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Appian vs IBM Business Automation Workflow 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
Calculating ROI from Appian is challenging, but many report significant benefits, improved satisfaction, and increased adoption across organizations.
Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Business Automation Workflow boosts ROI through productivity, cost savings, and digital transformation, benefiting IT infrastructure efficiency.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian's customer service is generally effective, with quick responses for critical issues but needs improved response times for complex problems.
Sentiment score
5.7
IBM Business Automation Workflow support is effective with variations in response timeliness and requires detailed information for best results.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
If the solution is readily available to IBM support team, they provide it instantly.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Appian effectively scales for medium to large enterprises, managing various user sizes despite occasional hardware and integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.8
IBM Business Automation Workflow offers scalable solutions, supporting high transaction volumes and adaptability for enterprise growth, despite some customization limitations.
We are implementing load balancing and horizontal scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Appian is stable with high uptime, but performance relies on best practices, especially under heavy data processing loads.
Sentiment score
7.7
IBM Business Automation Workflow is stable, especially with best practices, auto-scaling, load balancing, and proper maintenance resolving initial issues.
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
 

Room For Improvement

Appian users seek improvements in UI customization, integration flexibility, efficiency, mobile features, pricing, and enhanced training materials.
IBM Business Automation Workflow needs better integration, UI, analytics, cloud migration, and support, with enhanced flexibility and cost-effectiveness.
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
Many developments are focused on AI, LLM models, and data science.
 

Setup Cost

Appian's pricing offers flexibility but is often seen as costly, yet competitive with IBM and Oracle for licensing options.
IBM Business Automation Workflow, though costly, offers robust features and flexible licensing, making it a valuable productivity investment.
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
 

Valuable Features

Appian offers low-code development, intuitive modeling, seamless integration, and scalable deployment for streamlined business process automation.
IBM Business Automation Workflow centralizes automation tools with low-code features, enhancing efficiency and agility in process management.
It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows.
The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant.
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (4th), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th), Process Mining (6th)
IBM Business Automation Wor...
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Appian is 6.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.2%, down from 2.5% 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.
Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable features empower seamless workflow automation
The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant. We have first-line support from IBM, so there are no issues. We have integrations with different banks, ERP systems, and other human resource management systems by integrating through different systems. It provides many ways to integrate, and we are utilizing it effectively.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
30%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
38%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Manufacturing 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...
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What do you like most about IBM Business Automation Workflow?
The most valuable feature of IBM Business Automation Workflow is cost management.
 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
Business Automation Workflow
 

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
Key Bank, Barclays, Control€xpert, MIR Insurance Brokers, Conqord Oil
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. IBM Business Automation Workflow and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.