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

Appian vs Automation Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
Appian boosts profits and digital transformation, reducing costs by 85%; organizations report high adoption and variable ROI satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.2
Automation Anywhere users achieve ROI in 6-18 months, benefiting from error reduction, productivity gains, and labor cost savings.
In terms of cost, we participated in projects achieving two to three million dollars in annual savings.
As a return on investment, we have achieved a 250% ROI in six to nine months, and sometimes it increases up to 380% percent.
Automation Anywhere aids in handling repetitive tasks, contributing to productivity and enhancing customer service, especially when combined with methodologies like Six Sigma.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian support is efficient and well-rated, but complex issues may face delays, while resources and community are valuable.
Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere's customer service is praised for responsiveness but needs improvements in speed, documentation, and complex issue support.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
Appian has a community where I can put my questions.
Whenever we need help, we can reach out to them, and they help us out.
We also have dedicated account managers and technical experts to solve our problems related to Automation Anywhere.
We just have to raise a ticket, after which we receive a call, email, or ping from the Automation Anywhere team.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian is scalable for medium to large entities but can face challenges with complex processes, data volumes, and costs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Automation Anywhere is scalable, efficient, and integrates seamlessly, making it ideal for large-scale and varied business automation.
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
For Windows-based applications, it provides UI interface automation, which enhances its scalability.
Automation Anywhere is highly scalable for both horizontal and vertical expansions.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Appian is praised for high stability and uptime, with minimal issues when following best development practices and architecture.
Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere's stability varies by infrastructure and use, with recent improvements but persistent challenges like crashes and implementation issues.
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
With the latest applications, there are no significant issues like freezing or crashing.
The platform runs smoothly, and the deployment process is user-friendly in both UAT and production environments.
It usually does not lag or crash.
 

Room For Improvement

Appian users want better UI customization, integration, scalability, flexibility, cost-efficiency, support, collaboration, and enhanced case management features.
Automation Anywhere needs improvements in integration, usability, stability, AI, support, licensing, training, infrastructure, and pricing flexibility.
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
It is better to write a Python script instead of using Automation Anywhere's package when dealing with Excel because it is buggy and tends to break.
Making the product more lightweight by reducing its dependency on infrastructure could greatly help in the long run.
It would be beneficial if the platform provided options for power developers to integrate seamlessly with languages like Java or C#, allowing them to write their own scripts and code.
 

Setup Cost

Appian pricing is moderate to high, with cost-effectiveness in cloud solutions and flexibility in its regional licensing model.
Automation Anywhere's pricing is high but offers tremendous value with comprehensive features and flexible licensing options for enterprises.
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms.
Automation Anywhere costs are aligned with UiPath and Blue Prism, which are also expensive.
It is not cheap, with costs ranging between 700 to 800 dollars per month.
 

Valuable Features

Appian's low-code platform accelerates app development with user-friendly tools, automation, and integration, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
Automation Anywhere offers an intuitive interface, advanced bot features, and seamless integration, enhancing efficiency and productivity for all users.
It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows.
I can create tables, perform database-related activities, and create multiple tables.
I can set it up to provide users with a form to fill in all required information, and then the bot operates based on those specifications.
For example, the email module has been enhanced over the years to support all the latest authentication technologies. That is very important as we move away from username and password and embrace multi-factor authentication.
Automation Anywhere has undergone drastic changes over the past five years, transitioning from version 10 to A360, including desktop-based and cloud-based options.
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
7th
Ranking in Process Mining
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (6th), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th)
Automation Anywhere
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
3rd
Ranking in Process Mining
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
553
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (3rd), Agentic Automation (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Appian is 6.1%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Srimanta Pandit - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible, improves operational efficiency, and reduces the time taken to complete processes
The solution’s turnaround time for development is better compared to other tools. The solution enables fast development. The traceability of the processor is good. There is much more governance and regulations on the processers. The tool reduces the time of the processes by 30% to 40%. The solution’s low-code aspect has greatly impacted the development and deployment speed. One of the major reasons we are using the product is that we can reuse the modules. The developers can reuse all the modules. It enables us to make subsequent developments in less time. The prebuilt modules can be deployed within two to three weeks. The tool is very flexible. Compared to other platforms, the Appian product team was agile in quickly customizing things for us.
Vatsal Mehta - PeerSpot reviewer
Accommodates diverse use cases and effectively meets customer requirements
AI agents need further improvements. AI agent technology in agentic process automation is still evolving. We have only scratched the surface, and there are many potential use cases yet to be explored. As technology advances, I believe it will enable us to implement more comprehensive automation solutions. Document Automation has issues related to speed. When I compare Document Automation with IQ Bot, IQ Bot is faster than Document Automation. My understanding is that they are still evolving Document Automation, and this issue of slowness will be resolved in the upcoming .35 version, so we are good with that. They are working on signature identification and validations for handwritten documents. Currently, we are able to extract data out of scanned but digital images, but there is still scope for improvement for handwritten documents.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Management (BPM) solutions are best for your needs.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which do you prefer - Appian or Camunda Platform?
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 imp...
Is Appian a suitable solution for beginners who have no additional preparation?
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 edu...
Is it easy to set up Appian or did you have to resort to professional help?
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...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is very good in certain situations but lacks in others. For me, it's more the team tha...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applications that AA has limitations for, such as the Oracle. For web-based applicatio...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. Automation Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.