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Appian vs n8n comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2026

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
7.1
Appian boosts company profits, efficiency, and cost savings, with users achieving quick returns and reductions in process times.
Sentiment score
4.7
n8n boosts ROI by automating tasks cost-effectively, enhancing productivity, and reducing the need for external developers.
Using Appian is saving us five full-time employees, which is significant since we currently have only four team members.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
They see return on investment in terms of cost savings, time savings, more efficient processes, and more efficient employees.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
The Return on Investment is significant.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
n8n provides a strong return on investment and is very helpful and cost-optimized.
Cloud Engineering and Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
They can save costs because they can reduce the hiring process for external developers for this type of automation that they can do themselves.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I believe the return on investment from using n8n is good because employees who previously worked on the specific problems I've automated can now focus on other, more interesting tasks.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian's customer service is valued for responsiveness, though complex issue resolution times need improvement, especially for smaller companies.
Sentiment score
4.2
n8n support experiences vary; some find it helpful, while others rely on online resources, with community support praised.
I would give Appian's customer support 10 out of 10 due to their next-level support.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The technical support for Appian rates as 10 out of 10 because they have a great support team.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
I describe the support team as knowledgeable, helpful, and responsive.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I can reach out to members of the community, ask questions, and usually within a week, they're answered.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian offers robust scalability and integration, efficiently supporting complex processes despite potential challenges in data and infrastructure.
Sentiment score
6.6
n8n supports moderate scalability, managing increased workloads with configuration, but technical expertise is needed for optimal large-scale performance.
On a scale of one to 10, Appian rates as a nine for scalability.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Our volume has increased by 20% in the two years since using Appian, and it can handle the increased volume effectively.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
Associate Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The standard solution allows for about five workflows at the same time, and it is scalable since I can upgrade my plan for more executions and workflows if needed.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
One approach might take a day to go through all of it and another approach might take fifteen minutes to go through all of it.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
It is crucial to have a technical team to support you with real experience in n8n and large-scale implementations.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Appian is stable and reliable with minimal issues, especially when best practices are followed, despite some latency challenges.
Sentiment score
6.8
n8n is stable with minor CPU and connection issues, praised for reliability and low self-hosting costs by experienced users.
We have tested Appian during peak usage and off-peak times, and we have not experienced any issues such as lagging or system disruptions.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The stability of Appian would rate as nine, as it's a stable environment.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
n8n deployments are some of the cheapest that I've come across; the monthly cost for n8n deployment self-hosted rarely exceeds five dollars.
Solutions Architect at Bear Systems
I have not had any downtime with n8n.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
n8n is stable, though the part that can be less stable is that you must stay connected to many APIs.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Room For Improvement

Appian's tools need more flexibility, better integration, improved scalability, intuitive UI, enhanced mobile support, and comprehensive training materials.
n8n needs improved user experience, scalability, documentation, integrations, and features for non-technical users and team collaboration.
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.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Appian can be improved by adding a geo-location tagging feature, which would be really helpful for identifying remitter addresses.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
It also suggests the best automation process that can be configured within Appian.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Documentation is really good.
Automations Engineer at Ad Up
Even though I can connect to different platforms with the HTTP node, it would be easier for people who are not technically advanced to connect with the internal integrations.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
I would appreciate having more AI integrated into n8n, specifically an AI agent to help me better understand how to build workflows and assist when I encounter errors.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
 

Setup Cost

Appian's pricing varies by deployment and workload, offering value despite higher costs, with notable robust, enterprise-grade features.
Enterprise users appreciate n8n's scalable pricing, low infrastructure costs, and free open source version with unlimited runs.
Appian provides value for money, is easy to use, has a straightforward setup procedure, and offers great support from the Appian team.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The pricing of Appian is based on the number of users and generally ranges from 70 to 100 USD per user per month.
Technology Leader of Appian at a retailer with 11-50 employees
The open source version is free.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
I feel that the price is right as I'm using the standard version, which allows for about one thousand five hundred executions per month, which is sufficient for me and my organization.
AI and Automation Engineer at PeerSpot
For cloud environments, I noticed that depending on the number of nodes used and the number of executions, the basic plan might not be enough.
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Valuable Features

Appian provides low-code development with seamless integration, automation, and AI, enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility in process management.
n8n offers flexible, integrative low-code automation, supports 500+ apps, enhances productivity, and appeals to developers with its open-source nature.
The zero-code integration feature is remarkable, allowing for ease of data transfer and workflow enhancement.
Technology Leader of Appian at a retailer with 11-50 employees
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.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
After switching to Appian, it can extract data from MT103, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
My clients know that the information is not leaking or being sold to anybody.
Business automation Expert at INSTRUTECH LIMITED
You can use expressions anywhere. Expressions are basic JavaScript functions or JavaScript code that you can put in any node to pass data dynamically.
Automations Engineer at Ad Up
n8n has positively impacted my organization by making our work faster and automated, eliminating the need to do everything manually.
Cloud Engineering and Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (8th), Process Automation (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (10th), Low-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (6th)
n8n
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Workload Automation (11th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (15th), AI-Agent Builders (2nd), AI Scheduling & Coordination (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Shad Bhowmik - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
NR
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Automation has transformed complex workflows and has empowered non‑technical teams to build flows
Regarding improvements for n8n, I would highlight two areas. First, while there is a growing community, the ecosystem of pre-built nodes for niche or proprietary systems still lags behind some commercial competitors. I often have to build custom HTTP request nodes or create my own node packages, which is doable but adds to project timelines. Second, features for team collaboration and lifecycle management are still evolving. Moving workflows from development to staging to production can be a manual export-import process, and native Git integration and more robust user roles for larger client teams would be a game-changer. Regarding needed improvements, I believe much of the existing documentation is not peer-reviewed. There is definitely a big community, but if the documentation or tutorials were approved or at least had a badge from n8n, customers would feel that this meets the standards of n8n editors themselves, which would give more confidence in the flows.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for n8n?
My experience with pricing and setup costs has been good. I feel that the price is right as I'm using the standard version, which allows for about one thousand five hundred executions per month, wh...
What needs improvement with n8n?
I wrote a message to n8n regarding a problem I faced, but I cannot recall what it was. Currently, most products nowadays include walkthrough or guide videos, short videos of 20 to 30 seconds that i...
What is your primary use case for n8n?
I worked on n8n, and Morgan messaged me on LinkedIn to review and provide feedback about the n8n product. I have used n8n for almost six months and built a personal project with it. My main goal wa...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
n8n.io n8n
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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