No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

OutSystems vs ServiceNow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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
6.3
OutSystems' ROI varies, with rapid development and reduced costs leading to high returns and improved customer experiences.
Sentiment score
6.3
ServiceNow boosts ROI through efficiency, automation, and workflow improvements, often delivering financial benefits within months.
Developing that same project in OutSystems can be completed in around 40 to 50% less time, requiring only six resources.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
Time efficiency. Your team can be deployed to work on different modules parallelly and you can really save time up to an enormous level.
Sr. Project Delivery Lead | Sr. Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Thanks to ServiceNow's end-to-end automation, we save five to ten days of cycle time for each invoice.
Application Development Associate & Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
General Manager at sPerception IT
You should invest in ServiceNow only if you're looking at a long-term strategy and your requirements are very, very clear.
Senior Business Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
OutSystems' support is responsive and valued, but specialized assistance and faster issue resolution are needed for some users.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow offers quick, effective customer service with knowledgeable support, though complex tasks may need third-party assistance.
Many helpful videos and documentation are available on the OutSystems site, making it relatively easy to learn the platform.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
They do have the customer support ticketing system where you can raise the ticket, decide the priority, and depending upon your priority and urgency, they are going to resolve your problem.
Sr. Project Delivery Lead | Sr. Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
There have been no issues with support,
Project Manager at Centre for Content Creation
Users can raise tickets for platform issues, workflow errors, integrations, or production incidents through ServiceNow's support portal.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
General Manager at sPerception IT
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
OutSystems offers scalable, cloud-based architecture, supporting diverse environments for efficient enterprise growth, despite some cost concerns.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow offers user-friendly scalability, effective integration, and flexibility, ideal for large operations but slightly challenging for small businesses.
They can be deployed vertically and horizontally, supporting as many deployments as needed.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ServiceNow's scalability is very good as it can be deployed in each environment.
Workload Automation at nab
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
OutSystems is highly stable and reliable, handling heavy operations well, despite minor issues under massive user bases.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is praised for its dependable performance, excellent uptime, and effective support, despite occasional minor issues.
It is a reliable cloud platform with good uptime and workflow performance, supporting business-critical processes effectively when configured properly.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
I haven't faced any issues with stability; I've rarely seen any downtime.
Solution Engineer - Digital Platform | Mobile at British American Tobacco
 

Room For Improvement

OutSystems needs to enhance performance, reduce costs, improve support, and refine integration, UI, documentation, and AI capabilities.
ServiceNow faces challenges with pricing, user interface complexity, customization, licensing, support, notifications, and mobile accessibility for smaller organizations.
It is crucial to be aware of which module corresponds to which application in real-time projects, as there are multiple applications.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
You have to design your architecture in a very magnificent and decent way so that how you process your data so that load can be easily balanced.
Sr. Project Delivery Lead | Sr. Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I would like to see more integration between the use of artificial intelligence to speed up the process delivery time.
RPA Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
My priority points for improvement are the UI glitches and modern AI technology integrations for faster incident management.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

OutSystems is costly for small businesses, but valued for its robust enterprise features compared to competitors.
ServiceNow's pricing is high but justified by enterprise features, with complex licensing requiring negotiation, yet offering scalability.
Subsequent users can be added at an additional cost per user; exact pricing details can be found on the OutSystems site.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
ServiceNow does come with a price.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
ServiceNow PPM product to a competitive product like Jira, which is an Atlassian product, they were offering better functionalities at one-tenth of the price.
Senior Business Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

OutSystems enhances productivity with one-click publishing, visual modeling, seamless integration, and flexible cross-platform support for rapid development.
ServiceNow excels in customization, integration, and accessibility, enhancing efficiency with intuitive interfaces and robust management and automation features.
OutSystems offers a lot of reusable components and solutions that I can simply drag and drop and use, which has a significant impact on project delivery time.
RPA Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We use integration extensively in OutSystems, which allows us to connect our own internal systems to our newly created system applications.
Project Manager at Centre for Content Creation
OutSystems has a very good learning curve for developers.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
The features of ServiceNow that I find most valuable include its ability to easily access ticket details if you know the ticket number, monitor the timeline of when the ticket was created, and see the current status.
IT infra Admin at synu
 

Categories and Ranking

OutSystems
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (2nd), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (19th)
ServiceNow
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
231
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of OutSystems is 4.6%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 4.6%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow4.6%
OutSystems4.6%
Other90.8%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Q&A Highlights

reviewer1800279 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
Jul 25, 2023
 

Featured Reviews

Aditya Bhatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Project Delivery Lead | Sr. Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Rapid delivery has transformed complex enterprise apps and supports faster cross-domain projects
Every platform or low-code platform tool is quite good in its own area, but there is always space to groom or enhance or improve. The same is with OutSystems as well. A couple of things from the integration point of view can be enhanced. If your application or the enterprise organization is tackling a huge data application where you have bulk amounts of data, it becomes a challenge for all the technologies and the same with OutSystems. You have to design your architecture in a very magnificent and decent way so that how you process your data so that load can be easily balanced. Data handling and huge data handling is a kind of challenge you may need to face. Then we have some vendor lock-in. If you are trying to migrate your application from OutSystems, then you probably get into this vendor lock-in system. Some organization may face challenges if some organization is on a small scale size. The small scale businesses may find OutSystems costly because of its high cost and pricing due to the licensing cost. Apart from that, OutSystems really plays well, and it needs a learning curve. If a traditional application or programming is there which your developers are skilled into and they are directly deployed into OutSystems, it may take some significant amount of time for them to get comfortable with OutSystems. There is a learning curve. OutSystems community is already in place, but it can more be enhanced regarding some aspects. They did organize lots of bootcamps and other user groups as well, but those can also be improved from the documentation point of view and having some integration guidebook as well. A couple of things which can be improved into OutSystems include the licensing cost, the vendor lock-in side, the learning curve, couple of integration aspects and customizations.
Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Structured workflows have improved SLA compliance and now support prioritized incident handling
I think the licensing and pricing of ServiceNow is quite expensive compared to other tools. For large organizations, it is acceptable, but specifically for small and medium organizations to track incidents or change requests, ServiceNow is quite expensive. Sometimes performance can be slow when workflows and integrations are configured for complex tasks. For advanced customizations or advanced features which we rarely use, the documentation is not up to standard. The documentation needs to be improved for advanced customization features. However, the platform is stable overall and the features are quite good. The user experience and performance concerns I mentioned are areas I want to be improved. When many workflows and interactions are configured, performance is slow. For the features it is providing, it is quite expensive. If these performance features are improved, we can easily pay that price and get the return on investment.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Rapid Application Development Software solutions are best for your needs.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

reviewer1800279 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
Jul 25, 2023
Jul 25, 2023
I'd recommend considering OutSystems for developing non-ITSM Apps like CRM and Customer Care. OutSystems is known for its low-code development platform, which enables faster app development and deployment. This can be particularly advantageous for your company, as it allows you to streamline processes and meet customer needs efficiently. If you're interested in learning more about the benefits ...
2 out of 5 answers
EB
Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
Mar 10, 2022
Hi @reviewer1529571, @reviewer1278699, @Jaikant S Rao, @Dawn McClure, @Gagan Pattanayak, @Roland Zuurveld, Can you please share your knowledge with the community? Thanks!​
Farid Abbasi - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant & CEO at Technosys Limited
Mar 10, 2022
Hello @Gerry Fitzpatrick, 'Customer Service Management' and 'IT Service Management' applications run on the same ServiceNow platform.  Whilst 'Customer Service' gives you the CRM capability (external facing), ITSM gives you the supporting framework (internal facing). The two work very well together. There is no need for you to invest in building custom apps. However, if you still want to build custom apps then the ServiceNow platform allows you to do that with a very good mobile SDK.  ServiceNow also has an App Store, which is a really good source to see what integrations and applications are available to purchase (some are free). This would help you get value from your investment in ServiceNow quicker. Regards, Farid
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise179
 

Questions from the Community

Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
What industries do you think OutSystems is most useful for?
I cannot really name an industry in which OutSystems cannot be beneficial. Who does not want to make top-notch applications that work in no time? And OutsyStems does exactly that. The low-code plat...
How did you decide which OutSystems edition was the best one for you?
We started using OutSystems fairly recently, so we are still on the free version of it. My company is still testing how we like the platform, but so far, we have been satisfied with it and will li...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow?
ServiceNow operates on a subscription-based pricing model with custom pricing based on modules, users, and business requirements. Pricing varies depending on modules such as ITSM and ITOM, and lice...
What needs improvement with ServiceNow?
Although ServiceNow is already powerful, some areas can be improved for better day-to-day usability. UI simplification is necessary as the interface can feel complex for new users who are unable to...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Randstad, Warner Brothers, HP, Intel, ING, Banco Popular, Thrivent Financial, Bacardi, Kent State University, Bacardi, FICO, ING, Vodafone, AbbVie, Estafeta, Siemens, Vopak
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about OutSystems vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.