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Appium vs SAP Mobile Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Appium
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Regression Testing Tools (6th)
SAP Mobile Platform
Ranking in Mobile Development Platforms
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Mobile App Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Mobile Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Appium is 5.1%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Mobile Platform is 3.5%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mobile Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Abhishek-Tiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
Has cross-platform flexibility and a record-and-play option
The challenging part with Appium is that installation can be a bit tricky. It can be challenging to set up in Android versus iOS environments. Appium has some limitations in terms of writing code using simulators and online cloud devices. I faced challenges with native based scenarios, battery turn out percentage, battery charging percentage, and memory capacity. The other challenge I faced involved codes changing from device to device. For example, the piece of code that works in iOS version 10.1 won't work in iOS version 6.0. In upcoming releases, if they can reduce some more of the dependencies like SDK, UIAutomator, etc., it would be great. That is, I'd like to see a consolidated package or bundle release that is much more user-friendly.
ShahzadRafique - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible, well-designed, and offers good scalability
It's not that difficult to set up. SAP has provided the complete installation and configuration scripts, and there's ample documentation available. Implementing it is not an issue. If you are just talking about installing the standalone SAP Mobile Platform, that won't take more than two to three hours. The problem is that when you have multiple integrated third-party integrations, it can be longer. In that case, the deployment really depends on how you actually do it, as, in a financial institution, there is a lot of middleware and other third-party systems that are also integrated with your system. We have a complete set of APIs exposed to different partners, and how everything goes together depends on what type of integrations are there and how complex they are. That said, it should not take more than three to four hours when it comes to only the standalone SMP.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to."
"It has great documentation and excellent community support."
"Obviously because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts."
"We develop apps using the React Native framework, and Appium integrates well for testing those apps. The Appium automation framework also has good integration with GitHub Actions and plenty of other tools and frameworks, including BrowserStack."
"We do not need to pay for the solution. It’s free."
"The best feature of Appium is that it allows you to inspect the element. With the Appium Inspector, you don't have to install another application to do the inspection. I also like that Appium has Android device connectivity. Currently, most people use Appium as automation software, and I haven't found any other tool that's more powerful than Appium."
"The most valuable features of Appium are the in-built functionality, which we can use in our code. For example, move back, move front, navigate one page before, and navigate one page ahead. You can do this by using the in-built functions from Appium."
"The solution helps with test automation. We focus mostly on Java."
"The initial setup is not overly complex."
"Technical support is helpful."
"If we work with the mobile extension of the ERP platform, we save time."
"Both platforms, the SAP Mobile Platform, and SAP, are highly valuable for our company because they facilitate integration, which can be expensive. It's very convenient to connect and create billing accounts through the SAP Mobile Platform."
"One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems."
"It's not that difficult to set up."
"Two of the very fascinating features that make SAP Mobile Platform stand out from other platforms are its offline capability and integration capability."
 

Cons

"The deployment process and configuration are quite complex and require improvement."
"What needs improvement in Appium is its documentation. It needs to give more context on the libraries that Appium is using under the hood. For example, my team is using Appium for Android automation, and a lot of times, I feel that there's functionality that's available through the Appium interface, that exists within the UIAutomator, but there aren't a lot of useful or helpful resources on the internet to find that information, so it would be good to have some linkage with the underlying platform itself. Another room for improvement in Appium is that it's buggy sometimes. For example, at times, there's a bug in the inspector application that doesn't allow me to save my desired capability set, so it would be nice to get that bug fixed, but overall, Appium is a good tool. The Touch Actions functionality in Appium also needs improvement. For example, if I want to initiate a scroll on the device that I'm running Appium on, sometimes Swipe works, but in other situations, I have to explicitly use action chains, so I'm not too sure what's the better approach. What I'd like to see in the next version of Appium is a more intelligent and more intuitive AppiumLibrary, in terms of identifying menus and scroll bars, etc., because right now, I'm unsure if I have to do a lot of export reversals to get to the elements I'm looking for. It would be nice to have some functionality built in, which would allow me to easily get those exports."
"Configuring the project to be used in Appium is a little bit tedious."
"The installation part of Appium is somewhat clumsy, requiring numerous dependencies and configurations."
"The challenging part with Appium is that installation can be a bit tricky. It can be challenging to set up in Android versus iOS environments."
"Support-wise, it could be better."
"They should add an in-built framework."
"Image recognition could be improved. We have some images in our mobile applications. It should be able to run from the cloud, so we can automate the catcher."
"The toolkit to develop front end applications, especially native applications, is not that good."
"One drawback is that SAP Mobile Platform apps are only available through the browser, making offline capability more challenging to implement."
"The tool is not easy or simple to integrate with other infrastructures."
"If it was low code or no code it would be ideal."
"The licensing model is a bit dated."
"SAP has announced that they'll be ending the support on the SAP platform."
"The cost of the SAP Mobile Platform is high, and there is room for improvement in its pricing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good for people to be able to make a favorable decision for the value."
"The solution is open source so it is free."
"The solution is open-source."
"This is an open source solution so it does not cost anything for licensing or otherwise."
"As far as I know, Appium is a free solution. It's not for commercial use."
"Appium is free and open-source."
"There is no license for this solution because it is open-source."
"I'm unsure if there's any cost associated with Appium. I got the free package which includes the server GUI application and the inspector application, and it was free to download, and that's all I need to get my work done. I'm not aware of any additional costs associated with the tool."
"The cost of SAP is extremely high, and it's not affordable for everyone."
"If you already paying for an SAP license and have SAP products that you are using, the price for SAP Mobile Platform is negligible."
"The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Appium?
I do recommend Appium. It is an open-source solution and completely free of charge. We use Appium and Appium Studio as our base for any type of mobile automation for testing. It has a great interfa...
What do you like most about Appium?
Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?
My experience with Appium from a pricing perspective is favorable due to it being open source, making it a cost-effective option.
What do you like most about SAP Mobile Platform?
One valuable feature of SAP Mobile Platform is its enterprise-grade standard and maintained APIs, available out of the box for easy integration with various systems.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Mobile Platform?
The tool is expensive. I rate the tool's price as an eight or nine out of ten.
What needs improvement with SAP Mobile Platform?
For a couple of years, SAP deployment and updates were not fair and simple. After the last evolution of mobile development in SAP, I need to check the latest features of the tool. At the company wh...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP Syclo Agentry Mobile Platform, Sybase Mobile Development Platform, Sybase Unwired Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote
Swarovski, CareFusion Corp., Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. SAP Mobile Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.