Software That Makes Software

5.0
4 reviews
Made for

Users looking for enterprise class apps very customizable UI.

Not for

Users looking for a simple or code-free app platform.

 
Free Trial
 
$299/mo. - $559/mo.
Pricing details
Example customers

Barnes & Noble

Macy's

Canon

Features

App Platforms

  • Native Android
  • Native iOS (Swift)
  • Java and .NET for Web
  • Java for SAP
  • HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript
  • REST and SOAP

Development Tools

  • Drag and drop UI
  • Live editing
  • Templates and patterns
  • Custom code support
  • SDK for extensibility
  • Team development server

Location Services

  • GPS and Maps
  • Beacons

Integrations

Deployment

  • Cloud deployment
  • Publishing to App Stores
  • App updates
  • Google Analytics
  • SAP Hana Cloud Platform

Security & Hosting

  • OAuth authentication
  • Integrated security module
  • Cryptography data types
  • Data Encryption

Pricing

GeneXus pricing model is per developer, with the possibility to create unlimited apps. License includes: Development Environment (IDE), Web and Mobile generators (Java, C#, Swift), and compatibility with all available Databases (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, etc). Monthly and Annual subscription. One time license also available.

Basic info

 
Free Trial
 
$299/mo. - $559/mo.
 
Monthly subscription
Annual subscription
One time license
Pricing per developer. Unlimited apps.
LevelPrice
GeneXus TrialFree
GeneXus for ISV$299/mo.
GeneXus Corporate$559/mo.
One time licenseContact us for pricing

Technical Support: It includes up to 12 incidents per year and access to technology forums.

Vendor Pricing

Reviews

5.0
4 reviews
Sort by
 
Client Interview
Oct 24 2017

Software Building for Cookware Company

5.0

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
5.0
Support: 
3.5
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
 
Consumer Goods
 
201-500 Employees
 
San Francisco Bay Area
Information System Supervisor, Meyer Corperation
Gabriel Gramajo
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

GeneXus has been used to create seven systems for the company for different departments. It’s recommended to medium-sized companies for addressing all business, inventory, and customer service needs, helping them to grow within their market. The learning curve for the tool is short and it allows users to create prototypes or fully functional products really quickly.

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the applications software development supervisor for Meyer Corporation, who’s main focus is on selling cooking equipment. I’m in charge of all the in-house software development, using tools like Visual Studio and GeneXus. We’re basically taking care of all the solutions in our integration with third-party providers like Farberware, Essteele, and other e-commerce shops.

What business challenge was your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

Our challenge is the same as others in the industry. We try to address the main requirements for our end customers as fast as we can, covering as much ground as we can in a fashionable way.

Solution

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

I’ve been personally using GeneXus for the past 20 years, so I know the tool perfectly well, as well as its capabilities, pros, and cons. By experience, you can notice the difference in productivity, mainly at the level of the performance of the applications and with the deliverables you can make using GeneXus in comparison with other tools that are of the same kind.

What is the ideal project to use the platform with? Any projects that would avoid?

Our solutions are focused on providing integration platforms with other third-party providers. In my personal experience, GeneXus feels more comfortable for a medium-sized company, addressing the areas of business and inventory management and customer service. It empowers companies to grow in their market.

What cost factors should clients keep in mind when considering this tool?

Outside of the cost of the license, the learning curve with GeneXus is really short. For any developer that has been working with Java, C#, etc., working with GeneXus is going to be really easy. It has its own framework and certain guidelines on how to create software. The only downside that needs to be addressed is that the mindset will not be there with people that have been using C# or Java—they’ll need to get used to it.

On the pro-side of the story, there is a cost-effectiveness because you can produce a prototype very fast that will cover the needs of your business. A product can be delivered pretty quickly using GeneXus rather than using the other technologies that are available right now in the IT industry.

How many users are using the tool at your company?

Right now, we have around seven systems that have been created with GeneXus. We are touching different departments and I would say that there are around 400 end users on the different systems directly involved with the tool. There is probably another subset of 400 more users that are affected directly or indirectly by the results of using the tool. Overall, we only have 2 developers using the tool.

How much money do you spend per year?

We just bought some licenses and I think it will be around $10,000 for those. The cost will go down though because we are only going to pay the maintenance moving forward, which will probably be at around $4,000 per year.

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this tool?

I will present one case that belongs to Meyer and one case that belongs to a prior e-commerce company that I used to work for. For Meyer, we worked with Sentel two years ago, which is why GeneXus entered to be a player there in the IT production environment. We were presented with the requirement that we needed to produce a solution in only a couple of days. I told my boss in that moment that we weren't capable of producing those results in such a short amount of time, even with a group of 4 web developers.

I brought up GeneXus, where only one developer—in this case, myself—could produce the solution in one week and we could put it in production the next. That’s when they started calling the solution the “two-week solution” inside the company. Every time that they need something, they know that it can be produced quickly and with the expected quality for the end users.

The other situation was for an inventory management solution that I built for an e-commerce company that was created eight years ago. It’s still running with GeneXus and it’s in charge of 400 workers around the country. It’s a web platform with a backend in Windows, also created in GeneXus, and it’s still moving around 20,000 transactions per day in regard to inventory.

Features

What are the features or tools of the platform that have most impressed you?

On the latest version, the capability of producing smart device applications for iOS and Android is great. GeneXus adapts to all the changes in technology and really displays good quality in that sense. They are quick at adapting to those changes and producing something that direct users of the tool can explore in their benefit and the benefits for the end users.

Are there any areas of the software that could be added or improved upon?

The support and training for the American market could be improved on.

Have you had to interact with the platform’s support team or reference their support resources?

Because they manage in the same language that they speak, I have an advantage. In the sense of attending the American market, there is plenty of room to grow but I think they’re working proactively on doing that.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.5 Features
  • 5.0 Ease of Use
  • 3.5 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Oct 24 2017

ERP Software Development using GeneXus

5.0

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
5.0
Support: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
 
Computer Software
 
1-10 Employees
 
Ottawa, Ohio
Owner, In-Accord
Shlomo Haviv
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

GeneXus is a great tool for projects involving sophisticated interfaces and it converts Windows-based work into something web-based effortlessly. It also easily adapts to any kind of database environment, keeping the database structurally safe throughout any changes in code and such.

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of In-Accord, a managing and scheduling software developer.

What challenge was your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?

I started using GeneXus way back and found that it’s a very flexible, upper-level development language even for a Windows environment. It easily adapts to any kind of database environments such as SQL and Oracle, along with others including RPG. You can actually write the same code, recompile it, and deploy it in various environments, which was very attractive to us.

Solution

Was your company considering other platforms?

No. When I started converting from Windows to the web, I looked at other tools but GeneXus had the best solution.

What type of project is ideal for the platform?

It’s ideal for any project or software development that is highly dependent on making sure the database remains structurally sound and safe. It’s intelligent development—not just for developing code for a certain functionality. It intelligently manages the whole relationship of the database behind the scenes and makes sure it doesn’t get compromised when you make changes, which is probably one of GeneXus’ biggest strengths.

Developing in GeneXus is beyond developing how a screen looks—it involves how everything relates to each other and how to add or delete tables and so on. It also tells you when you’ve done something wrong. They write native code behind the scenes that would take a long time to write in native languages like HTML and such. Also, the speed of development is great.

Is there a project you wouldn’t use it for?

You could probably use other tools for frontend screens or interfaces that aren’t complicated or for something that is more of a commercial project. GeneXus is more useful for sophisticated interfaces and dashboard-type projects.

What cost factors should clients keep in mind when considering this tool?

The cost is minimal but it will go up if you get programming services from them, most likely being greater than what you’d pay for in-house developers. You can either buy it or pay on a yearly basis—it’s simple and straightforward.

How much do you spend per year?

We spend less than $5,000 per year.

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

The ability to convert anything that is Windows-based to something web-based is a very easy task. I’ve converted a lot of functionality from a Windows environment to web smart devices, and maybe not all the screens get there, but a lot of the operational ones do. It has very good transition and it enables a quick entry to deploying things on smart devices.

Features

What are the features or tools of the platform that have most impressed you?

It’s not fragmented—it’s a complete tool that you can use for everything.

Are there any areas of the software that could be added or improved upon?

They could have a better tool to manage multiple developers sitting in different parts of the world. There’s a GX server that is already there, but I don’t have enough experience with it.

Have you had positive or negative experience with their support resources?

So far, it’s been positive. There’s a forum where people can get answers to questions. Some issues or bugs are more complicated, so it’s not either good or bad and it’s no different than any other tool. I mostly use in-house developers, so they’re experienced and know what they’re doing. Once you have a developer using it, you rarely need help.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.5 Features
    There might be something I don’t know about.
  • 5.0 Ease of Use
  • 5.0 Support
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Oct 23 2017

Early Adopter and Longtime User

5.0

Features: 
4.5
Ease of use: 
4.5
Support: 
3.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
 
Building Materials
 
51-200 Employees
 
St. Marys, Kansas
IT Director, Custom Wood Products
Jeff Parker
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

The client’s entire ERP system is built on GeneXus, which has been in use since the 90s due to its knowledge base, attractive developer interface, and the ability it gives to quickly generate apps. It’s a great option for clients that are willing to let go of control of the code and manage it from a business standpoint. The only major negatives are the high cost, which makes it inaccessible for individual developers, and the buggy WAR builder.

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in charge of IT and accounting for Custom Wood Products, which is a primarily residential cabinet manufacturer. We specialize in building custom wood cabinetry.

What challenge was your company facing that initiated the need for this platform?

I used to work at Mize Houser and Company in Topeka, Kansas, which is a regional CPA [certified public accountant] firm. We were actually the first U.S. distributors of GeneXus back in the 90s. I had a staff of developers and we did programming in RPG and AS400 green screen way back in the day. We did a lot of custom programming work but then started using GeneXus to handle it. One of our clients was Custom Wood Products and we built their entire ERP [enterprise resource planning] system over the years.

The ERP includes everything that they use here, from cut lists that interface with machines in the shop and the delivery schedule that helps them load the trucks, to portals that allow their dealers to get online and see their accounts and management portals to see what the schedule is and all the different departments. They run their entire business with it and it’s almost entirely built in GeneXus.

Solution

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

There was a product called Synon which was a code generating tool for RPG back in the old days which was kind of the standard for rapid application development. When GeneXus came along, we liked the concept of a knowledge base and encapsulating the business logic separate from the code, which really got us interested. Just the fact that we are operating with an ERP still in GeneXus decades later attests to the strength of our decision back then.

How many people in your office use the platform?

Only 2.

How much do you spend each year?

We bought 2 perpetual licenses this past year. In the future, it will be $3,000 per year.

What is the ideal project to use the app builder for? Who should possibly avoid it?

The big barrier when adopting GeneXus is that you have to close your eyes, fall backward, and just trust them. If you don’t get on board 100% and really commit to it, you will fail. You need to embrace the mentality of not controlling your code and let them do it. What makes it a good fit for some companies versus others is attitude—I don’t think that it matters industry-wise. Controlling IT people will have difficulty with it but people that drive IT from a business standpoint will be successful.

What cost factors should clients keep in mind when considering this tool?

The cost for GeneXus is ghastly, which is the main barrier in the U.S. as all the other competing software products are inexpensive to get in the door. As a developer, you can get a whole lot of stuff without having to pay anything, such as Visual Studio and SQL server. You can basically become a proficient C# developer with Visual Studio alone.

An individual developer wouldn’t be able to afford GeneXus—it’s too expensive. If they lowered their price and made it so that regular guys trying to learn a trade could purchase it and be successful, then they would have a greater adoption rate. They don’t hide anything though; they give you the price up front.

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

The biggest success metric is just the fact that this software lives today. This application started off as an RPG, running on an AS400 with green screen displays. Today, the same code base and the same knowledge base is behind it, but it runs on a Tomcat server using Java with DB2 as the backend database. I’ve also got a version of it running with a SQL Server backend database. It’s powerful stuff.

Features

What are the features or tools of the platform that have most impressed you?

The whole developer interface and the ability to generate apps so fast is truly awesome.

Are there any areas of the software that could be added or improved upon?

I sit in various groups talking about GeneXus; they’re tiny groups because we just don’t have a big enough community in the U.S., but there are a lot of folks that will say bad things about it and I’m right there with some of them. Some parts of GeneXus can be frustrating and I’ve run into some things from time to time and given them ideas, but I don’t think it goes anywhere.

The WAR builder they supply with the software isn’t that good—it’s clunky, bug ridden, and terrible. We abandoned it and actually have a WAR builder of our own made with Visual Studio, which we use to build applications for deployment. It’s a neat thing and I’d like to even put it on the market so that other people can use it, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the other 5 GeneXus users. The problem is the size of the community; if we had a lot more people adopting GeneXus in the U.S., there would be a lot more of that kind of stuff.

Have you had to interact with the platform’s support team or reference their support resources?

My experience with their support services has been negative. The U.S.-based support always assumes that whoever is contacting them doesn’t know what he/she is talking about and it takes a really long time to convince them that there is a problem. They immediately start off with, “Have you tried this? We can’t make it happen here so you are going to have to prove it.” Honestly, the last couple of times that I’ve sent a support ticket, I’ve just left it and solved the issue it myself. However, I haven’t tried their support lately.

5.0
Overall Score
  • 4.5 Features
    It’s cool.
  • 4.5 Ease of Use
    It’s very easy to use once you understand the concepts behind it.
  • 3.0 Support
    We recently implemented GX Server, which is an add-on tool, and we ran into several problems with that. They were responsive to that and did solve the problem.
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
 
Client Interview
Oct 19 2017

Long Term User for App Development

5.0

Features: 
5.0
Ease of use: 
5.0
Support: 
4.5
Willing to refer: 
5.0
See More
the reviewer
 
$1,001 - $10,000/yr. spend
 
Software Development
 
1-10 Employees
 
Evansville, Indiana
Developer, MaddenCo
James Reed
 
Verified
The Review
Recommendations

GeneXus has been used to develop software applications for the past 26 years. Not only does its scalability, ease of use, and code sharing options make it a great tool to use, but it also helps to drastically reduce staffing costs. The cross-platform capability makes for faster development times compared to building native apps, thus increasing overall productivity while also offering great support.

Background

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a software developer for MaddenCo, which is a GeneXus shop that designs software to support companies that are in the tire business, such as Bridgestone and Michelin. We have 5 developers and support a customer base of tens of thousands of users. I’m a software developer.

What challenge were you trying to address with GeneXus?

I’ve been using GeneXus since 1991 when I was looking for a tool that did prototyping. After watching how it worked and seeing that you could take your prototype and turn it into an actual production package, I decided it was the tool we needed to use for everything. I was a development manager at the time, with a team of 14 developers. By using GeneXus, we were able to cut back to 3 developers, which actually ended up being more productive.

Solution

Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?

I didn’t consider any other tools back then and I still haven’t considered changing it.

What type of client is an ideal candidate? Who should possibly avoid these platforms?

It’s a very scalable product that can either work well for an individual who’s just a consultant, or for a large shop where you have a team of developers. GeneXus has tools that make sharing code and managing objects very easy, but it’s not ideal for gaming developers.

What cost factors should clients keep in mind when considering this tool?

There are 2 ways that you can purchase the product. You can get a subscription, which isn’t that bad, or purchase the software, which may sound expensive but it offsets the cost of paying a large team of developers because you can scale your team back. It can actually save a company some money.

On an annual basis, how much does your company spend to utilize the platform?

We pay $2,200 per year per license for the annual renewal of maintenance.

Results

Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?

Our productivity while developing a software package has increased. You can develop something in a third of the time it takes with traditional tools like C# or Java.

Features

Were there any software features/tools that you were really impressed by?

It has its own language called a declarative language, which is the only one I have to learn to put an application together. With that, I can generate an application that can run on an IBM AS/400 or on an Android or iOS phone or tablet. It could be a desktop or web application as well. It’s a one-stop shop.

Are there any areas of the software that you feel could be added or improved upon?

GeneXus is located in Uruguay, so the translation of the documentation could be better at times but it has definitely improved over the years.

Have you had to interact with the platform’s support team or reference their support resources?

Their support is really good. I’ve never had a problem with tickets being submitted and not being quickly acknowledged.

5.0
Overall Score I’ve never had to rely on any third-party tools to accomplish my objectives—the product has never let me down.
  • 5.0 Features
    When Microsoft released C#, they were ready at the same time with a C# generator. They’re really on top of where the industry is going.
  • 5.0 Ease of Use
    It’s very easy to learn. I’ve taught people that aren’t developers how to use it, and they’ve successfully written applications with it.
  • 4.5 Support
    Dealing with the translation has been the only issue.
  • 5.0 Willing to Refer
    I have no problem recommending it to anyone.
Screen shots and videos

GeneXus Development Environment

GeneXus Mobile Apps with Live Editing

GeneXus Capabilities

GeneXus Platform