WebRatio

What WebRatio is

WebRatio Platform is a low-code development platform for professional developers and companies who build custom business applications. It combines 3 development environments in one product, Web, Mobile and BPA (business process automation), and it generates the code from visual models. The company, WebRatio S.r.l., describes the platform as one "to develop custom applications tailored on the business processes that differentiate companies from competitors, with time and resources comparable to traditional market solutions". The Italian product page describes the intended user as a professional low-coder, someone with an IT or business background, and calls that person a full-stack developer focused on business results. The target reader is an enterprise IT team, a software house or a system integrator that wants to build something specific to its business and does not want a closed runtime. The company describes itself as an international software factory.

What you build and how

The 3 environments map to 3 kinds of output. In Web development you build web applications with custom graphics and unique user interfaces; the generated applications are single-page JavaScript apps using Angular. In Mobile development you design a project once and release custom iOS and Android apps for both platforms through cross-platform technology, without writing a line of native code; the mobile apps use Angular and Ionic. Testing is helped by an integrated simulator and by trying the app directly on your own device. In BPA development, a process designer and an integrated BPM engine let you define business processes with one visual approach and make them available digitally for back-end and front-end applications, together with Open API, Web and Mobile interface development. The BPM applications are Java applications using Spring and Hibernate.

Visual languages. The heart of the platform is 3 modeling standards adopted by the Object Management Group (OMG). IFML, the Interaction Flow Modeling Language, describes what the user sees, the navigation paths between interface elements, user events and the links to business logic and databases. The page says WebRatio devised IFML and that OMG adopted it as a standard in 2013. BPMN defines business processes, and UML class diagrams define the domain model behind back-end and front-end applications.

The designers. The Interaction Flow Designer is the main tool, where low-coders design the structure, content and behavior of the application as the user meets it online. The User Interface Designer is a WYSIWYG editor for web and mobile interfaces, with a main area that is both editor and preview, and drag and drop from a widget bar. The widget library is dynamic: it depends on the style attached to the project and can be extended with widgets that developers create. A wizard sets up custom widgets, built in Angular, so a company can keep its own widget libraries for itself and its clients. Layouts use predefined themes or custom ones with your own color palette, font set and icons.

The Business Process Model designer uses BPMN notation to define participants, tasks, subprocesses, automatic processing flows, messages and notifications, automatic events and gateways that decide how activities proceed. A synchronization wizard then links the BPMN process to the web application and creates a dashboard for each actor in the process plus the user interfaces needed to carry out the user tasks.

The OpenAPI Designer lets you define a UML domain model describing the structure of the information the application handles, including by importing it from an external data source. From the model you get CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete) automatically, you draw the logic flow for further functions, and you publish them as Open API, protected with role-based access control (RBAC) rules for specific users.

Deployment and architecture. The site states that applications built on the platform are standard Java applications that can be released on premises or in any cloud, with no further usage costs and no per-end-user costs. It also describes the generated technologies as open and standard so customers are not tied to the vendor, and publishes an infographic on how to protect yourself from 7 vendor lock-in strategies. The platform builds cloud applications with microservice architectures and, according to the Italian page, integrates with any corporate DevOps environment, which ties it to Agile practices such as quick MVPs and continuous feedback.

Recent releases. The English home page announces WebRatio Platform 9.3.3, with generated mobile apps ready for Google Play's new mandatory requirements for Android 16 and API level 36, framed as platform-managed application evolution. Stories on the page cover 3 ways to integrate AI into applications, and a whitepaper arguing that low-code prevents the technical debt that can build up with vibe coding. The page also links learning material, webinars, certification, a university program, support and a community.

Case studies on the home page include hyperautomation for Ricoh using RPA, BPA and low-code, an IRIS-BLUE suite for insurance companies, a Truspace BIM solution for asset management, and an IoT and mobile system for Industry 4.0.

Editions, pricing model and claims

The Italian page lists 3 editions. Community is free and meant for exploring low-code, and it can be tried for Web and Mobile with no time limit after registering. Professional is aimed at developers creating web and mobile applications, with APIs and customizable UI widgets, and is sold online to professionals and small companies with a subscription of 3, 6 or 12 months. Enterprise is the complete suite, adding BPA development, custom components, team collaboration and access to the source code, with a demo on request. Subscriptions are flat, with a fixed cost per developer seat and "senza spese aggiuntive nascoste" (no hidden extra costs), and applications you build can be used without the platform. The pages give the model but not the price figures.

The productivity numbers are the company's own. The home page headline is "7 times faster" development, with a 700% increase in development productivity and a 6-12 month payback period for the digital solution. The same page puts the time from idea to digital solution at 4-12 weeks. The Italian page says the platform builds applications 7 times faster than traditional programming, cuts time-to-market and payback period by 60%, and brings 30% savings in resources. It cites a Dedagroup benchmark showing a 700% increase in development productivity over traditional methods. Citing Function Point data from the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group, it says a function point takes 8.3 hours with traditional programming languages and 1.8 hours with market low-code technologies, against 1.13 hours with WebRatio Platform, a 60% productivity gain over other low-code platforms.

Customer stories listed on the home page include an urban mobility digital services suite built in one third of the time, an Agile, DevOps and low-code program in a large Italian public administration, and a system integrator, Tesys-Fabless Group, that saved 60%. Further downloads include a datasheet for the WebRatio Platform Enterprise edition and an analysis of developer feedback on 26 low-code platforms.

Who it suits

WebRatio suits a software house, a system integrator or an enterprise team with developers who think in models and want the output to be standard Angular, Ionic, Spring and Hibernate that outlives the contract. The combination of web, mobile and BPM in one tool fits organizations modernizing legacy applications, and insurers, public bodies and an Industry 4.0 system appear among its stories. A freelancer or small company can start with the free Community edition and move to a short Professional subscription.

It is not a tool for a founder who wants to click together a landing page, a store or a quick form tonight. The user is expected to model domains, interaction flows and processes in IFML, BPMN and UML, which is an engineering skill. Much of the detailed product description, including the editions, sits on the Italian-language page.