

Appian and ServiceNow are both leading competitors in the BPM and ITSM categories respectively. Appian seems to have the upper hand due to its affordable pricing and rapid low-code development, while ServiceNow excels in automation and IT services management.
Features: Appian focuses on rapid low-code development, agile workflow creation, and seamless system integration, which suit BPM solutions. It provides easy case management and is designed to be the leading social and collaborative BPM platform. ServiceNow is strong in automation and IT service management, ensuring smooth operations management with reliable ticket and workflow management.
Room for Improvement: Appian could enhance its UI flexibility, scalability, and offline capabilities, along with better error handling and improved mobile features. ServiceNow requires a more modern and simplified UI, pricing flexibility, and simpler customization. More attention to AI integration and user experience for non-technical users could improve ServiceNow further.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appian provides flexible deployment options across public, hybrid, and private clouds, backed by commendable customer service and technical support. ServiceNow offers comprehensive cloud and hybrid solutions with extensive, albeit costly, customer support. Both platforms value customer success, but Appian's service tends to be more flexible and responsive.
Pricing and ROI: Appian boasts flexible and affordable pricing models, leading to rapid ROI through quick app deployment. ServiceNow, being pricier, sees costs influenced by user and module counts but offers comprehensive functionality. Appian users report faster ROI, while ServiceNow users benefit from its extensive capabilities despite higher prices.
Using Appian is saving us five full-time employees, which is significant since we currently have only four team members.
They see return on investment in terms of cost savings, time savings, more efficient processes, and more efficient employees.
The Return on Investment is significant.
I would give Appian's customer support 10 out of 10 due to their next-level support.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
The technical support for Appian rates as 10 out of 10 because they have a great support team.
They generally know what they are talking about.
On a scale of one to 10, Appian rates as a nine for scalability.
Our volume has increased by 20% in the two years since using Appian, and it can handle the increased volume effectively.
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
Users can build and modify the platform according to their needs.
It is easily scalable and very powerful in this direction.
We have tested Appian during peak usage and off-peak times, and we have not experienced any issues such as lagging or system disruptions.
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.
I haven't had any situations where it would be unavailable for our calls, so I don't have complaints there.
ServiceNow Now Platform has improved it since then.
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.
Appian can be improved by adding a geo-location tagging feature, which would be really helpful for identifying remitter addresses.
It also suggests the best automation process that can be configured within Appian.
Historical data isn't as easily available as expected and it requires buying additional licenses for more features.
It lacks support for rollbacks in case of complex customer processes.
The user interface could be modernized and made more attractive for users.
Appian provides value for money, is easy to use, has a straightforward setup procedure, and offers great support from the Appian team.
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.
ServiceNow Now Platform is an expensive product.
ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product.
The zero-code integration feature is remarkable, allowing for ease of data transfer and workflow enhancement.
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.
After switching to Appian, it can extract data from MT103, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
The most valuable features are the ease of use, stability, and the ability to change or upgrade seamlessly.
The text-to-code feature is particularly useful for turning natural language instructions into recognizable code on the ServiceNow platform, aiding both implementation teams and customers.
It is extremely powerful and very much customizable, which allows for quick building of solutions around it.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Appian | 5.8% |
| ServiceNow Now Platform | 1.9% |
| Other | 92.3% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 20 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 44 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 15 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 34 |
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:
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:
Appian Benefits
The benefits of using Appian include:
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.
ServiceNow Now Platform enhances IT service management with request cataloging, incident handling, and knowledge management. Its low-code environment, integration capability, and flexible workflow automation offer a smooth user experience and scalable solutions for enterprises.
ServiceNow Now Platform is designed for seamless integration across IT service management, including incident, problem, and change management. Known for stable performance and a user-friendly interface, it supports flexible workflow automation, efficient report generation, and comprehensive data management. The platform's scalability and low-code customization create opportunities for innovative process automation, enriching user experience. While its licensing and pricing models could be more user-friendly, enhancements in mobile capabilities, AI integration, and modern UI are on demand. Additional improvements in ERP integration and technical support are also needed. The platform serves multiple sectors with configurations for enhanced process automation and service orchestration.
Which features stand out?
What benefits can be achieved?
In diverse industries, ServiceNow Now Platform supports a variety of functions such as IT service management, customer support, workflow automation, and service delivery. Organizations employ it for HR processes, analytics, asset management, and compliance. Its strong integration capabilities allow it to be paired with existing tools, offering flexible configurations and end-user support on a global scale, making it suitable for companies across sectors.
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