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Polarion ALM vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Polarion ALM
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (5th)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Polarion ALM is 3.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 4.1%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management4.1%
Polarion ALM3.3%
Other92.6%
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

LasseMikkonen - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at byte
Has provided mature traceability and configuration features while supporting complex product development for mid-to-large companies
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and test result management with it, it is very limited. Jama Connect has similar limitations, and both should really focus on developing the integrations and extendability. For example, Jama Connect does not even have an extension marketplace, whereas Polarion has a small one. However, compared to the Atlassian Marketplace where you can get whatever applications for whatever price, it is a totally different ballgame. I would highly recommend Polarion ALM add more AI features to it. I know they have started to do something, but for example, I have been developing widgets for IBM DOORS Next, AI widgets, so that you can write and analyze requirements with the AI, and I have also done the same for Jira, creating a couple of Jira applications in the marketplace as well.
SH
Architect at Mindsprint
Have experienced improved project and resource management with strategic alignment and comprehensive support
The complete ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management suite is used for strategic alignment, allowing us to track projects, portfolios, costs, and vendors to make informed decisions based on project tasks. While I may not be able to specify exact strategic outcomes from the SPM, the overall cost can be reduced by eliminating scattered tools such as JIRA and Microsoft Project Planner, which were onboarded into a single platform for multiple processes in ServiceNow, especially with CSDM that offers services-based alignment. The impact of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management's analytics and reporting features on decision-making processes includes utilizing reports based on milestones during project implementations. Some tasks can be delayed or not aligned with requirements, such as in agile-based projects where features such as Sprint Burndown Charts are monitored. Reports can be fetched from SPM showing if milestones have been achieved, allowing for course corrections based on metrics indicating whether they are on track.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Polarion ALM's integration is very good and easy to use."
"We had a nice experience with technical support."
"It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective."
"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."
"The solution offers good integration."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its browser experience. I rate its traceability feature a ten out of ten. From the initial stage to the release, you can manage everything through a single point."
"Polarion ALM has some valuable tools for managing our targets and requirements. I think that's its best feature."
"You can see the work ticket and you can circulate that within the teams. You can define your flows, customize according to your needs, and you can create dashboards and create the reports according to your needs."
"Competitive in terms of research"
"Stable and scalable solution."
"We like the status report feature. It is something really valuable."
"The solution was quite easy to use. The interface was quite user-friendly, and I've become quite familiar with it."
"Everything is valuable. It is tough to choose a particular feature, but project portfolio management along with agile 2.0 are two key product features that I would suggest for services companies like us."
"You don't need a lot of plugins."
"The stability is excellent. ServiceNow is one of the leading platforms when it comes to stability."
"The integration of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management with other ServiceNow modules improves workflow efficiency by calculating overall project costs associated with vendor management."
 

Cons

"The tool needs to improve its planning. It also needs to add more integrations."
"The planning and task management aspects of the solution were not that easy."
"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."
"The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing features that are common in web-based applications."
"The most important thing for them to improve should be platform-independent features. They should also provide extensive pipelines and release pipelines that we can define and we can work on."
"As Polarion ALM is a development-oriented tool, easy support or easy access is provided by default, but if I want to use detailed features, I need to write the script, particularly the VM script, and this is its area for improvement. I want Polarion ALM to have a graphical user interface that doesn't need scripting. In the next release of the tool, I'd like for it to not require scripting and programming because needing to run script language is time-consuming."
"The configuration aspect of the solution is not easy. A person needs a lot of programming knowledge in order to successfully handle the job."
"Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only."
"The portfolio managed is good for IT, but it's not good for non it's not necessarily great for construction projects, such as the building of physical infrastructure."
"I would like to see some artificial intelligence incorporated into the management functions."
"When we originally set it up, we had some kind of success manager free of charge, and now it's an additional charge over and above what we're paying."
"The adoption of the Common Service Data Model in an organization to leverage best practices is where the challenge lies. It's not that the product lacks features, but rather organizations often adopt it at a maturity level beyond their capacity."
"The price is too high."
"The product does not give us the freedom to capture all the instances, test cases, and evidence."
"The interface isn't user-friendly."
"The user interface could be more modern."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive product."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"The licensing is based on metrics and is tailored to customer's needs."
"The cost of the solution should not be more than $50,000 annually."
"It is a little expensive. We are in Brazil, and for us, it is a little expensive."
"I rate the price of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management a seven out of ten."
"The solution could improve by being less expensive and the pricing model is confusing. Many people are getting charged different amounts. There are additional fees that they are adding on."
"We have a team of about 6,500 employees across the globe. So, the amount of money I'm going to save by putting the money on the table for the implementation and licenses is very high."
"The pricing is negotiable based on the contract and licensing perspective."
"They sell some things in bundles, and it could be handier that some of those things could be sold in another way, like purity models and other packages. Another thing that I'm struggling with is the pricing of ServiceNow's FYE experience, which includes the tools that are positioned for supporting HR."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
29%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and te...
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
We are in our product development using Polarion ALM's functionalities. I am a power user, partly responsible for configuring the tool. We are using it for many things. The idea was to go for a req...
What advice do you have for others considering Polarion ALM?
The pricing of Polarion ALM and IBM ELM is pretty much aligned. They are not at the same level, but I would say aligned according to the capabilities of the tools, with DOORS being more expensive b...
What do you like most about ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
We mainly use the solution to support operations and align our ITSM operations with our business goals. This involves coordinating between our application development, support teams, and network en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
The pricing is rated six, as it's relatively low-medium compared to other solutions. However, the value isn't fully justified when not all features are used. A pricing model adjustment is needed fo...
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
I don't have a comment on what areas of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could be improved or enhanced, which may be because we're not utilizing it properly. I found the documentation diff...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IT Business Management, ServiceNow IT Business Management Suite, ServiceNow ITBM Suite, ServiceNow ITBM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Proximus, UNT SYSTEM, SAP SuccessFactors
Find out what your peers are saying about Polarion ALM vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,515 professionals have used our research since 2012.