OutSystems vs. Appian: Best Choice for Banking, Insurance & Healthcare Teams

Today, every industry wants to transform themself into a highly digital industry to make the work faster and, even more importantly, accurate with less paperwork and less human error. And while every industry is transforming, the percentage of highly regulated or we can say industries like banking, insurance and healthcare, is immensely higher than most of the industries.

Chief Technology Officers, enterprise architects and product departments in high regulatary industries like banking, insurance, and healthcare operations have very different boundaries than any other industry; their constraints are highly sensitive and finely written. Due to which it adds on another level of hurdles in creation of applications for such industries, one cannot just build application in the speed of light, because what matters more than speed is the security, ability to implement the finely created constraints in the application as well as they can ensure that the application is capable to handle millions of operations at the same time, due to the high density of the customers on these industry.

So, it becomes important for the decision maker to ensure that they aren’t just choosing speed, but also high performance, unbreakable authentication and authorization abilities to ensure the security of the operation around the clock without a miss, because a miss means millions of dollars.

And when we talk about low-code platforms which can fulfil all these standards and even more, there are two platforms that dominate it, these two platforms are OutSystems and Appian.

And in this blog, we are going to compare these two well-known applications on certain parameters to understand in which scenarios each one out performs each other and what the drawbacks of each of the platforms are. From basic industry standards to what the main philosophies are on which one of these is created and everything in between, like data modelling or database handling, the possibility of workflow automation, and the liberty of the developers to extend the features of the application above what platforms have already built and many more.

But before we get into the comparison to test the reliability of each application, first, let’s structure the application to have a better understanding of the topics we are going to cover and whether they align well with your research or not. As we all know, a good blueprint mostly leads to great results.

Now that we have structured the blog and both of us know what topics we are going to cover, let’s start the first basis of comparison between Appian and OutSystems.

1. The Foundational Shift: High-Performance App Synthesis vs Intelligent Process Automation

The fundamentals are always important, whether it is a journey of life or a platform. The fundamentals or foundations actually provide us with the insight about the force that is driving the platforms. What is the actual reason the platform is created, and does it align well with your motivation for your application, as it can provide clarity on whether the application can actually provide what you wanted or not?

OutSystems

Let’s first talk about OutSystems and what its foundational philosophy is.

The core fundamental of OutSystems is that it can compile visual models into standard, unoptimized native .NET C# code.

In simple words, we can say that the main aim of OutSystems is to translate the visually rich diagrams, database schemas and interface design from an application to the standard .NET C# application source code. This is a double-edged sword, as the low-code speeds up the development process, and as the application at the end compiles in the .NET, so the performance of the application also remains just like the application is created in the core coding technology.

Appian

Now, let’s discuss about the Appian’s core fundamentals and how it is implemented in the platforms.

So the foundational philosophy of Appian is that it interprets process definitions dynamically using a low-code data fabric.

Well, that’s difficult to understand, or somewhat scary as well. So let’s break it down into simpler words to understand what the foundational motivation actually is in developing Appian.

Appian apps are highly focused on intelligent process automation (IPA), which ensures that the reliability of traditional, rule-based software has the speed and power of Artificial Intelligence, so that automation becomes a part of their daily routine. The process revolves around a powerful Business Process Management (BPM) engine. Unlike OutSystems, Appian doesn’t convert the application into raw server code; it uses an advanced runtime engine that interprets the process models, case management configurations and workflow diagrams.

Appian ensures that the low-code is like an orchestra layer which set smooth coordination between human tasks, system tasks, and robotic process automation (RPA)

2. Core Architecture and Code Execution Models

Well, after the main motive or fundamental, it becomes important for the organisation to understand that each low-code platform doesn’t just provide different features, but their architectural layer also differ to a very big extent. Not understanding the architectural core or code execution models can lead to technical debts, which can affect the performance as well as the efficiency of the application. But that’s not it; there could also be unexpected consumption costs and many other issues if the architecture doesn’t really align with the motivation of the application.

So let’s discuss the core architecture and code execution models of both platforms to understand what the difference is between them, as well as which one would be a great choice in some scenarios, and which could cost the company negatively.

OutSystems: Native Execution with a Clean Exit Strategy

If we are talking about OutSystems, then the application which are being built with OutSystems are based on service-oriented architecture, which is loosely coupled, or we can say they are actually decoupled, which means that the modules are created separately and have very little or sometimes no dependency on each other at all while they are used inside an application or solution. This is due to the reason that the visual application of OutSystems actually converts into the standardised .NET source code, so that it can be run or compiled on bare-metal speed, due to which it completely bypasses the proprietary runtime abstraction layer during execution.

• Mitigating Vendor Lock-In: There are platforms that are confined to themselves, for applications, for resources, and they don’t provide any other option to the vendor other than pure and permanent commitment towards the platform. But not with OutSystems, OutSystems isn’t just a low-code platform which ensure the faster development process, but the community also understands that exceptions exist in every scenario, and you don’t have to miss the applications you have created with so much time and effort. So, if there comes a time that you have to discontinue the OutSystems environment for some reason, during that time, it has a feature that lets you have the source code of your application translated into C# source code, which you can compile elsewhere if needed. So, we can say that OutSystems gives liberty to the vendors to discontinue the license without losing anything in the process.
• Architectural Cleanliness: As we have discussed earlier as well that a bad architecture can impact performance and can be the cause of unexpected expenses in future. But not with OutSystems, as it separates the modules of an application into DB, BL, and main UI, so there is ambiguity while taking the dependency, and there will be no circular dependency, which can be harmful for the application.

Appian: Metadata Interpretation and Case Management

When we are talking about Appian in the discussion, the perspective changes to a great extent, as Appian solely relies on the high-speed runtime engine, the one that can ensure the smooth coordination between human tasks, system tasks and robotic process automation (RPA), which also reads and interprets the application automatically and configures your application dynamically.

Let’s break the core architecture into important points to understand it even more clearly.

• Proprietary Abstraction Layer: When we are looking at the proprietary rights of the application, it is important to understand that a vendor’s liberty and rights are limited in Appian-based applications. As the applications are not sustainable outside the Appian environment, the metadata configuration, which is interpreted dynamically in the runtime engine, is a must for the survival of the application, which includes important aspects like rendering screens, executing workflows and many more.
• Unified Case Management: Appian applications have a approach on unified data or in simpler terms a blending data systems, where data, processes and people are kept in a single place, or we can say encapsulated into a category or something which let the developers to arrange or organize cases like a loan application or an doctor’s appointment, which makes the process very efficient and fast, especially when we are tracking a long-running, multiple layer based process. But as the lack of architectural layers and each part is most likely so close that they are colliding with each other, the application has permanent vendor or developer dependence throughout the life of the application.

3. Data Fabric, Modelling, and Large-Scale Transaction Performance

When we are talking about a highly secure and regulated industry, data isn’t just information; it is also a tool, a weapon, which, if it isn’t secure enough, can blow up the whole economy. The way platforms handle the authentication, authorisation, performance and data fabrication not only ensures the efficiency and reliability of the platform, but it is the main ability of survival a platform has when it comes to surviving in the regulatory industry.

In this section, we will see how both platforms handle data-related operations, as one single mistake not only blows up millions of dollars but also loses the trust of the client forever.

OutSystems: High-Throughput Relational Database

OutSystems has the ability to handle the data in both manners; there is liberty to have a visually high table-like structure, which shows the output of the query in real time, while there are also Advanced SQL components that let the developers use raw SQL when the visual components aren’t capable of achieving desired results. But that’s not it, OutSystems has the API as well as a separate integration folder from where one can integrate databases from all the commonly used databases.

Let’s understand them in points for better understanding and categorisation.

• Database-Agnostic Hosting: OutSystems doesn’t confine application database access. It’s the platform which ensures that no matter where your database is, it is accessible and operatable in OutSystems, the commonly used database servers are in the integration folder in logic tab, which includes SQL Server, MongoDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc, but that’s not it there are forge components for the database servers which could be S3 Bucket, AWS and many more. Regardless of whether the data is stored in a private, public cloud or on-premises, OutSystems can operate on it.
• Raw SQL Control for Heavy Financial Math: While OutSystems has a visually rich component for data fetching called Aggregate, there are times when the query is too complex and implementing it is not only very difficult but also can increase the time consumption of data retrieval, because of which the performance of applications is impacted negatively. So, keeping this use-case in mind, OutSystems also have Advance SQL element which lets the developer write raw SQL for the application, which can also include subqueries, window functions, as well as complex joins, directly inside the application, which not only retains the application performance but also is very facilitating for the developers as well.

Appian: The Low-Code Data Fabric

Appian is a platform that actually approaches data through architectural features, which is also called Appian Data Fabric. It is the process that creates a virtualised data architecture that can combine and secure the disparate enterprise data without any need for data migration.

Let’s understand the Data Fabric as well as other data-related operations of Appian in detail.

• Virtual Data Layer: Integrating data from different databases is a nightmare every developer has gone through once in their life, the struggle to write up the integration query every time the data is needed. But with Appian’s Data Fabric, the process is simplified to a very great extent. As it combines all the data which could be from one or more external databases into one virtualised data architecture, due to which there are no extra steps or queries for some data, it not only makes the data retrieval easy, but it also creates a standardised process for data fetching regardless of where it is stored. Data Fabric is mainly used in the creation and analysis of information where there is a requirement for data from different sources most of the time.
• The Aggregation Ceiling: While Appian’s Data Fabric feature felt like a dream to so many developers who spend hours battling with the integration and configuration process for dashboard creation. But that’s where the end of the advantage is, there are some drawbacks of Data Fabric are, like the lack of differentiation of the source of the data source, restricts the developers to follow the visually rich way of data retrieval only, as they can’t write raw unmanaged SQL queries directly inside the application to ensure the face data fetching process for complex or unachievable from the low-code platforms. If you are creating an application that requires heavy, fast batch processing with millions of transactional records per minute, then Appian can prove to be a bottleneck for performance.

4. Workflow Automation vs. Core Transactional Logic

As we all know, industries can’t survive extremes; there is no industry today which is extremely traditional, nor any industry which is extremely modern, where the whole organisation is automated, and the business flow doesn’t need a human, but all the industries lie between modernisation and traditionalism. The same thing is with the regulatory industry, there are few operation which can’t be done by AI, neither it should be done, while the repetitive and highly analytical tasks are eating up the energy of human resources.

Today, regulatory industries want a platform where they want automated processes with high efficiency and accuracy for fast machine logic like calculating interest rates, while there are step-by-step logic which needed the human intervention to choose the right flow, like approval-based processes, for example, loan approval, etc.

In this section, we are going to decide how these two platforms handle the requirement of the regulatory industry, as well as how they can find the right balance to ensure that the human resources are effectively allocated while automation is accelerating the process significantly.

OutSystems: Built for Speed and Complex Core Logic

OutSystems itself is a platform that is mixture of modern approaches and technology like low-code and agentic AI, while is also works on traditional approaches like Client Action and Server Actions which reflects client-side and server-side logics, which can ensure the step-by-step execution of the process without any interruption.

• Transactional Integrity: As OutSystems’ performance speed is metal-based and it is competitive to traditional coding applications, it can handle the long and complex calculations, like calculating the interest or can fetch the data from the database within seconds. This makes it highly preferable for applications that have millions of transactions, as it can execute each transaction in seconds. OutSystems is mainly used for actual core-systems, that are custom mobile banking applications, or a real-time health insurance calculator, etc.

Appian: Built for Complex, Long-Running Workflows

When we talk about Appian, the core foundation of Appian creation is to automate the Business Processes, which can help the business to manage the workflow smoothly.

Let’s understand how it is achieved in detail in the point below.

• Human-in-the-Loop Orchestration: Appian dominates the market with the ability to manage processes that can take months to complete, with its features like task escalation, automated reminders, state tracking and many more. This ensures that the process is on the higher gear, but the route of the flow is still in the hands of the approvers in human resources who are managing it. But that’s not it, Appian not only escalates the process which includes humans, but it has the ability to orchestrate the human-and-machine workflow seamlessly as well.

5. Technical Comparison Matrix

Now that we have covered a few of the most important parameters for the comparison between OutSystems and Appian, let’s understand the technical differences between them and the difference makes both platforms the best options for some scenarios while worse for others.

6. Summary

Now that we have compared both platforms with important factors, let’s summarise the comparison for better analysis as well as revision.

7. The Strategic Verdict: Which Platform Fits Your Roadmap?

Now that reached the end of the blog, we understand that OutSystems and Appian, both are both low-code platforms that are created to develop enterprise-grade applications, but when we look closely, we can say that both of them actually solve different problems in the market.

So let’s understand when one should opt for OutSystems and when Appian.

Choose OutSystems If :

You can rely on OutSystems how heavy weight database applications like customer-facing applications, modern retail portals or custom transaction systems where performance matters as much as the quality of the data, as OutSystems runs at the speed of core metals. In addition to that, if your IT team contains highly experienced developers who demand full control over data modelling, extension capability and promises a exist plan if things don’t work out, then OutSystems is the application that works as a true software development factory for building core digital assets.

Choose Appian If :

Appian works best on the complex but automated business flow that requires human as well as automation collaboration for completion of a process. It ensures the smooth flow of lengthy and multi-step human flow, unifies the messy database integration into a single virtualised data architecture, and can also audit heavy internal workflows. Appian is reliable for the applications which is based on operational tools, like insurance claims centres, loan approval workflows, compliance tracking software, etc.

Devendra Baghel

I have been developing software for more than 10+ years, and I am an IT specialist. At the moment, I work with Prodfinity as a Technical Consultant. Through project delivery, I consistently focus on giving the client a high-value product rather than merely software. I take an active position in the Scrum Team and help the team solve problems for clients.