Appian vs BizTalk Server comparison

Appian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Process Automation category. Appian is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.9, while Microsoft is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.1. Appian holds a 5.9% mindshare in PA, compared to Microsoft’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Appian

Read 63 Appian reviews

12,251 Views
3,675 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

BizTalk Server

Read 14 BizTalk Server reviews

1,197 Views
515 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Appian

BizTalk Server

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Appian and BizTalk Server both operate in the business process management and integration field. Appian appears to have the upper hand due to its modern low-code platform and cloud capabilities, which are favored in today's rapidly changing business environment.

Features: Appian offers a low-code platform for rapid application development, supports browser and mobile devices, and includes process modeling with integration features. BizTalk Server focuses on integration with various systems, providing a robust framework for developing complex business logic, orchestration, and mapping tools for effective data transformations.

Room for Improvement: Appian could enhance UI customization, offline functionality, and integration flexibility. It also needs to address scalability and reporting issues. BizTalk should improve performance with large data volumes, modernize interfaces, and provide a more intuitive deployment process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Appian provides flexible deployment options across cloud environments, known for strong customer service with responsive support. BizTalk Server, being mostly on-premises, faces challenges with cloud adaptability. Its technical support, while generally satisfactory, can be slow in resolving legacy system issues.

Pricing and ROI: Appian's pricing is perceived as high, but flexible licensing options offer long-term cost-effectiveness, with quick ROI through process efficiency improvements. BizTalk's expensive licensing structure poses challenges in ROI calculation, especially with cloud alternatives offering modern pricing.

To learn more, read our detailed Appian vs. BizTalk Server Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. BizTalk Server

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Appian

Ranking in Process Automation

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (12th), Rapid Application Development Software (10th), Low-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (8th)

BizTalk Server

Ranking in Process Automation

14th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Appian is 5.9%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BizTalk Server is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Nitin-Agarwal

Delivery Manager (Intelligent Business Automation) - Pega at Persistent Systems

Seamless integration enhances workflows while memory optimization can improve complex processes

I am working with all of these products: Pega, Appian, and OutSystems. I use Appian as a process orchestrator for workflow and rule-based routing, and it is preferred when I am developing an enterprise-wide application. The application is mobile-friendly, allowing me to use it across any device…

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Vignesh Kumar Sekar

Senior Analyst at Sword Group

Enables message routing and provides a secure way to communicate between two systems

The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes. It enables a handshake with the source and target systems using certificates. It is the most secure way of communicating between two systems. It is an advantage. We can do a lot of message routing. If we want to handle large data, we can put the data into different patterns to process it. We can do it through sequential convoy or parallel convoy orchestration. BizTalk comes with SQL Server. We can load temporary data in the database and use the batch process from BizTalk. It is an added advantage. Creating agreements is a manual job, but it's quite easy in BizTalk. Even a fresh college graduate can configure AS2 certificates and partner profiles and communicate with other systems. It is easy.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is helpful."

"The initial setup is easy."

"Good workflow engines that bridge the gaps of processes."

"Technical support is quite responsive."

"Process Modeling enables creation of business process workflows. You can create complex business workflows in a visual manner, and it is also easy to debug/monitor."

"Appian is a stable product and works very well."

"The tool is very flexible."

"Technical support has been amazing overall."

More Appian pros

"BIzTalk's integration with Visual Studio is the most valuable feature of this product."

"The most valuable feature of BizTalk Server is that it will turn XML into flexible transactions."

"Compared to the current solutions I use, like Azure Logic Apps and other cloud services, BizTalk was far better and more reliable."

"The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes."

"I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its integration with the banks. Its messaging and routing capabilities are good."

"The most valuable feature is its reliability and stability. The first version of BizTalk was released in 2000, and many companies still use it. It was stable until 2013 when we had support."

"Essentially, you can do whatever you like with these systems, and you do not have to take care about the scaling because if one server is overloaded, it just forwards the message to the next server, even if it were designated to a specific server. It weeds out the messages according to the load. If you want to scale it, you just add new servers."

More BizTalk Server pros

Cons

"Form creation and SAIL proprietary language still basically require programming. The claim a BA type can do everything is hogwash."

"My only request is that they decrease the license costs."

"The performance is pretty good, but the distortions need to be optimized in order for it to work well."

"I would like to see more features for enterprises. They would also benefit from adding documentation and training on their site."

"There are some restrictions with respect to using external components within Appian. So, for example, if we do not have a particular feature available, there's a long cycle of getting approvals and all of that. That does not offer flexibility, which definitely can be improved on."

"Authoring tool is slow to use resulted in limitations on how quickly solutions can be built."

"Something I would like to see improved is an SQL database connection."

"What could be improved is more on the front end perspective, like the user interface and the mobile application aspect."

More Appian cons

"The product could be improved in monitoring, managing, and support functionalities."

"BizTalk is in the past, Microsoft is not going to evolve it any further or add any new features."

"It's a complex product because you have many degrees of freedom to connect different parts together. Whether it's sensible or not, is up to you, but the machine does allow it. But because of the vast degrees of freedom, it's complex."

"The deployment could be simplified."

"BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages."

"BizTalk Server is an outdated legacy system that does not support messaging."

"It's an on-premises system, requiring physical servers for deployment. This is different from Azure; you don't need any servers with Azure. If you have a subscription, you can do whatever you want. There are unit restrictions based on the environment (like non-production vs. production) in BizTalk. You need physical servers and databases. In Azure, those are not required – it's all in the cloud."

"The product's deployment can be quicker"

More BizTalk Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you're doing an enterprise-wide digital transformation, Appian is worthwhile, but not for just one or two use cases because the license costs are higher."

"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."

"Appian is very flexible in their pricing. In general, Appian's pricing is much, much lower when compared to competition like Pega or other products. Appian also has a flexible licensing model across geographies. Pega usually goes with a single licensing cost—which is a US-based cost—for all global customers, and it's costly. Whereas Appian has a different regional licensing cost model and it can be cheaper, depending on geography. So Appian's licensing is very flexible, and cheaper when compared to other competition."

"The license is a bit expensive and the pricing model is sometimes confusing for new users or business users. It is difficult for them to know what volume of usage they will have to be able to purchase the best-suited license at the beginning."

"The price of the solution is reasonable and is paid annually. The price of the solution depends on how many users use the solution. It can range from $50,000 to $200,000. For example, for 20,000 users the price can be approximately $200,000."

"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."

"The pricing can be a little confusing to customers."

"The licensing will be on a monthly basis. We are estimating that cost to be around $2000 to maybe $3,000 per month. We don't foresee any costs above that."

More Appian pricing and cost advice

"BizTalk Server is cheap. I would rate its pricing a two out of five."

"It was not cheap, but it was affordable."

"The solution is expensive."

"Based on the knowledge, it is relatively cheaper than Azure Identity Services and cloud services in general."

"BizTalk Server is not freeware. There's a significant licensing cost involved. Be sure you will actually utilize its features fully."

"The cost will depend on the client's requirements."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Educational Organization

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Healthcare Company

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...

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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...

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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...

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What do you like most about BizTalk Server?

The tool's most valuable feature is its integration with the banks. Its messaging and routing capabilities are good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BizTalk Server?

BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages....

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering BizTalk Server?

BizTalk Server has adapted to the changing needs of business over time with steady development, but there are new requirements, for example, on APIs, application programming interfaces. That functi...

See all answers

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Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appian

April 2025

Download Appian product report

Buyer's Guide

BizTalk Server

July 2025

Download BizTalk Server product report

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS

No data available

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.

Appian

Connects systems both inside and across organizations, exchange data and orchestrate business processes across multiple systems.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee

Centrebet, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, QualCare, Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, DTEK, Allscripts, United BioSource, Hogg Robinson

Buyer's Guide

Appian vs. BizTalk Server

July 2025

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