Appian RPA vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

Appian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Appian is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.8. Appian holds a 0.6% mindshare in RPA, compared to Microsoft’s 18.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Appian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Appian RPA and Microsoft Power Automate based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

To learn more, read our detailed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

June 2025

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Helped 861,524 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Appian RPA is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 18.9%, down from 21.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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MikahSellers

Partner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees

Efficient automation with substantial ROI and innovative UI enhancements

We were automating customer experience workflows for the contact center, including systems like CRM, service desk solutions, CCaaS solutions, and pulling data from ERPs It allowed us to reduce the level of effort to complete contact processes from one hundred fifty seconds to ninety seconds,…

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Ayobami Shobaloju

Customer Solution Provider at Wema Bank

Automating processes has saved time and improved communication

Something frustrates me concerning Microsoft Power Automate, and that is about the integration with Microsoft Forms and Excel. The issue now is that I don't get my responses synchronized automatically, and that frustrates me a lot. If the team could take this as feedback, the synchronization of the feedback responses from the forms and the Excel sheets should be seamless. This synchronization issue happens frequently, and it causes a lot of delays in the sense that the mails that ought to go out to the agents fail at some point. I have to reload these responses so that the agents can get their responses as when submitted. What I notice is that the responses don't go out without proper synchronization, so I reload the field responses, and this works afterwards. I would say probably a seamless walkthrough process for new users would be beneficial. For those using it for the first time, a seamless walkthrough process would be fine.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It gives us a central place to schedule tasks and run them distributed."

"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."

"Compared to other vendors, it's the scheduling tool because a lot of vendors want to charge you extra for their enterprise-level license to have a scheduling tool built in to give you the ability to set up regular schedules to run and do certain data checks."

"We are still in the process of rolling it to production and tweaking it (our AD groups are a mess), but the improvements are priceless. Having users ID's created the same way every time without human error is the best part. We don't need to worry about why groups were not added, user rights not set to folders or missing a private folder being created, typos or just even knowing when things are done and logged."

"The interface is simple, user-friendly, and very intuitive."

"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."

"I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality."

"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."

More Automate pros

"Appian RPA is super easy to use, offering low code, no code capabilities."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the automation interface and the RPA automation."

"Instead of manually triggering payments through the website, everything was done through robotic process automation (RPA), saving us a lot of time."

"The solution is easy to understand and to develop connectors."

"AI Builder is a good add-on."

"The most valuable features are that it is low-code and simple."

"It is a stable solution."

"It servers our purposes in bringing together all types of applications, being able to automate them with the right intelligent output from the data that we plugin."

"Triggering and scheduling were pretty good. There was no real commitment with WinAutomation because the licensing was very fair and you could trigger bots very easily."

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

Cons

"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."

"It would be an improvement if Automate had better stability tools, whether by recommending a certain amount of memory because it can be a memory hog at times."

"The documentation is not that great."

"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"The vendor is currently working on a solution that allows us to automatically create a process that is based on a document that we receive via email."

"The technical support could be better. We suffer from language barriers, as we are in Argentina."

"I would like to see some better web automation, a wizard like the one in the product WinAutomation would be very nice."

"The documentation for errors needs improvement as many of the error messages we receive are very vague."

More Automate cons

"There are not any areas that need improvement off the top of my head."

"They should include a custom plugin feature so that we can add our custom connections."

"Their connector to Oracle or premium data sets that aren't Microsoft would often fail for me. The information given back about why it failed wasn't always robust to understand how to fix it and why it happened."

"The solution is not actually satisfying the complex programs that we want to execute."

"I was working on it for around three days and then took a break of about two days. When I went back to it, all of the Excel, and all the Excel functions, just disappeared. Completely vanished. When I looked up the help, it said that sometimes that happens when you're not connected to the internet."

"The thing which needs the most improvement is really the documentation. It should have better details of the processes."

"It can have customizations like enterprise solutions. In the approval section, there should be an option to reassign approval to some other employee. It would be good if we are able to create custom tables by linking to an item, and there is an integration with the HTML table through HTTP calls or Swagger connectors."

"Inability to use a lot of connectors without having a premium license."

"Microsoft Power Automate requires some knowledge and understanding of nuances for setup and security approvals."

More Microsoft Power Automate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."

"It has gone up in price. The price of Fortra's Automate has increased since we first started using it. It does a lot but also costs a lot. It was a lot more affordable before Fortra owned the software."

"While solutions like UiPath and Blue Prism cost around $11,000-$12,000 for each license, this product costs around $7,000 and you can keep it forever."

"I believe the price falls within a reasonable range, which significantly influenced our decision regarding the product. This aspect is crucial for any technological solution, especially in our country where enterprises might be hesitant to invest heavily in something untested or uncertain about its practicality and potential returns."

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."

"The pricing is quite reasonable. We can run the process with one bot. The limitation is at the server level because they have some resources, and sometimes that is enough. It isn't too expensive, so you can get a good return off of one, and you can also have a pack of five bots that is quite competitive."

"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."

"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"At the moment, from our experience with the two, Power Automate is a lot more expensive solution than Automation Anywhere, but it is also a far more reliable solution. With the price increases and with the current pandemic situation going on worldwide, a lot of the prices have fluctuated, but the packages and the all-encompassing features you get with the Microsoft package far outweigh the benefits from the Automation Anywhere side. Each package on the Automation Anywhere side is cheaper, but we need to continuously purchase subsequent packages to continue with our automation to the extent that we require. So, the Power Automate solution is a bit more pricey, but it does offer us a far better range of capabilities."

"Good price-quality relationship. Its features for its price were the best fit for our company."

"The cost to use Microsoft Power Automate is approximately $15 per user per month, for the basic plan. However, the solution comes free with the Microsoft 365 Suite."

"Its license is a part of our enterprise agreement. It is a three-year contract, but we pay yearly. So, it is a yearly license. There are no additional costs."

"The price is right. If you have Office 365 It's included."

"There is flexibility in pricing."

"The license cost could be better."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

21%

Insurance Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?

We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.

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What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

The main purpose is for automation. That has been the purpose why I have been using it so far.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?

Regarding pricing, it is very friendly. I would not say that it is really cheap or very expensive, but it fits within...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appian RPA?

I didn't handle payments or costs. We recommended infrastructure stacks to our clients, who implemented them, and we ...

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What needs improvement with Appian RPA?

There are not any areas that need improvement off the top of my head. It has been 18 months since I worked with the e...

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What is your primary use case for Appian RPA?

We were automating customer experience workflows for the contact center, including systems like CRM, service desk sol...

See all answers

RPA that Bots can run without centralized control?

Yes, Attended Bots which can run without centralized control Module. RPA Tools like Automation Anywhere, uiPath ,Pow...

See all answers

How do I choose between UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft‌ ‌Power‌ ‌Automate‌ ‌is‌ ‌intuitive‌ ‌and‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌integrate‌ ‌and‌ ‌use.‌ ‌I‌ ‌like‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌...

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How is Automation Anywhere compared to Microsoft Power Automate?

‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great...

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Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automate

Compared 32% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 6% of the time

MOVEit vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

More Automate Competitors

UiPath Platform vs Appian RPA

Compared 52% of the time

Blue Prism vs Appian RPA

Compared 22% of the time

Temporal vs Appian RPA

Compared 14% of the time

Control-M vs Appian RPA

Compared 13% of the time

More Appian RPA Competitors

UiPath Platform vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 21% of the time

Blue Prism vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 16% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 11% of the time

ABBYY Vantage vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power Automate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

July 2025

Download Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

June 2025

Download Appian RPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

June 2025

Download Microsoft Power Automate product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Jidoka RPA

Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive, Minit

Overview

Automate offers a user-friendly solution with a drag-and-drop interface for efficient task automation and integration with major platforms like SAP and Azure, making it ideal for quick deployment with minimal coding and training.

Automate provides powerful features for businesses seeking efficient automation, offering compatibility with databases, email integration, and cloud platforms. Its simple interface supports both beginners and experienced users, simplifying tasks like invoice processing, HR automation, and data transformation. Cost-effective pricing and flexible licensing enhance its appeal while integration capabilities and scheduling tools ensure smooth workflow automation.

What are Automate's Key Features?

Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies automation with intuitive design.
Integration Capabilities: Connects with platforms like SAP and Azure for seamless data flow.
Database and FTP Triggers: Enhances automation potential through direct data interaction.
Efficient Scheduling: Automates tasks with precise timing and control.
Web Scraping: Automates data extraction for quick analysis and reporting.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Expect?

Rapid Deployment: Minimizes coding efforts for quick implementation.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers flexible pricing models to suit budget constraints.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual workloads and enhances productivity.
Comprehensive Integration: Facilitates improved data management across systems.
Scalability: Adapts to growing business needs with ease.

In industries such as healthcare, banking, and logistics, Automate is used for tasks like invoice payment automation, data transformation, and task automation. This leads to streamlined processes and reduced manual workload, illustrating its value in enhancing operational efficiency through diversified workflows.

Fortra

Appian RPA seamlessly integrates with the comprehensive Appian Platform for process automation, offering an end-to-end solution for streamlining workflows and automating repetitive tasks. With features like the Universal RPA Task Recorder and the Low-code Appian Process Modeler, users can quickly build and deploy bots without extensive coding knowledge. Appian RPA ensures governance, dynamic exception handling, secure deployment, and scalability, enabling organizations to maintain automation integrity while efficiently managing digital workers across various environments. By leveraging Appian RPA alongside Appian IDP, AI, business rules, and API integrations, businesses can achieve seamless process automation and drive value quickly, optimizing workflows between humans, digital workers, and systems. With Appian's unified platform for change, organizations can accelerate digital innovation, enhance business efficiency, and create end-to-end automation solutions tailored to their specific needs.

Appian

Microsoft Power Automate is a powerful tool that streamlines and automates tasks within an organization.

It is used for workflow automation, data integration, and creating automated notifications and approvals.

Power Automate connects different applications and services, such as SharePoint, Excel, and Outlook, to automate data transfer and synchronization.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories

empark, talan, liverpool, ayesa, aeromexico, teknei

1. Coca-Cola 2. General Electric 3. Siemens 4. Accenture 5. Deloitte 6. Johnson & Johnson 7. Ford 8. Nestle 9. Procter & Gamble 10. IBM 11. Amazon 12. Google 13. Microsoft 14. Adobe 15. Cisco 16. Oracle 17. SAP 18. Intel 19. HP 20. Dell 21. Verizon 22. AT&T 23. T-Mobile 24. Walmart 25. Target 26. Home Depot 27. McDonald's 28. Starbucks 29. Nike 30. Apple 31. Facebook 32. Twitter

Buyer's Guide

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

June 2025

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Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Updated: June 2025.

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