Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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 (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Polarion ALM is 3.1%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 3.8%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management3.8%
Polarion ALM3.1%
Other93.1%
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

LasseMikkonen - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO 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
Freelancer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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

"The initial setup of this solution was straightforward, and there were not too many problems with it."
"The initial setup of this solution was straightforward, and there were not too many problems with it."
"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."
"Polarion ALM has some valuable tools for managing our targets and requirements. I think that's its best feature."
"Polarion ALM is powerful in easily creating your own workflows for completely different kinds of things."
"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's integration is very good and easy to use."
"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."
"ServiceNow support is awesome."
"In mature companies ready for it, the return on investment would be a nine point five."
"As a product, the primary reason we like it is it gets integrated with our ITSM solution so that we don't have to go for an external product for project management like Jira."
"Information management is very beneficial for our customers."
"Stable and scalable solution."
"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 engineering teams. When there's an issue at the product or network level, we raise a ticket, and our team works together to resolve it."
"The feature I find the most valuable is the one that lets you see how much time has been used in processing a ticket. This allows us to better monitor performance."
"The PPM module is an excellent service."
 

Cons

"I don't think that this solution scales well. It means that we have to split our project and use something with fewer objects in it."
"If you were to say that everything is integrated and it's a complete solution, I would say it's not."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"The user interface of Polarion ALM needs improvement as it can experience changes that disrupt workflows, especially during major updates."
"One of Polarion's shortcomings would be planning. It can handle plans, but the planning feature is very basic."
"The planning and task management aspects of the solution were not that easy."
"Based on my understanding, the tool's integration capabilities with multiple tools is an area of concern that Polarion needs to focus on more."
"The solution can be improved by making it more user-friendly, and a server-based application rather than client based."
"ServiceNow needs to invest more in integration."
"ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could improve by having more Agile features. Other solutions, such as Rally have more."
"The timing reporting module, and how it's used is a bit difficult to understand."
"As of now, making the product more cost-beneficial would help more organizations consider investing in it."
"It's not out-of-the-box. There's a lot of customization, so I'll have to buy an expensive product like ServiceNow and then have a tech deck for it."
"The price keeps going up, and to remain competitive, it needs to have a competitive edge. I would like to see more of the latest innovations, in terms of AI, ML, and all of the latest cutting-edge technologies, included in the platform."
"The configurations are fine, but the user interface could be improved."
"When we import a really big project with a lot of tasks on it, we face some issues with dependencies. The links between tasks are not working very well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"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."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"It is an expensive product."
"The solution is expensive."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"The solution was quite expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"The tool is expensive."
"I would rate the cost as five out of ten."
"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."
"I rate the price of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management a seven out of ten."
"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."
"It is a little expensive. We are in Brazil, and for us, it is a little expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Agile Planning Tools solutions are best for your needs.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
7%
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 Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise24
 

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: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.