Higson vs OpenL Tablets

Higson is a business rules engine for managing product logic, pricing and decisions without coding, with a primary focus on insurance. It supports product configuration, underwriting and claims processing. Higson Studio lets business users edit rules through diagrams, decision tables and a tree structure, then run regression and mass tests using data imported from Excel. Version 4.3 includes a beta assistant that generates Groovy or Python logic from plain-language descriptions. Connections use REST and Java APIs, and supported SQL databases include Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and MySQL. Rule snapshots can be exported to files and imported into other environments. Higson states that it is CREST certified and provides auditability, versioning and permissions scoped by business domain. Enterprise deployment is on-premise or in a private cloud; AWS Marketplace access is also offered. Enterprise costs $10,000 a year as a fixed annual fee, with no limit on users, rules or non-production environments. The Runtime AWS Marketplace listing offers a 7-day free trial that converts to a paid subscription unless canceled.

OpenL Tablets is a business rules engine and decision management system that uses structured Excel tables as executable application logic. It supports Excel formats dating back to Excel 97, with tables for decisions, lookups, spreadsheet calculations, decision trees, and algorithms. OpenL Studio provides a web interface for editing and managing rules, including guided authoring, inline cell editing, and type-safe checks that point to errors. Rules can run as REST services, Kafka consumers or producers, or providers for Java interfaces; they can also be used in Maven projects and work with Java classes and methods. The repository can use Git, databases, and blob storage, with versions, metadata, WebDAV access, and role-based permissions. Analysis tools include tracing, explanations, tests, benchmarks, what-if analysis, and checks for gaps and overlaps. Deployment features include effective and expiration dates, staging, consistency checks, and live updates. The free demo bundle runs in single-user mode and includes a local Git repository with examples and tutorials.