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9,798 views|7,620 comparisons
Pega Logo
9,440 views|7,110 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jan 2, 2023

We performed a comparison between IBM BPM and Pega BPM based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions say deployment can be complex to implement for novice users.
  • Features: IBM BPM users say that integration capabilities are one of the top features. BPM is able to connect with almost any legacy or advanced system in the marketplace. Users also appreciate the ability to customize the rules easily and put them inside the tool. Users feel the dashboards and reporting need to improve.

    Pega BPM users appreciate the case management, integration, the convenience of using REST APIs and tell us the ease of changing things at the UI level makes it a very user-friendly tool. The application development is very fast. Some users feel that security needs improvement. It has some vulnerabilities and there are also some issues performance-wise.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions consider their pricing to be expensive.

  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions feel the service and support need improvement.

Comparison Results: Pega BPM finishes slightly ahead of IBM BPM. Pega BPM is low-code and very user-friendly. It provides next-generation processes that will convert problem statements into different diagrams and then implement the process, saving time and keeping organizations running efficiently. IBM BPM has a big learning curve and lacks many basic features that other BPM solutions provide.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM BPM vs. Pega BPM Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"This solution is very stable.""This product does the job in terms of executing the workflow.""It helps maintain, and in many instances, lower costs, as well as to maintain those costs, keeping them stable.""It provides a very robust environment to build an integration framework or workflow patterns that we have. A lot of changes or modifications have been made to this solution over the past few years. The features that they have added this time have helped developers like us to work on the developmental environment and leverage all the capabilities of the tool. This is what I like about this solution.""The solution has helped us automate business processes.""Previously, our company's business automation process was slow. IBM BPM's schedule and response functionalities are excellent...There are countless use cases in which IBM BPM proves to be a valuable tool for my clients.""We are implementing the tool to triple our monthly transaction volume.""Integration is a big plus for me."

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"The case management functionality of this solution has been most valuable.""Powerful, full-featured business process management with excellent support""Case Management, as well as Workflow Automation, are Pega's most powerful capabilities.""Pega BPM's most valuable feature is the use of CDX to solve problems.""The solution provides us with a very good dashboard.""This is a customizable product.""It cuts down the time taken for coding. Earlier it used take for us four hours to do a particular code. Now this can be done in less than 30 minutes. That's the kind of productivity gains you can get.""The technical support of Pega BPM is very good."

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Cons
"Could increase vulnerability and security patches to make it more robust.""We have been experiencing bad performance and instability.""Also, we would like to see integration with artificial intelligence, machine learning-type of technical capabilities. Right now, there are a lot Watson libraries out there. Building those integrations more, out-of-the-box, from IBM would be a good direction.""The constant switch between Eclipse and its web versions can be annoying and confusing.""The options for customization could be improved. More customization using your own code would be beneficial.""I'd like the tool to be more flexible.""The people working on the front desk are having some problem with managing the documentation. For instance, they get a picture, and if the picture comes rotated 90 degrees, together with a picture that is not rotated, they have some problems dealing with that, technically. There are some minor aspects that on the usability side that are still lacking. That has to do with FileNet, too, I'm talking about the suite together.""The stability varies because it involves a lot of other components like databases, so sometimes if something goes wrong there, it can't recover from the fatal errors."

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"The cost of licensing could be improved.""I believe they simplify the application development. It is still complex. The learning is not easy, it takes time compared to other products on the market.""Pega BPM could improve the UI, it is poorly designed to have a good UX experience.""The way the IDE works with the chatbox and the taxonomy imports could be a little smoother.""We need more light retail BPM tools within the Pega system. However, Pega is mostly for big companies.""It is scalable, but it also interacts with a lot of other systems. I think they thought that the interface to other systems, legacy systems, was its strength, but when problems do occur, quickly diagnosing those problems has been a challenge.""It is not fully compatible with all versions of Internet Explorer, so sometimes, it does not work.""The initial setup takes time."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It may be cheaper for organizations to pay for the Viewer licenses that are immediately up and running in the cloud, rather than paying for someone to administer publishing to an intranet."
  • "Starting out with Express can also help reduce the cost for adopting the product."
  • "​We have definitely seen ROI. When we first kicked it off, we said it had to pay for itself within three years, and it did."
  • "It gives us a good return on investment."
  • "We chose to purchase IBM BPM because it was bundled with the actual RPA program/solution that we decided to purchase. We decided to use Automation Anywhere tool (RPA), and it is was bundled with IBM BPM."
  • "Our customers do see ROI. They'll identify some particularly painful or uncoordinated processes to start with, then build out from there, picking off low hanging fruit."
  • "It has a low cost to implement. You'll get your money back in the same year that you complete the project."
  • "The cloud and license of the subscription model for IBM BPM can be complex. There are a lot of alternatives to choose from."
  • More IBM BPM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Licensing is expensive. You need to wisely select between per user and per case."
  • "They have both on-premise and cloud licensing. If you are a small to medium company, go for the cloud option because that eliminates a lot of the setting up of your DevTest and performance environments, multiple environments, because you can buy that from Pega with the cloud option. So your setup time really goes down. If you're a large company, then you're better off putting it within your company. You have other skill resources within your company to create environments."
  • "They need to come up with licensing options. Right now they do have a cloud-based option, but the cloud prices I've seen are much more expensive compared to competing products."
  • "The licensing fees are based on the number of users."
  • "May be somewhat more expensive than other solutions initially, but should have enhanced return on investment."
  • "The price of this solution, including installation and configuration, is comparable to competing vendors."
  • "The pricing is pretty good, compared to other similar products."
  • "It's a user-based license where, as you scale the numbers of users, the price increases."
  • More Pega BPM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing… more »
    Top Answer:The case management and its integration with process design are good features.
    Top Answer:You do need some preparation to be able to use all functions of Pega BPM. However, all users of this platform are in luck as it comes with good documentation and you can learn pretty much everything… more »
    Top Answer:My company has been using this tool for years and the only issue we have had, if you can call it that, was while setting it up. When we were setting it up initially, we had some drawbacks and could… more »
    Top Answer: Pega BPM can be considered overpriced for some; it all depends on the size of your company and the requirements of your customers. Sure, there are products out there that do the things that Pega BPM… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    9,798
    Comparisons
    7,620
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    418
    Rating
    7.7
    Views
    9,440
    Comparisons
    7,110
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    515
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Camunda logo
    Compared 20% of the time.
    Appian logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Apache Airflow logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
     AWS Step Functions logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    ServiceNow logo
    Compared 24% of the time.
    Camunda logo
    Compared 17% of the time.
    Appian logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Microsoft Power Apps logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    Salesforce Platform logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Also Known As
    WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
    Pegasystems, SmartBPM
    Learn More
    Pega
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    Overview

    IBM BPM is a business process management tool that provides a robust set of tools to author, test, and deploy business processes, as well as full visibility and insight to managing those business processes. The solution provides tooling and run time for process design, execution, monitoring, and optimization, along with basic system integration support. To support various levels of complexity and involvement with business process management, there are two different editions of the product: IBM BPM and IBM BPM Express.

    IBM BPM Features

    IBM BPM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Process designer authoring tool
    • Collaborative editing and immediate playback of processes
    • Interactive user interfaces
    • Process rules based on IBM Operational Decision Manager
    • IBM Integration Designer (BPEL and SOA)
    • Designing and building case management systems
    • Process portal
    • Real-time monitoring and reporting
    • Performance analytics and optimizer
    • Performance data warehouse
    • IBM Process Center with a shared asset repository
    • IBM Process Federation Server
    • Built-in enterprise service bus (ESB)
    • Transaction support
    • Integration adapters
    • Network deployment support
    • High availability: clustering and unlimited cores

    IBM BPM Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing IBM BPM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Increased efficiency and cost savings: IBM BPM can help you optimize existing processes and incorporate more structure into the development of new processes by removing process redundancies and bottlenecks.
    • More scalable processes: The solution enables better process execution and workflow automation, which transfers well when scaling processes.
    • Greater transparency: Because IBM BPM’s process automation clearly defines owners for tasks along the process, it provides more transparency and accountability throughout a given process. In turn, this fosters more communication among teams.
    • Less dependency on development teams: IBM BPM offers low-code features which remove potential dependencies on development. Business users can be onboarded onto these tools quickly and easily, thereby increasing process automation across the company.

    Reviews from Real Users

    IBM BPM is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it’s good for developing complex apps, is robust, and has helpful team management and process performance features.

    Zoran C., Owner/CEO at IT SPHERE, says, “It is perfect if you have to develop complex apps without much coding (only java script). It is also good if you don't have much IT resources in your company and would like to involve business analysts in the process of developing apps. My opinion is that it can do about 50% of all developers' work.”

    Suhas V., BPM Architect at GBM, mentions, “Overall the solution is robust and has the ability to integrate with any product for complex workflows."

    A BPM Consultant at a financial services firm comments, "Some of the features that I like the most are team management and process performance. They are both very useful and very powerful with regard to the workflow."

    A Digital Banking & Innovation Director at a financial services firm expresses, “The processing functionality makes it easy to change processes and workflows easily.”

    Pega BPM is a low-code process automation software product that helps organizations quickly build business applications that deliver the demanded experience by customers. This product is a business process management (BPM), process automation, rapid application development, and low-code development tool.

    Pega utilizes business process management (BPM) - a methodology to manage processes and workflows in an organization with the aim to increase work process results. The product implements BPM in the following steps:

    • Analysis: Through comprehensive analysis, the processes that can be created or optimized to meet business needs are identified.

    • Design: The design of a process aims to reduce errors and maintain relevant standard operating procedures.

    • Modeling: The process design can be modeled using various software tools.

    • Execution: The process model execution can be governed through a business rules engine.

    • Monitoring: Monitoring is performed to detect any issues and collect relevant data.

    • Optimization: The collected data is used to optimize and improve processes.

    Pega BMP utilizes this methodology to automate and simplify operations for companies and improve business agility. The solution can automate business operations such as business rules, mobile application development, reporting, case management, security, integration, and predictive and adaptive analytics. It can be employed on premises and in the cloud and allows for automating services such as accounts, marketing, and sales.

    Pega BPM Features

    Pega BPM has various features through which businesses can automate processes and reduce operational costs. Some of these features include:

    • Adaptive Decision Management: Through the support of data analysis concepts, this product feature allows users to make crucial decisions. It supports the retrieval of data automatically, facilitating real-time decision-making. It also provides the ability to make decisions at all times, depending on changes in the processes.

    • Automatic Code Generation: The programming time at a company can be reduced through this feature, as it generates application codes automatically. The feature offers industry-specific solution frameworks for developing applications and visual development tools, allowing business users to build apps. This enables the simplification of complex business processes by converting them.

    • Pega Omni-channel UI: The user interface (UI) of Pega BPM is a design-once and deploy-anywhere model. This means that any channel can be interfaced with the UI, as designs can be adapted to various parameters, including device, channel, or user.

    • Pega Live Data: This feature of the tool integrates all the business’s data, analyzes it, and summarizes it into formats suitable for presentation. The feature has a caching option, which improves data management by reducing the load on external applications.

    • Pega Situational Layer Cake: Through this feature of the solution, business processes can be adjusted regarding changes in customer type, departments, products, geographies, time, languages, and channels.

    • Pega Pulse: Through Pega Pulse, employees, partners, and customers can collaborate and solve issues simultaneously.

    Pega BPM Benefits

    Pega BPM has various benefits for businesses. They include the following:

    • Accelerates business processes by building applications in a timely manner.

    • Provides automatically tailored screens and forms for customers to improve user experience and engagement.

    • Can be utilized on various sources, including being moved from a data center to the cloud and vice versa.

    • The low-code functionality decreases the need for developer intervention and reduces the costs of outsourcing IT assistance and maintenance.

    • The tool offers a flexible UI that allows users to switch from web to mobile during all times of product usage.

    • The platform offers business scalability incrementation through quick application development.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Amarender C., a feature lead at a financial services firm, thinks Pega BPM is easy to set up with great documentation and training.

    Anoop S., a delivery manager at LanceSoft, rates the product highly because it is user-friendly and has case management and claims management functions; has good documentation and a community portal that help in learning the product and resolving issues.

    Sample Customers
    Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
    The State of Maine, ANZ, Coca-Cola, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), ME, New South Wales, OptumRx, Texas Department of Transportation, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm57%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Insurance Company10%
    Real Estate/Law Firm3%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Retailer6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company32%
    Financial Services Firm29%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm25%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business8%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise78%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise74%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM BPM vs. Pega BPM
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM BPM vs. Pega BPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM BPM is ranked 6th in Business Process Management (BPM) with 105 reviews while Pega BPM is ranked 2nd in Business Process Management (BPM) with 55 reviews. IBM BPM is rated 7.8, while Pega BPM is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM BPM writes "Offers good case management and its integration with process design but there's a learning curve". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Pega BPM writes "Low code with great APIs and good flexibility". IBM BPM is most compared with Camunda, IBM Business Automation Workflow, Appian, Apache Airflow and AWS Step Functions, whereas Pega BPM is most compared with ServiceNow, Camunda, Appian, Microsoft Power Apps and Salesforce Platform. See our IBM BPM vs. Pega BPM report.

    See our list of best Business Process Management (BPM) vendors and best Process Automation vendors.

    We monitor all Business Process Management (BPM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.