Appian vs. Workday Human Capital Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Appian
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Appian 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
Workday HCM
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Workday Human Capital Management is built as a cloud-based system with global consistency in user experience. Workday HCM is part of a broader system with other Workday products.
$100
per year per user
Pricing
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
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
Platform
Custom Quote Priced per user with unlimited apps.
Minimum 100, no maximum
Unlimited
Custom Quote Priced per development with unlimited apps.
Unlimited
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AppianWorkday HCM
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
Low-Code Development
Comparison of Low-Code Development features of Product A and Product B
Appian
9.1
75 Ratings
6% above category average
Workday Human Capital Management
-
Ratings
Visual Modeling8.873 Ratings00 Ratings
Drag-and-drop Interfaces8.972 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Security9.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform User Management8.872 Ratings00 Ratings
Reusability9.475 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Scalability9.473 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.7
91 Ratings
2% below category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.077 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings7.486 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings7.288 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.984 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings8.383 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings7.981 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings6.956 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.7
76 Ratings
4% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings7.465 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.553 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.215 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.060 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings7.466 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.063 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings8.439 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.0
70 Ratings
1% below category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings8.369 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings8.269 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings7.456 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.8
90 Ratings
4% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings8.279 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings8.188 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings7.169 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings7.455 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings8.279 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
6.8
23 Ratings
13% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings6.823 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.7
76 Ratings
1% above category average
Report builder00 Ratings8.172 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings7.974 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings7.262 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.1
54 Ratings
1% above category average
New hire portal00 Ratings8.250 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings8.050 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.7
57 Ratings
6% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings8.047 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings8.056 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.149 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.855 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.2
60 Ratings
3% above category average
Performance plans00 Ratings8.259 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.951 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings8.255 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings8.555 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings8.449 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
7.0
37 Ratings
12% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings7.732 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings6.633 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.335 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings6.634 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Appian
-
Ratings
Workday Human Capital Management
8.0
44 Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings8.242 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.435 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings8.131 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings8.436 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings7.035 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings7.736 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings8.440 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
Small Businesses
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quixy
Quixy
Score 9.8 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(139 ratings)
8.7
(103 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(19 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(95 ratings)
7.0
(13 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
6.6
(8 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Support Rating
8.4
(118 ratings)
8.0
(22 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(6 ratings)
Online Training
6.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.0
(5 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AppianWorkday Human Capital Management
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.
Read full review
Workday
Workday human capital management is well suited for organizations to manage their employee records. It is also well suited for managing the employee's salary details, also the details of past salary changes, promotions, etc. It has options to keep track of employees' goals for the year, where they can keep track of their progress, and also managers can view the progress or share feedback. This is very helpful for tracking career progress and providing feedback. Other options, like training assigned to employees, can also be seen in Workday; users will get alerts by email for any new assignments or due assignments, etc.
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.
Read full review
Workday
  • Groups employees in management hierarchies and creates Org Charts that are easy to navigate and allow for visualizing management chains regardless of employee locations
  • Intuitive and easy to use. The Workday search functionality works very much like Google; one can search for anything that they have access to in the database and drill down into the various details. All information is connected through hyperlinks and users can easily keep digging into the details for as far as their security access would take them.
  • Tasks such as to do, review or approve items are sent to the user's Workday Inbox, very much resembling email. Notifications about outstanding "to do" items are also sent to each the user's work email address on a daily basis.
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.
Read full review
Workday
  • The web interface is awful
  • Terrible, terrible, UI. No modern features like auto-save. I can't count the times I have lost work.
  • Their UX team (if it even exists) must be aliens, because I can't see how humans would have come up with the UI conventions they have.
  • Who creates a website application where you can't open stuff in multiple browser windows and tabs easily?
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
Workday
It is work to make one system the source of truth for our data, but now that it is done, there is less work involved in staying on this path. This means for us that maintaining and/or implementing new modules like performance, finance, talent, etc. is simple. It's a no-brainer
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.
Read full review
Workday
Workday's on a great path in terms of user experience. Their goals is to deliver a use experience that doesn't require training or instruction, like Amazon on the consumer side for example. That's hard to do when you're talking about complex business processes and important and sensitive employee information, but they're doing it well
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Appian
No answers on this topic
Workday
In 2014, Workday has changed the update process. There will be two updates a year; the updates will be delivered to customers typically in a 24 hour window during these two weekends a year. They also keep the Community up-to-date about any planned outages, etc. There is weekly scheduled downtime on Friday night.
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Performance
Appian
No answers on this topic
Workday
From my perspective, the system runs like a well oiled machine and I have not had any issues with customers complaining about speed. If a report is taking long to run, the report can run in the background and you can go about your business. For larger enterprises, there is additional space and machines to process the application in what Workday refers to it as Extended Configuration Tenant
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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.
Read full review
Workday
Workday is still learning about the needs of higher education. I have seen rapid improvement in support and knowledge over the last year so am confident this will continue to improve. Overall however, I have found the Support Team to be extremely responsive and Workday offers the advantage of having support across several timezones so that we never wait more than a few hours for a response.
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.
Read full review
Workday
Some training is offered online. Cost is per-person. This also gets quite expensive. Training doesn’t follow a logical path A to B. Starts in middle. When you try to do it afterwards at your desk, difficult.
• Training scenarios are not very real
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Online Training
Appian
Very boring; hard to get through quickly, but rather effective in demonstrating the use of the platform.
Read full review
Workday
I have done for report writing and mass imports (EIBs). They give materials and you run through examples, i.e. you don’t just watch them do tasks, so that is helpful. Training is expensive – a single reporting writing class is $600 per person for virtual training
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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.
Read full review
Workday
It was implemented before my joining the company. At my last company, we used Workday professional services.

Based upon my experience at my last company, I would rate the implementation experience an 8/10. There are different ways to set things up and we had different people telling us different things. It set us back a couple of times.

Regarding configuration advice, we could set things up where every manager has supervisory organizations, or have it financially based i.e. aligned to cost center/department. We chose the individual manager path and I think we should have chosen a department route. Going down the individual manager path, to maintain the information, we have to inactivate a supervisory org whenever a manager changes/leaves.
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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]?
Read full review
Workday
Unfortunately, I do not recall the brands of the other human capital management software programs or tools I used at my current company or workplaces prior. I do think that is a testament to Workday with its strong branding and compelling features. I was not part of the selection process of Workday but have enjoyed my experience.
Read full review
Scalability
Appian
No answers on this topic
Workday
Workday has released Financials and is continuing to develop it's Human Capital Management footprint with the addition of Workday Recruiting. I think customers will find that is easy to add on additional functionality in the system. Workday does make it easy for customers to make changes without relying on IT resources. The Business Process framework is a visual tool that allows functional resources to make changes and see the flow of the transaction
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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.
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Workday
  • Positive ROI, we were one of the first organizations that went with Workday HCM, and we received numerous discounts. Cloud systems are the way to go and we feel the system is stable for our growing work force.
  • The user conferences have been helpful to network and learn more deepness in the modules and functionality.
  • Right off the bat, our implementation costs were lower than budgeted and we had less 'billing' surprises.
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