Appian retires unlimited bot pricing and makes enterprise demand for combined tech easier to consume

The Situation: Appian is throwing its unlimited bots pricing offer in the trashcan in response to a maturing market for automation in which customer demand is for automation beyond the bot. Its new packages respond to rising enterprise demand for combinations of tech to deliver outcomes.

The US-based low-code workflow automation platform has seen total revenue grow 21% from 2020 to 2021, including 39% growth in cloud subscriptions revenue with 116% cloud subscription revenue retention.

But customers have found the offer of standalone robotic process automation (RPA) in unlimited numbers unappetizing. Potential customers who thought they could get value from the unlimited RPA subscription proved few and far between. Appian tells us that customers, particularly in Europe, were unwilling to look beyond the first 15 to 25 bots. That’s a long way from unlimited, hence the end of the offer.

Appian confirmed it had not received any customer complaints about the move.

New packages respond to enterprise demand to combine technologies

Appian thinks that customers are now more interested in packages providing access to a broader array of platform capabilities, including the process mining capability the company acquired with its acquisition of Lana Labs in October last year, precisely as HFS predicted at the time. Those capabilities are now fully integrated into the Appian platform. The company says it always aims to integrate technologies fully before launching them to clients, a welcome alternative to rushing to market with something customers have to stitch together themselves.

It has become clear that enterprises are looking to combine emerging technologies to create more transformative value from automation rather than using standalone RPA for tactical fixes (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1: While RPA may be the single-most-used technology in automation engagements, the range of tech in use is becoming more diverse

Sample: HFS Research survey, 2021, N = 13 native automation service providers serving more than 14,000 enterprise customers
Source: HFS Research, 2022

For 2022, the Appian Community Edition (ACE) remains free, and the company stated this try-and-buy offer would remain free for all time. Given the emphasis on SaaS (software as a service) subscription sales growth, it makes good sense to have the community edition garnering attention and driving self-serve. Customers can port to production versions as and when their commercial needs change.

Appian is introducing new “Unified” pricing and packages—Platform User II and Application User II. Each licensed user gets unlimited usage of the Appian platform; other benefits include platform users having access to 25 bots and three process mining processes, annually, and application users having access to five bots and one process mining process, per year.

Unlimited lives on—for platform use and process mining

Unlimited lives on as a developer seat license model. But here, “Unlimited” refers to the use of the platform rather than the number of bots, which is constrained to 25 bots per year for annual subscribers.

Those seeking standalone bots can have them with a commitment to a minimum initial purchase.

Process mining is also available separately and in unlimited numbers. The unlimited standalone process mining product allows the discovery and monitoring of an unlimited number of processes and systems within a customer’s department or region. It remains to be seen if that will look any wiser than unlimited bots in a year.

The Bottom Line: Automation-mature enterprises need pricing that goes beyond the bot

Unlimited bot offers now look like a relic of a bot boom long past its sell-by date. Enterprise leaders realize they need a combination of technologies to deliver end-to-end processes toward value goals. Appian should be applauded for listening to the market and making the combination of technologies a little easier to buy and consume.