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Platform comparison · Belgium
We implement eight platforms regularly and hold no reseller agreement with any of them. What follows is what we've seen working in Belgian hybrid environments — and where each one starts to cost more than it carries.
Eight platforms No reseller lock-in Hybrid cloud & on-premises
Before the list
These are not interchangeable products, even when vendors market them as such. An iPaaS, a low-code application platform, an embedded integration platform and a cloud-native toolkit solve different problems. Reading them as one category is how organisations buy the wrong thing.
We've grouped them by the job they do best, then described the trade-off. Your data residency requirements, your team's skills and how much business logic belongs in the platform will decide more than any feature checklist.
Platforms we implement
Every platform below is one we regularly implement. The lamp marks where the platform fits a Belgian hybrid landscape — cloud services next to an on-premises estate you cannot move.
Integration & automation
Recipe-style automation — triggers, actions, conditions. One of the few tools usable by both business teams and IT, with an agent for on-premises systems.
Where it fits: cross-app processes that change often and don't need custom code.
Integration & automation
The same composable, API-first idea taken further. Custom connectors and script-like steps hold up when you need more control than a no-code tool gives, without writing middleware from scratch.
Where it fits: teams who want composable control without rebuilding a middleware stack.
Enterprise iPaaS
Built for data and application integration at volume, with prebuilt connectors and AI-assisted pipeline building. Suits large teams with many pipelines and real governance needs.
Trade-off: it's a platform you commit to, not something you dip into.
Data management
Intelligent Data Management Cloud is the choice when data quality, governance and movement are the core requirement rather than a side effect. Governance is priced in — buy it deliberately.
Where it fits: heavy orchestration across many systems where data quality carries the business.
Low-code applications
A low-code platform for enterprise software delivery, picked when business and IT need to work on the same application together. It accelerates custom business application delivery considerably when the app is forms, workflow and data over existing systems.
Where it stops: specialised algorithms, unusual performance requirements, or anything you sell as a product.
Embedded integration
Built for white-label, customer-facing integration experiences — where the integration is part of the product rather than internal plumbing. If you're an internal IT team, this one probably isn't for you.
Where it fits: SaaS companies shipping integrations to their own customers.
SAP landscape
Handles applications, data, processes and devices across cloud and on-premises — exactly the shape of a hybrid SAP landscape. Where ERP, supplier and finance workflows must stay synchronised, it's usually the shortest path.
Boundary: it isn't the right layer for connecting your CRM to a marketing tool.
Cloud-native toolkit
A set of managed services rather than a monolithic suite: messaging, event-driven integration, orchestration, connectivity. Teams already on AWS often assemble integration from these blocks instead of buying an iPaaS.
Trade-off: more engineering work, more control — a fit for teams that want integration in the same codebase discipline as everything else.
SAP Integration Suite is the one exception in this list where the lamp is a decision, not a default fit: it depends on how much of your landscape is SAP. We'll say so plainly when it isn't the right call.
Selection
Five questions, roughly in order of importance. Ask them of every platform on the previous list, and ask them of the one you already licence — the honest answer is sometimes that you don't need a new tool at all.
Where data lives
If a platform's connectors can only run in a region your data may not leave, feature depth is irrelevant. Ask where the runtime sits, and whether an on-premises agent is available.
Who maintains it
In two years, who will change the flow? A recipe-driven tool survives a business analyst; a code-first service survives your platform engineers. Choose against the wrong team and the flows rot.
Scope
Count the systems today, then multiply by the growth you actually expect. Overheads scale differently — a platform that's comfortable at ten flows is often a burden at two hundred, and vice versa.
Reach
If a platform needs to talk to a database behind your firewall, the answer is an agent or a gateway, and the answer changes the maintenance picture. This is where hybrid estates get stuck, not on features.
Exit
The last one gets skipped most often and hurts most. Ask any vendor what leaving looks like — how flows export, how much of your logic comes out as something you can read, what a migration would cost.
Our method
We start from your landscape, not from a platform. A short assessment maps the systems, the data flows and the constraints, then we compare two or three realistic options with rough effort for each. Sometimes the answer is a platform you already licence.
We'll also tell you when a platform is overkill. A single scheduled data transfer between two systems does not need an enterprise iPaaS — a small script, a scheduler and a maintainer will do, and we'd rather say so.
We map the systems, the flows and the constraints before any vendor name is on the table.
We compare two or three realistic options side by side, with rough effort attached to each.
If a spreadsheet and a scheduler are enough, we'll say so — and leave the enterprise licence on the shelf.
Common questions
Questions we get asked when a technical team is narrowing the choice. If yours isn't here, ask it — the answer is a paragraph, not a sales call.
Do you only implement one of these platforms?
No — we hold no reseller agreement with any of them, so the shortlist comes out of your landscape rather than out of ours. That is the whole point of publishing this page.
Can a business team really maintain a platform like this?
For recipe-driven flows, often yes — that is one of the reasons Workato and Tray.ai appear on this list. Not for everything: once a flow needs real branching, retries or versioning, an engineer should own it. Decide the maintainer before you decide the tool.
We're already on SAP. Does the answer just become SAP Integration Suite?
Often, for anything on the SAP side of the boundary. Not for the rest: your CRM-to-marketing connection belongs in a lighter platform, and putting it in the ERP integration layer usually costs more than it saves.
How long does a platform assessment take?
It's a short piece of work: we need a map of the systems, the data flows and the constraints, which is often a few conversations and a look at what you already run. From there we compare two or three options with rough effort, and you can take it or push back on the assumptions.
What if the right answer is what we already have?
Then that's the answer we give. A single scheduled transfer between two systems does not need an enterprise iPaaS, and we say so before anyone signs anything. You can ask us for a platform comparison knowing we're comfortable returning "none of the above".
End of the cable
HorizonVale Holdings is an enterprise software development studio in Zaventem, building custom business applications and system integrations for Belgian organisations with hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.
Contact us about a platform comparison, or use the delivery and engagement pages to see how a project is run once the platform decision is made.
