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Appian vs Microsoft Power Automate 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
7.8
Microsoft Power Automate is a cost-effective, efficient RPA solution with seamless integration, offering significant ROI and streamlining operations.
It has helped us save time, and we've saved thousands of hours through automation.
 

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
6.3
Microsoft Power Automate support varies, with premium plans offering better service; users often rely on community resources.
Their customer service is responsive, and the team is very prompt for support.
Appian has a community where I can put my questions.
Having experience with coding is essential to fully utilize Power Automate.
 

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
6.8
Microsoft Power Automate scales well for small to medium businesses, excelling within Microsoft environments but limited in complex integrations.
Initially, without much coding, I can easily handle five thousand records.
 

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
7.6
Microsoft Power Automate is stable and reliable, particularly for non-complex projects, with user ratings between seven and nine.
It depends on how it has been designed and how it has been configured.
 

Room For Improvement

Appian users want better UI customization, integration, scalability, flexibility, cost-efficiency, support, collaboration, and enhanced case management features.
Microsoft Power Automate needs improvements in image recognition, integration, documentation, licensing, and user training to enhance user experience.
If there is a very complex process that includes a lot of data transitioning and memory-centric processes, it consumes a lot of memory.
 

Setup Cost

Appian pricing is moderate to high, with cost-effectiveness in cloud solutions and flexibility in its regional licensing model.
Microsoft Power Automate offers cost-effective pricing, but additional premium features can increase expenses compared to other solutions.
On the pricier side, both Appian and Pega are enterprise-level solutions, placing them on the slightly higher side.
 

Valuable Features

Appian's low-code platform accelerates app development with user-friendly tools, automation, and integration, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
Microsoft Power Automate offers a low-code interface, seamless integration, and cost-effective automation for enhanced productivity across multiple systems.
I can create tables, perform database-related activities, and create multiple tables.
It is easy for me to define the process and create configurable workflows.
We have saved thousands of hours by automating tasks that would have been labor-intensive and error-prone if done manually.
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Process Mining
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (7th), Process Automation (6th), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th)
Microsoft Power Automate
Ranking in Process Mining
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Process Mining category, the mindshare of Appian is 5.1%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 21.8%, down from 27.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Process Mining
 

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.
Nilesh Pundkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for email routing and management features but additional costs for plug-ins
Power Automate has fewer features and more limitations in general. It's not as mature a product as some of the others, like UiPath or Automate Anywhere. One of the main issues I've found is that Power Automate struggles with accessing Excel or other Office documents on servers. Even though it's a Microsoft product, we often have to log in through remote systems, and syncing can be problematic due to the way we use servers. At the very least, they should provide access to Office 365 directly, without requiring additional logins on servers. Most people utilizing Power Automate are already working within the Office 365 environment. Any proof of concepts (POCs) using Power Automate would naturally be built on top of Office 365.
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845,406 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
5%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance 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...
RPA that Bots can run without centralized control?
Yes, Attended Bots which can run without centralized control Module. RPA Tools like Automation Anywhere, uiPath ,Power Automation they do support this.
How do I choose between UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate?
Microsoft‌ ‌Power‌ ‌Automate‌ ‌is‌ ‌intuitive‌ ‌and‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌integrate‌ ‌and‌ ‌use.‌ ‌I‌ ‌like‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌is‌ ‌no‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience‌ ‌necessary,‌ ‌and‌ ‌appreciate‌ ‌the‌ ‌automated‌...
How is Automation Anywhere compared to Microsoft Power Automate?
‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great‌ ‌drag-and‌ ‌drop‌ ‌functionality.‌ ‌The‌ ‌training‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌for‌ ‌A...
 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive, Minit
 

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
1. Coca-Cola 2. General Electric 3. Siemens 4. Accenture 5. Deloitte 6. Johnson & Johnson 7. Ford 8. Nestle 9. Procter & Gamble 10. IBM 11. Amazon 12. Google 13. Microsoft 14. Adobe 15. Cisco 16. Oracle 17. SAP 18. Intel 19. HP 20. Dell 21. Verizon 22. AT&T 23. T-Mobile 24. Walmart 25. Target 26. Home Depot 27. McDonald's 28. Starbucks 29. Nike 30. Apple 31. Facebook 32. Twitter
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.