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Polarion ALM vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Polarion ALM
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (5th)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Polarion ALM is 4.2%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 3.7%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management3.7%
Polarion ALM4.2%
Other92.1%
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

LasseMikkonen - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at byte
Has provided mature traceability and configuration features while supporting complex product development for mid-to-large companies
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and test result management with it, it is very limited. Jama Connect has similar limitations, and both should really focus on developing the integrations and extendability. For example, Jama Connect does not even have an extension marketplace, whereas Polarion has a small one. However, compared to the Atlassian Marketplace where you can get whatever applications for whatever price, it is a totally different ballgame. I would highly recommend Polarion ALM add more AI features to it. I know they have started to do something, but for example, I have been developing widgets for IBM DOORS Next, AI widgets, so that you can write and analyze requirements with the AI, and I have also done the same for Jira, creating a couple of Jira applications in the marketplace as well.
reviewer1470327 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Workflow automation has streamlined request tracking and approval processes for my teams
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could be made better by reducing the prices. They should also provide more features with a better price compared to other tools in the market. Power Apps and Power Automate are much cheaper now compared to ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management. They should provide the approval license at no cost for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management; otherwise, it would be difficult to continue with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management. They must add integrations with other tools, and also a plug and play integration. The auto-closing of incidents with AI should be implemented; for example, if a user is facing an issue with a computer or some application, that incident needs to be taken care of by AI itself instead of a human.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This one tool incorporates almost all engineering tasks we need to do for one project."
"Even though Polarion is quite expensive, it's quite a good solution for medical device development in general, especially for software development."
"The best feature of Polarion ALM to me is its traceability link."
"The most valuable feature is the function of the ALM system."
"Polarion ALM has some valuable tools for managing our targets and requirements. I think that's its best feature."
"The technical support is quite good."
"Scalability is good...The integration is quite good."
"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."
"The main benefit that IT Business Management provides for me includes tracking the request and finding out the status of the request, which results in time saving."
"It manages portfolios and aligns our current portfolio with internal changes."
"The demand management tool is very strategic because it helps assess risk, gives you a visual of different demands, and rates those values."
"The integration of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management with other ServiceNow modules improves workflow efficiency by calculating overall project costs associated with vendor management."
"The ease of use is the most valuable feature. It's very intuitive to set up."
"We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our clients, who are using it for project management, control management, and change management across a variety of industries."
"You don't need a lot of plugins."
"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is incident management."
 

Cons

"Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only."
"The ease-of-use could be improved a little."
"I don't think that this solution scales well. It means that we have to split our project and use something with fewer objects in it."
"If you were to say that everything is integrated and it's a complete solution, I would say it's not."
"Test management lacks an automated process."
"I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system."
"The user interface of Polarion ALM needs improvement as it can experience changes that disrupt workflows, especially during major updates."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"Comparing ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management IT Business Management with some Microsoft solutions, Power Apps and Power Automate are better for me, and they are cheaper."
"The pricing is average."
"ServiceNow need to focus on internal empowerment rather than awareness to drive the change."
"I found the documentation difficult to figure out the basics of how it works. If the documentation could be improved to make understanding the basics easier, that would be beneficial, as I had to search through different videos and multiple places to find information."
"The initial setup is complex and should be simplified."
"The interface is cluttered with a lot of names and areas. It may not be user friendly enough for a first timer."
"A major improvement we would like to see is definitely around agile management."
"The price keeps going up, and to remain competitive, it needs to have a competitive edge."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is an expensive product."
"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"The tool is expensive."
"It's more suitable for larger companies as the licensing cost is relatively high. Not everyone can afford this tool."
"The licensing is based on metrics and is tailored to customer's needs."
"The cost of the solution should not be more than $50,000 annually."
"We have a team of about 6,500 employees across the globe. So, the amount of money I'm going to save by putting the money on the table for the implementation and licenses is very high."
"I would rate the cost as five out of ten."
"The pricing is negotiable based on the contract and licensing perspective."
"I rate the price of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management a seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
30%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and te...
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
We are in our product development using Polarion ALM's functionalities. I am a power user, partly responsible for configuring the tool. We are using it for many things. The idea was to go for a req...
What advice do you have for others considering Polarion ALM?
The pricing of Polarion ALM and IBM ELM is pretty much aligned. They are not at the same level, but I would say aligned according to the capabilities of the tools, with DOORS being more expensive b...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
I purchased the license for the product directly from ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could be made better by reducing the prices. They should also provide more features with a better price compared to other tools in the market. Power Apps a...
What is your primary use case for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
My use cases for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management include ITSM. For ITSM, I use it for the service desk, workflow creations, catalog creation, and automatic allocations. I work with Servic...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IT Business Management, ServiceNow IT Business Management Suite, ServiceNow ITBM Suite, ServiceNow ITBM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Proximus, UNT SYSTEM, SAP SuccessFactors
Find out what your peers are saying about Polarion ALM vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.