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Appian vs ServiceNow Now Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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
7.3
Appian enhances ROI for companies by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and achieving break-even within the first year.
Sentiment score
6.8
ServiceNow provides ROI through metrics, AI tools, and efficiency, benefiting larger enterprises despite cost concerns for smaller ones.
They see return on investment in terms of cost savings, time savings, more efficient processes, and more efficient employees.
Appian is very efficient, allowing us to build a lot of applications within a financial year, making it cost-effective.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian's customer service is excellent but faces capacity challenges; proactive support is valuable despite complex issue delays and high costs.
Sentiment score
7.2
ServiceNow technical support is highly rated but lacks in basic support, often relying on internal teams for quick assistance.
The technical support for Appian rates as 10 out of 10 because they have a great support team.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
The technical support is generally good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian is scalable and flexible, but may encounter performance issues with complex processes and large data volumes.
Sentiment score
7.9
ServiceNow Now Platform is scalable, integrates seamlessly, supports thousands of users, and offers flexibility with straightforward licensing.
On a scale of one to 10, Appian rates as a nine for scalability.
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
Appian is scalable, but it depends on how you build your applications.
Users can build and modify the platform according to their needs.
It is easily scalable and very powerful in this direction.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Appian is praised for stability and reliability, with high uptime, seamless updates, and occasional minor database issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
EMEA users praise ServiceNow Now Platform for 99.9% reliability, consistent uptime, multilingual support, and seamless daily performance.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

Appian needs improvements in flexibility, integration, scalability, team collaboration, mobile features, documentation, licensing, and handling complex processes.
ServiceNow users seek better licensing clarity, UI, integration, programming support, and technical support due to cost and customization issues.
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.
I would like to see more enhancement in the user interface to allow more freedom in designing the sites and pages.
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
It lacks support for rollbacks in case of complex customer processes.
Historical data isn't as easily available as expected and it requires buying additional licenses for more features.
The user interface could be modernized and made more attractive for users.
 

Setup Cost

Appian offers flexible pricing with cloud and on-premise options, but costs can rise with usage and require negotiation.
ServiceNow is costly due to variable licensing and module fees, making it less flexible for smaller organizations.
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.
The price of Appian, on a competitive landscape, is a little bit on the higher side for companies, rating maybe a 6.5.
ServiceNow Now Platform is an expensive product.
ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product.
 

Valuable Features

Appian provides low-code development, easy integration, scalability, and strong AI-enhanced features with a user-friendly interface and robust support.
ServiceNow Platform enhances efficiency with workflow automation, integration, scalability, and user-friendly interfaces for comprehensive service management.
The zero-code integration feature is remarkable, allowing for ease of data transfer and workflow enhancement.
Appian also utilizes AI for business users, providing a feature called process each view, enabling business users to create their own dashboards, reports, and gain insights from their data and processes using artificial intelligence.
I can create tables, perform database-related activities, and create multiple tables.
It is extremely powerful and very much customizable, which allows for quick building of solutions around it.
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.
The most valuable features are the ease of use, stability, and the ability to change or upgrade seamlessly.
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
8th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (12th), Process Automation (8th), Process Mining (8th)
ServiceNow Now Platform
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
12th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No-Code Development Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Appian is 8.8%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Now Platform is 1.9%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software
 

Featured Reviews

Nitin-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integration enhances workflows while memory optimization can improve complex processes
I am working with all of these products: Pega, Appian, and OutSystems. I use Appian as a process orchestrator for workflow and rule-based routing, and it is preferred when I am developing an enterprise-wide application. The application is mobile-friendly, allowing me to use it across any device…
SiddharthZunjarrao - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables us to have significant improvements in operational efficiency
ServiceNow is highly scalable from a customization point of view, allowing for the building of portals, adding and configuring widgets, and designing workflows as preferred. 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. The case summarization feature is also great, as it summarizes user comments and agent notes into a resolution code without needing to review the entire activity history.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
21%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 do you like most about ServiceNow Now Platform?
The integration with other tools is pretty good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Now Platform?
From what I have heard only from our sales team, ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product, but I can't really judge it.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Now Platform?
The user interface could be modernized and made more attractive for users.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
No data available
 

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
experian, beachbody, health partners
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. ServiceNow Now Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
855,347 professionals have used our research since 2012.