Thinkwise

What Thinkwise is

Thinkwise is a model-driven low-code platform for large business applications, published by a company with its office in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The home page calls it "The never legacy platform for business-critical applications" and "the Thinkwise AI-Powered model-driven development platform", and names the kind of software it has in mind: "A new ERP, TMS, PIM, MES, WMS, OMS and/or any other business-critical application."

This is a platform for IT organizations and software vendors, not for a founder or a business team building alone. The company's own comparison page says the platform "is intended for use by professional developers and not by Citizen developers." The business can contribute to the process, but it "does not develop by itself."

What you build and how

The home page frames the product as "One platform - 5 components", and each component answers a question a buyer would ask.

1. The Digital Factory ("A Software Factory for fast and smart code production"). This is the build environment. You describe your application as a model, a "digital blueprint", and the factory produces the working software. Because you maintain a blueprint and not hand-drawn screens, the company says "your applications will never have to be rebuilt again."

2. AI models. The heading asks "Looking for common sense benefits of AI?" and lists Generative AI and model-driven code. The pages held give no further detail on what the AI does inside the factory.

3. User interaction ("'Any User' interaction centric"). This is the front end. The comparison pages explain the central design choice. Platforms such as Mendix and OutSystems have you "draw" each screen or web page separately. Thinkwise "works with reusable, abstract screen types", so you do not draw and maintain thousands of screens for a large application. The company calls this "a small example" of a different approach.

4. Connectivity ("Needing to share data outside your company, safely?"). This covers data exchange with your ecosystem. No specific connectors or protocols are named on the pages held.

5. Upcycler. This is the legacy migration tool, described as "Clean, sort and lift your existing data into a new tech infrastructure." It reads the metadata of an existing system and uses it "to create the foundation for the new solution", and you decide which elements to include or exclude, so a replacement project does not start from zero. The platform menu lists legacy sources by name: AS/400, Lotus and HCL Notes, Progress and Uniface. Another menu entry lists the application types Thinkwise targets, CRM, ERP and WMS.

Separation of technology and function is the idea that ties these together. The comparison page says the underlying technology, "such as User Interfaces, Service Tiers and databases, and the development environment itself", is "updated periodically by Thinkwise, without affecting previously built applications." You "effectively outsource the technological development aspect" and focus on functional design. The platform menu also lists Technology as a Service, Security, Cloud and SDLC pages, so deployment and lifecycle topics have their own sections, though those pages are not among the ones held here.

The company positions itself against two named rivals. Its comparison page describes Mendix as a vendor focused on mobile apps and peripheral applications, with a no-code side and a low-code side that citizen developers and professionals can both use. OutSystems is described as more focused on the professional developer, with more comprehensive applications. Thinkwise places itself in a third spot, "specialized in creating large, complex business applications such as a complete ERP system or a Learning Management System."

The Solutions menu shows how the company expects you to arrive. It is organized per legacy replacement, per application, per industry, per customer (customer cases) and per profile, with separate paths for a Business and Innovation Lead, a Developer and a Technology Lead.

What the pages state

On productivity, the pages repeat "Highest productivity amongst low-code platforms" and "Replace & prevent legacy". The Mendix comparison cites a study which "showed that developing software using Thinkwise leads to faster implementations, more scalable applications, shorter turnaround times and significantly lower costs." The study is the company's reference and the held pages do not give its numbers. The same page quotes a Gartner prediction that by 2024 low-code would account for 65% of enterprise software development, which is market context and not a product fact.

The pages say when buyers pick Thinkwise over another low-code platform. One reason is size: "databases with more than 100 tables", or an application with hundreds of screens that cannot be maintained one screen at a time. Another is the licensing model, "typically more favorable for larger organizations and projects, and more transparent about projected future fees." A third is simplification, since the company says it is "the only low-code platform that offers a single governing integrated blueprint instead of individual apps." These are vendor claims, and the pages publish no price list or license fees.

For customers, the home page features Vezet, a food company, with the quote "Thinkwise showed us that they could replace our entire ERP, both in terms of scale and complexity". The Upcycler section points to Coffee Fresh, Hartmann and Olyslager as references. The industry sections cover Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics, Retail and Wholesale, and Agri and Food. A vision paper for leasing companies is also offered.

Around the product are an Academy, a Community, a library of blogs, documentation and events, a partner program for ISV software vendors, and a Thinkwise Foundation. There is a "Free Trial" button on the comparison pages, with no terms shown. The pages carry no compliance certifications, hosting regions or open-source information, and the site is published in English, German and Dutch.

Who it suits and who it does not

Thinkwise suits a company with professional developers that must replace or modernize a core system, such as an ERP, warehouse system or CRM, and wants one governed blueprint instead of a pile of separate apps. The legacy list is specific enough that an organization running AS/400, Lotus Notes, Progress or Uniface software can see its own situation named. Software vendors who build products for customers can look at the ISV partner path.

It is a poor match in the places the company itself says. The pages state it "is not suited for developing B2C apps or web portals that require screens to be pixel-perfect", with a dating app or the amazon.com website as examples, and point to Mendix for that work. It is also not a tool for business users building their own apps, and the company says existing developers "will be indispensable" to a rollout. A team with one small internal app would have little reason to adopt a platform designed for hundreds of screens. Prices are not published, so budget planning starts with a conversation.