Appian vs Microsoft Power Apps comparison

Appian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Rapid Application Development Software category. Appian is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.1, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0. Appian holds a 9.9% mindshare in RADS, compared to Microsoft’s 18.7% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Appian

Read 59 Appian reviews

12,835 Views
8,810 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Power Apps

Read 90 Microsoft Power Apps reviews

27,422 Views
21,722 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Appian

Microsoft Power Apps

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 29, 2024

Appian and Microsoft Power Apps both compete in the low-code platform category. Appian has an upper hand for enterprise capabilities, while Power Apps stands out for its strong Microsoft 365 integration.

Features: Appian offers comprehensive automation capabilities, extensive integration options, and enterprise-level scalability. Microsoft Power Apps provides user-friendly features, strong native integrations with Microsoft services, and flexibility for building custom business apps.

Room for Improvement: Appian could improve its documentation, provide enhanced debugging tools, and offer better user assistance resources. Microsoft Power Apps needs to focus on improving scalability, adding more advanced configuration options, and enhancing performance under high load.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appian users report a more complex deployment process but are satisfied with customer support. Microsoft Power Apps offers easier deployment, but users desire more responsive support.

Pricing and ROI: Appian generally incurs higher setup costs but offers strong ROI due to its enterprise features. Microsoft Power Apps has lower initial costs, making it accessible for smaller projects.

To learn more, read our detailed Appian vs. Microsoft Power Apps Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. Microsoft Power Apps

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Appian

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

5th

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (6th), Process Automation (3rd), Process Mining (6th)

Microsoft Power Apps

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

1st

Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Appian is 9.9%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Apps is 18.7%, down from 24.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rapid Application Development Software

Featured Reviews

Devashish Mishra

Client Partner at Peristent Systems

Apr 21, 2023

Low resource consumption, easy setup, and stable

To determine whether a platform, such as Appian, is suitable for your domain industry, you must first assess whether it offers any out-of-the-box features relevant to your needs. If it does, utilizing that platform would be the best option since it already has the required functionalities. If the available features do not align with your requirements, consider choosing a platform that can easily build such services. Attempting to modify pre-existing features on a platform is a challenging task, and any upgrades to the platform could pose further issues for users. The solution has high performance but the main issue is the lack of customization after deploying it. I rate Appian an eight out of ten.

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Praveen Chaudhary

Service Delivery Manager at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 30, 2024

Facilitates form creation and application planning but lacks performance

We have started exploring those parts. It is in the initial stages and capable of performing simple tasks that are helpful. We are still exploring how it can work with profiles, and other AI features that Microsoft continues to introduce. It provides a basic starting point within its capabilities. Microsoft Power Apps is a perfect tool. Understanding its limitations is crucial to identifying where it best fits within organizational solutions. It excels in scenarios requiring quick turnaround times, offering easy maintenance with minimal technical expertise needed. However, it's not suited for complex enterprise-level solutions. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most productive aspect of Appian lies in its ability to develop interfaces, particularly user interfaces. Creating user interfaces is highly productive, when these interfaces are integrated with the original database. In such cases, using record types proves to be a very efficient method of handling data. The synergy between interfaces and record types enhances productivity."

"Write to Data Store Entity - Saving data in SQL databases is done easily using entities. Entities (CDTs in Appian terminology) define relationships and target schema tables via XSD files."

"It has very flexible adaptation and the ability to save and automate processes."

"It's heavy on business processing in terms of logic, process workflows, and primarily on the process design modeler. Appian is really great at that. In terms of the full stack set from a low-code platform perspective, it's definitely an eye opener since it can be deployed via mobile app and on the web as well."

"Rapid development with low-code makes it easier to quickly get apps implemented and the time to break-even and ROI is much faster."

"Appian's most valuable feature is that we can create end-to-end process workflows with minimum turnaround."

"Even with an on-premise implementation, the scalability is still high, so it is easy to scale up."

"Appian has many valuable features, the first being the ease of development—rapid development. Second, the process of learning the product and tool is faster when compared to its peers in the market. It's closer to low-code, and while it's still not very easy, it's more low-code than other products in the industry. Appian has a good user interface, a seamless model user interface, which comes without additional coding. It can also integrate with multiple systems."

More Appian pros

"It's very easy to build an app using this solution."

"The cloud aspect has been great. We don't have to do a lot of research in order to begin integrations. It's so easy to integrate with other solutions."

"It is easy to design automation processes."

"It allows us to provide all the information in one single place."

"We like that this solution allows us to fully define our test environments, and link them using different code. This means we can do different tests, but with one basic structure, and then export the data and use it in other platforms."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft PowerApps is the user interface."

"Microsoft Power Apps is the building block for creating applications, similar to how children use different types of blocks to build structures."

"Overall, the tool is very democratic. It's easy for anyone to use. You don't have to be a professional or well-versed in technology."

More Microsoft Power Apps pros

Cons

"The solution could use some more tutorials to help brand new users figure out how to use the product effectively."

"The ability of the interface to load automatic data is not great."

"There are four areas I believe Appian could improve in. The first is a seamless contact center integration. Appian does not have a contact center feature. The second is advanced features in RPA. The third would be chatbot and email bot integration—while Appian comes with chatbot and email bot, it's not as mature as it should be, compared to the competition. The fourth area would be next best action, since there is not much of this sort of feature in Appian. These are all features which competitors' products have, and in a mature manner, whereas Appian lacks on these four areas. I see customers who are moving from Appian to Pega because these features are not in Appian."

"The product’s pricing could be improved from the developers' perspective."

"We would like to have more granular control for interface styling."

"Appian could improve their customer-facing initiatives."

"A point of improvement would be the SAIL forms. The built-in tool used to generate forms does not have debugging support (to view local variables as they change on live preview, and step-by-step valuation) which is a big drawback for form development. Moreover, the script language used to build SAIL forms does not support inheritance or lambda expressions (functions as arguments of other functions), which makes the code base more verbose."

"The solution needs more features. For example, a way to connect to our viewing database, to record, and more interface and component design."

More Appian cons

"The price could be lower."

"They probably need to improve intelligent document processing."

"I have heard from developers that there is documentation missing in the reporting."

"The documentation isn't great. It's only 75% of what you need to know. If you go beyond that and run into issues, it's really not going to help you."

"As far as dealing with SharePoint, it'll allow you to ha manage up to 2000 rows, however, performance-wise, they're recommending that you just keep it at the default of 500 rows."

"It's sometimes hard to import groups of options. At this point, I need to enter those manually and it slows the process down."

"In an upcoming release, I would like to see custom APIs, better integration with other solutions, and more connectors available."

"Integration with databases and other tools needs to be improved."

More Microsoft Power Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing of Appian is less expensive when compared to other BPMs in the market."

"The solution offers a monthly subscription model. That's what we use. I recall it being about $90 a month. They do have different tiers."

"More flexibility in the licensing model is still needed because initially there were customers who are looking at only one or two use cases of business areas, but now the business areas are changing and there is a larger scope. One license model may not fit everyone. They need to be a little more flexible on the licensing model."

"It's good value for the price."

"The price of this solution is a little high here in Mongolia."

"The pricing can be a little confusing to customers."

"If you're doing an enterprise-wide digital transformation, Appian is worthwhile, but not for just one or two use cases because the license costs are higher."

"The license is not very cheap. It's on the expensive side."

More Appian pricing and cost advice

"The price of Microsoft PowerApps is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"We would advise organizations that this solution has a high-price point. However, the cost is justified for how comprehensive the package is, and all components of the solution are available under the standard license plan; there are no hidden costs involved."

"Pricing for this solution is completely based on user requirement. If your requirement is simple or less complex, then the basic licensing model can work, e.g. the free model, or else, you need to go for the premium features or premium model."

"Our enterprise contract with Microsoft Power Apps includes the application feature platform in our subscription package, so we are not incurring any extra expenses. All of our other subscriptions are also part of our license agreement."

"Usually, the free licenses of Power Apps come to normal corporate users for free...For normal users within a corporate firm with licenses, it's totally favorable."

"Microsoft Power Apps is not an expensive solution."

"The enterprise-level costs a great deal of money, and you have to purchase additional licenses to scale it."

"Microsoft PowerApps is expensive, but there are many features included."

More Microsoft Power Apps pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

28%

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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...

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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...

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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...

See all answers

How would you choose between Microsoft PowerApps and Salesforce Platform?

I think it depends on your use case. If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise products, PowerApps will work better in your environment. Similarly, if you have a Salesforce integration in pla...

See all answers

Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?

Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...

See all answers

Would you choose Microsoft Azure App Service or PowerApps?

Microsoft Azure App Service is helpful if you need to set up temporary servers for customers to run their programs in locations that other cloud providers do not cater to. When servers are closer t...

See all answers

Comparisons

OutSystems vs Appian

Compared 13% of the time

ServiceNow vs Appian

Compared 10% of the time

Camunda vs Appian

Compared 10% of the time

Salesforce Platform vs Appian

Compared 7% of the time

IBM BPM vs Appian

Compared 6% of the time

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Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs Microsoft Power Apps

Compared 17% of the time

ServiceNow vs Microsoft Power Apps

Compared 16% of the time

Mendix vs Microsoft Power Apps

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure App Service vs Microsoft Power Apps

Compared 9% of the time

Salesforce Platform vs Microsoft Power Apps

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft Power Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appian

October 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Apps

October 2024

Download Microsoft Power Apps product report

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS

PowerApps, MS PowerApps

Learn More

Appian

Microsoft

Overview

Appian is a unified low-code platform and solution used by businesses to build enterprise applications and workflows. This product adapts to the needs of clients and the technologies they are already using to combine their data in a single workflow and maximize resources. The platform has four main components through which it transforms the work process for companies of various sizes. They are:

Complete automation: Through complete automation, companies are able to coordinate and manage employees, existing systems, bots, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) in a single workflow. The solution offers a way to centrally manage all third-party automation vendors as well.
Low-code applications: Appian offers the ability to build applications faster with visual development and low-code tools. All applications are ready-made to be suitable for mobile.
Low-code data: Appian lets companies source data from multiple types of sources, eliminating the need for data migration. Through no-code and low-code solutions and industry-standard connectors, the platform also eliminates the need for data silos.
Enterprise ready: The platform offers options for companies to scale their businesses to an enterprise level without complications.

Appian is utilized across a diverse set of industries, including automotive and manufacturing, energy and utilities, education, financial services, telecom and media, transportation, retail, insurance, healthcare, and life sciences. The most frequent use cases of Appian are customer journey, governance, risk and compliance, operational efficiency, supply chain, distributed order management, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management.

Appian Features

Appian has various features that allow users to create solutions for their businesses. These features can be separated into a few groups according to function, including automation, low-code application development, and integrations and data. Some of the most frequently used features of Appian include:

Robotic process automation (RPA): Users of Appian can assign software bots to perform rules-based tasks that need to be repeated over a set course of time. This can improve efficiency and performance within an organization while saving human resources.
Intelligent document processing: The tool offers a feature for quick and accurate extraction and structuring of data. This can reduce time and costs for organizations because it eliminates the need for outsourcing such services.
AI: Appian utilizes artificial intelligence to enhance applications, workflows, and automation. AI is also used to address complex processes and unique situations.
Business rules: Organizations can automate and simplify work processes while adhering to their operating procedures.
Application development: Appian provides a low-code development feature that allows users to deploy applications over ten times faster than through conventional approaches. This feature not only allows for quick application building, but also applications that run on multiple types of platforms, seamless data integration, and business scalability.
Integrations and data: Appian allows for data integration from a wide array of sources without the need for migration. This contributes to easy access to data across systems, real-time data insights, improved user experience, and accelerated development.

Appian Benefits

The benefits of using Appian include:

The solution ensures seamless organization growth, as it supports various UX patterns, common data schemes, and upgrades, used to facilitate application development on a bigger scale.
Appian can increase process speed and deliver applications considerably faster compared to conventional development.
The platform is easy to use and suitable for complete beginners to build applications and workflows.
Appian offers a variety of design tools that facilitate development and deployment.
Appian offers detailed real-time data insight which allows organizations to access relevant information about their processes as they are developing.
The solution offers clients the ability to move data between the cloud, on-premise, and hybrid configurations.
The platform is easy to optimize, which allows businesses to utilize it according to their personal needs.
Appian offers connectivity across web, mobile, email, voice, and chat, providing a multi-channel experience for companies and their clients.

Reviews from Real Users

A practice leader - digital process automation at a computer software company values Appian highly because the product is easy to develop, low-code, and has a good user interface.

Alan G., an advisory board member at Codecon VR, Appian offers a clear application life cycle, easy to learn documentation, and comes with a fundamentals course.

Microsoft Power Apps is a rapid application development software and low-code development platform. The solution consists of a suite of apps, services, connectors, and a data platform. It provides an environment for building custom apps which is suitable for different businesses.

Microsoft Power Apps allows users to not only build applications, but also connect them to Microsoft's other sources, including the underlying data platform Microsoft Dataverse, as well as online and on-premise sources such as SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365. The applications built using Microsoft Power Apps have a responsive design that makes them suitable for work in browsers and on mobile applications on different devices.

The no-code side of the product makes it suitable for complete beginners to app building, allowing them to easily create fully functional applications with many features. The solution also has a specialized platform for developers where specialists can access data and metadata, create custom connectors, integrate with external data, and apply business logic. The solution allows users to create three types of apps: canvas, model-driven, and portal. They are made using:

Power Apps Studio: Canvas apps are designed through Power Apps Studio. This app designer is suitable for complete beginners, as the app creation process resembles the building of presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint.
App Designer: Model-driven apps are created through App Designer. The creation process allows users to define the sitemap and add components to build the application.
Power Apps Portals Studio: This is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) design tool. It is suitable for portal applications, as it allows users to add and configure web pages, forms, components, and lists.

Microsoft Power Apps Features

The three different design tools of the solution, Power Apps Studio, App Designer, and Power Apps Portals Studio, come with various features which allow users to utilize the tools. Some of these features include:

Common Data Service (CDS): The data storage feature of the solution allows users to store and manage the data used for business applications securely. The data within the feature is stored among a set of entities, including a base set of standard entities as well as user-made custom ones, using Power Query. The data within CDS can be used to build apps.
Cloud connectivity: Microsoft Power Apps has the ability to connect with various types of cloud services. It can connect with MS CDS, as well as SQL, DropBox, and Google Drive.
Sharing feature: The tool has a feature for sharing built applications. Users can share the app they have created with users within the same organization as them.
Role-based feature: The product allows organizations to assign their employees roles within the platform. This is done to create customization based on the assigned roles, potentially eliminating issues that a completely free access can create.
AI automation: The tool has a feature that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI). It provides users with an AI builder and pre-built AI components to facilitate the application building process.
APIs feature: Microsoft Power Apps facilitates the app-building process through application program interfaces (APIs).
Collaboration support: The tool supports collaboration within the organization in the application building process. Through this feature, multiple employees can contribute to the creation of an app.

Microsoft Power Apps Benefits

The product brings various benefits to organizations and individuals who utilize it. Some of the biggest advantages of Microsoft Power Apps include:

The solution saves time for organizations by eliminating manual coding and providing ready-to-use solutions.
Applications built on the product can be made compatible with various platforms, including the web, Windows, Android, and iOS.
The premium connectors and wide integration of the platform allow developers to use data from Microsoft and from third-party services to build their applications.
The no-code capability enhances mobility and innovations within companies.
The AI feature of the product allows companies to increase their productivity through prebuilt AI scenarios.
The tool offers various ways to follow the data from the created applications, allowing companies to benefit from the reports of the performance of their apps.
Professional developers receive a platform to follow crucial metrics and access the application development in detail.
Power Apps can be connected across the entire Microsoft Power Platform, allowing organizations to utilize all features that the provider offers.

Reviews from Real Users

An IT Specialist (INFOSEC) at a government appreciates this tool because it is low-code, low learning curve, and reduces manpower.

Rafael T., a data engineer at NTT Security, likes Microsoft Power Apps, because it is great for making apps quickly, has helpful support, and integrates with Power BI.

Sample Customers

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee

TransAlta, Rackspace, Telstra

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. Microsoft Power Apps

October 2024

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