Appian vs Salesforce Platform vs ServiceNow comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Appian, Salesforce Platform, and ServiceNow based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, ServiceNow and others in Rapid Application Development Software.
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Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The technical support is excellent.""The most valuable feature is business automation.""Low code development: Code can be developed pretty quickly which leads to less turnaround time for automation of business processes.""There is a version coming out every six months with performance improvements.""Process culture is making noise inside the organization because now, everybody knows that their time is being monitored.""It ​reduces development time in half making us more efficient.""It has good integrations. We were looking for out-of-the-box integration with both on-prem and publicly accessible data sources. We needed integration with the cloud, OData, our REST API feed, and then on-prem passthrough to go to a SQL database or on-prem APIs through Azure local deployment, etc.""Appian helps you do a lot of things. It's easy to configure and build an application platform, and it offers a lot of features that you find in an RPA solution. It's flexible so you can reuse it for a variety of use cases."

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"What we like the most about it is the fact that it helps us track the record of our projects. It keeps everything on one interface, facilitating the operations and planning.""The solution is used to track our customers.""What I like about the Salesforce Platform, in particular, its enterprise edition is that apart from its many features, you can have a wider view of the customers, a 360-degree view. I also enjoy managing opportunities in the Salesforce Platform a lot because it's easier and gives you a wider view, compared to HubSpot.""Features they are integrating to the other services.""I like using the reports feature, but also the fact that we are able to have a smooth process when it comes to leads and opportunities.""The most valuable features are quick customization, solid deployment processes, and excellent reliability.""It is a fairly useful and user-friendly tool for salespersons. It is very extensive and flexible. You can customize it for your needs, and you can use whatever you want. I like Salesforce.""The stability has been great."

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"ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.""It allows us to filter the data, create graphs, and get detailed reports.""The Workflow feature is the most valuable.""There are a lot of features within ServiceNow. There are plenty of add-ons that go beyond the typical core helpdesk operations, such as HR facilities, BRM functionality, and various compliance and governance capabilities.""The look and feel is a valuable benefit for adoption.""Easy to implement and consolidate different platforms and users with useful functionalities.""It's great to do statuses or to review tasks.""The solution is easy to use, simple to make queries, flexible to configure, integrates well, and supports all of our companies needs."

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Cons
"The solution could improve by being more responsive when dealing with large quantities of data. Additionally, they can make the decision or rules engine better. It cannot handle too many rules or too many decisions at once.""If we could calculate the amount of data that will be realized, it would help us a lot.""My only request is that they decrease the license costs.""It needs better integration with our existing application ecosystem.""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.""The graphical user interface could be easier to use. It should be simplified.""I wouldn't say their response time is long, but it could be quicker.""Form creation and SAIL proprietary language still basically require programming. The claim a BA type can do everything is hogwash."

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"In terms of features, for our business needs, we have more than enough right now. There is nothing that we are missing or would like to add. They can maybe share some best practices so that when you are starting, you can stick to a good process, and you don't have to think so much about the process that you want or your CEO or CMO wants. The process should not be based on one person in the company. Having some best practices will make it easier to get started. These best practices can be based on what has worked for others. Its basic version is pretty simple, and the customizations are up to the companies, which can make startups like ours lose a lot of time in figuring out what all stakeholders want rather than what would work.""Salesforce is incredibly slow. It was difficult to run live sales calls and leveraging Salesforce at the same time.""It could have a lot more customization options in terms of fonts and reports. There should be an even lighter version with just two or three fields. It could be a bit more light if the field guys want to use it on a mobile phone on the road. For deploying it for CRM, maybe we can have our customer database, project funnels, and projects to help us in managing our supply chain business.""The biggest challenge we had was the cost and the licensing.""Technical support could be a bit faster.""There's a learning curve. It was a bit hard to understand the logical way of working with it, just at the beginning.""Salesforce introduces a lot of products and sometimes rebrands them, causing confusion. They acquire products like W and retain their names, creating confusion in the market. This confusion isn't related to the product's functionality but rather its positioning and rebranding. For instance, what was once known as Community Cloud is now referred to as Experience Cloud. This can be confusing for business leaders.""When we're documenting information such as notes, and so forth, if we were to go back to the same case all notes go missing."

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"When we are using the solution on mobile phones on their networks the performance is reduced with a delay of approximately 8 seconds. There is less delay using the desktop computers connected to the WiFi or to the network directly.""Change Management is the area I have found that this tool can be improved because there are so many fields which are missing, such as urgency of the customer request and how the priority is defined. These are some of the areas in which I found that BMC Remedy is much better than ServiceNow.""For healthcare, which is a pretty audited environment, there are no concrete solutions for digital signatures, apart from our license with Adobe, so it requires orchestration.""ServiceNow's mobile app should be seamless and it is not right now.""The interface requires an upgrade.""I know that discovery tools are not meant to be simple, but somehow, if they could make it more simple and robust, that would be great.""I have a problem with the way the solution's price is calculated.""All the screens are similar. It's the same platform for everything and you need to familiarize yourself with it. In the past, you used to have one screen per application. Now, you have everything integrated into one. Everybody will manage the same screen and they need to navigate into the same screen as the Internet Explorer with a toolbar with the categories and look for the things you want to see or the models you want to use."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "BPM done right is a huge value proposition for almost any company, and with Appian's low code rapid development model, the ROI can be huge, while the break-even point should be accelerated tremendously."
  • "It is expensive, but powerful. I would recommend comparing against cheaper licensing products and open source."
  • "Product pricing compared to some of the earlier vendors, like IBM, CA, and Oracle, is quite well-priced. Although, we do feel that as we increase the number of users and the workload increases, we will have to spend more."
  • "We will have to have a dialogue or negotiate a price for future use. To start with, it is a reasonable price. As we go ahead, we will have to make sure the costs are inline with our expectations as we grow our user base and workloads."
  • "It's good value for the price."
  • "I think that if somebody is really serious at looking at business value, then by all means, the product is well worth the value. You get representative business value for the price that you pay for the product, and for the implementation of the product."
  • "The cost depends on the number of users, although I recommend taking an unlimited license."
  • "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."
  • More Appian Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Costly, but it is the top product in SaaS/PaaS. Pricing is more for large to enterprise level companies."
  • "Pricing and license differ and depend on how much license you are purchasing from them."
  • "It is an expensive program."
  • "The licensing is per user per month, which we took out a contract on a long time back. It's really an okay price for what solutions are available and for how many features and what kind of functionality you get."
  • "The solution is a bit expensive."
  • "It is expensive. Licensing is on an annual basis."
  • "It is quite expensive. Its developers come at a premium cost, which makes it expensive."
  • "It is expensive."
  • More Salesforce Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The first impact for the customer is that it is expensive, but do not forget that it is a solution that includes infrastructure; a single cost, easy to justify."
  • "It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
  • "We know that ServiceNow is not cheap, it's more expensive than other solutions. But we are trying to increase our ability to handle tickets so that the cost per ticket is less."
  • "It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
  • "ServiceNow pricing is an art, not a science. The deal depends on how commercially savvy you are, which does make it something that is quite difficult to get right. It is most definitely an opportunity area for ServiceNow to improve and have more visibility around pricing of the different products within the platform."
  • "ServiceNow is a leader and its pricing is quite good, quite competitive... Sometimes some plugins are not priced reasonably but, generally, the platform itself, its modules, are priced reasonably."
  • "Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
  • "Initially, the licensing model ServiceNow came up with was very good. But now, from a licensing perspective, they are changing their model day by day. It is becoming a bit expensive for customers."
  • More ServiceNow Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Appian is fast when building simple to medium solutions. This solution offers simple drag-and-drop functionality with… more »
    Top Answer:Appian is actually pretty big on educating its users, including with courses that reward you with certifications. There… more »
    Top Answer:We had some issues when we were setting up Appian. It was quite surprising, since this is a low-code tool which, in its… more »
    Top Answer: I think it depends on your use case. If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise products, PowerApps will work… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of… more »
    Top Answer:At my organization, we have only used Salesforce Platform's low-code builder. The reason for this is not because we do… more »
    Top Answer:The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that… more »
    Top Answer:Hi Netanya I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp.  Because… more »
    Top Answer:The most impactful feature in our day-to-day operations is the ticket status, which provides crucial visibility into the… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    14,593
    Comparisons
    9,808
    Reviews
    24
    Average Words per Review
    475
    Rating
    8.3
    Views
    8,134
    Comparisons
    7,390
    Reviews
    29
    Average Words per Review
    439
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    17,724
    Comparisons
    10,662
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    458
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
    Salesforce1, Force.com, Salesforce App Cloud
    Learn More
    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.

    Salesforce Platform is a tool that provides application building with open application programming interfaces (APIs), integration tools, back-end services, starter templates, and developer environments. With a low-code interface, users are able to build applications and benefit from automated processes. The product helps customers to increase work productivity and save on IT costs through efficient, easy-to-understand, methods for creating applications.

    Salesforce Platform allows companies to build and operate intelligent applications at scale and share them with employees and customers in real time. The tool secures companies' data while connecting and synchronizing it simultaneously across their Customer 360 accounts. The main components of the product are:

    • Application development: With low code, companies can build applications faster and automate their businesses.

    • Automation: The product can connect with Salesforce Genie, allowing employees to create seamless processes.

    • Security: The Shield component allows companies to secure their data and build applications.

    • Hyperforce: Companies have the option to scale globally and serve customers locally, providing secure, private, and agile solutions.

    • Einstein Intelligence: Organizations can utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalized experiences for customers, potentially increasing companies’ growth.

    • Sandboxes: Salesforce Platform offers developers secure development environments where they can test, build, and deploy changes before rolling out final products.

    Salesforce Platform Features

    Also referred to as a “drag and drop app builder," this solution offers various features for customers to create intelligent applications and build personalized services for clients, partners, and employees within the apps.

    • Mobile feature: The mobile feature of Salesforce Platform allows users to build applications for mobile as well as turn already-made apps into mobile apps instantly.

    • AI: Through AI, users are able to personalize their applications, utilizing the smart assistant of the platform (called Einstein). The creation of customized services for clients can drive engagement and scale customer experience.

    • Vision feature: The Vision feature also utilizes Einstein Platform, where users can take advantage of Einstein Prediction Builder, Bots, Vision, and Language to create AI-powered applications.

    • Data protection: Salesforce Platform offers a data protection feature called Salesforce Shield. With it, companies can monitor app and data use, automate security policies, run compliance audits, and encrypt sensitive data.

    • Privacy and identity feature: Salesforce Customer Identity is a feature for privacy that offers user access through a single login. The feature provides a seamless user experience while maintaining a high level of security.
    • Community feature: The community feature of the product offers a digital experience platform where companies can create secure portals, applications, and websites.

    • Builder feature: The application building feature of Salesforce Platform offers various ways for users to create apps, including through low-code builders and pro-code tools.

    Salesforce Platform Benefits

    The benefits of using Salesforce Platform include:

    • Compared to manual coding products, Salesforce Platform is simpler for beginner users who want to develop a product.

    • The tool requires a low amount of coding, making it a quick and agile way to develop applications.

    • The adaptable design of the platform offers multi-layered security which maintains data accessible to users while protecting it from outside sources.

    • The product can be incorporated with various platforms and coding languages for application development.

    • The platform can be used to create applications compatible with large database systems like MySQL and Oracle.

    • Salesforce Platform allows collaboration between users, as it offers simultaneous access to various users at the same time.

    • Salesforce Platform is compatible with desktop databases such as Microsoft Access.

    Reviews from Real Users

    A vice president at a healthcare company values Salesforce Platform because it is flexible and user-friendly with helpful pre-built schemas.

    Peter G., a senior technical consultant at a tech services company, rates Salesforce Platform highly because it is intuitive, quite easy to learn, and stores all kinds of relevant sales information.

    ServiceNow is a cloud-based task-management platform that specializes in IT operations management (ITOM), IT services management (ITSM), and IT business management (ITBM). ServiceNow allows users to manage their teams, projects, and customer interactions using a variety of different plugins and apps with which it easily integrates.

    ServiceNow offers prebuilt applications to support any process, as well as a framework and tools that allow you to build your own.

    ServiceNow’s service management solutions include change, request, incident, problem, and cost management, as well as HR, IT, field service, and facilities management solutions. They also cover business management solutions such as vendor performance management, financial management, performance analytics and project portfolio suite, as well as governance, risk, and compliance.

    “The Smarter Way to Workflow”

    ServiceNow’s activities, processes, and tasks are overseen as part of a comprehensive managed workflow that supports such features as real-time collaboration, communication, and resource sharing. ServiceNow’s suite of products allow for operation using serverless computing, and include the categories of Business Apps, Customer Service, HR, IT, and Security.

    ServiceNow can be used to support most workflows because of the wide range of tools it offers. These include on-suite ticketing tools, predictive modeling to manage workflows, and benchmarking for the tracking of progress. ServiceNow can assist with artificial intelligence and machine learning processes and can be used to organize the cases of a help/service desk as well as for instance management and problem management. It also smoothly integrates with many legacy systems.

    ServiceNow offers service management software for industries including:

    Cloud services
    Education
    Financial services
    Government
    Healthcare
    Manufacturing
    Telecommunications

    Reviews from Real Users

    PeerSpot users prefer ServiceNow to its competitors because of its scalability, stability, and ease of use. It helps everyone in the company to be on the same page by creating a single source of record across all departments. One user stated that “I’ve definitely used over 20 project management solutions, but they can't be compared with ServiceNow.” Another said that “ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.

    Sample Customers
    Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
    ADP
    AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm30%
    Healthcare Company6%
    University6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization25%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Healthcare Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization22%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise54%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise35%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise67%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise64%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise56%
    Buyer's Guide
    Rapid Application Development Software
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, ServiceNow and others in Rapid Application Development Software. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.