Appian vs Hyland OnBase comparison

Appian and Hyland are both solutions in the Business Process Management (BPM) category. Appian is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.9, while Hyland is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.7. Appian holds a 6.0% mindshare in BPM, compared to Hyland’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hyland users who would recommend it.

Appian

Read 63 Appian reviews

5,630 Views
4,027 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Hyland OnBase

Read 13 Hyland OnBase reviews

358 Views
231 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Appian

Hyland OnBase

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Appian and Hyland OnBase operate within the enterprise software sector. Appian has an advantage with its low-code platform enabling rapid application development.

Features: Appian stands out with case management, agile workflow design, and seamless architecture integration for diverse functionalities. It facilitates rapid development through its low-code platform. Hyland OnBase provides stability and flexibility with robust document management and process automation, excelling in secure data handling and platform integration.

Room for Improvement: Appian needs improvement in UI flexibility and mobile capabilities, better DevOps tool integration, and enhanced form creation. Hyland OnBase is critiqued for its less intuitive interface and the complexity of setup. It requires enhancements in training, duplication handling, and dashboard functions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appian offers flexible deployment, favoring cloud solutions, and is praised for responsive customer support. Hyland OnBase mainly operates on private and on-premises deployments, offering robust data control but limiting scalability. Its customer service is moderate with a small team.

Pricing and ROI: Appian is competitively priced, promising high ROI through its architecture, although licensing may be complex. Hyland OnBase is perceived as expensive due to its monolithic structure but justifies pricing with comprehensive content management capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Appian vs. Hyland OnBase Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. Hyland OnBase

May 2025

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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

Appian

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

11th

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Process Automation (8th), Rapid Application Development Software (9th), Process Mining (7th)

Hyland OnBase

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

19th

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Appian is 6.0%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hyland OnBase is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Management (BPM)

Featured Reviews

RAVIRANJAN

Project Manager at Telus Digital

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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Phemy Lekalakala

Manager of Information Systems at University of the Witwatersrand

Stable content and workflow management solution with a valuable retention module

We use this solution for record management and digitization of records. We also use it for workflows and to build online forms The retention module is one of the most valuable features. Whatever we scan onto the system can be identified and we are notified when the records are due to be disposed.…

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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's heavy on business processing in terms of logic, process workflows, and primarily on the process design modeler. Appian is really great at that. In terms of the full stack set from a low-code platform perspective, it's definitely an eye opener since it can be deployed via mobile app and on the web as well."

"The process models provide self-documenting systems."

"The technical support is excellent."

"Compared to other code tools that I've seen, Appian has a more robust rules engine"

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

"It has created executable requirements and speeds up the SDLC process greatly."

"Process culture is making noise inside the organization because now, everybody knows that their time is being monitored."

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

More Appian pros

"It provided data security features, allowing restrictions on sensitive documents, such as who could view or modify them."

"The retention module is one of the most valuable features. Whatever we scan onto the system can be identified and we are notified when the records are due to be disposed."

"The solution is very developed and we are not taking full advantage of its functionalities."

"We found the setup process to be okay since they do offer a troubleshooting guide."

"The product's initial setup phase is not difficult."

"The solution's most valuable features are integration and flexibility."

"OnBase is a remarkable tool. It is a well-done product. Hyland has a lot of experience in building it and looking for new things for clients in terms of functionalities. It has amazing stability, and it can grow horizontally and vertically. It is built for growth. Their technical support is also quite good and available throughout the year."

"The most valuable features are that it's very secure and provides audit trails for our documents."

More Hyland OnBase pros

Cons

"It has it's own built-in UI components and doesn't provide much flexibility to customize or extend those components."

"The biggest areas of improvement would be in facilitating team development, DevOps, and integration with typical tools used in enterprise development (Jenkins, Subversion, etc.)"

"Appian is easy to set up, but JBoss is complex. JBoss is the application server for running Appian."

"We would like to see more reduced latency. We would like to make sure that the scale-out factor will be much more as workloads come in."

"Occasionally, certain pre-made modules may not be necessary and customers may desire greater customization options. Instead of being limited to pre-designed features, they may prefer a more flexible version that allows for greater customization."

"Appian could include other applications that we could reuse for other customers, CRM for example."

"It would be nice if you could create your own customized apps when the business needed them."

"While Appian is generally flexible, it's rigid in some ways. It takes longer to do something that isn't available out of the box."

More Appian cons

"The migration is a bit difficult in the tool."

"We need to troubleshoot why our reports didn't get downloaded in a day. There is a workflow feature which powerful but also complicated."

"An area for improvement would be the training - getting our people up to speed on how to use it required more training than we expected due to the complexity of the solution."

"For user experience, they would have to do more with the interface. It is not easy to work with and is a little messy. It is getting better, but it is not yet good enough. Other products are comparatively doing better in terms of the user interface. I have been hearing about Box, which is very easy to use and learn for the users. OnBase has to work on this aspect. It should have BPM capabilities. We compete with tools that provide the BPM feature and support those standards. They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

"The dashboards do have some room for improvement as compared to the other vendors which are there in the market."

"The look and feel could be better. The integration with the user could be better. It could also be more user-friendly."

"Software malfunctioning usually occurs when we receive documents from external sources."

"We found the size of images to be a restriction, though this may have been due to the API used rather than the Hyland application."

More Hyland OnBase cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution offers a monthly subscription model. That's what we use. I recall it being about $90 a month. They do have different tiers."

"The price of the solution is reasonable and is paid annually. The price of the solution depends on how many users use the solution. It can range from $50,000 to $200,000. For example, for 20,000 users the price can be approximately $200,000."

"Licensing of Appian is less expensive when compared to other BPMs in the market."

"It's an enterprise tool and can be used by enterprise only. So it's a very expensive tool."

"The licensing will be on a monthly basis. We are estimating that cost to be around $2000 to maybe $3,000 per month. We don't foresee any costs above that."

"It is expensive, but powerful. I would recommend comparing against cheaper licensing products and open source."

"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."

"We will have to have a dialogue or negotiate a price for future use. To start with, it is a reasonable price. As we go ahead, we will have to make sure the costs are inline with our expectations as we grow our user base and workloads."

More Appian pricing and cost advice

"The tool's price is high."

"OnBase is reasonably priced."

"There are a number of different types of licenses. There are concurrent licenses, individual licenses and imaging licenses."

"The solution costs around $6,000 per month."

"They can do better in terms of the pricing model. It is a really expensive tool in Latin America. They should have different prices for different regions."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

27%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

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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. There is a whole section on their company’s website where you can check out the edu...

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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 its essence, means it is meant for business users and inexperienced beginners. So...

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What do you like most about Hyland OnBase?

The solution is very developed and we are not taking full advantage of its functionalities.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hyland OnBase?

I find pricing to be on the higher side due to its monolithic architecture. I would rate it six out of ten. Transitioning to microservices, allowing users to pay for only what they use, could reduc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hyland OnBase?

I believe the reporting features need improvement, as other competitors in the market provide better analytics. Hyland is working on a new platform (HXP) to integrate features from all products, ad...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appian

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Hyland OnBase

May 2025

Download Hyland OnBase product report

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS

OnBase

Overview

Appian is a unified low-code platform and solution used by businesses to build enterprise applications and workflows. This product adapts to the needs of clients and the technologies they are already using to combine their data in a single workflow and maximize resources. The platform has four main components through which it transforms the work process for companies of various sizes. They are:

Complete automation: Through complete automation, companies are able to coordinate and manage employees, existing systems, bots, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) in a single workflow. The solution offers a way to centrally manage all third-party automation vendors as well.
Low-code applications: Appian offers the ability to build applications faster with visual development and low-code tools. All applications are ready-made to be suitable for mobile.
Low-code data: Appian lets companies source data from multiple types of sources, eliminating the need for data migration. Through no-code and low-code solutions and industry-standard connectors, the platform also eliminates the need for data silos.
Enterprise ready: The platform offers options for companies to scale their businesses to an enterprise level without complications.

Appian is utilized across a diverse set of industries, including automotive and manufacturing, energy and utilities, education, financial services, telecom and media, transportation, retail, insurance, healthcare, and life sciences. The most frequent use cases of Appian are customer journey, governance, risk and compliance, operational efficiency, supply chain, distributed order management, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management.

Appian Features

Appian has various features that allow users to create solutions for their businesses. These features can be separated into a few groups according to function, including automation, low-code application development, and integrations and data. Some of the most frequently used features of Appian include:

Robotic process automation (RPA): Users of Appian can assign software bots to perform rules-based tasks that need to be repeated over a set course of time. This can improve efficiency and performance within an organization while saving human resources.
Intelligent document processing: The tool offers a feature for quick and accurate extraction and structuring of data. This can reduce time and costs for organizations because it eliminates the need for outsourcing such services.
AI: Appian utilizes artificial intelligence to enhance applications, workflows, and automation. AI is also used to address complex processes and unique situations.
Business rules: Organizations can automate and simplify work processes while adhering to their operating procedures.
Application development: Appian provides a low-code development feature that allows users to deploy applications over ten times faster than through conventional approaches. This feature not only allows for quick application building, but also applications that run on multiple types of platforms, seamless data integration, and business scalability.
Integrations and data: Appian allows for data integration from a wide array of sources without the need for migration. This contributes to easy access to data across systems, real-time data insights, improved user experience, and accelerated development.

Appian Benefits

The benefits of using Appian include:

The solution ensures seamless organization growth, as it supports various UX patterns, common data schemes, and upgrades, used to facilitate application development on a bigger scale.
Appian can increase process speed and deliver applications considerably faster compared to conventional development.
The platform is easy to use and suitable for complete beginners to build applications and workflows.
Appian offers a variety of design tools that facilitate development and deployment.
Appian offers detailed real-time data insight which allows organizations to access relevant information about their processes as they are developing.
The solution offers clients the ability to move data between the cloud, on-premise, and hybrid configurations.
The platform is easy to optimize, which allows businesses to utilize it according to their personal needs.
Appian offers connectivity across web, mobile, email, voice, and chat, providing a multi-channel experience for companies and their clients.

Reviews from Real Users

A practice leader - digital process automation at a computer software company values Appian highly because the product is easy to develop, low-code, and has a good user interface.

Alan G., an advisory board member at Codecon VR, Appian offers a clear application life cycle, easy to learn documentation, and comes with a fundamentals course.

Appian

Hyland OnBase is acclaimed for its robust document management, automating workflows, and improving organizational efficiency across various industries. Praised for its ability to manage records compliantly, especially in regulated sectors like healthcare and finance, the tool also integrates smoothly with other enterprise systems. Users benefit significantly from streamlined processes, reduced manual tasks, and enhanced data accuracy, boosting productivity and customer satisfaction.

Hyland

Sample Customers

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

Honda France Industries, Hill County Texas, Hylant Group, ING Lease France, State of South Carolina, Syracuse University, Swindon College, Rhode Island Department of Human Services, Rochester Institute of Technology, Moen, Odense University Hospital

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. Hyland OnBase

May 2025

Free Report: Appian vs. Hyland OnBase

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