The mistake isn’t picking Mendix specifically. It’s evaluating any low-code platform using the number visible on the pricing page instead of asking a much more useful question: what does this actually cost once we’re using it the way we intend to use it in a year, not the way we’re using it during a three-week pilot. A vendor’s sales team isn’t going to volunteer that answer unprompted. Someone on the buying side has to ask it directly, and most buyers don’t, because asking feels like admitting they don’t already understand the platform’s structure.

Teams that get this right build a rough model before signing anything: expected number of apps, expected user growth, which integrations they’ll eventually need. That model rarely matches the number in the first quote. It’s usually closer to what they’ll actually pay six months in, which is the number that should have driven the decision from the start.