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Appian vs OutSystems vs QuickBase comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.1
Appian boosts company profits, efficiency, and cost savings, with users achieving quick returns and reductions in process times.
Sentiment score
6.3
OutSystems' ROI varies, with rapid development and reduced costs leading to high returns and improved customer experiences.
Sentiment score
7.1
QuickBase boosts efficiency, productivity, and ROI by reducing manual processes and enhancing automation, with significant financial benefits reported.
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
Developing that same project in OutSystems can be completed in around 40 to 50% less time, requiring only six resources.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
Time efficiency. Your team can be deployed to work on different modules parallelly and you can really save time up to an enormous level.
Senior Technical Lead at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The ROI is huge; our company saved over 3.8 million in one year alone based on developments that year in QuickBase that saved time for many teams.
Data Entry Specialist at Pfizer
I have seen a return on investment, as I have seen a reduction in duplication of information and workflows, and unification of siloed systems.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
I have seen a return on investment with QuickBase, with both time saved and an increase in productivity.
Director at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian's customer service is valued for responsiveness, though complex issue resolution times need improvement, especially for smaller companies.
Sentiment score
7.0
OutSystems' support is responsive and valued, but specialized assistance and faster issue resolution are needed for some users.
Sentiment score
7.6
QuickBase's customer service is responsive and effective, though some users desire more interactive support and weekend availability.
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
Many helpful videos and documentation are available on the OutSystems site, making it relatively easy to learn the platform.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
They do have the customer support ticketing system where you can raise the ticket, decide the priority, and depending upon your priority and urgency, they are going to resolve your problem.
Senior Technical Lead at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There have been no issues with support,
Project Manager at Centre for Content Creation
Technical support is really good, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Associate principal engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
The customer support of QuickBase is very proactive and responsive 24/7.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Appian offers robust scalability and integration, efficiently supporting complex processes despite potential challenges in data and infrastructure.
Sentiment score
7.3
OutSystems offers scalable, cloud-based architecture, supporting diverse environments for efficient enterprise growth, despite some cost concerns.
Sentiment score
7.6
QuickBase is scalable and modular, allowing seamless growth for organizations despite initial data structuring challenges.
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
They can be deployed vertically and horizontally, supporting as many deployments as needed.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
Quick Base has high potential to scale.
Associate principal engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
We are able to save time, especially because of the automation of tasks that are time-wasting or time-consuming and very tiresome.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
QuickBase's scalability is impressive; it is easily scalable from a few users to a few hundred or a few thousand users.
Head of Quality & Supply-Chain at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Appian is stable and reliable with minimal issues, especially when best practices are followed, despite some latency challenges.
Sentiment score
7.8
OutSystems is highly stable and reliable, handling heavy operations well, despite minor issues under massive user bases.
Sentiment score
7.8
QuickBase is stable with minimal downtime, reliable support, and performs well despite occasional traffic-related issues.
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
 

Room For Improvement

Appian's tools need more flexibility, better integration, improved scalability, intuitive UI, enhanced mobile support, and comprehensive training materials.
OutSystems needs to enhance performance, reduce costs, improve support, and refine integration, UI, documentation, and AI capabilities.
QuickBase requires improvements in training, customization, interface modernization, data management, cost management, and multilingual and mobile 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
It is crucial to be aware of which module corresponds to which application in real-time projects, as there are multiple applications.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
You have to design your architecture in a very magnificent and decent way so that how you process your data so that load can be easily balanced.
Senior Technical Lead at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would like to see more integration between the use of artificial intelligence to speed up the process delivery time.
RPA Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
It can be difficult to navigate, and ideally, it should be simplified to facilitate use by anyone, not just certified individuals.
Associate principal engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
QuickBase can be improved, as some high-level integration can be tricky to develop without advanced understanding of the APIs and other functions.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
The cost can be a bit prohibitive, especially for small organizations to be able to use this tool.
Data Entry Specialist at Pfizer
 

Setup Cost

Appian's pricing varies by deployment and workload, offering value despite higher costs, with notable robust, enterprise-grade features.
OutSystems is costly for small businesses, but valued for its robust enterprise features compared to competitors.
QuickBase offers competitive per-user pricing with extensive features, making it a valuable investment for many enterprises.
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
Subsequent users can be added at an additional cost per user; exact pricing details can be found on the OutSystems site.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
Pricing could be cheaper.
Associate principal engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the price is a bit expensive, especially when comparing QuickBase with its competitors.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
 

Valuable Features

Appian provides low-code development with seamless integration, automation, and AI, enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility in process management.
OutSystems enhances productivity with one-click publishing, visual modeling, seamless integration, and flexible cross-platform support for rapid development.
QuickBase excels in customizability, seamless integration, and user-friendly automation, enhancing collaboration and efficiency without requiring technical expertise.
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
OutSystems offers a lot of reusable components and solutions that I can simply drag and drop and use, which has a significant impact on project delivery time.
RPA Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We use integration extensively in OutSystems, which allows us to connect our own internal systems to our newly created system applications.
Project Manager at Centre for Content Creation
OutSystems has a very good learning curve for developers.
Software Developer Advisor at NTT DATA Services
The dashboards and workflow management help my team significantly, as they have a drag-and-drop interface and prebuilt templates, which play a pivotal role in creating custom applications.
Software Test Engineer at Roche
The ROI is huge; our company saved over 3.8 million in one year alone based on developments that year in QuickBase that saved time for many teams.
Data Entry Specialist at Pfizer
QuickBase has allowed me to expand my workflows and tools to other markets to help compliance and to help other less sophisticated business users be able to do standardized and repeatable processes with much less error.
Lead & Initiatives Director, Strategic Projects at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of Appian is 5.0%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OutSystems is 5.0%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of QuickBase is 2.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OutSystems5.0%
Appian5.0%
QuickBase2.2%
Other87.8%
Rapid Application Development Software
 

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.
Aditya Bhatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Lead at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rapid delivery has transformed complex enterprise apps and supports faster cross-domain projects
Every platform or low-code platform tool is quite good in its own area, but there is always space to groom or enhance or improve. The same is with OutSystems as well. A couple of things from the integration point of view can be enhanced. If your application or the enterprise organization is tackling a huge data application where you have bulk amounts of data, it becomes a challenge for all the technologies and the same with OutSystems. You have to design your architecture in a very magnificent and decent way so that how you process your data so that load can be easily balanced. Data handling and huge data handling is a kind of challenge you may need to face. Then we have some vendor lock-in. If you are trying to migrate your application from OutSystems, then you probably get into this vendor lock-in system. Some organization may face challenges if some organization is on a small scale size. The small scale businesses may find OutSystems costly because of its high cost and pricing due to the licensing cost. Apart from that, OutSystems really plays well, and it needs a learning curve. If a traditional application or programming is there which your developers are skilled into and they are directly deployed into OutSystems, it may take some significant amount of time for them to get comfortable with OutSystems. There is a learning curve. OutSystems community is already in place, but it can more be enhanced regarding some aspects. They did organize lots of bootcamps and other user groups as well, but those can also be improved from the documentation point of view and having some integration guidebook as well. A couple of things which can be improved into OutSystems include the licensing cost, the vendor lock-in side, the learning curve, couple of integration aspects and customizations.
Morgan Victor - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Test Engineer at Roche
Automation has transformed project and inventory workflows and improves revenue forecasting
The best features QuickBase offers include being a no-code software, meaning it is very easy to use even for new users. It also provides life cycle management, workflow management, and dashboards. The dashboards and workflow management help my team significantly, as they have a drag-and-drop interface and prebuilt templates, which play a pivotal role in creating custom applications. Those features also help provide the ability to manage the entire application life cycle with QuickBase easily. Integration has been very seamless with our overall IT stack. The user interface is very user-friendly and intuitive, which makes it very easy to use, together with the no-code aspect. Any kind of personnel can use this tool easily.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Construction Company
14%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise28
 

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...
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. The...
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 i...
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into t...
What industries do you think OutSystems is most useful for?
I cannot really name an industry in which OutSystems cannot be beneficial. Who does not want to make top-notch applic...
How did you decide which OutSystems edition was the best one for you?
We started using OutSystems fairly recently, so we are still on the free version of it. My company is still testing ...
What do you like most about QuickBase?
The most valuable feature of QuickBase is its dynamic form capabilities. These forms allow backend automation, making...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for QuickBase?
I did not have any involvement with pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
What needs improvement with QuickBase?
The table size limits are small for really large apps. While I agree that there needs to be a cap on the size, it wou...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
No data available
Quick Base, TSheets
 

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
Randstad, Warner Brothers, HP, Intel, ING, Banco Popular, Thrivent Financial, Bacardi, Kent State University, Bacardi, FICO, ING, Vodafone, AbbVie, Estafeta, Siemens, Vopak
Procter & Gamble, Tesla, Norwegian Cruise Line, Google, Metso, Agero, Kayak, PTC, Patra Corp, TomTom, Southwest Airlines, FedEx Office
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, ServiceNow, Oracle and others in Rapid Application Development Software. Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.