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Appian vs ServiceNow Now Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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
6.4
Larger enterprises see ROI from ServiceNow via enhanced performance and AI features, but smaller companies may struggle with costs.
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
 

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
7.2
ServiceNow Now Platform's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, particularly at higher levels, with ratings between seven to ten.
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 generally know what they are talking about.
Associate director at Accenture
They are tremendous in helping their customers such as us with their expertise of the platform and knowledge.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
 

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
7.8
ServiceNow Now Platform excels in scalability, customization, and integration, efficiently supporting large-scale, cloud-based business environments.
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
Users can build and modify the platform according to their needs.
Associate Director at KPMG India
You can have thousands of users using the platform very efficiently.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
It is easily scalable and very powerful in this direction.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 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
8.1
ServiceNow Now Platform is reliable with high availability, seamless critical app handling, and improved cloud performance, despite occasional upgrade 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
I haven't had any situations where it would be unavailable for our calls, so I don't have complaints there.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Overall, it achieves a 99.99% SLA on availability.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
ServiceNow Now Platform has improved it since then.
Assistant Manager at Wipro Limited
 

Room For Improvement

Appian's tools need more flexibility, better integration, improved scalability, intuitive UI, enhanced mobile support, and comprehensive training materials.
ServiceNow users face challenges with its complex licensing, unintuitive interface, integration, AI features, customization, and low-code 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
Historical data isn't as easily available as expected and it requires buying additional licenses for more features.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It lacks support for rollbacks in case of complex customer processes.
Associate Director at KPMG India
There are many areas where ServiceNow leverages AI or machine learning to enhance the features.
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
 

Setup Cost

Appian's pricing varies by deployment and workload, offering value despite higher costs, with notable robust, enterprise-grade features.
ServiceNow's high licensing costs are offset by valuable functionalities, offering a good return on investment for organizations.
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
ServiceNow Now Platform is an expensive product.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
ServiceNow Now Platform falls within the more expensive tier of a product.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Appian provides low-code development with seamless integration, automation, and AI, enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility in process management.
ServiceNow Now Platform offers incident management, automation, integration, low-code development, AI enhancements, and custom solutions for IT service management.
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
The most valuable features are the ease of use, stability, and the ability to change or upgrade seamlessly.
Senior IT consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
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.
Associate Director at KPMG India
It is extremely powerful and very much customizable, which allows for quick building of solutions around it.
Product Owner at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
12th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
5th
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (8th), Process Automation (6th), Process Mining (6th)
ServiceNow Now Platform
Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software
14th
Ranking in Low-Code Development Platforms
9th
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
17th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
No-Code Development Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 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 ServiceNow Now Platform is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Rapid Application Development Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Appian5.0%
ServiceNow Now Platform2.1%
Other92.9%
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.
Vishal Savajiani - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analyst at DXC Technology
Low-code workflows have transformed how we automate processes and build enterprise apps
First and foremost, ServiceNow Now Platform allows us to do a low-code or no-code platform, which is the wonderful first feature. On top of that, if you want to do some customization along with the low-code and no-code, you can do it. Beyond that, if you write a full-fledged customized code and make your functionality, you can do it. Workflow is there, and we can automate our workflows. Flow is there as an option. Apart from workflow and flow, we have many business rules and script includes. These are all the technical components and features of ServiceNow Now Platform that allow us to achieve our objective. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a very easy feature that we call workflow or flow. Using workflow or flow, we can customize industry workflows. The development on that flow is very simple, and you can use drag and drop functionality. If you want to do some scripting, you can do it. This is an awesome feature of ServiceNow Now Platform that allows us to develop or automate any flow in quick time. Internally, ServiceNow Now Platform uses a lot of AI features and machine learning features. This makes it more wonderful. AI and machine learning are the core of ServiceNow Now Platform, and they are using it heavily. It is making a lot of impact on deliverables. You can develop anything whatever you want on ServiceNow Now Platform. If you understand ServiceNow Now Platform capabilities, you can develop a full-fledged application on ServiceNow Now Platform easily. You don't have to write scratch code or do any database operations. You just need to create tables and forms, which are very easy to develop if you are familiar with ServiceNow. Everything is on one platform, so it is a single source of data that you can find on ServiceNow itself for the overall enterprise. ServiceNow Now Platform offers a reporting feature very well. Along with the reporting, they are offering workspace and dashboard. All these UI interfaces you can use to extract precise information for your customer. This is really helping the customer make decisions with the precise and versatile reports. You can have a list report view, a graph report view, or a pie chart. All these features can be developed quickly and used in ServiceNow. This is where ServiceNow Now Platform makes a lot of difference.
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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
13%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
 

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 Business15
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise35
 

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 needs improvement with ServiceNow Now Platform?
I do see some negative sides and room for improvement. I think there may be some integration with AI and a smart way of reporting, reporting mechanisms, and automation mechanisms on the inputs from...
 

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: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.