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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Appian

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/AAppian is a low-code development and business process management platform. It features drag-and-drop design for app building, automated work processes, unified data management, and cloud-based deployment.

    $0

    Microsoft Visual Studio Code

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft offers Visual Studio Code, an open source text editor that supports code editing, debugging, IntelliSense syntax highlighting, and other features.

    $0

    Pricing
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Editions & Modules
    Appian Community Edition
    $0
    Application - Input-Only
    $2
    per month per user
    Application - Infrequent
    $9
    per month per user
    Application - Standard
    $75
    per month per user
    Platform
    Custom Quote Priced per user with unlimited apps.
    minimum 100 users, no maximum
    Unlimited
    Custom Quote Priced per development with unlimited apps.
    unlimited
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Considered Both Products
    Appian
    Chose Appian
    Appian is the only product I have used that is anything like low-code.
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    38 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    70 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    69 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    37 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    70 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    25 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    50 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    63 Answers
    Features
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Appian and Microsoft Visual Studio Code
    Feature
    Appian
    8.1
    9 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio Code
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards8.29 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports8.59 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports7.69 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process Engine
    Comparison of Process Engine features of Appian and Microsoft Visual Studio Code
    Feature
    Appian
    7.4
    9 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Microsoft Visual Studio Code
    -
    Ratings
    Process designer7.99 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process simulation6.49 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules engine6.49 Ratings00 Ratings
    SOA support8.29 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process player7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form builder7.69 Ratings00 Ratings
    Model execution8.59 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Small Businesses
    Bizagi
    Score8.3 out of 10
    BBEdit
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Score9 out of 10
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Score9 out of 10
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (139 ratings)
    9.5
    (104 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.5
    (19 ratings)
    9.4
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (95 ratings)
    9.4
    (21 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (118 ratings)
    9.7
    (23 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    1.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AppianMicrosoft Visual Studio Code
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Appian
    Appian works great for automating manual processes and integrating multiple systems through its toolset. It gives great flexibility for establishing rules for approvals, routings, escalations, and the like. Because of the low code toolset, it's very easy to deploy and make changes as needed as processes evolve and as the organization learns to utilize the system better. Minimal maintenance is required to support the applications build on the platform. Some of the automated testing integration with tools like Jenkins is limited so that may be an issue for some.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As a general workhorse IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio Codee is unmatched. Building on the early success of applications such as Atom, it has long been the standard for electron based IDEs. It can be outshone using IDEs that are dedicated to particular platforms, such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code for .net and the Jetbrains IDEs for Java, Python and others. For remote collaborative development, something like Zed is ahead of VSCode live share, which can be quite flakey.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Appian
    • Allows at a glance workflow documentation which assists in the need we have for information readiation.
    • Drag and drop interface for workflow development greatly speeds our apps time to market.
    • Using the advanced features of Appian, we are able to create working sites in a fraction of the time it would take to do so using "traditional" development.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Integrate with the git repository very well.
    • Integrated copilot chat is very helpful to write code snippets and helps beginners to start with coding and development.
    • Great library of available extensions is one of the best features in Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
    • Dedicated Testing option to configure pytest and others are quite handy to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Appian
    • Search issues when type ahead and database search are used in the same field.
    • Buttons implementation where user is require[d] to click on the button description - if clicks on the button outside that text - button will not work.
    • Problems with using certain off-the-shelf performance tools like WebLoad or Neoload. That is because of different dynamic variables being used internally in Appian - which these tools are unable to correlate. We are still investigating using other tools like Jmeter to overcome dynamic correlation problem for performance testing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The customization of key combinations should be more accessible and easier to change
    • The auxiliary panels could be minimized or as floating tabs which are displayed when you click on them
    • A monitoring panel of resources used by Microsoft Visual Studio Code or plugins and extensions would help a lot to be able to detect any malfunction of these
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Appian
    We recently renewed our license with Appian. We are convinced that its flexibility, relative ease of use, the support they provide, there mobile advancements and their general willingness and desire to see us succeed all contributed to our reason to renew our agreement with Appian
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Solid tool that provides everything you need to develop most types of applications. The only reason not a 10 is that if you are doing large distributed teams on Enterprise level, Professional does provide more tools to support that and would be worth the cost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Appian
    Appian is a low code environment, because of this, a very good visual interface is required. Appian is providing a feature-rich dashboard [that] we can use for building the dashboards and other interfaces. Appian also provides patches and releases to enhance these features. A developer can start off development just by going through a basic course from the Appian learning community.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Visual Studio Code earns a 10 for its exceptional balance of power and simplicity. Its intuitive interface, robust extension ecosystem, and integrated terminal streamline development. With seamless Git integration and highly customizable settings, it adapts perfectly to any workflow, making complex coding tasks feel effortless for beginners and experts alike.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Appian
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Overall, Microsoft Visual Studio Code is pretty reliable. Every so often, though, the app will experience an unexplained crash. Since it is a stand-alone app, connectivity or service issues don't occur in my experience. Restarting the app seems to always get around the problem, but I do make sure to save and backup current work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Appian
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Visual Studio Code is pretty snappy in performance terms. It launches quickly, and tasks are performed quickly. I don't have a lot of integrations other than CoPilot, but I suspect that if the integration partner is provisioned appropriately that any performance impact would be pretty minimal. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (unless you start adding plugins left and right).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Appian
    Appian is one of the leading low code business automation platforms that support RPA, decision rules, case management, workflow automation, and machine learning all in a single bundle. But it is also harder to implement and replace the traditional business process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Active development means filing a bug on the GitHub repo typically gets you a response within 4 days. There are plugins for almost everything you need, whether it be linting, Vim emulation, even language servers (which I use to code in Scala). There is well-maintained official documentation. The only thing missing is forums. The closest thing is GitHub issues, which typically has the answers but is hard to sift through -- there are currently 78k issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Appian
    As analyst I participated in a developer boot camp. At times it was hard to keep up but most of the time it made sense. Trainer took the time to explain and slowed pace down to answer questions etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Appian
    Very boring; hard to get through quickly, but rather effective in demonstrating the use of the platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Appian
    It was really seamless. SaaS in the true definition of the word. We logged on and started using the product. Very easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Appian
    Appian has enormously transformed and keeps on updating the product every quarter to meet the latest needs of the world with new innovations & technologies being integrated within the platform. What gives more pleasure than a product that keeps on continuous[ly] improv[ing]?
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Visual Studio Code stacks up nicely against Visual Studio because of the price and because it can be installed without admin rights. We don't exclusively use Visual Studio Code, but rather use Visual Studio and Visual Studio code depending on the project and which version of source control the given project is wired up to.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Appian
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It is easily deployed with our Jamf Pro instance. There is actually very little setup involved in getting the app deployed, and it is fairly well self-contained and does not deploy a large amount of associated files. However, it is not particularly conducive to large project, multi-developer/department projects that involve some form of central integration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Appian
    • I believe it has negatively impacted our release dates. There may have been a misunderstanding as to the learning curve, even though it is "low code."
    • The look and feel of the applications created using Appian have uniformity and it's easier to have "reuse" between applications.
    • There is less developer control when it comes to features. I think this mainly has to do with the amount of plugins available. I would think there should be many more available plugins. But again, our use case is probably different than most others.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Saves money by replacing suites of tools such as Visual Studio, IntelliJ, etc.
    • Speeds development time and developer environment setup time
    • Strengthens code quality with integrated autoformatting and linting
    • Strengths Git practices by keeping version control tightly connected with the code
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Appian Screenshots

    Screenshot of Low-Code DevelopmentScreenshot of Business Process Management SuiteScreenshot of Dynamic Case ManagementScreenshot of Mobile App DevelopmentScreenshot of Appian RPA with Blue Prism