Automating workflow processes is the key to unlocking your business potential. Still, many enterprises are reluctant to undergo the automation revolution due to high development costs and coding expertise.
And here’s where no-code platforms come in, providing businesses with cost-effective and efficient solutions for transforming their workflows without extensive coding knowledge or overreliance on developers.
The issue here is, which workflow management platform to pick?
This might seem like an innocent question, but given how high the stakes are, finding the appropriate solution can become a matter of life and death (business-wise, of course).
When it comes to available options, however, there are multiple platforms available, and only a few can challenge for the title of the best no-code workflow automation platform. Among these are HighGear and Nintex.
Both platforms have established themselves as top no-code workflow automation platforms. But which one is better? The following comparison review has all the answers.
Company Overviews
Before we compare HighGear and Nintex, here’s a quick introduction to these two industry-leading platforms.
HighGear
Established in 2003, HighGear is a prominent provider of a no-code workflow automation platform explicitly tailored for enterprises.
Founded by co-founders Vaughn Thurman and Josh Yeager, HighGear started as an internal tool named JobTraQ, conceived to manage internal tasks. HighGear then swiftly evolved into a fully-fledged product thanks to high demand from early clients, including NASA and Beazley Insurance.
Today, HighGear’s primary focus is to empower non-technical teams with the ability to create intricate workflows on their own. The platform allows analysts, managers, and subject matter experts to quickly develop, oversee, and integrate process automation without requiring coding skills. This shift transfers the responsibility of task automation from specialized IT personnel to business teams.
HighGear has refined its platform through feedback from various sectors, including financial services, energy, and government, effectively bridging the automation skill gap that is prevalent in enterprises.
Moreover, HighGear strongly emphasizes delivering exceptional customer support, with customer success remaining at the core of its mission, not just the technology itself.
Nintex
Nintex, established in 2006, is now a leading software company at the forefront of workflow automation and process optimization. Founded with the vision of simplifying complex business processes, Nintex has emerged as a trusted partner for organizations seeking to streamline their operations.
Nintex’s core offering is a comprehensive workflow automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and manage their workflows efficiently.
The company offers both no-code and low-code solutions, allowing business analysts, managers, and subject matter experts to create and customize workflows with ease, eliminating the need for extensive coding.
HighGear vs. Nintex – Quick Comparison
| Feature | HighGear | Nintex |
| Ease of Use | Designed with ease of use in mind | Requires a bit more experience and knowledge to use |
| Workflow Design | Takes advantage of visual workflow design tools | Uses visual drag-and-drop workflow tools |
| Analytics & Reporting | Extensive real-time reporting and data analysis | Simplified reporting |
| Automation | Multiple latest automation tools and features | More comprehensive automation software |
| Integrations | Can be integrated with numerous apps and platforms | Can be integrated with numerous apps and platforms |
| Scalability | Although designed for large enterprises, it can also be used by businesses of all sizes | Exclusive to large enterprises |
| Deployment Flexibility | Cloud-based & on-premise deployment | Cloud-based deployment |
| Training and Support | Responsive customer support and an extensive selection of training resources | Customer support’s efficiency depends on a subscription plan |
| Pricing | Starts at $63/month per licensed contributor | Starts at $25,000/year with an option to upgrade to Premium or Custom Plans |
| Customer Reviews | 5.0 out of 5 on GetApp | 4.1 out of 5 on GetApp |
Platform Features & Capabilities Comparison
Both HighGear and Nintex are well-recognized for their cutting-edge features. Which one has a better package, though? Let’s analyze both platforms’ key features regarding workflow optimization.
Ease of Use
HighGear
HighGear distinguishes itself through its unwavering commitment to user-centric design and user-friendly interfaces tailored for business users.
The platform places a strong emphasis on simplicity without sacrificing functionality, ensuring that it can be utilized effectively by individuals of varying technical expertise. One of the best examples of that is the visual drag-and-drop workflow builder that promotes hands-on ownership of automation without necessitating any coding skills.
With the backing of dedicated expert support, guided tutorials, informative tooltips, and logically structured features, HighGear has perfected the art of minimizing the learning curve. This results in a clean interface that enables users to engage in rapid automation.
Nintex
While Nintex is also designed with user experience in mind, it’s a bit more complex to use than HighGear, and the learning curve is much steeper.
The issue many users have with Nintex is that they are confused about what the platform offers. Also, with every product having a separate interface, adjusting to how the platform operates as a whole takes a while.
On the other hand, it must be said that the platform can be made to run smoothly once you learn the ropes.
And regarding its low-code software, while most basic features can be easily used by non-IT users, more advanced options require some coding skills.
Workflow Design
HighGear
One of HighGear’s key advantages lies in its Visual Workflow Designer, which simplifies the process of creating workflows to an extraordinary degree. Whether it’s a straightforward approval process or a highly intricate cross-departmental workflow, HighGear users have the capability to chart and tailor comprehensive solutions.
The Visual Workflow Designer encompasses various features, including color-coded sections, ready-made process templates designed to expedite automation, and real-time analytics that provide valuable data-driven insights.
Another notable strength of HighGear is its support for non-simultaneous multi-user workflow design. Rather than isolating the creation process, it fosters collaboration, teamwork, and the opportunity for multiple perspectives to contribute to optimizations. Changes are immediately visualized, ensuring alignment with the intended process flows. This visual approach minimizes the need for extensive training when embarking on workflow design.
Nintex
Like HighGear, Nintex takes advantage of visual drag-and-drop workflow tools. They allow users to quickly design custom workflow and map out processes step-by-step. The whole process is straightforward, and the software is full of useful add-ons, including approvals, decisions, connectors, and notifications.
Furthermore, Nintex enables the designing of multiple parallel tasks that allow enterprises to streamline numerous workflows at once, with changes immediately visualized for improved user experience and control.
The most significant advantage, though, is that all these features make designing workflows fast and hassle-free, even for users with no IT experience and coding knowledge.
Automation
HighGear
HighGear’s Workflow Automation Solution takes advantage of cutting-edge software that allows users to design, build, and automate custom business processes across teams within minutes rather than weeks.
The entire platform was built with automation in mind, with users being able to create custom notifications, automate tedious tasks, and manage multi-step workflows through automated permissions that ensure each process is compliant with industry standards.
Nintex
Similar to HighGear, Nintex shines when it comes to its automation capabilities. The platform enables users to automate processes and workflows across multiple departments, be it invoices, contracts, work orders, or other tasks you deem tedious or time-consuming.
Scalability & Enterprise-Grade Capabilities
HighGear
Although HighGear is built specifically for larger enterprises, nothing stands in the way of smaller organizations to also take advantage of its workflow automation solutions.
HighGear’s Enterprise Task Management allows companies of all sizes to handle even the most complex workflows and meet stringent regulatory requirements without compromising performance and adaptability.
Nintex
Nintex was built with large companies in mind, and it shows. The abundance of available features and tools, while powerful, isn’t suitable for smaller enterprises seeking a workflow automation solution that can help them grow.
Analytics & Reporting
HighGear
HighGear’s dashboards provide immediate, organization-wide insight into status and operations, resulting in a significant enhancement of business efficiency and responsiveness. HighGear provides various customizable real-time reporting and analytics options, including bar charts, pie charts, trend lines, and tabular data presentations.
Users can create, schedule, and export detailed reports in various formats, facilitating automated distribution.
Furthermore, HighGear serves as a dependable system of record for compliance needs, offering comprehensive audit trails and activity logs. It also seamlessly integrates with other business systems, such as ERP and CRM, streamlining data sharing for enhanced efficiency.
Nintex
Nintex falls short compared to HighGear when it comes to its reporting options. Its capabilities here are much more simplified, which in itself isn’t a bad thing as it allows users to quickly check the most important data. For more in-depth analysis, though, HighGear is a much better fit.
Integrations
HighGear
HighGear offers exceptional integration capabilities. Its software seamlessly and efficiently syncs with thousands of apps and platforms, including Zapier or Microsoft Power Platform.
Even non-technical users without IT experience can effortlessly drag and drop to connect workflows and business processes across various platforms and systems, such as PeopleSoft, SAML, PowerBI, Salesforce, and Office 365.
In other words, HighGear is a perfect solution for multiple integrations.
Nintex
Nintex does a great job of allowing businesses to integrate it with various platforms and apps. Users can do that through Connectors, which allow them to connect their workflows to other solutions and create an efficient environment across multiple applications, including Asana, Azure, ClickUp, Fastly, Dropbox, and DocuSign.
Deployment Flexibility
HighGear
HighGear provides two deployment choices: cloud-based and on-premise solutions. The cloud-based option offers the advantage of accessibility from anywhere, at any time, providing flexibility without the need for infrastructure management. Additionally, HighGear allows companies to host the platform on their own servers on-premise, granting them greater control over the deployment environment.
Nintex
Nintex offers the Automation Cloud feature that, as the name suggests, is based on the cloud software that helps connect teams, processes, and data in one large cloud-based infrastructure. Unlike HighGear, it doesn’t offer on-premise deployment options. If you’d like more flexibility here, HighGear is a better option.
Training and Customer Support
When implementing enterprise-level software, comprehensive training and support are not merely optional but essential. Given the intricacies of solutions on this scale, expert guidance and assistance are imperative, particularly during the initial phase.
The absence of proper training hampers an enterprise’s ability to fully harness the platform’s capabilities, while inadequate support can lead to unresolved issues and hinder its effectiveness.
Both HighGear and Nintex recognize the significance of this principle. They both prioritize setting organizations up for success in automation, covering aspects from onboarding to continuous education and issue resolution.
Now, let’s delve into a comparative analysis of how they fare in terms of these two critical pillars: training and customer support.
HighGear
HighGear provides exceptional customer support and training services to its clients. Their team is comprised of experts who care deeply about helping customers and are empowered to invest as many resources as are needed to ensure customer success. The team is readily accessible through various communication channels, including email, phone, and screen-sharing sessions.
As an added support resource, HighGear also offers a dedicated Customer Success team. A Customer Success Manager is specifically assigned to each client (at no additional cost for the Department license tier and above) who serves as a client’s business process and workflow management coach, mentor/advisor, and client advocate. They are accountable for proactively engaging with each client’s key stakeholders on at least a quarterly basis, and ensuring clients have access to all of HighGear’s vast experience, knowledge, best practices, and personnel to finely tune the platform to solve even the most unique business need. When it comes to training, HighGear offers an integrated set of self-service help resources, which include step-by-step instructions, videos, and comprehensive documentation for troubleshooting.
For those who prefer hands-on learning, HighGear offers complimentary instructor-led training sessions designed to enhance proficiency in process design and effective feature utilization.
Furthermore, HighGear’s support system contains a vast repository of detailed help articles, tutorials, and videos. This extensive resource empowers customers to independently search for answers to their queries.
In addition, the close collaboration between the support team and product development ensures an in-depth understanding of the platform, providing expertise that spans every aspect of it.
Nintex
As you’d expect from a top-tier company, Nintex’s customer support and training are up to the highest standards. Their customer support is available through multiple channels, and their team responds quickly and efficiently to customer requests and queries.
The issue here is, though, that the customer service is tiered. That means businesses on the higher subscription plan receive more comprehensive and faster support than those with a cheaper subscription package.
Indeed, if you were to look at what their clients have to say about their services, customer support is one of the most negatively graded aspects of Nintex.
The same cannot be said for their training resources, though, which are very extensive and cover all areas revolving around Nintex services and workflow automation. They include e-books, white papers, blog articles, webinars, and much more.
Client Feedback and Testimonials
Our review tells only one part of the story. To truly understand whether HighGear is a better Nintex alternative, one needs to take a closer look at what users have to say about the two.
Client Feedback
At the time of writing this review, HighGear has 20 reviews on GetApp, with an average rating of 5.0 out of 5. Here’s what users say about the platform:
“Very easy to use overall, provides amazing transparency and accountability.” – Alexandra S.
“Their assistance with understanding our business model and clearly defining outcomes in workflow was impressive. Any questions to the support team are answered quickly and efficiently.” – Brooke W.
“The reason why we started using HighGear is because it’s flexible, customisable and suitable for large volumes of projects.” – Vincent W.
“They allowed us to become entirely virtual, innovative, and lower costs all at once.” – Kathy T.
And these are only a few of the positive reviews HighGear clients have posted.
How does Nintex compare? Well, the rating of 4.1 on GetApp isn’t as impressive as HighGear’s, with many customers complaining about the steep learning curve and inferior cost-efficiency compared to other workflow automation platforms, including HighGear.
Case Studies
HighGear presents a remarkable collection of case studies that offer in-depth illustrations from prominent figures in the fields of global finance, healthcare, and technology. They prove just how versatile HighGear’s platform is.
While Nintex doesn’t have a page dedicated to case studies of its customer success stories, the company has a proven track record of working with big brands from various niches. They’ve also won multiple prestigious awards, establishing themselves as one of the workflow automation industry leaders.
Pricing Schemes
Both platforms are packed with features that can help take any company to the next level. But which one offers a better value for money? When it comes to that, HighGear and Nintex have an entirely different approach to pricing.
HighGear Pricing
HighGear offers a starting monthly rate of $63 for each extra licensed contributor, with minimum license requirements. They also provide discounts for volume and extended subscription terms.
However, it’s important to note that certain additional features, such as increasing the number of workflows, forms, API transactions, single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, and storage, may incur extra charges.
Still, given the extensive range of tools, state-of-the-art technology, stellar performance, incredible user experience, and fantastic customer support, HighGear offers incredible value for money many other workflow automation platforms can’t match.
Nintex Pricing
Nintex offers users a tiered subscription plan. There are three options users can choose from, starting with the Pro Plan, available for $25,000/year. Then there’s the Premium Plan worth $50,000/year. Finally, Nintex offers customers a chance to build a Custom Plan with personalized pricing depending on the features included.
So, compared to HighGear, Nintex is much more expensive. Furthermore, it offers less flexibility regarding personalization. Especially when talking about customization, HighGear’s pricing is much more transparent.
Final Verdict: Is HighGear the Best Nintex Alternative?
HighGear is more than just another Nintex alternative. It’s a fully-fledged competitor that, despite lesser recognition in the field, offers an impeccable performance that combines ease of use, flexibility, stellar customer service, and a wide range of workflow automation tools.
All this is packed in one state-of-the-art platform available for a fraction of the cost of other workflow automation platforms, Nintex included.
Of course, it should be noted that there’s a reason why Nintex is such a renowned brand. It offers incredible performance, too, providing enterprises with a fantastic solution when it comes to company-wide workflow automation.
If you’re looking for a platform that combines performance and user experience with cost efficiency and flexibility, HighGear should be your number one choice.