Appian vs vCenter Orchestrator comparison

Appian and VMware are both solutions in the Process Automation category. Appian is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.9, while VMware is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.2. Appian holds a 6.2% mindshare in PA, compared to VMware’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Appian

Read 63 Appian reviews

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559 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

vCenter Orchestrator

Read 50 vCenter Orchestrator reviews

151 Views
84 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Appian

vCenter Orchestrator

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

vCenter Orchestrator and Appian compete in the automation and process management category. Appian seems to have the upper hand with its intuitive interface and strong process automation, particularly appealing for enterprise optimization and faster ROI.

Features: vCenter Orchestrator specializes in workflow automation, third-party application integration, and virtualization features like Distributed Resource Scheduler and HA, focusing on resource management and automation for complex IT environments. Appian offers rapid development with a low-code platform, a user-friendly interface for business process modeling, and strong process automation, making it suitable for enterprise-level applications.

Room for Improvement: vCenter Orchestrator could enhance user-friendliness, ease of workflow creation, and better integration with non-VMware ecosystems, along with addressing high licensing costs. Appian needs improved UI customization, better integration, and enhanced scalability, with its pricing and need for more development resources as additional areas to address.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vCenter Orchestrator offers versatile deployment with reliable support for established environments. Appian provides flexible deployment across various cloud types, but some users find it limited in customizability. Appian’s adaptable customer service emphasizes regional needs, while vCenter’s support is dependable.

Pricing and ROI: vCenter Orchestrator is considered expensive due to complex licensing but offers substantial ROI in large environments. Appian has more flexible and cost-effective pricing, particularly for cloud deployments, appealing to smaller enterprises with lower entry costs. Both deliver strong ROI based on their strengths.

To learn more, read our detailed Appian vs. vCenter Orchestrator Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. vCenter Orchestrator

June 2025

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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

Appian

Ranking in Process Automation

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (12th), Rapid Application Development Software (8th), Low-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (8th)

vCenter Orchestrator

Ranking in Process Automation

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Appian is 6.2%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Orchestrator is 0.2%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Nitin-Agarwal

Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems

Seamless integration enhances workflows while memory optimization can improve complex processes

I am working with all of these products: Pega, Appian, and OutSystems. I use Appian as a process orchestrator for workflow and rule-based routing, and it is preferred when I am developing an enterprise-wide application. The application is mobile-friendly, allowing me to use it across any device…

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Gerhard Gmelch

IT architect endpoint at Rohde & Schwarz

Enhance automation efficiency with cost-effective graphical workflow design

I use vCenter Orchestrator for automation purposes, specifically to run automation workbooks The most valuable features are the graphical UI for designing the workflows and the interfaces that come out of the box. Additionally, it is included in the VMware Vitalization Stack, which means there…

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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 application is mobile-friendly, allowing me to use it across any device, whether mobile, laptop, or desktop."

"Good workflow engines that bridge the gaps of processes."

"It has created executable requirements and speeds up the SDLC process greatly."

"Technical support has been amazing overall."

"Form building capabilities and well thought out process modelling are key points to this product."

"Appian is a very low code platform. It's very easy to learn and use."

"The application life cycle is very clear. I started learning it and giving some workshops to my team. Creating the users and the building is very structured. Documentation is nice and it's easy to learn."

"It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows."

More Appian pros

"The technical support services are excellent."

"The open, flexible architecture has brought in the agile computing environment along with better Dr capabilities. Automation management and operational tasks across VMware and third-party applications, like our HMIS and other business productivity applications, have delivered peace of mind."

"If I need to do DR, VMware can enable me to use vMotion, which requires use of vCenter. You cannot do vMotion without vCenter. We do a lot of automation, orchestration, and simplification for that purpose."

"We can scale the solution."

"The most valuable feature for us is the performance stability of vCenter Orchestrator, especially in complex situations, making it excellent for managing virtual machines."

"It is very stable. I have been using vCenter Orchestrator from version three now to six plus."

"What I like best about vCenter Orchestrator is that it makes life easier through automation. People can request to automate all processes with vCenter Orchestrator, such as adding storage, creating VMs, removing VMs, and extending VMs."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is availability."

More vCenter Orchestrator pros

Cons

"Form creation and SAIL proprietary language still basically require programming. The claim a BA type can do everything is hogwash."

"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."

"Appian could include other applications that we could reuse for other customers, CRM for example."

"We would like to see more reduced latency. We would like to make sure that the scale-out factor will be much more as workloads come in."

"Something I would like to see improved is an SQL database connection."

"While Appian is generally flexible, it's rigid in some ways. It takes longer to do something that isn't available out of the box."

"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."

"It has it's own built-in UI components and doesn't provide much flexibility to customize or extend those components."

More Appian cons

"The custom workflows are very difficult and confusing."

"The interface could be improved to bring greater user-friendliness and ease of use."

"In the next release, to make it easier to write the workflows, I would l like to see more HTML GUIs."

"I would like to see, from within the Web Console, being able to define the project and custom templates per user; almost like how CloudSpec has approached the solution."

"This is an expensive solution."

"Enhancing the platform's setup process intuitiveness and offering more flexible pricing options could further improve its accessibility across different company sizes."

"Mainly VMware integrates with other products, but there is no easy way to link with other products from a different vendor. We can integrate with other products from the same vendors fairly well, but if they could make it so integration is easier with other vendors, that would really help."

"I did not do the initial setup. However, it was complex at the beginning."

More vCenter Orchestrator cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"It is expensive, but powerful. I would recommend comparing against cheaper licensing products and open source."

"The cost depends on the number of users, although I recommend taking an unlimited license."

"The price is high."

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

"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."

"When it comes to pricing, it's definitely not affordable. However, it really depends on the requirements that you're seeking from the solution."

"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."

More Appian pricing and cost advice

"I rate the product price a seven to eight out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The concept of hyper-convergence is smart. I don't know if it can be applied with less cost to be more affordable for small or medium-sized companies. The cost is a very important factor for it. We are currently depending on SAN storage. However, the hyper-converged solutions are depending on the storage within the hosts, such as vSAN in the VMware. It is a smart solution."

"We renew the solution's license every one or two years."

"vCenter Orchestrator could be more affordable."

"The licensing cost is manageable because they have different versions available, standard, essential, and advanced."

"Our licensing is on a yearly basis. We pay for the license and then we pay the support every year."

"We provide the VMware solution to our clients, for which they pay a perpetual license."

"This solution is expensive and the licensing is more attractive for Haveri."

More vCenter Orchestrator pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Educational Organization

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

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...

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What do you like most about vCenter Orchestrator?

The stability of the product is very good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vCenter Orchestrator?

We're running a low-profile budget. This is not our main focus on investment technology, so we're trying to reduce costs due to the change from perpetual to subscription licenses.

See all answers

What needs improvement with vCenter Orchestrator?

After the change from perpetual licensing to subscriptions, the cost model changed. We are considering alternatives since we lost the perpetual aspect, and support is changing.

See all answers

Comparisons

OutSystems vs Appian

Compared 11% of the time

ServiceNow vs Appian

Compared 11% of the time

Salesforce Platform vs Appian

Compared 10% of the time

Camunda vs Appian

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Power Apps vs Appian

Compared 7% of the time

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VMware Aria Automation vs vCenter Orchestrator

Compared 50% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs vCenter Orchestrator

Compared 23% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs vCenter Orchestrator

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs vCenter Orchestrator

Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appian

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

vCenter Orchestrator

May 2025

Download vCenter Orchestrator product report

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS

No data available

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.

Appian

VMware vCenter Orchestrator simplifies the automation of complex IT tasks and integrates with VMware vCloud Suite components to adapt and extend service delivery and operational management, effectively working with existing infrastructure, tools and processes.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

Beiersdorf Shared Services

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. vCenter Orchestrator

June 2025

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