we do. We want to build the future together and have fun while doing it, true Betty Blocks style.

Outsystems

Where OutSystems invests heavily in creating a pleasurable working environment for their employees, customers often find themselves in difficult and 'aggressive' sales negotiations with their employees. Review sites such as Gartner Insights reveal their aggressive pricing strategy, in which Outsystems often declines contract renewals when the customer is unwilling to upgrade their license.

Services

Betty Blocks

When you’re our customer, we want you to succeed. Our goal is improving your customer satisfaction and experience. What does that mean for you as a customer? It means that whatever product you use from Betty Blocks, you have an extensive support system that helps you whenever and wherever. We have several service managers to make sure your problem is solved quickly and efficiently. Personal contact is a core value in everything we do.

Betty Blocks doesn’t only offer the platform Betty Blocks on its own. In fact, one of our most important features is that we have our own Academy where we don’t only school Citizen Developers to become as skilled as they’d like, we also school no-code developers to offer customized products to our customers and maintain, extend and develop the platform.

Outsystems

OutSystems delivers many topic-based courses (online and offline) and has a (standard) customer success team to help with the first steps. After that, they offer paid customers success programs. OutSystems has over 245 partners and 210K community members and also takes on projects.

What challenges do you face?

The first step of choosing the right solution is to evaluate the problem(s) you want to solve. You may be experiencing difficulty innovating because your fresh business ideas fall to the end of IT’s backlog, and it takes too long to see results. Maybe your business is even suffering from a shortage of professional developers. Do you find yourself with ideas that are too big for your budget?

Whether you’re focused on a single application or a complete digital transformation, it’s important to know which platform can provide you with the best features and service depending on your needs so that you can survive the new era of application development. If you want to know how the Betty Blocks platform caters to your business challenges, you can request a personalized demo below, based on your business case.

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