Appian vs webMethods Integration Server comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Appian and webMethods Integration Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Business Process Management (BPM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Appian vs. webMethods Integration Server Report (Updated: March 2020).
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
"There is no need to worry about vulnerabilities in the system, because Appian built a secure system​.""The most valuable features of Appian are the VPN engine, it is fast, lightweight, and easy to set up business rules. Business teams can do it by themselves. That is a very good feature.""Appian's most valuable feature is that we can create end-to-end process workflows with minimum turnaround.""We appreciate the drag and drop functionality and the easy to access plug and play features.""The most valuable features are the low coding and low code data.""Low code development: Code can be developed pretty quickly which leads to less turnaround time for automation of business processes.""The technical support is excellent.""It provides us with real-time data on all connected systems in terms of how they're integrated with each other and how they are performing in a workflow manner."

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"It frankly fills the gap between IT and business by having approval and policy enforcement on each state and cycle of the asset from the moment it gets created until it is retired.""It has a good integration server, designer, and a very good API portal.""Given that you have one integration API in place, it takes very minimal effort to scale it to any other application that might want to use the same. Its flow-based development environment is a breeze and makes it really easy to re-use most of the existing components and build up a new API.""​Broker and UM are the best features.""The most valuable feature of the webMethods Integration Server is its reliability. It has a lot of great documentation from the service providers. Additionally, it is easy to use.""Application integrations are offered out-of-the-box, and that is extremely important to us. This is one of the main use cases that we have for it. It is about 60 to 70 percent of the workload in our application today.""Currently, we're using this solution for the integration server which helps us to integrate with the mainframe.""One of the most important features is that it gives you the possibility to do low-level integration. It provides a lot of features out of the box, and over the years, it has matured so much that any problem that is there in the market can be solved with this product. We can meet any requirements through customizations, transformations, or the logic that needs to be put in. Some of the other products struggle in this aspect. They cannot do things in a certain way, or they have a product limitation, whereas, with webMethods, I have never faced this kind of problem."

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Cons
"Native mobile capabilities or hybrid mobile app capabilities are very limited. Things like offline sync, offline storage, access to smartphone device features, etc. are not supported by the Appian platform yet.""My only request is that they decrease the license costs.""What could be improved is more on the front end perspective, like the user interface and the mobile application aspect.""One room for improvement is the ease of UI UX development, like in OutSystems and Mendix.""There could be a scope of enhancement for capturing the variety of use cases.""The performance is pretty good, but the distortions need to be optimized in order for it to work well.""Architecture of product and scalabiility issues.""The tool itself is pretty good, but the main area that we struggled with was the backend. The frontend development is really good, but the backend modeling can be streamlined a little bit. There are good integrations, but tying them through the data layer and then up into the frontend could be improved a little bit. It does read/write on the data source, and you can configure it to just write or just read, but there is a little bit of work involved."

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"A while ago, they were hacked, and it took them a very long time to open their website again in order to download any service packs or any features. I don't know what they could do differently. I know that they were vulnerable, and there was some downtime, but because they were down, we were unable to download any potential service packs.""t doesn't represent OOP very well, just a method and proprietary interface called IData.""This product is for larger companies. Compared to TIBCO I think webMethods is better in terms of ease of use and support.""​Large file handling is pretty hard comparatively to other middleware tools.""The Software AG Designer could be more memory-efficient or CPU-efficient so that we can use it with middle-spec hardware.""Rapid application development has to be considered, especially for UI, where user interference is crucial.""The initial setup of the webMethods Integration Server is not easy but it gets easier once you know it. It is tiresome but not difficult.""Other products have been using AI and cloud enhancements, but webMethods Integration Server is still lagging in that key area."

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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."
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  • "Initialy good pricing and good, if it comes to Enterprise license agreements."
  • "It is worth the cost."
  • "Always plan five years ahead and don’t jeopardize the quality of your project by dropping items from the bill of materials."
  • "Pricing has to be negotiated with the local Software AG representative. SAG can always prepare an appropriate pricing model for every client."
  • "Some of the licensing is "component-ized," which is confusing to new users/customers."
  • "It is expensive, but we reached a good agreement with the company. It is still a little bit expensive, but we got a better deal than the previous one."
  • "The pricing and licensing costs for webMethods are very high, which is the only reason that we might switch to another product."
  • "The vendor is flexible with respect to pricing."
  • More webMethods Integration Server 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 easy plug-and-play options. The initial setup was seamless and very easy to… more »
    Top Answer:Appian is actually pretty big on educating its users, including with courses that reward you with certifications. There is a whole section on their company’s website where you can check out the… 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 essence, means it is meant for business users and inexperienced beginners. So… more »
    Top Answer:The synchronous and asynchronous messaging system the solution provides is very good.
    Top Answer:Other products have been using AI and cloud enhancements, but webMethods Integration Server is still lagging in that key area. It's very good as a standalone integration server, but it has to come up… more »
    Ranking
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    8.3
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    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
    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.

    webMethods Integration Server is widely considered to be the best integration server available in the marketplace today. The solution can help users integrate everything and anything.

    webMethods Integration Server allows organizations to display and integrate existing and new business activities. The solution offers components that help users create, test, and install new services. webMethods Integration Server can automate, organize, and construct various gathered services and traditional legacy systems into productive value-added processes. webMethods Integration Server works as a secure platform for distributing and running services. The solution obtains and translates user requests, recognizes and records the requested service, translates and moves the data in the necessary format, receives the information back, and returns the information to the user in the appropriate original format. webMethods is the primary solution used by enterprise organizations for integrating functional coordination with application servers, custom applications, and databases. webMethods makes it easy for enterprise organizations to share electronic documents seamlessly.

    Users have several options to audit webMethods Integration Server processes using some of the component metrics below:

    • Adapters: Using the SOA extension for webMethods, users can easily monitor the performance of every adapter users have deployed. Available metrics include Adapter Services, Adapter Connection Pools, and Adapter Notifications nodes.

    • Business Processes: A business process is a process that uses a specific set of rules to perform tasks in a prescribed order. Many business processes depend on the successful integration of numerous systems, involving many people in varying roles. With the SOA extension for webMethods, users can easily monitor that workflow, ensuring that processes are being performed as defined.

    • Java Services: This includes services created in Java or in languages coordinated with Java.

    • WebServices: This includes services regarding webserver endpoints and performance.

    • XSLT Services: This service will allow users to transform XML data into other formats and includes the transformation to other services.

    • Thread Pools: This metric uses threads to conduct services, gather documents from the webMethods Broker, and initiate triggers. Documents can be published locally on the server or to the broker that will send the document out. A JMS trigger receives inbound messages and then processes those messages accordingly.

    Reviews from Real Users:

    “There are a few things about this product that we definitely like. It is very robust. If you build it nicely, you can't go wrong with it. It's rock solid. The development is very fast. If you know what you're doing, you can develop something very easy and very fast.” - Rohit S., Integration Lead at a wellness & fitness company

    “One of the most important features is that it gives you the possibility to do low-level integration. We can meet any requirements through customizations, transformations, or the logic that needs to be put in. When clients come to me with any problem, in about 99% of cases, I say, "Yes, it is feasible to do through webMethods." It has reached such a level of flexibility and maturity. Most of the things are available out of the box, and even if something is not available out of the box, we can customize it and deliver it for a client's requirements.” - Sushant D., IT specialist at Accenture

    Sample Customers
    Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
    Fujitsu, Coca Cola, ING, Credit Suisse, Electrolux, GTA, CosmosDirekt
    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 Company28%
    Manufacturing Company18%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Retailer7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise54%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise70%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise70%
    Buyer's Guide
    Appian vs. webMethods Integration Server
    March 2020
    Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. webMethods Integration Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Appian is ranked 4th in Business Process Management (BPM) with 56 reviews while webMethods Integration Server is ranked 3rd in ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) with 60 reviews. Appian is rated 8.4, while webMethods Integration Server is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Appian writes "Low resource consumption, easy setup, and stable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of webMethods Integration Server writes "Event-driven with lots of helpful formats, but minimal learning resources available". Appian is most compared with Microsoft Power Apps, OutSystems, Camunda, ServiceNow and Pega BPM, whereas webMethods Integration Server is most compared with webMethods.io Integration, IBM Integration Bus, Mule ESB, TIBCO BusinessWorks and Oracle Service Bus. See our Appian vs. webMethods Integration Server report.

    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.