Alpha Anywhere vs. Azure App Service

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Alpha Anywhere
Score 9.9 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The Alpha platform is a unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct "no-code" and "low-code" components. The vendor says that using the Alpha TransForm no-code environment, 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…
$35
Azure App Service
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
The Microsoft Azure App Service is a PaaS that enables users to build, deploy, and scale web apps and APIs, a fully managed service with built-in infrastructure maintenance, security patching, and scaling. Includes Azure Web Apps, Azure Mobile Apps, Azure API Apps, allowing developers to use popular frameworks including .NET, .NET Core, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, and Ruby.
$9.49
per month
Pricing
Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
Editions & Modules
Alpha TransForm (no-code component)
35/month
Alpha Anywhere Business
$1,499/year
Alpha Anywhere
$1,499/year
Alpha Anywhere Business Pro
$2,499/year
Alpha Anywhere Enterprise
Call Us +1 781.850.4600
Volume Discounts
Shared Environment for dev/test
$9.49
per month
Basic Dedicated environment for dev/test
$54.75
per month
Standard Run production workloads
$73
per month
Premium Enhanced performance and scale
$146
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsQuestions? Call us: +1 781.229.4500Free and Shared (preview) plans are ideal for testing applications in a managed Azure environment. Basic, Standard and Premium plans are for production workloads and run on dedicated Virtual Machine instances. Each instance can support multiple applications and domains.
More Pricing Information
Features
Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
Low-Code Development
Comparison of Low-Code Development features of Product A and Product B
Alpha Anywhere
8.4
4 Ratings
3% below category average
Azure App Service
-
Ratings
Visual Modeling8.53 Ratings00 Ratings
Drag-and-drop Interfaces6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Security8.84 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform User Management8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Reusability9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Scalability8.54 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform-as-a-Service
Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Product A and Product B
Alpha Anywhere
-
Ratings
Azure App Service
8.7
3 Ratings
6% above category average
Ease of building user interfaces00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Scalability00 Ratings9.23 Ratings
Platform management overhead00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Workflow engine capability00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Platform access control00 Ratings8.83 Ratings
Services-enabled integration00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Development environment creation00 Ratings8.83 Ratings
Development environment replication00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Issue monitoring and notification00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Issue recovery00 Ratings8.23 Ratings
Upgrades and platform fixes00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
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Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
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Score 9.1 out of 10
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quixy
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IBM Cloud Private
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Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(6 ratings)
8.8
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Alpha AnywhereAzure App Service
Likelihood to Recommend
Alpha Software
The speed of development from concept, through development and delivery of the end product is so impressive [with Alpha Anywhere]. There is an impressive array of genies and helper functions meaning that you can focus on what matters, the end user experience. It is not a "No code" solution but it is a very impressive "low code" solution which allows detailed access under the hood to tweak the applications to your own needs and the needs of your clients.
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Microsoft
You may easily deploy your apps to Azure App Service if they were written in Visual Studio IDE (typically.NET applications). With a few clicks of the mouse, you may already deploy your application to a remote server using the Visual Studio IDE. As a result of the portal's bulk and complexity, I propose Heroku for less-experienced developers.
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Pros
Alpha Software
  • Our company had been creating small business applications since the 1980's, when we used DBase IV (don't laugh... that's what was available). Then, we got more "sophisticated" with Microsoft Access. Clearly, we would always be limited with what we can do with those two programs. By accident, during an Internet search, we saw and ad for Alpha Anywhere (back then, it was called Alpha V). After working with the 30 free trial for just two weeks, we retired Access, for good. The best part was Alpha's flexibility in its use of "back end" data tables. That allowed us to use existing Access tables as we redesigned the front-end program (Alpha ships with its own DBF system, but we prefer SQL-Based tables). You can choose, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Access, Paradox (actually, too many to name) for your tables. You can even create links to Excel spreadsheets or QuickBooks Tables. It's outstanding!
  • Alpha allows developers to create very large and very complex programs. However, it's also a great choice for RAD (Rapid Application Development) for those who need to be up and running quickly or for less experienced programmers. Actually, the interface truly allows for "codeless" development of your application (more on that later). That means you can design a fully functional application, without typing a single line of code. They have some examples on their website.
  • My favorite part of Alpha is that it is constantly adding features and functions that allow us to do more with our applications. In fact, one of my biggest problems is that I need more time to learn and practice the added features as fast as they are introduced
  • Prior to Alpha Anywhere, we never considered creating/developing "mobile" applications (for tablets, smartphones, etc.). Alpha created a unique "panel" system that makes those application work great... and allows for the design of very sophisticated Apps.
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Microsoft
  • It has options to deploy using CI/CD.
  • It has great integration with Azure Devops
  • It has all the common runtimes, so we don't need to install softwares.
Read full review
Cons
Alpha Software
  • I really enjoyed product when the database was a part of it, less maintenance
  • Converting to the cloud has been challenging
  • Security setup should be simpler, like Softr or Stacker
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Microsoft
  • the learning curve can be tough (just like other azure services)
  • the UX/UI could be more intuitive (just like other azure services as well)
  • monitoring can be hard to understand
  • Microsoft's learning resources are hard to understand
Read full review
Support Rating
Alpha Software
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
We had an issue where we deployed too large of a resource and didn't notice until the bill came through. They were very understanding and saw we weren't utilizing the resources so they issued a generous refund in about 4 hours. Very fast, friendly, and understanding support reps from my experience.
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Alternatives Considered
Alpha Software
Alpha Anywhere is a full-stack IDE. It’s no code and low code, but you can also custom code if you need to. About 10% of our application is no code. 80% is low code and 10% is custom code.
Read full review
Microsoft
Azure has many data center, their services are more reliable. Azure has way more features than both Linode and DigitalOcean. If someone wants a complete reliable service, he/she must go to Azure instead of Linode and DigitalOcean because even though azure charges more, it is worth the money you pay there.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Alpha Software
  • Allows for a great return on investment since you can quickly become very productive and complete more projects and applications in a shorter period of time with hand coding and the normal programming headaches of PHP, C#, Angular, etc.
  • You can afford to take on more and smaller projects since they will require far less time to complete than more traditional development environments.
  • Alpha Anywhere is continuously updated coming out with new features and capabilities on essentially a daily basis. Continuous improvement and frequent updates allows you to always stay ahead of the curve and competitors.
  • Alpha Anywhere allows you to offer lower cost solutions that will be completed in less time and that will be much easier to support and maintain.
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Microsoft
  • Reduced the deployment time of ASP .NET applications in the company.
  • Gave us an alternative to quickly deploy our applications without granting access to the version control system to a third platform.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Alpha Anywhere Screenshots

Screenshot of Inspection Solutions is a mobile business app designed for inspectors who need to inspect construction vehicles in the field, but showcases functionality relevant to many other field apps. The app includes the critical features now required in modern field services apps, such as offline capability, bar code scanning, voice annotation and digital ink. It is a native-quality hybrid app created using the Alpha Anywhere V4 rapid mobile application development and deployment platform.Screenshot of Pumpjack Pro is a sample application for Alpha Anywhere designed for inspecting pumpjacks - those machines that look like bobbing horse heads above oil wells. Features include: 
- Pass/fail buttons
- Photo capture
- GPS location capture
- Indicator meters
- A popup cheat sheet
- A popup video
- A signature capture control
- Offline operationScreenshot of DevCon 2016 is an offline-capable mobile/web application for navigating the Alpha Software Developers Conference. Although this is a real, working application it also makes a great sample application for anyone who wishes to build a Conference Schedule Application in Alpha Anywhere.This application was created using out-of-the-box Alpha Anywhere functionality with a minimum of custom JavaScript so it is easy to modify. Developers can make modifications to this sample inspection app directly from within the Alpha Anywhere IDE. 
- Updates Against Live SQL Data
- Works offline
- Can be Used as a Web or Mobile Application
- Can be Modified for Your Own UseScreenshot of Alpha TransForm Data Colleciton AppScreenshot of Alpha Anywhere Punch List appScreenshot of Alpha TransForm inspection app