Appian vs Flowable comparison

Appian and Flowable are both solutions in the Process Automation category. Appian is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.7, while Flowable is ranked #24. Additionally, 95% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Flowable users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Appian and Flowable are competitors in the business process management space. Appian is seen to have an edge in terms of quick setup and robust enterprise integrations, while Flowable stands out for its flexibility and customization options.

Features: Appian is known for low-code automation, dynamic case management, and comprehensive analytics. Flowable is praised for its adaptive, cloud-native architecture, strong BPMN compliance, and more granular control over processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appian provides a streamlined deployment process supported by extensive documentation and proactive client service. Flowable offers flexible deployment options, including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid solutions, with customer service noted for deep technical expertise, aiding in complex custom integrations.

Pricing and ROI: Appian's setup costs are higher, but rapid deployment leads to quicker ROI for those valuing speed and ease. Flowable's open-source model offers a cost-efficient initial setup with potentially lower long-term costs, appealing to organizations capable of leveraging its model effectively.

To learn more, read our detailed Process Automation Report (Updated: July 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Process Automation

July 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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Shad Bhowmik

Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Automated remittance workflows have boosted speed and accuracy but still need geo-tagging improvements

Remittance is a crucial part of my integral operation, so any disruption would majorly impact our clients. After switching to Appian, we never faced any disruption as it is reliable and we can generate data at any point in time, quite faster than other tools in my personal opinion. Regulators can ask for data from us at any time, and with Appian, we download data from our Appian tools to share it with them whenever they ask. I would share a real-life example: a customer's transaction processed more than a year ago. Suddenly the customer came back asking for all the details. In our previous tool, it was quite difficult to generate transaction details from over a year ago; however, while using Appian, we can pull up data using different key search fields, such as a customer's cell phone number, remittance tracking number, or MT103 reference number. We shared it with the customer instantly, and the customer was surprised we could provide all the details in such a short time. It added reputational value for our organization, thanks to Appian.You have pointed out two major things: time-saving and reduction of error, which are key points while processing remittance. Previously, while using another tool, it was quite time-consuming to process remittance, but after switching to Appian, it can extract data from MT103, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The process has become fully automated. Previously we could process only five to ten transactions within an hour, but now, after switching to Appian, we can process about 100 transactions in an hour, making it 10 times faster. In terms of error detection, since Appian extracts data from MT103, the extraction rate is quite good, and the error rate is negligible, lower than 0.001%. We can share accurate, error-free data with the regulator, which is essential for us. Appian benefits us significantly. After receiving an MT103, we check what the remitter is, the amount, if it is under threshold for processing, and if it is from a high-priority remitter or client. Since Appian extracts data from MT103 messages and identifies top-level clients from the database, it can notify us to process their transactions with priority. Due to automated data extraction, there are fewer instances of error. In our previous tool, we reported regulatory data to the central bank manually and often received complaints about invalid purpose codes due to manual data entry. Appian handles this automatically, and after switching, our error rate has dropped significantly, resulting in positive feedback from the Central Bank of Bangladesh regarding our reduced error rates. This has greatly enhanced our organization's reputation. Appian is fully on-premises, and we have our own system.

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Simon Greener

Solutions Architect at Cohga Pty Ltd

Helps to control the workflow and business process components of customers' operations but OSGi integration can be challenging

I'd rate my experience with the initial setup of Flowable at about a three out of ten, but for our developers, it's probably closer to a six. I found it challenging due to the complexity of the user and help documents and the fact that much of the Flowable documentation and tutorials are focused on cloud-based implementations. Since we're primarily interested in basic components like BPMN models and form design, which aren't included in the product, the learning process was more difficult for me. In contrast, our developers are more comfortable diving into the code and technology stack, which allows them to be more proactive in their approach. The deployment took three months to complete. We're still in the deployment process. Our main challenge is integrating the Flowable process engine into our product, which uses OSGi. This has led to complexity in managing the Java versions and dependencies, as the tool has around 150 Java files. We could have chosen to interact with Flowable via a Docker container and the REST API, which would have isolated the OSGi Java dependencies, but we decided to integrate it directly. This has required resolving Java version control issues and upgrades, leading to various development challenges that must be addressed. It is a learning process for all of us. As an integrated solutions architect, I would have probably opted for the Docker route rather than the direct OSGi integration chosen by the developers. However, since they went with the OSGi integration, it's taking us longer to complete the deployment. Currently, we have one full-time developer dedicated to deployment, along with one part-time developer, and my involvement at about a quarter of my time. So, we have about two people working on deployment. As for maintenance, we're not entirely sure yet. Given our direct OSGi integration choice instead of Docker and REST, maintenance may be more challenging. However, we'll have a clearer picture once deployment is complete.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can be easily learned by anyone who spends a bit of time with it."

"We have solved many problems we had in the past before using Automation Anywhere, mainly we saved a lot of time and money, we reduced and minimized the risk of human errors and got rid of all the manual repetitive tasks so we can focus on the core of our business."

"The digital worker is interesting."

"Document automation has indeed been beneficial in handling large volumes of documents in our organization, where we process product-related data sheets that range from 80 to 120 pages, efficiently extracting data that would take a human several hours to read manually."

"We have already seen ROI, and we are already clocking in around 7000 hours of savings per month in terms of productivity."

"The tool feature I found the most valuable is Metabot, as we can include the DLLs that are proprietary written code in .NET or other technologies."

"Now, with the help of Automation Anywhere Bot it's being handle automatically, and work that would take one week is now being completed within an hour."

"The way templates can be configured is quite simple - it's a matter of drag and drop."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"Appian had definitely improved the productivity, and functionality of our company."

"Call Web Service Smart Service - Web service integrations with other systems are super simple and fast to create, supported by low code menus."

"The low code functionality and being able to get applications faster to customers or to the market are valuable."

"There is a version coming out every six months with performance improvements."

"We use this solution because End-to-End Process Automation in Appian is robust and scalable."

"Even with an on-premise implementation, the scalability is still high, so it is easy to scale up."

"The initial setup was seamless. We didn't run into any hardships at all."

"I find the BPM the most valuable feature."

More Appian pros

"The tool's most valuable feature is the process engine. It allows us to define BPM-based workflows, deploy them into our process engine, and interact with them within our product."

Cons

"In my opinion, there are always areas for improvement in Automation Anywhere, and they are continuously working on enhancements."

"We are having some challenges when it comes to stability."

"We have had issues with stability in the past, and there should be a function that helps you to find out what is wrong with your environment that is causing the automation to fail."

"For improvement, I would like to see Automation Anywhere integrating with multiple other technologies. As of now, it is integrating with .NET. When it come to future technologies, I want Automation Anywhere to integrate with Python scripts, and make the execution easier. That will be very helpful, having our cognitive technologies interacting with Automation Anywhere."

"They are working on scalability, but I'm expecting them maybe a faster pace for the thing already in place. They need to improve the extraction and accuracy. It's a sort of a journey that we started with a few fears that may end up with a 100 or 200 fears. These are our expectations from IQ Bot. We are quite hopeful that a future release will solve this problem."

"Automation Anywhere can also be improved in machine learning and artificial intelligence. It would make our lives easier."

"When we are moving from one version to another version, it's very difficult because most of the features stop working."

"The error handling command on this solution still needs improvement, especially when compared to other platforms that are doing very well."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"Appian's technical support could improve, especially their response turnaround."

"There should be more flexibility for the developers to choose the look and feel of the UI. They should have a better ability to design their widgets and customize them with different colors, shapes, and sizes. That is a limitation that could be improved upon."

"One room for improvement is the ease of UI UX development, like in OutSystems and Mendix."

"Something I would like to see improved is an SQL database connection."

"It would be useful if they could create an academy or forum in the future to help active users answer questions they have about the solution."

"There could be a scope of enhancement for capturing the variety of use cases."

"Appian is a great tool for internal use cases where the users are company employees, but 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."

"It is very expensive. It is also not easy to learn."

More Appian cons

"In my opinion, areas of improvement for Flowable include the management and creation of forms within the open-source components and the documentation and examples provided. While the cloud-based Flowable implementation with no-code features is attractive, we prefer more control over integration, especially since we deploy our product onto AWS. We also want to avoid additional licensing fees for Flowable runtime user components on top of our software development and implementation charges."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We brought onshore a lot of what we were doing offshore, saving our company close to $20 million."

"UiPath is exceptionally more expensive than Automation Anywhere. UiPath is far ahead of its competition, but in terms of finances, Automation Anywhere offers better value and is more effective for organizations seeking cost-effective solutions."

"If I compare it with Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere is cheaper. Blue Prism is very costly. Automation Anywhere's pricing follows the market, not less and not more."

"There may be room for the product to be more competitively priced to excel in the market."

"Pricing is a bit high when compared to other available tools; however, the tool is worth the cost."

"Automation Anywhere is flexible in terms of costing and licensing."

"The pricing of AA is similar to UiPath."

"We're paying a monthly subscription fee for the bot and for services. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"The license is not very cheap. It's on the expensive side."

"The cost depends on the number of users, although I recommend taking an unlimited license."

"The price of this solution is a little high here in Mongolia."

"I'm sure it is cost-effective, but right now, we're just toying around with it. So, I don't have any hard numbers."

"If you're doing an enterprise-wide digital transformation, Appian is worthwhile, but not for just one or two use cases because the license costs are higher."

"Appian is very flexible in their pricing. In general, Appian's pricing is much, much lower when compared to competition like Pega or other products. Appian also has a flexible licensing model across geographies. Pega usually goes with a single licensing cost—which is a US-based cost—for all global customers, and it's costly. Whereas Appian has a different regional licensing cost model and it can be cheaper, depending on geography. So Appian's licensing is very flexible, and cheaper when compared to other competition."

"The license is a bit expensive and the pricing model is sometimes confusing for new users or business users. It is difficult for them to know what volume of usage they will have to be able to purchase the best-suited license at the beginning."

"It's good value for the price."

More Appian pricing and cost advice

"Since the tool is open-source, we don't have to pay anything for it. It's free to download and use, which is great for us. If Flowable hadn't been available as open source and required a license fee for us to integrate it into our product, we might not have chosen it."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	157
Midsize Enterprise	81
Large Enterprise	558

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	46

No data available

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

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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...

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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. The...

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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 i...

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Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 9% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 6% of the time

AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

Celonis vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

More Automation Anywhere Competitors

Camunda vs Appian

Compared 8% of the time

Pega Platform vs Appian

Compared 6% of the time

IBM BPM vs Appian

Compared 4% of the time

ServiceNow vs Appian

Compared 4% of the time

Celonis vs Appian

Compared 2% of the time

More Appian Competitors

Camunda vs Flowable

Compared 24% of the time

Temporal vs Flowable

Compared 17% of the time

n8n vs Flowable

Compared 9% of the time

Pega Platform vs Flowable

Compared 9% of the time

Nintex Process Platform vs Flowable

Compared 3% of the time

More Flowable Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

August 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

Appian

August 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Process Automation

July 2026

Download Flowable product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

Appian

Demo not available

Flowable

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

Appian provides AI automation for critical processes. The platform orchestrates AI agents, people, and systems within unified, governed workflows, giving AI the structure, data, and controls required for reliable enterprise value. The result is end-to-end automation that replaces fragmented manual work at scale.

Appian

Flowable is a versatile software that streamlines and automates business processes. It is commonly used for workflow management, task automation, and digital transformation initiatives.

Users also utilize Flowable for document management, case management, and customer journey mapping. Its valuable features include efficient workflow management, seamless integration capabilities, and a user-friendly interface.

Flowable allows for smooth collaboration and task automation, and its ability to integrate with other systems and applications enables a seamless flow of information.

The intuitive and easy-to-use interface makes it accessible to users of all technical backgrounds.

Flowable

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee

1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Cisco 4. Dell 5. Ericsson 6. Ford 7. General Electric 8. Honda 9. IBM 10. Johnson & Johnson 11. Kia Motors 12. LG Electronics 13. Microsoft 14. Nike 15. Oracle 16. PepsiCo 17. Qualcomm 18. Red Bull 19. Samsung 20. Toyota 21. Uber 22. Visa 23. Walmart 24. Xerox 25. Yahoo 26. Zara 27. Accenture 28. Bank of America 29. Citigroup 30. Deutsche Bank 31. ExxonMobil 32. Facebook

Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, BMC, Temporal Technologies and others in Process Automation. Updated: July 2026.

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