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Polarion ALM vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management comparison

 

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
6th
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
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Polarion ALM is 3.1%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 3.8%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management3.8%
Polarion ALM3.1%
Other93.1%
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.
SH
Freelancer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Have experienced improved project and resource management with strategic alignment and comprehensive support
The complete ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management suite is used for strategic alignment, allowing us to track projects, portfolios, costs, and vendors to make informed decisions based on project tasks. While I may not be able to specify exact strategic outcomes from the SPM, the overall cost can be reduced by eliminating scattered tools such as JIRA and Microsoft Project Planner, which were onboarded into a single platform for multiple processes in ServiceNow, especially with CSDM that offers services-based alignment. The impact of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management's analytics and reporting features on decision-making processes includes utilizing reports based on milestones during project implementations. Some tasks can be delayed or not aligned with requirements, such as in agile-based projects where features such as Sprint Burndown Charts are monitored. Reports can be fetched from SPM showing if milestones have been achieved, allowing for course corrections based on metrics indicating whether they are on track.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Polarion ALM's integration is very good and easy to use."
"It's all in one place, where every department can utilize the same tool."
"The initial setup of this solution was straightforward, and there were not too many problems with it."
"Even though Polarion is quite expensive, it's quite a good solution for medical device development in general, especially for software development."
"Scalability is good...The integration is quite good."
"There are similar solutions out there such as Jira and Confluence, but they are not as good."
"It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective."
"It meets with everybody's needs without having to grab plugins."
"What I like about ServiceNow is how it operates as a complete platform."
"The most important feature of ServiceNow IT Business Management is flexibility."
"The interface is user-friendly; it's one of the most user-friendly on the market and the most complete."
"As a product, the primary reason we like it is it gets integrated with our ITSM solution so that we don't have to go for an external product for project management like Jira."
"It manages portfolios and aligns our current portfolio with internal changes."
"Competitive in terms of research"
"We like the status report feature. It is something really valuable."
"The most important feature for us is project portfolio management, which helps us manage and track the entire life cycle of a project or a program at an enterprise scale and across business portfolios."
 

Cons

"We use PTC Windchill, and Polarion ALM doesn't have native integration, so we had to purchase the connector to integrate it with Polarion ALM. We still haven't implemented it."
"If you were to say that everything is integrated and it's a complete solution, I would say it's not."
"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 weak point of Polarion ALM software is about reporting and time for extraction of the data...The quality of reporting needs to improve."
"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."
"Based on my understanding, the tool's integration capabilities with multiple tools is an area of concern that Polarion needs to focus on more."
"The ease-of-use could be improved a little."
"Improvements in ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could involve enhancing the project workbench, which currently shows every project to any project manager."
"The configurations are fine, but the user interface could be improved."
"The only issue for us is the pricing. It’s quite high in comparison with the competition."
"The program isn't very user-friendly, as it is rather difficult to use."
"ServiceNow IT Business Management could improve by adding better artificial intelligence."
"ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management must improve its interface, which is not very interactive or user-friendly compared to other tools like Zendesk. The real-time reporting feature doesn't help much in our decision-making process. It's quite complex to use and lacks the rich features needed for visualization. Overall, I find it to be very poor."
"Improving configuration activities and productivity would be beneficial, as fresh graduates using the system require training to adapt."
"The timing reporting module, and how it's used is a bit difficult to understand."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"It is an expensive product."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"The solution is expensive."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"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."
"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."
"It's more suitable for larger companies as the licensing cost is relatively high. Not everyone can afford this tool."
"The solution was quite expensive."
"The pricing is negotiable based on the contract and licensing perspective."
"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."
"I would rate the cost as five out of ten."
"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
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

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 Enterprise24
 

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 do you like most about ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
We mainly use the solution to support operations and align our ITSM operations with our business goals. This involves coordinating between our application development, support teams, and network en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
The pricing is rated six, as it's relatively low-medium compared to other solutions. However, the value isn't fully justified when not all features are used. A pricing model adjustment is needed fo...
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
I don't have a comment on what areas of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could be improved or enhanced, which may be because we're not utilizing it properly. I found the documentation diff...
 

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: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.