We performed a comparison between OutSystems and ServiceNow based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Rapid Application Development Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."OutSystems is easy to use."
"There is literally a ton of stuff it can do. It's very flexible."
"The most valuable feature is Agile development. I love that you save a lot of time on development and can focus on logic and business requirements."
"In terms of user support and community engagement, I rate the tool a ten out of ten."
"The most important features of this tool are its visual modeling capabilities and drag and drop functionality. You can see what you are coding which makes it easy to understand and maintain. They have also created a big revolution in digital transformation by introducing native mobile app development under the same IDE."
"Speed of delivery: We were able to reduce development time by 30%."
"Refactoring with TrueChange is very simple."
"OutSystems is a low-code solution. Most features are like drag-and-drop, so it's pretty easy to work. Thus it helps the organization by saving time for developers."
"Will give us better control over asset management and technical debt once we can centralize all contract information."
"ServiceNow provides quite good insights about what is happening in the organization."
"For change management, I find the CAB workbench very useful. I haven't seen any other solution that has a CAB workbench or advanced automated solutions for a change advisory board. ServiceNow also has the Workflow Engine which works very well and is very intuitive."
"I have found the workflows and integration the most valuable in this solution."
"We can keep track of incidences. There is a bucket where we keep all our information, and it enables communication between stakeholders. It helps us collaborate with each other."
"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."
"Very good incident management, chain management and problem management features."
"Easy to integrate with third-party applications."
"The integration points need to be increased. People have also started to adopt this solution for their regular needs. That means it's not only the big enterprises that are adopting this solution. There are also small and medium enterprises that are adopting it. I've read that where you have large deployments, OutSystems starts to crumble a bit. That is the idea that no customer would know at the beginning and would also not like to hit the wall there. When it is on the client, there are a lot of applications already on low-code, and then suddenly you realize that you want to do some big applications, and you face hurdles. This is the general feedback for all such platforms."
"The product could be improved if there was a shortcut, or predefined, predictable templates provided."
"There are not enough resources on the market."
"The solution's testing framework needs to be improved, and the workflow should be slightly more mature."
"We have performance issues while fetching bulk data."
"The initial setup is a little difficult."
"The latest version of the app generation tools could be more user-friendly."
"The PDD framework can't be used for the behavioral-driven development way of working."
"Their GUI could be updated."
"Creating service catalog forms could be made easier."
"The pricing of the solution could be better. It's a bit high."
"Licensing costs are very high."
"The solution could be made cheaper. Machine learning and artificial intelligence should be introduced in the next release."
"The major area for improvement for our needs would be monitoring the metrics of the times to acknowledge and resolve issues and escalations."
"if I consider from the IT operations management side, ServiceNow is pretty premature on some things, especially the discovery, while the other tools like Micro Focus and BMC Remedy, those that have been in the market for quite some time. ServiceNow is evolving itself in the discovery piece of the future."
"The asset management application could be improved. They have a lot of the infrastructure built, but it does not come with already made compatibility with some of the most popular vendors, such as Cisco and Microsoft. You have to fix it yourself."
OutSystems is ranked 3rd in Rapid Application Development Software with 46 reviews while ServiceNow is ranked 4th in Rapid Application Development Software with 210 reviews. OutSystems is rated 8.4, while ServiceNow is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of OutSystems writes "The visual program provides the advantage of only requiring one skill set for both the front and backend ". 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". OutSystems is most compared with Microsoft Power Apps, Appian, Mendix, Oracle Application Express (APEX) and Pega BPM, whereas ServiceNow is most compared with BMC Helix ITSM, Microsoft Power Apps, Pega BPM, IBM Maximo and Moveworks. See our OutSystems vs. ServiceNow report.
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The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping the annual fee up in the knowledge that you have little choice. If this was in a consumer market they would have been stopped years ago on antitrust grounds. I have experienced senior management in Service Now laughing at the customers' lock-in.
Secondly, with Service Now, once you move beyond the workflow design you are straight into the deep valley of Java scripting. There is nothing in between. Most customers realize the limitations of the graphical environment very quickly. They are then stuck with having a never-ending bill for consultant fees. Many SN partners use this as their prime source of 'new' business. They talk of stickiness, meaning they are embedded in the clients' system perpetually.
There are many other reasons. I might come back and give a fuller review. Let's just say there are several platforms that outperform Service Now technically and economically. Service Now is quite happy to have its customers stuck with 1990s technology with a slightly fluffy front end.
ServiceNow
Hello @Gerry Fitzpatrick,
'Customer Service Management' and 'IT Service Management' applications run on the same ServiceNow platform.
Whilst 'Customer Service' gives you the CRM capability (external facing), ITSM gives you the supporting framework (internal facing). The two work very well together. There is no need for you to invest in building custom apps. However, if you still want to build custom apps then the ServiceNow platform allows you to do that with a very good mobile SDK.
ServiceNow also has an App Store, which is a really good source to see what integrations and applications are available to purchase (some are free). This would help you get value from your investment in ServiceNow quicker.
Regards,
Farid