Low-Code Platforms: AI Hasn’t Shaken Up the Landscape as Much

Globant and Huawei added to the mix, SAP removed… and for the rest, the lineup remains the same. This is how, year over year, the composition of the Magic Quadrant for low-code development platforms has evolved.

The overall ranking hasn’t shifted significantly. The “leaders” for 2025, in particular, remain leaders in 2026. These are Appian, Mendix, Microsoft, OutSystems, Salesforce and ServiceNow.

Variations are more pronounced when looking at the two axes that structure the Magic Quadrant. One is called “Execution,” reflecting the ability to meet demand (customer experience, pricing, quality of products/services…). The other, “Vision,” reflects strategies (innovation, marketing, business model…).

The situation on the “Execution” axis:

On the “Vision” axis:

Under the AI Lens, Positions Evolve

The evolution of relative positions is particularly marked on the “Vision” axis. This is, among other factors, a consequence of Gartner’s emphasis on AI capabilities. To the point of the subtitle of its briefing: officially, the analysis no longer focuses solely on low-code development platforms, but on those “augmented by AI.”

Without stating to what extent, the firm claims that providers were “better evaluated” when they offered, for example:

• revisable, testable outputs that respect permissions
• native agentic capabilities with orchestration and governance
• extension of controls (cost, security, lifecycle) to AI usage

In this context, Salesforce is the one making the most progress on “Vision” (gaining 5 places). Gartner specifically appreciates its Headless Experience Layer runtime, which adapts widgets to the rendering surface (see our article about the offering in which it sits, and which aims to facilitate CRM access in headless mode).

Pegasystems is on an opposite trajectory (losing 4 places). Among other things, Gartner criticizes it for a certain closed approach to models and runtimes.

Appian, lauded for the level of functional unification…

Last year, Gartner praised Appian’s commercial presence (reseller network, direct sales in its major geographic footprints). It also noted the thoroughness of training programs and the robustness of self-service capabilities (tools and documentation). While praising the platform’s management capabilities (quality of dashboards, AI-assisted remediation, and the Kubernetes-native infrastructure).

This year, one of the positives goes to SLA options (up to 99.99%). Another is deployment flexibility. Gartner more broadly highlights the level of functional unification between application development, process automation, and data fabric. It also notes Appian’s operational performance, now profitable.

… but not for the pricing model

Many features were only accessible at higher price tiers, Gartner noted in 2025. Appian is slower than others to deploy AI orchestration, he added. Not without noting a lag in compliance automation.

This year, the U.S. firm calls out marketing: Appian tends to focus on process automation at the expense of application development capabilities and agent management. There is also caution around self-managed deployments, where updates are less frequent (quarterly) and where AI features are missing or restricted. There is also caution around the pricing model based on a proprietary consumption unit (the “AI actions”).

Siemens has well integrated Mendix and RapidMiner…

Last year, Gartner praised Mendix for its market understanding, coupled with alliances with AWS, Microsoft and Snowflake. It also appreciated the developer tooling—particularly its extensibility. It also noted the focus on integrating agents and GenAI modules, with a subscription model enabling incremental progress without heavy migrations.

Like Appian, Mendix stands out this year for its SLAs. More broadly, its track record of availability, paired with a variety of deployment options. Another advantage: the integration with RapidMiner—another Siemens product—for data and application integration and the design of business workflows.

… but the need for third-party products has not disappeared

Mendix lacks expertise in certain geographic regions and in certain verticals, Gartner judged in 2025. It also added a complex licensing, partner training requirements, and instability of AI features.

Recently, Siemens merged Mendix and RapidMiner into the Intelligence Center X offering. Gartner says it is still difficult to gauge the trajectory it will take. It also notes the need to rely on third-party products for testing automations and advanced security management. As well as pricing evolution. Ongoing efforts to adapt to AI may make costs potentially difficult to forecast.

Microsoft stands out for the synergy between its products…

In 2025, Gartner praised the integration of the Power Platform with the rest of Microsoft’s software ecosystem. It also highlighted the deployment flexibility of its various components. And the quality of the Power Apps community, its roadmap and training resources.

This year, Microsoft is credited with a strong point for governance controls integrated into the admin center. It also stands out at the functional level, as well as the synergies it has built between its products, despite separate licenses. A good point also on the catalog of integrations, which has evolved to reflect the context needed by AI agents.

… however not suited to long-running automation

In 2025, Microsoft, like many others, faced a negative note on marketing: the messaging around Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 tends to overshadow the messaging around Power Apps. Other limits: a lack of industry solutions and challenges in managing data policies and licensing.

This year, Gartner regrets the absence of a single Power Platform license. It also notes that Azure is the only option for inference. Another point raised: a lack of governance granularity. For example, in Copilot Studio, it is not possible to limit which harnesses a user, group or environment can access. Power Apps and Copilot Studio, more generally, are not suited for long-running automations, according to Gartner.

OutSystems, well positioned for AI agent security…

Last year, OutSystems stood out for the level of financial investment in its solution, as well as the quality of its regional support across key geographies. Another plus: a vision aligned with market needs (distributed architectures, agentive AI, observability).

This year, Gartner appreciates the consolidation of visual development, low-code and pro-code around a single application model. It also values OutSystems’ responsiveness (as demonstrated by the management of standards such as MCP), its AI roadmap and its agent security controls (identity management, protection against prompt injection, control of generation and tool usage).

… less on financial tooling

Depending on partners, the quality of support is mixed, Gartner explained in 2025. The firm also stated that the industry-focused strategy was less developed than that of other vendors. It also pointed out unclear communication about the value of the OutSystems Developer Cloud solution in complex environments.

This year, a weak point is the financial management tooling, more limited than the competition. The same comment applies to training programs and measuring value. Also, regarding growth plans and go-to-market approach: OutSystems provides little visibility into its outlook.

L’AppExchange and Trailhead, two strengths of Salesforce…

In the low-code space, Salesforce has a broad portfolio of offerings and a solid base of recurring revenue, Gartner asserted last year. It also noted its global presence (hosting, support), the comprehensiveness of its training/community resources, and a coherent ecosystem enabling AI adoption without dependencies.

This year again, a strong point is its training resources via Trailhead. Gartner adds the ecosystem accessible via AppExchange. It also mentions the partner network. And on the innovation front, the mentioned Headless Experience layer.

… but it must learn to speak to technical teams

In 2025, Gartner highlighted the lack of sector-specific components outside customer engagement. More broadly, it spoke of a complex offering with dependencies on products like MuleSoft or Tableau, which could pose integration challenges. Another note: unclear communications about autonomous capabilities, complicating competition with pure-play players.

This year, Gartner notes that Salesforce has made more acquisitions in this segment than its competitors, risking disruption to product and license coherence. The vendor must also adapt its go-to-market approach to technical teams, having historically targeted business users. As for implementation effort, it can remain significant despite investments in agent tooling (including the Mesh acquisition).

A strong customer experience at ServiceNow…

Partner network, developer community, and training programs are ServiceNow’s strengths, Gartner explained last year. It also noted the quality of monitoring and governance of its platform.

This year, the firm emphasizes the customer experience. Specifically, 24/7 support across all subscription levels, training resources, and monthly releases of developer tooling. Functionally, ServiceNow stands out in agent orchestration and governance. Its overall business is solid (revenue growth and profitability), and this also shows in low-code, at least on metrics such as retention rate and the contractual value of the Otto (formerly Now Assist) module.

… but a commercial structure that can be confusing

ServiceNow’s low-code offering remains widely seen as IT-oriented, Gartner judged in 2025. It also flagged the difficulty of forecasting costs, given the multiple module levels and add-ons. And warned about the validation efforts required to integrate GenAI features that were evolving.

This year, Gartner highlights a commercial structure that, in its view, can create confusion: despite consolidating its offering under the ServiceNow AI Platform banner, low-code functions remain sold under the App Engine brand with predefined support quotas. Another limitation: reliance on integrators to deliver certain industry-specific solutions. ServiceNow also tends to provide an incremental response to market evolution rather than a differentiated vision.