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Adobe ColdFusion vs Appian comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Adobe ColdFusion accelerates development speed, enhances security, improves productivity, integrates easily, and boosts ROI with faster project completion.
Sentiment score
7.3
Appian enhances ROI for companies by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and achieving break-even within the first year.
They see return on investment in terms of cost savings, time savings, more efficient processes, and more efficient employees.
Appian is very efficient, allowing us to build a lot of applications within a financial year, making it cost-effective.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Adobe ColdFusion customer service excels with responsive, knowledgeable teams providing timely assistance and effective technical guidance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Appian's customer service is excellent but faces capacity challenges; proactive support is valuable despite complex issue delays and high costs.
The technical support for Appian rates as 10 out of 10 because they have a great support team.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
The technical support is generally good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Adobe ColdFusion efficiently handles high traffic and complex tasks, ideal for large-scale applications with robust customization options.
Sentiment score
7.4
Appian is scalable and flexible, but may encounter performance issues with complex processes and large data volumes.
On a scale of one to 10, Appian rates as a nine for scalability.
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
Appian is scalable, but it depends on how you build your applications.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Adobe ColdFusion is a reliable and stable platform, ideal for web application development with consistent performance under heavy workloads.
Sentiment score
8.0
Appian is praised for stability and reliability, with high uptime, seamless updates, and occasional minor database issues.
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
The stability of Appian would rate as nine, as it's a stable environment.
 

Room For Improvement

Adobe ColdFusion needs performance, documentation, stability, cost, security, and integration improvements to meet modern industry standards.
Appian needs improvements in flexibility, integration, scalability, team collaboration, mobile features, documentation, licensing, and handling complex processes.
It has room to improve for use cases where the users are public facing, where anonymous users could come to a site and run a business workflow or interact with some data.
I would like to see more enhancement in the user interface to allow more freedom in designing the sites and pages.
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
 

Setup Cost

<p>Adobe ColdFusion pricing starts at $2,499 for Standard and $9,499 for Enterprise, varying with features, support, and licensing.</p>
Appian offers flexible pricing with cloud and on-premise options, but costs can rise with usage and require negotiation.
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
The pricing of Appian is based on the number of users and generally ranges from 70 to 100 USD per user per month.
The price of Appian, on a competitive landscape, is a little bit on the higher side for companies, rating maybe a 6.5.
 

Valuable Features

Adobe ColdFusion excels in rapid development, database integration, and security, with high performance and comprehensive documentation praised by users.
Appian provides low-code development, easy integration, scalability, and strong AI-enhanced features with a user-friendly interface and robust support.
Appian is aiding in leveraging AI technologies in multiple ways: one way is for developers, as they make development efficient and quick by enabling developer co-pilots across various phases of the application, which helps design Appian quickly and provides suggestions along the way.
The zero-code integration feature is remarkable, allowing for ease of data transfer and workflow enhancement.
It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows.
 

Categories and Ranking

Adobe ColdFusion
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
23rd
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Appian
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
9th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (11th), Process Automation (8th), Process Mining (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Adobe ColdFusion is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Appian is 9.1%, up from 9.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

RakibulIslam - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-setup tool that can be used to automate repetitive tasks
Currently, they have some legacy connectors with different tools, and they are creating native connectors. For example, AEM was only using HTTP or SMTP connections. However, now, AEM also has a native connector. In Adobe Workfront, if we use those connectors, we can push data through them. Previously there were no in-built connectors for Power BI and the dashboard. Now I see that connectors are there in Adobe ColdFusion though I have not used them yet. Previously when I was trying to create some data, it was very difficult to get real-time data from Workfront. I would like to say that it could be an area of improvement if it was possible to get real-time data, and we can create some connectors like the ones on Power BI or Tableau. Now we have the option with which we can schedule a time, like one or two hours, five times a day, allowing us to push the data with Power BI or an external tool. However, with real-time data, it's really difficult now. For ColdFusion, since I do not have that much expertise, I would say that whatever issue I face, I will resolve them. For that, I would like to get real-time data using the tool. Hence, I would like to get a real-time dashboard all the time.
RAVIRANJAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Low-code with good reliability and good workflows
We have a partnership with Appian. We have worked with Appian to deal with issues. They have already incorporated many things into their platform. One of the things we have discussed, which I can highlight, is related to Excel manipulations. They have incorporated their Excel manipulations so it's far better than the earlier version. Earlier, we had to go with a plugin for even a simple Excel or spreadsheet calculation. Now, they have included all those things in their own out-of-the-box functionality. It's definitely a tool and does not require high code language. There could be a scope of enhancement for capturing the variety of use cases. One thing, for example, is Excel manipulation, which they now provide in their out of box functionality, however, that can still be improved.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
23%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
27%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Adobe ColdFusion?
I would like to say that its best feature is its different kinds of connectors. We have lots of in-built connectors.
What needs improvement with Adobe ColdFusion?
Currently, they have some legacy connectors with different tools, and they are creating native connectors. For example, AEM was only using HTTP or SMTP connections. However, now, AEM also has a nat...
What is your primary use case for Adobe ColdFusion?
During the first six months of using the solution, I worked to automate our daily tasks. In general, we use it to automate our day-to-day tasks and for integration. With the integration part, I was...
Which do you prefer - Appian or Camunda Platform?
Appian is fast when building simple to medium solutions. This solution offers simple drag-and-drop functionality with easy plug-and-play options. The initial setup was seamless and very easy to imp...
Is Appian a suitable solution for beginners who have no additional preparation?
Appian is actually pretty big on educating its users, including with courses that reward you with certifications. There is a whole section on their company’s website where you can check out the edu...
Is it easy to set up Appian or did you have to resort to professional help?
We had some issues when we were setting up Appian. It was quite surprising, since this is a low-code tool which, in its essence, means it is meant for business users and inexperienced beginners. So...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Inspirus, Promisan, Webapper, Giva, Frontech Solutions Inc, Digicon, ITX Corp, Wall Street Magnate, SimulTV, ten24 Digital Solutions, Prospective Medical Data International Inc, Alcatel-Lucent
Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
Find out what your peers are saying about Adobe ColdFusion vs. Appian and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.