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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
Companies using Appian see increased profits, reduced process time, early break-even, and high user satisfaction across applications.
Sentiment score
7.2
Companies experience varied ROI from Automation Anywhere, with benefits in efficiency and productivity, but challenges in setup costs and integration.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian's customer service is mostly positive, with responsive support, valued community resources, and excellent expert involvement for issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
Automation Anywhere's support is generally effective and responsive, with room to improve response times and technical documentation.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
Our internal COE provides support, and if needed, Automation Anywhere engineers are involved directly.
Technical support is quite good, offering silver, gold, and diamond levels depending on the license.
At times, some issues require additional research due to inadequate documentation.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian's scalability suits medium and large enterprises but requires expertise for optimal performance and handles varying data challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
Automation Anywhere is praised for its adaptability and scalability, efficiently handling diverse and complex automation processes across environments.
Automation Anywhere is highly scalable for both horizontal and vertical expansions.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
For Windows-based applications, it provides UI interface automation, which enhances its scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Appian ensures 99.99% uptime and high stability; issues arise mainly from improper design or database handling and connectivity errors.
Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere is generally stable with praised features, though stability varies with infrastructure and some version-specific issues persist.
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 seek improved UI customization, scalability, integration, DevOps, documentation, and better pricing for enhanced accessibility and flexibility.
Automation Anywhere faces integration challenges, requires interface improvements, enhanced AI, better support, and clearer licensing for effective deployment.
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.
Although Automation Anywhere is a GUI-based platform with drag-and-drop functionality, non-technical business users struggle to implement it due to the complexities of operationalizing automation within a business context.
Sometimes, the bot struggles to initiate on the cloud, even when everything appears in place.
 

Setup Cost

Appian provides competitive, flexible pricing for on-premise and cloud solutions, offering value despite higher initial costs.
Automation Anywhere's pricing is high, affecting small to mid-sized businesses, despite potential savings from cloud and bulk discounts.
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.
This means an initial investment may not yield returns for a year, which is often not feasible due to budget constraints.
If you consider the tasks that we can get done using this, the pricing is reasonable and affordable.
 

Valuable Features

Appian excels in rapid low-code development, user-friendly interface, robust automation, seamless integration, scalability, and comprehensive support.
Automation Anywhere provides user-friendly, versatile automation tools and integration capabilities to enhance productivity and streamline repetitive tasks.
It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows.
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.
The OCR feature in Automation Anywhere is the best I have encountered, even better than Google.
Automation Anywhere has a drag-and-drop feature eliminating the need for extensive coding.
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Process Mining
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (4th), Process Automation (4th), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th)
Automation Anywhere
Ranking in Process Mining
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
529
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (3rd), Agentic Automation (2nd)
 

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.
IPSIT JANA - PeerSpot reviewer
Terminal emulator enhances efficiency while error handling needs improvement
There are improvements needed in error handling processes, as currently, they rely on start and end error commands. A more strategic approach could enhance efficiency. While the implementation of a structured development approach has been introduced, further enhancements could be made to accommodate non-technical users better, perhaps by making the platform more accessible and user-friendly through a flowchart or diagram-based setup. Automation Anywhere can be moderately challenging for business users without technical skills. While the platform offers some drag-and-drop functionality, building automation requires a strong understanding of logical operations and scripting. To become proficient, users may need to invest time in learning basic coding concepts or pursuing relevant certifications. This learning curve can mean that users typically require a few months of training before they can effectively build and implement automation.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

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: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.