We performed a comparison between Appian and ServiceNow based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: ServiceNow comes out ahead in this comparison. It enables organizations to deliver solutions faster and allows users to track solutions using real-time data to ensure continual progress and positive, effective outcomes. ServiceNow is very robust and stable and updates frequently so users always have the best tools available to them.
"The setup is easy."
"SAIL (Self-Assembling Interface Layer), a scripting language provided by Appian. It is the equivalent of JS and CSS. It allows creation of complex UIs which are also responsive. With SAIL, we have a single language for both the UI logic and its appearance. UI components can be built as reusable components and used in multiple UI interfaces."
"Good workflow engines that bridge the gaps of processes."
"Compared to other code tools that I've seen, Appian has a more robust rules engine"
"Appian also has very flexible local integration."
"The product has a very good mobile app."
"It's a stable product."
"We appreciate the drag and drop functionality and the easy to access plug and play features."
"A workflow automation platform that's reliable, performs well, and has good reporting and integration."
"I like ServiceNow's Workspace feature. With Jira, we had to edit a ticket by going into it. We couldn't perform edits from within the project plan. ServiceNow allows you to edit everything from one screen. It's like an Excel spreadsheet, but Jira requires you to drill down into the ticket. ServiceNow is more convenient if you are working on multiple projects and workflows."
"Good stable and scalable solution."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"It gave us professionalized, faster incident turn around times. Improved quality of information shared with our customers. Over time we build an extensive knowledge base that assists in both self-service as in services provided by the servicedesk when handling incidents."
"The biggest feature is that it is cloud-based, so it's always updated, it's always current. We don't have to worry about patches, revisions. We're always working with the latest version."
"ServiceNow provides quite good insights about what is happening in the organization."
"We used ServiceNow for change management, release management, and event management."
"Appian could include other applications that we could reuse for other customers, CRM for example."
"The solution needs more features. For example, a way to connect to our viewing database, to record, and more interface and component design."
"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."
"It would be nice if you could create your own customized apps when the business needed them."
"Appian could be improved by making it a strict, no-code platform with free-built process packs."
"The product’s pricing could be improved from the developers' perspective."
"Appian could improve their customer-facing initiatives."
"We'd like improved functionality for testing new devices."
"There is inherent complexity with this tool because of the number of things that it can do."
"There is a need to learn scripting because as in the case of all the ITSM tools, scripting is needed for customization. If you're not very comfortable with scripting, then you may feel that you cannot do everything in ServiceNow without learning scripting."
"We don't have a huge amount of password reset requests, but the minimum package of resets that ServiceNow offers is much more than we need."
"The setup was time-consuming and required a lot of internal resources."
"It should include information on navigating various user interfaces for creating diverse requests directed to different teams."
"This solution needs to be improved for global use. Currently, it's very oriented to the processes and needs of the US customer base, like their compliance solution or GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), and not so much for customers from other parts of the world. Some users may like the things that ServiceNow is improving, but those are very oriented to users based in the United States and Europe."
"The product’s standard user experience is not the best."
"Service mapping could be less complicated."
Appian is ranked 6th in Rapid Application Development Software with 57 reviews while ServiceNow is ranked 4th in Rapid Application Development Software with 211 reviews. Appian is rated 8.4, while ServiceNow is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Appian writes "Low resource consumption, easy setup, and stable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of ServiceNow writes "A stable and scalable solution that has excellent features and is useful for collecting data and building KPIs". Appian is most compared with Microsoft Power Apps, OutSystems, Camunda, Pega BPM and Mendix, whereas ServiceNow is most compared with BMC Helix ITSM, Microsoft Power Apps, Pega BPM, IBM Maximo and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. See our Appian vs. ServiceNow report.
See our list of best Rapid Application Development Software vendors.
We monitor all Rapid Application Development Software 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.
