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Appian vs Control-M comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 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
7.5
Appian enhances digital transformation with quick ROI, boosting efficiency, profits, and resource optimization, achieving tangible benefits within a year.
Sentiment score
6.4
Control-M enhances efficiency by automating tasks, reducing costs, and improving resource allocation, particularly in large enterprises.
Using Appian is saving us five full-time employees, which is significant since we currently have only four team members.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
They see return on investment in terms of cost savings, time savings, more efficient processes, and more efficient employees.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Appian is very efficient, allowing us to build a lot of applications within a financial year, making it cost-effective.
Technology Leader of Appian at a retailer with 11-50 employees
The main return on investment with Helix Control-M has been a reduction in downtime and minimization of manual interventions, which has improved our operational efficiency.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
You can run a million batch jobs or tasks at night when all of your highly skilled people are at home sleeping.
Account Executive at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
By implementing automation tools, you can minimize human errors and improve efficiency.
Director of Sales at a tech services company with self employed
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though complex issues occasionally face delays and costs concern some users.
Sentiment score
7.2
Control-M support is highly rated for expertise and resources, despite occasional delays and repetitive inquiries, with overall satisfaction.
I would give Appian's customer support 10 out of 10 due to their next-level support.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The technical support for Appian rates as 10 out of 10 because they have a great support team.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
They quickly evolve with changing technology trends, easily adopt new features, and incorporate them into the product.
architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The support is accurate, and BMC is always ready to help with queries and complex incidents.
Solutions Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The technical support is very polite, helpful, and available 24/7.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian effectively scales for large operations, praised for adaptability and integration, though requires careful architecture and cloud deployment caution.
Sentiment score
7.5
Control-M excels in scalability, flexibility, and adaptability, efficiently managing millions of jobs daily across various applications.
On a scale of one to 10, Appian rates as a nine for scalability.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Our volume has increased by 20% in the two years since using Appian, and it can handle the increased volume effectively.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
Associate Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Our license doesn't limit our ability to configure Control-M as needed, allowing us to easily create new agents or environments.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I am paying for a top-end tool which rarely experiences issues, with most problems stemming from the applications being managed rather than the tooling itself.
Senior Control-M Consultant at Ktsl
It can absorb more workload wherever needed.
Cloud/Devops Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Appian is stable and reliable, with minor latency issues often tied to external factors or poor design.
Sentiment score
7.7
Control-M is praised for its stability and reliability, with issues typically arising from external factors, not the software itself.
We have tested Appian during peak usage and off-peak times, and we have not experienced any issues such as lagging or system disruptions.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The stability of Appian would rate as nine, as it's a stable environment.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Control-M itself is robust, and it would receive a rating of 10.
Technical architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The downtime is higher compared to AWS.
Data scientist at Advarisk
The testing and development phases need to be more rigorous before releasing patches.
Associate Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Appian users seek enhanced UI flexibility, seamless DevOps integration, better mobile features, improved error handling, and cost-effective pricing.
Control-M users seek improved reporting, integration, scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, user interfaces, dashboards, and simplified setup and support.
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.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
Appian can be improved by adding a geo-location tagging feature, which would be really helpful for identifying remitter addresses.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
They could provide more documentation and tutorials to make the initial setup easier to understand.
Assistant professor at J.P. College of Engineering
We've experienced main problems with MFTE where having one setup means when an error occurs, the entire service goes down.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Documentation should be maintained for all versions since they provided the application.
Sr Manager at Vodafone
 

Setup Cost

Appian offers flexible pricing with valuable solutions, costing up to $200,000 annually, yet users seek more competitive rates.
Control-M's high cost and complex pricing make it more suitable for larger organizations, despite its robust features.
Appian provides value for money, is easy to use, has a straightforward setup procedure, and offers great support from the Appian team.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems
The pricing of Appian is based on the number of users and generally ranges from 70 to 100 USD per user per month.
Technology Leader of Appian at a retailer with 11-50 employees
The licensing cost is very high, and they often consider switching to IBM Workload Scheduler or other options.
Associate Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Control-M tends to be more expensive compared to other solutions, but users get great value from it.
Senior System Specialist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Control-M is among the highest-priced solutions in the market.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Appian excels in rapid, low-code development, fostering collaboration, agile workflows, and AI-driven innovation with robust support and scalability.
Control-M enhances workflow management with cross-platform automation, cloud integration, real-time monitoring, and user-friendly features for diverse industries.
The zero-code integration feature is remarkable, allowing for ease of data transfer and workflow enhancement.
Technology Leader of Appian at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Appian is aiding in leveraging AI technologies in multiple ways: one way is for developers, as they make development efficient and quick by enabling developer co-pilots across various phases of the application, which helps design Appian quickly and provides suggestions along the way.
Director & Key Managerial Personnel at Newlight Technology Solutions Private Limited
After switching to Appian, it can extract data from MT103, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Automation is more advanced, deployment is fast, and version control has been simplified.
Data scientist at Advarisk
The user interface is comprehensive and lets me view all my jobs on one page, monitor everything, and access the job history.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
It is easy to integrate Control-M with technologies for data ops or DevOps processes as things change, and it is not complex compared to other workload automation tools available in the market.
architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Process Automation
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (8th), Rapid Application Development Software (10th), Low-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (6th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (11th)
Control-M
Ranking in Process Automation
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
150
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (3rd), Workload Automation (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Appian is 4.5%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Control-M is 3.6%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Automation Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Control-M3.6%
Appian4.5%
Other91.9%
Process Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Shad Bhowmik - PeerSpot reviewer
Finance Specialist at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Automated remittance workflows have boosted speed and accuracy but still need geo-tagging improvements
Remittance is a crucial part of my integral operation, so any disruption would majorly impact our clients. After switching to Appian, we never faced any disruption as it is reliable and we can generate data at any point in time, quite faster than other tools in my personal opinion. Regulators can ask for data from us at any time, and with Appian, we download data from our Appian tools to share it with them whenever they ask. I would share a real-life example: a customer's transaction processed more than a year ago. Suddenly the customer came back asking for all the details. In our previous tool, it was quite difficult to generate transaction details from over a year ago; however, while using Appian, we can pull up data using different key search fields, such as a customer's cell phone number, remittance tracking number, or MT103 reference number. We shared it with the customer instantly, and the customer was surprised we could provide all the details in such a short time. It added reputational value for our organization, thanks to Appian.You have pointed out two major things: time-saving and reduction of error, which are key points while processing remittance. Previously, while using another tool, it was quite time-consuming to process remittance, but after switching to Appian, it can extract data from MT103, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The process has become fully automated. Previously we could process only five to ten transactions within an hour, but now, after switching to Appian, we can process about 100 transactions in an hour, making it 10 times faster. In terms of error detection, since Appian extracts data from MT103, the extraction rate is quite good, and the error rate is negligible, lower than 0.001%. We can share accurate, error-free data with the regulator, which is essential for us. Appian benefits us significantly. After receiving an MT103, we check what the remitter is, the amount, if it is under threshold for processing, and if it is from a high-priority remitter or client. Since Appian extracts data from MT103 messages and identifies top-level clients from the database, it can notify us to process their transactions with priority. Due to automated data extraction, there are fewer instances of error. In our previous tool, we reported regulatory data to the central bank manually and often received complaints about invalid purpose codes due to manual data entry. Appian handles this automatically, and after switching, our error rate has dropped significantly, resulting in positive feedback from the Central Bank of Bangladesh regarding our reduced error rates. This has greatly enhanced our organization's reputation. Appian is fully on-premises, and we have our own system.
RP
Batch Admin at NBC Universal
Brings data together from multiple platforms and optimizes cross-environment orchestration
The features of Control-M that I like the most include the ability to easily integrate or bring in different platforms into Control-M. For instance, AWS, mainframe, TWS, and something that's running on Autosys can all be brought into Control-M, converted to how Control-M runs it, and then the batch can be executed. This centralizes various applications in Control-M, which doesn't just have to handle batch processes, but also other tasks like reporting on required data. I find this functionality very useful and the setup is impressive, with more advancements yet to come. With Control-M, my company has achieved several measurable improvements since I started. The metrics indicate that the number of failures has dropped, and we have addressed the issue of excessive false alerts that I encountered when I joined. Previously, we received an overwhelming number of alerts daily, but now we manage to maintain that at a normalized level, perhaps around five to fifteen alerts, depending on running core batches and their setup.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise122
 

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...
How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?
Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful because nothing gets left unattended since it is all visible in one place, and th...
What do you like most about Control-M?
First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?
Compared to other vendors, Control-M is quite costly. However, all good things come with a good cost. The features, speed to the market, and quality justify the higher expense. Control-M may need t...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
Control M
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not 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
The Bank of East Asia, LINE Bank Taiwan, Coop, Air Europa, Carrefour, Itau Unibanco, Snam, Embraer, ANZ Bank, EDP, Dominio's, Tampa General Hospital, W&W Informatik GmbH, Veterans General, Up Sí Vale, Sky Italia, REWE digital GmbH, Raymond James, Railinc, Navistar, Management Science Associates, Colruyt, CARFAX, Banpara, Aspiag Service, Amadeus, AG Insurance, ING Bank Slaski
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. Control-M and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.