APPN vs PEGA Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Both APPN and PEGA are enterprise low-code and business process management platforms competing for digital workflow and application automation spending, with different customer concentrations and cloud transition stages. Pega has deeper roots in financial services and insurance BPM, while Appian has strong government and regulated industry positioning.
APPN vs PEGA compares two enterprise low-code BPM platforms competing for workflow automation spending, each with distinct customer profiles and ongoing cloud subscription transitions.
PEGA holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. APPN has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+13.15% vs -41.27%), though PEGA has the better forward P/E setup (14.13x vs 24.52x for APPN). On fundamentals, APPN is growing revenue faster (19.10%), while PEGA maintains the higher operating margin (4.60%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for PEGA (+16.05%) than for APPN (-2.19%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want low-code BPM exposure with particular strength in government and regulated industry verticals
- Value Appian's process intelligence and AI automation capabilities as differentiators
- See opportunity as more enterprises adopt low-code approaches to accelerate application development
- Want deep enterprise BPM exposure with particularly strong financial services and insurance customer relationships
- Value Pega's AI decisioning (Next Best Action) differentiation in customer service and CRM
- See long-term value in Pega's cloud transition unlocking more predictable recurring revenue
| Metric | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 31.5 | 44.9 |
| AI ranki | #2201 | #799 |
| Latest closei | $37.52 | $35.05 |
| 1M returni | -0.03% | +3.61% |
| 6M returni | +48.18% | -19.28% |
| 1Y returni | +13.15% | -41.27% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.31K (+13.1%) started 2025-09-18 | $5.87K (-41.3%) started 2025-09-19 |
| 5Y ago | $3.81K (-61.9%) started 2021-09-20 | $5.42K (-45.8%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $25K (+150.0%) started 2017-05-25 | $25.04K (+150.4%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $2.49B | $6.14B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | 21.23 |
| Forward P/Ei | 24.52 | 14.13 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 3.29 | 3.37 |
| Analyst targeti | $34.00 | $43.36 |
| Target upsidei | -2.19% | +16.05% |
| Metric | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 19.10% | 9.40% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | -52.90% |
| EPS growthi | N/A | -52.90% |
| FCF margini | +13.75% | +29.22% |
| Operating margini | 0.42% | 4.60% |
| Profit margini | -1.34% | 18.66% |
| ROIC proxyi | N/A | 54.69% |
| Return on equityi | N/A | 54.69% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 0.32% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 6.82% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 0.94 | 0.89 |
| Debt/equityi | N/A | 12.85 |
| Current ratioi | 1.00 | 1.06 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.84 | 0.98 |
Over the past year, APPN and PEGA have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.55), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +13.15% | -41.27% |
| CAGRi | +13.16% | -41.36% | |
| Volatilityi | 66.60% | 52.74% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.44 | -0.84 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.72 | -1.12 | |
| Max drawdowni | 58.98% | 61.00% | |
| Current drawdowni | 17.79% | 47.40% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 32.20% | 32.70% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 36.64% | 37.25% | |
| Max daily dropi | 10.92% | 16.00% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 19.49% | 20.99% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -61.86% | -45.84% |
| CAGRi | -17.55% | -11.55% | |
| Volatilityi | 62.21% | 52.91% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.08 | -0.06 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.11 | -0.09 | |
| Max drawdowni | 82.52% | 77.46% | |
| Current drawdowni | 64.97% | 48.05% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 62.45% | 46.56% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 63.95% | 50.75% | |
| Max daily dropi | 20.34% | 20.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 30.53% | 36.57% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +149.97% | +150.36% |
| CAGRi | +10.33% | +9.61% | |
| Volatilityi | 66.14% | 44.76% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.41 | 0.33 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.61 | 0.49 | |
| Max drawdowni | 92.04% | 79.27% | |
| Current drawdowni | 84.05% | 52.22% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 55.35% | 29.75% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 63.77% | 39.15% | |
| Max daily dropi | 27.79% | 20.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 30.53% | 36.57% |
| Category | APPN | PEGA |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Appian Corporation | Pegasystems Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Infrastructure | Software - Application |
| Core business | Appian provides a low-code application development and business process management (BPM) platform, enabling enterprises to build complex workflow applications with less coding, with AI, data, and process automation capabilities integrated throughout. | Pegasystems provides AI-powered business process management (BPM), CRM, and low-code development software for large enterprises, with particular strength in customer service, decisioning, and case management automation for financial services, insurance, and healthcare. |
| Investor focus | Investors track Appian's cloud subscription revenue growth, total subscription revenue retention, customer count among large enterprise and government clients, and path to sustained profitability. | Investors track Pega's cloud Annual Contract Value (ACV) and backlog growth as the company transitions from perpetual to cloud subscription, client lifetime value metrics, and operating leverage improvement. |
- Low-code platform enables faster enterprise application development with reduced IT dependency
- Strong positioning in regulated industries (government, financial services, life sciences) with complex compliance requirements
- AI process intelligence and automation capabilities add incremental value for enterprise workflow optimization
- Deep enterprise BPM and decision management capabilities with strong switching costs once deployed in mission-critical workflows
- Long-standing enterprise relationships across financial services, insurance, and healthcare provide durable revenue base
- AI decisioning capabilities (Next Best Action) are differentiated in CRM and customer service applications
- Revenue growth has been more moderate than many enterprise software peers, with a mix of cloud and on-premises customers still transitioning
- Competes against both larger BPM vendors (Pega, ServiceNow) and newer low-code platforms
- Path to GAAP profitability requires ongoing operating leverage improvements
- Cloud transition from perpetual licensing creates near-term revenue headwinds as multi-year recognition shifts
- Slower growth versus newer low-code and workflow automation competitors may reflect market maturity in core verticals
- Higher execution and complexity risk as Pega maintains both complex on-premises and cloud deployments
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.