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LeanIX vs ServiceNow 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

LeanIX
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st)
ServiceNow
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
223
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

LeanIX and ServiceNow aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. LeanIX is designed for Enterprise Architecture Management and holds a mindshare of 13.1%, down 15.6% compared to last year.
ServiceNow, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 21.0% mindshare, down 26.0% since last year.
Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
LeanIX13.1%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect11.3%
erwin Data Modeler8.8%
Other66.8%
Enterprise Architecture Management
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ServiceNow21.0%
JIRA Service Management8.7%
BMC Helix ITSM8.1%
Other62.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Q&A Highlights

AC
Feb 13, 2025
 

Featured Reviews

Umit Sengul - PeerSpot reviewer
A platform that facilitates efficient IT architecture management and integration, improving organizational coordination and decision-making
LeanIX is primarily used to create and manage architectural models, link capabilities, activities, and products and generate comprehensive reports. It serves as a central platform for overseeing the IT landscape within EON, a large organization, streamlining operations and enhancing governance…
Nikhil Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables effective incident management and seamless workflow automation with valuable mobile accessibility
I haven't thought deeply about improvements for ServiceNow or what might be missing right now. There are so many modules and features in ServiceNow that I haven't explored them all, so it's hard to say what might be missing or should be improved. I suggest making the cost more affordable for smaller companies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My favorite feature of LeanIX is its ability to induct attribute-driven surveys."
"Among the most valuable features are the easy-to-use interface and the ability to get quick results... Many tools that I have seen are great for technical people and for giving technical and business information as well, but they're not as friendly and easy as LeanIX... It works well for both technical and business users. It provides a good combination, enabling you to quickly put valuable information in for both technical and non-technical people and derive results."
"I would rate LeanIX at an 8.5, trending towards nine."
"The solution has a very useful assessment tool that automatically populates from input data to produce a detailed analysis of customer's environments."
"I like the tool’s integration and maps."
"The usability is very high. It almost looks like a Facebook for Enterprise architecture, it's pretty nice. It's HTML5 based. The repository is very easy. It has 10 different ways of sorting the objects you have in your architecture repository. Maintaining new data or to add data to your repository is very easy."
"The most valuable features are the clean user interface and the fact sheet feature in Application Portfolio Management. The tool integrates well with ServiceNow, which is the usual CMDB platform."
"LeanIX has a great application information architecture."
"It facilitates the monitoring of major incidents and provides insights into the effort expended to resolve each incident."
"I have found that sorting and grouping functions are particularly useful."
"What I like the most is that it's a common service data model and the fact that everything is available on one platform."
"You can put information in or export it out quickly, which is very useful when you have weekly or monthly reports."
"The flow designer for application development is the most valuable. The newest version of flow designer allows us to develop applications quite fast. We can have custom and mobile applications. It has an interface for mobiles, and it also has a good reputation."
"We always get good support."
"The most impactful feature in our day-to-day operations is the ticket status, which provides crucial visibility into the progress of each resource or incident."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
 

Cons

"The initial setup has room for improvement."
"I find LeanIX's pricing expensive for the functionality it offers. However, with the acquisition by SAP, the pricing might become more affordable due to scale and tiered application pricing. Currently, it offers different tiers for the first 400 applications: 400 to 600 and 600 to 1,000, making it expensive from a pricing standpoint."
"Another area for improvement is that when you're starting to look into more advanced information, using the solution's APIs and its customizations, documentation for that specific aspect is not very good. There is not too much support built into the offering for that aspect, for a developer."
"It would be beneficial to have additional features and capabilities to enhance mapping between applications, especially across domains where the relationships may not be direct."
"The modeling could be improved."
"Does a poor job of being able to allocate detailed costings to components within the network."
"The solution needs to incorporate a data patch tool that moves within and irons data."
"Adjustments related to specific organizational requirements are complex."
"I am interested to see the firm's strategic plans for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and how the particular areas it will expand on from its existing investments (that feature, for example, in its ITSM Pro and CSM Pro modules)."
"There is a need to enhance ticket details visibility on the portal, such as displaying SLA information, which currently requires development effort."
"From an HR standpoint, if users can have a very integrated onboarding or offboarding process between ServiceNow and Workday, then it can give a very good employee experience."
"The customer service of the product right now isn't very good. It's an aspect they really need to improve."
"I know that discovery tools are not meant to be simple, but somehow, if they could make it more simple and robust, that would be great."
"ServiceNow might need to improve its capabilities to integrate with third-party tools."
"ServiceNow claims to help a lot, but once you sell the product, it's as if you're on your own."
"In an upcoming release, there should be more administration tools."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As the tool is cloud-based, its cost is more affordable."
"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model that is competitive and in line with other products."
"The pricing is very good. We definitely get good value for the money."
"There is a sweet spot of where they need to be on pricing right now. They could go up a little bit in pricing, but it has to do with the cost savings, and it has to do with the practitioners using it. I use it where I get cost savings and I can justify it, but they probably have the ability to flex a 10% up channel on their sales on that. So, they could increase their settle price, not their offering price, when they sell. They can probably hold that up a little bit higher than it is because there are cost savings that we can drive from it."
"The tool needs to include more flexible licensing options. We do not use the tool all the time. So pricing should be considered only when we use the tool."
"LeanIX uses application-based account licensing, where the cost is multiplied by the number of applications in the software implementation."
"I would rate the pricing a one out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"It cost me $91,000 a year for 300 applications. For any enterprise, 300 applications are minimal, as many have well over 1,000 applications."
"The solution is expensive."
"Initially, the licensing model ServiceNow came up with was very good. But now, from a licensing perspective, they are changing their model day by day. It is becoming a bit expensive for customers."
"Isn't pricing always too much? We really do chafe at the ITIL licensing. ITOM is also pretty expensive."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"It's sold as a less expensive solution, but it has to be highly modified. That's where you get into the cost."
"I would say it is moderately expensive, ranging from six to seven on a scale of ten."
"ServiceNow's pricing is comparatively higher than Helix's."
"I know that it's not too bad because people continue to use it and they are happy to renew up their contract."
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Answers from the Community

AC
Feb 13, 2025
Feb 13, 2025
Bizzdesign has a ServiceNow integration that is available on the SNOW App Store - this blog will explain how you can use the power of both platforms to design strategic technology roadmaps to drive digital transformation, IT estate modernization and cloud transformation for your enterprise. - ServiceNow APM and Bizzdesign to win at Digital Transformation
2 out of 5 answers
Jairo Willian Pereira - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 4, 2022
IMHO, ServiceNow is a complete ITSM tool, designed to support tradictional/waterfall and digital/agile "business" and is completely adherent with ITIL (and others frameworks). LeanIX offers a more limited setup of inventary, correlation and others tools (for example, offers only few ITIL domains), such as showed here https://docs.leanix.net/docs.For market-time, features and maturity i'll choice ServiceNow but the price may be a problem.
KO
Jan 4, 2022
Don't know about LeanIX but QualiWare has a ServiceNow bi-directional API already in place....
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise163
 

Questions from the Community

Any experience with Strategic Project Portfolio Management Solutions?
Hi @Cheryl Joseph ​Looking at the crossover between Project and Portfolio management with EA, then Planview could be a good choice. If looking at Portfolio Management from an EA perspective then Le...
What do you like most about LeanIX?
The ability to import data and generate reports from it. That's where its power lies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LeanIX?
My experience with pricing is not directly known, as it was handled by others, but it is subscription-based. The tool was part of the RISE license in a previous project.
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Comparisons

 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bosch Rexroth, NSW Department of Education, Yamaha Motor Corporation, Tetra Pak, Deutsche Bahn, Flynn, SKF AB, NTT Group, Travis Perkins, SEEK, Haworth, Asahi Beverages, MediaMarktSaturn, KAO USA, Ørsted, The Mark Anthony Group of Companies, AmTrust, Banco Itaú Unibanco, SHL Medical,...
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP LeanIX, Sparx Systems, Quest Software and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: September 2025.
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