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Anaplan vs Workiva Wdesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 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

Anaplan
Ranking in Business Performance Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
Workiva Wdesk
Ranking in Business Performance Management
12th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
GRC (4th), Financial Close Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Business Performance Management category, the mindshare of Anaplan is 13.6%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workiva Wdesk is 3.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Performance Management
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
Phillip Gough - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution is easy to deploy and enables collaboration, but it must improve its speed and enable users to create pivot tables
I rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. The initial setup was straightforward. The solution is cloud-based. We deployed the product along with Wdata in six months. It was for a lot of use cases. To deploy the tool, we designed the use cases and developed them. Then, we went through unit tests, integration tests, and user acceptance tests. It was an Agile delivery cycle.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Anaplan's connected planning feature is its most valuable aspect, allowing for seamless financial planning, HR planning, and updates."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go."
"You don't need to have a programming language to use Anaplan."
"Anaplan integrates well into my clients' core systems. The ability to aggregate the forms within the dashboarding is also useful. Only one of my clients has implemented workflow. Their usage has been very light. Dashboarding capability is probably the biggest one. My clients like having the ability to aggregate, slice and dice, and dynamically adjust things in the dashboards."
"Anaplan's most valuable features are that it's a no-coding platform, everything can be scaled to your other functions, and it's easy to learn and use (especially because Anaplan provides excellent interactive training)."
"I am impressed with the tool’s real-time calculations and intuitive interface. The tool’s user interface is the best compared to other software that I have worked with. I also find the tool’s management reporting feature valuable."
"It makes the compliance process more efficient and more effective."
"The cross-functionality between connectivity, whether through API connections between different software platforms or the connection of data collection to the actual written ESG report, is highly valuable. The connectivity of all these aspects significantly aids in data assurance, which I consider a bonus."
"Workiva Wdesk has a flow diagram that is standardized, making it easy for people to file documents on ECDAs, which are in HTML format."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to easily upload and update financial results, creating a dynamic data sheet."
"The collaboration within the platform is valuable."
"It helps you to maintain a backup of your data, including the connectivity with the tables, which provides a user-friendly way to handle and access your files."
"Workiva Wdesk is pretty good in terms of getting the data from the system, automating the reporting schedules...It has a very good integration with ERP tools."
 

Cons

"One key area of improvement is pricing."
"Space and integration are a problem."
"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"Anaplan could enhance its user interface by including a more user-friendly API."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions."
"One area of improvement is conditional formatting. It's not very practical, and you need to specify additional formatting."
"One area where Workiva Wdesk could improve is by ensuring that its cloud-based system is fully compatible with the most current versions of PowerPoint and Excel."
"With this product, it's more about the integrated data model where you can have a one-to-many/many-to-one relationship between your policies and processes, risks, and controls. They need to showcase how you can put those pieces together."
"The most critical issue is the need to shift between uppercase and lowercase."
"Regarding the solution, reporting has certain areas that can be considered for improvement."
"The speed must be improved."
"The tool's script encoding needs to be updated to make it more user-friendly and less of a manual process when changes are made to a company's program. Those changes happen frequently due to mandatory or voluntary reporting requirements, leading to lost linkage connections that must be manually reset each time a change is made. This aspect is not functional now, and I see it as an opportunity for improvement."
"At this point, I don't see a compelling reason to invest in Workiva. It may be necessary for compliance and controlling the version of SCC, but not everyone needs its high-end capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB."
"The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"Our clients in Asia think that the solution is too expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about Workiva Wdesk?
The most valuable feature is its ability to easily upload and update financial results, creating a dynamic data sheet.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workiva Wdesk?
Wdesk is affordable and as far as I'm aware, there were no additional costs beyond the standard license increase. We didn't have to make any other changes; it primarily involved accessing the platf...
What needs improvement with Workiva Wdesk?
The tool's script encoding needs to be updated to make it more user-friendly and less of a manual process when changes are made to a company's program. Those changes happen frequently due to mandat...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Wdesk
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
Noodles Company, eBay, Winnebago, American Assets Trust, AmericanEnterprise, Calpian, Capstone Infrastructure, Cascades, Circor International, Coeur Mining, Davey, Dr Pepper Snapple
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan vs. Workiva Wdesk and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.