ServiceNow Orchestration vs Temporal comparison

ServiceNow and Temporal Technologies are both solutions in the Process Automation category. ServiceNow is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2, while Temporal Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. ServiceNow holds a 4.2% mindshare in PA, compared to Temporal Technologies’s 7.3% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of ServiceNow users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Temporal Technologies users who would recommend it.

ServiceNow Orchestration

Read 16 ServiceNow Orchestration reviews

2,080 Views
2,038 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Temporal

Read 18 Temporal reviews

1,877 Views
1,877 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Orchestration

Temporal

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

ServiceNow Orchestration and Temporal are competing products in the workflow automation category. ServiceNow Orchestration has the upper hand in established enterprise environments due to its extensive integration capabilities, while Temporal offers more flexibility and scalability for developers.

Features: ServiceNow Orchestration includes robust integration options for multi-system environments, seamless automation of complex workflows, and strong support for enterprise ITSM transitioning to ESM. Its ability to spin cloud services automatically on approval and integrate with Microsoft products offers an edge for complex tasks. Temporal provides excellent support for long-running workflows, simplifies retry and rollback mechanisms, and handles distributed transactions efficiently in microservice environments. Its ability to manage retries and state durability is crucial for maintaining reliability.

Room for Improvement: ServiceNow Orchestration could improve on network connectivity testing and enhance user experience in scripting and UI tasks, which sometimes require expertise in Java. There are limitations in administrator connectivity testing for certain integrations. Temporal could offer more examples and streamlined onboarding for developers less familiar with event-driven architectures. Its complexities in handling signals, queries, and updates might pose challenges without prior knowledge. Providing more robust default settings and examples could enhance the initial learning curve.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow Orchestration provides a deployment model that integrates smoothly with existing systems, with dedicated support simplifying onboarding for enterprises. Temporal offers cloud-native deployment suited for developers building customized systems. Its community and documentation, while helpful, may require more initial adaptation than ServiceNow's structured support.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow Orchestration may involve higher upfront costs, yet delivers ROI through reduced integration challenges and streamlined enterprise processes. Temporal provides a cost-effective option prioritizing scalability, potentially resulting in substantial ROI as usage scales, though exact pricing is not publicly detailed.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Orchestration vs. Temporal Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Orchestration vs. Temporal

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

ServiceNow Orchestration

Ranking in Process Automation

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Temporal

Ranking in Process Automation

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Orchestration is 4.2%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Temporal is 7.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Dinesh Kumar Raghu

Senior Software Engineer at NewRocket

Fastest upgrading technology in the market currently

In each upgrade, ServiceNow is enhancing its product across various areas. They continuously improve different aspects one by one, ensuring that their service evolves with the changing needs. However, frequent upgrades may negatively impact the performance of instances. Therefore, for now, I don't recommend any additional upgrades. The current version fulfills everyone's requirements, and ServiceNow automatically updates annually, keeping pace with industry standards. They've been performing well, so I see no need for further upgrades, especially considering their consistent updates.

Read full review

AbhishekDash

Senior Software Engineer at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Orchestrates infrastructure tasks like deployment, deletion, and management

Temporal focus on developers rather than business users. In contrast to older workflow orchestration engines like Camunda, which are more business-oriented and strongly emphasize UI and workflow authoring, Temporal is geared toward developers. It provides extensive capabilities for building complex workflows. A standout feature of Temporal is its handling of long-running workflows, a significant advantage over many other solutions. Temporal excels in managing distributed transactions and application state durability, especially in microservice environments where transactions might fail due to network issues. Temporal simplifies these challenges by managing retries, fail-safes, and circuit breakers. As a result, developers don't need to implement these features manually; Temporal handles them implicitly, though it also allows for tuning based on specific needs.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is a user-friendly solution where scripts can be made with ease. There are also many integration options, including Microsoft products, which gives the product a competitive edge."

"The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in languages like Java. But along with that, there are limitation in terms of network connectivity testing and administrator faces regular challenges in conducting connectivity tests due to these limitations."

"Orchestration is commonly utilized by major corporations. The process of linking methods in ServiceNow, known as the RTS chain to parent methods, is executed seamlessly and efficiently. It's quite impressive and significant in its impact."

"The solution effectively automates business processes."

"It's probably the best product out there."

"It's scalable."

"There are a lot of ready to use orchestration custom packs."

"The data visualization is good."

More ServiceNow Orchestration pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to fix things quickly."

"The solution's most valuable features include its ability to simplify the management of complex workflows, improve system resilience and fault tolerance, and reduce the need for extensive boilerplate code."

"The tool is easy for a beginner to learn. The documentation covers activities, workflows, workers, servers, and more. While more examples could be beneficial, the existing resources are good enough to help you get started. There are also YouTube videos available that can provide additional context. The Slack community for Temporal is very active and helpful, similar to Stack Overflow, where you can find answers to a wide range of questions from basic to advanced levels. If you have a unique question, the community is responsive and provides knowledgeable support."

"We like the fact that the whole process is durable, which is very useful to us."

"Temporal provides visibility into workflow progress and analytics and supports scheduled tasks with customizable settings, making it very convenient."

"What I like best about the tool is that it's easy to install, especially since it uses JavaScript. It's also easy to set up with Docker, and the documentation is easy to understand."

"Temporal focus on developers rather than business users."

"It's easy to get started and user-friendly."

More Temporal pros

Cons

"The third-party integrations are challenging when the tools are not from ServiceNow partners. This presents issues when integrating solutions from other vendors."

"We cannot perform GUI automation using the tool."

"The flow rate for releases and updates is very, very slow and does not meet customers' objectives for scalability."

"The automatic remediation needs enhancement, particularly integrating ServiceNow with tools like SolarWinds and Logic Monitor. It is functional, but it needs improvement."

"ServiceNow Orchestration needs to improve multiple aspects in which their event monitoring system is one. The solution lacks event monitoring systems which makes them non-competitive. They need to include improvements in a similar manner that they did in Sweden."

"There can be gaps in integration."

"I would like a user experience module to be added."

"Frequent upgrades may negatively impact the performance of instances. Therefore, for now, I don't recommend any additional upgrades."

More ServiceNow Orchestration cons

"Temporal lacks many resources, like YouTube videos, which users can use to learn or refer to if they get stuck with the solution."

"One area for the product improvement is the learning curve."

"Developers often mention the desire for a more intuitive visualization of workflow states."

"Configuring workflows can be improved —the solution could offer more options, but it's not a must-have."

"Temporal could be improved by making it more user-friendly for beginners and non-technical staff, ensuring easier integration and usability across different use cases."

"There are areas where Temporal could improve. For instance, calling multiple microservices with Temporal introduces latency due to workflow registration and analytics overhead."

"Temporal doesn't have built-in data storage to store the state of the ongoing execution."

"Temporal images aren’t FIPS compliant, and we have to be FIPS compliant."

More Temporal cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not very expensive."

"In terms of price, this solution is at the higher end of what you'll find."

"It is quite expensive because we've had some customers come back and say it's quite pricey because in order for them to go ahead with Orchestration, they must have already been paying for Discovery, service mapping, and a few other things."

"ServiceNow doesn't give a clear cost indication. They have different contracts with different organizations and it's all about negotiation, so you don't know how they are doing at the cost level."

"This is an expensive product, but it is the best in the market considering the features and lack of competitors."

"The cost of the solution is based on the number of plugins, conductors and integrations used and is charged annually. The licensing cause has been increasing gradually which makes it difficult to access. Initially offer free features but over the time the charges rise which make it an expensive solution with limited features. Along with that, the integration issues persist and require additional middle where and internet connectivity for effective usage."

"Pricing is custom to every customer."

"The solution is costly and orchestrations are very expensive."

"It is worth the price."

"Temporal is a free, open-source tool."

"The savings weren't as big as we initially expected, but they were pretty great from a developer's perspective."

"The tool is open source under the MIT license, so there are no hidden fees. You can freely use everything on their GitHub and Docker images."

"Temporal is open-source and free to use, which is great. We didn't have to pay for any premium features."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

16%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ServiceNow Orchestration?

The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Orchestration?

The cost of ServiceNow Orchestration is considered medium; it is expensive but powerful. I would rate the pricing experience as a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Orchestration?

The third-party integrations are challenging when the tools are not from ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews ) partners. This presents issues when integrating solutions from other vendors.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Temporal?

Temporal OSS is expensive in infrastructure, but it brings back the reliability that companies need.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Temporal?

The actual user interface is still in its early stages. It’s very basic. Users don’t really have a complex permission model yet. Users don’t really have ways to automate things like, for example, p...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Temporal?

We [my company] use it to run a large workload. We have a set of security scans we want to perform, and we distribute them over a full day, that’s over 24 hours. We use it to orchestrate all the st...

See all answers

Comparisons

Camunda vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 49% of the time

Control-M vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 17% of the time

IBM BPM vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 6% of the time

Nintex Process Platform vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

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Camunda vs Temporal

Compared 47% of the time

Flowable vs Temporal

Compared 15% of the time

Orkes vs Temporal

Compared 15% of the time

Pega Platform vs Temporal

Compared 5% of the time

IBM BPM vs Temporal

Compared 3% of the time

More Temporal Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Orchestration

June 2025

Download ServiceNow Orchestration product report

Buyer's Guide

Temporal

June 2025

Download Temporal product report

Overview

ServiceNow is the fastest-growing enterprise cloud software company in the world above $1 billion (2018 revenue was $2.6 billion, up 36% year over year). We deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity to approximately 5,400 enterprise customers worldwide, including almost 75% of the Fortune 500.

ServiceNow

Temporal automates and manages workflows efficiently, offering resilience in distributed systems with features like retry and fault tolerance. Its capabilities in handling complex workflows and integrating with programming languages make it a valuable tool for managing diverse business logic.

Temporal excels in workflow orchestration, automating tasks across multiple platforms, and ensuring durability in asynchronous operations. It supports long-running workflows and simplifies handling distributed transactions, reducing boilerplate code. Temporal is noted for its durable execution and built-in retry policies, enhancing resilience. Despite its complexity and steep learning curve, it is valued for its integration with popular programming languages and relatively easy setup process, though it requires improvements in user-friendly features, documentation, community support, and security.

What are Temporal's key features?

Automation and Efficient Management: Automatically handles workflows without manual intervention.
Resilience and Fault Tolerance: Features built-in retry policies for increased reliability.
Integration: Supports various programming languages, easing development.
Distributed Transactions: Simplifies complex transaction handling with reduced boilerplate code.
Durable Execution: Ensures long-running workflows are reliably managed.

What benefits or ROI should users evaluate?

Scalability and Reliability: Enhances IT environments through robust workflow management.
Ease of Integration: Supports seamless multi-platform automation.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Reduces need for extensive coding, streamlining processes.
Durability and Fault Tolerance: Provides reliable asynchronous operations.

Temporal is implemented in sectors requiring robust workflow orchestration, such as managing data pipelines, API integration, and scheduling tasks. Organizations in a Kubernetes environment leverage it for its scalability and infrastructure management capabilities, securing integrations and enhancing reliability across IT operations.

Temporal Technologies

Sample Customers

experian, BEACHBODY, HealthPartners, Banosoft

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Orchestration vs. Temporal

July 2025

Free Report: ServiceNow Orchestration vs. Temporal

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