Automation Anywhere vs IBM Datacap comparison

Automation Anywhere and IBM are both solutions in the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) category. Automation Anywhere is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4, while IBM is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.5. Additionally, 95% of Automation Anywhere users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Automation Anywhere and IBM Datacap based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap

March 2025

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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

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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Vatsal Mehta

Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Accommodates diverse use cases and effectively meets customer requirements

AI agents need further improvements. AI agent technology in agentic process automation is still evolving. We have only scratched the surface, and there are many potential use cases yet to be explored. As technology advances, I believe it will enable us to implement more comprehensive automation solutions. Document Automation has issues related to speed. When I compare Document Automation with IQ Bot, IQ Bot is faster than Document Automation. My understanding is that they are still evolving Document Automation, and this issue of slowness will be resolved in the upcoming .35 version, so we are good with that. They are working on signature identification and validations for handwritten documents. Currently, we are able to extract data out of scanned but digital images, but there is still scope for improvement for handwritten documents.

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DeekshithShetty

Software Development Senior Specialist at NTT Data

High-accuracy document processing with easy integration and good image enhancement

The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now. The integration with other tools is very easy, with inbuilt actions to configure and directly export to multiple depositories. It is also good at image enhancement, including the removal of lines, which is helpful in processing and automation and ensures very little user intervention, thus saving time.

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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

"The most valuable features of Fortra's Automate include its FTP functionality and file manipulation capabilities."

"The most valuable features for my client are timing and scheduling."

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

"This tool has machine learning and voice recognition and computer vision, which are both quite useful aspects. These aren't available in other tools. It's a good addition to this tool and it gives the solution an edge on the market."

"I find it very user-friendly. Our IT department and other departments can seamlessly collaborate without requiring extensive training. As a business department, we particularly value this aspect, as our team doesn't consist of many IT users. However, we couldn't solely rely on a drag-and-drop approach to implement and utilize the solution within our departments."

"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."

"A great feature that you seldom see in these kind of systems is the ability to use a database as trigger to launch a task. This is something I asked for a few years ago and that was added."

"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."

More Automate pros

"In our fund management and fund reconciliation process, we had a lot of headcount. Automation has significantly reduced our FTE count, investing that IT personnel into other work. Also, the quality of the work has slightly improved."

"During the digital transformation of a company, the number of internal portals and applications increases leading to an increased number of data silos."

"The built-in features, such as the connector builder and AI development tools, are easily accessible, keeping the software up-to-date."

"The most valuable feature is the power of AI Technologies involved in Automation Anywhere's IQBot - such as Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Fuzzy Logic, and Machine Learning."

"The most valuable feature is the user-friendly interface."

"Bot Insights is the most valuable feature. We don't have to struggle with generating metrics around how the bots are performing. This information coming out of Automation Anywhere is useful to us because of the way the metrics are generated. It inspires confidence from our customers."

"One of the most valuable features is the different possibilities it gives you to manipulate the interface screens that you're working with."

"The OCR feature in Automation Anywhere is the best I have encountered, even better than Google."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"The standout feature of this intelligent product is its remarkable capability."

"The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now."

"The installation of the solution is very simple."

"It's resiliency. There are multiple ways of identifying what you are looking for. There are multiple export formats."

"It reduces human error and saves time."

"One of the valuable features of Datacap is the user experience. One thing that IBM did a few years ago was they standardized all of their ECM products on Content Navigator, including Datacap. If you're an IBM ECM customer you have FileNet, you have Datacap, you have StoredIQ and you have a consistent user experience, user interface."

"The big thing these days is really the Insight Edition component and being able to build annotators to extract from literally unstructured content: paragraphs and information where there's no start anchor point to define where that data is located. There could be a number of entities in that which you have to draw information from. Being able to extract from them is really the differentiator today between that product and many of the other products..."

"The administration of the application following an error is most valuable. We are able to know easily when something is stuck in the system."

More IBM Datacap pros

Cons

"The documentation is not that great."

"There is room for improvement regarding cloud functionality; there are a few missing features, and the logging could be better, especially air logging. We can go into logging events and create our own task, but it would be nice if this were more detailed."

"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."

"I would prefer not having to log in to update a ticket; being able to respond via email would be beneficial."

"Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem."

"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."

"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."

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

More Automate cons

"It may sound a little funny or weird, but one thing that we are thinking is we have to go to various websites and pick up relevant data from various websites using the bot. That is something we have seen that none of the bots have been able to really do it because the back-end of those websites do not allow bots to scrap through all these websites and get the relevant data in one place. We would like to see how the bot companies would crack this idea. But, that's why I said, this look weird because of the legal reasons why this cannot be done. This is something that I am looking forward to."

"We noticed slowness in a few of the commands like Object Cloning, Web Recorders, etc. on which Automation Anywhere can work to make it more robust. There are improvements required in the WLM solution provided by AA, which can make it a more robust queuing system and the system should retry by itself in case of failure due to system error."

"I would like to see a global error handler introduced, which will explicitly handle errors over the entire project."

"We have had some quirkiness happen when integrating the Automation Anywhere with other solutions, such as weird Excel issues or temperamental legacy system issues."

"Having some more pre-mapping and pre-setup analysis of what you're going to be doing with it would be helpful."

"We need more commands for PDF integration to make it more flexible."

"Built-in HTML features are lagging in this solution, whereas in UiPath, they are very good."

"We have our limitations. We can run only VBScripts and one more thing. If we want to run Python scripts or batch files, we cannot do it. So, if they would add these extra things in there then that would be beneficial."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"When a client's requirement is not available in Datacap, out-of-the-box actions should be simpler to implement and not very complex."

"Speed of OCR is one issue. It's a challenge because we have customers that have millions and millions of pages that they want this solution to crank through. In order to do that you have to have a large infrastructure in place, and that directly impacts licensing based on the core count."

"I would like to see integration of Watson AI technology into Datacap."

"Our main language in Egypt is Arabic, and IBM DataCap does not support it perfectly. All our documentation is in Arabic. It's not English or any other language. However, we have overcome this problem by using QR codes in the document to extract the data from it. They should have better support for Arabic."

"There should be an increase in the capacity of the workflows. Datacap is a little limited in this aspect. So, you cannot really implement all the possibilities."

"When I scan a document in Datacap that has a watermark or the document is a little distorted, the image output is poor. It either becomes completely black, or there is so much distortion that we cannot read the numbers or the addresses mentioned in the POD. When we scan a document, we expect the output to be at least 95 percent accurate."

"They have to stop focusing on new development and stabilize the latest release. It is not stable."

"I would like better ease of use and more support options."

More IBM Datacap cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

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

"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."

"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."

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

"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."

"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

"They recently launched a Community Edition, which is okay, but they should have done this a long time ago."

"Roughly, as of today, it is around $250,000 annually."

"In terms of pricing, this is a good product."

"There is an annual license to use the solution."

"I would rate the cost an eight out of ten, with ten being the highest cost."

"Automation Anywhere is competitive... Pega is somewhat comparable, but Pega also requires a lot more infrastructure and a lot more experience to get up and running."

"If you are looking into Automation Anywhere, get the Community Edition and play with it."

"Our pricing a year ago was $600 per license."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"This solution is the most expensive in the market."

"It varies, and it depends on the client's requirements and negotiations. Nowadays, Datacap is also included in the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation."

"Pricing depends on how much we use it. We pay per bulk quantity. We pay as you go. Therefore, it sort of depends on our usage of it."

"We were using the User Value Unit licensing, which means we get charged per active user of the system, and if I'm not mistaken, we also had it for the rule runner service. They had a PVU license model, which is a processor value unit. For each process that we have in our system, we pay a certain amount of money. We found the pricing to be quite steep. It was really an expensive solution in comparison to Kofax, which had a different licensing model and was actually cheaper overall because they charge per page and not per user and per process."

"Pricing needs to stay competitive."

"In Egypt, we have exchange rates that change year to year, and currently, we're facing an increase in the exchange rate between our Egyptian pound and the dollar. Since we have been using IBM DataCap two years ago we had a good price, it was not expensive. However, I cannot say now if it is expensive or not because of the exchange rate. Additionally, I don't have the data of other competitors and I don't know the prices."

"This solution offers seamless integration with other enterprise products, which is my area of responsibility, focusing on government sector projects. Larger enterprise projects don't pose problems. It might be suitable for small businesses as well."

"It is an expensive solution."

More IBM Datacap pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scra...

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

The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would ra...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Datacap?

The installation of the solution is very simple.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Datacap?

This solution is the most expensive in the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Datacap?

When a client's requirement is not available in Datacap, out-of-the-box actions should be simpler to implement and no...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 47% of the time

UiPath vs Automate

Compared 36% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

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Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 32% of the time

UiPath vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 22% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 10% of the time

Python RPA vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 6% of the time

Tricentis Tosca vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 4% of the time

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ABBYY Vantage vs IBM Datacap

Compared 32% of the time

Amazon Textract vs IBM Datacap

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Datacap

Compared 15% of the time

Tungsten TotalAgility vs IBM Datacap

Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

March 2025

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Datacap

March 2025

Download IBM Datacap product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise

Datacap

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

Automation Anywhere offers a robust automation platform known for its user-friendly interface, flexible scalability, and advanced automation capabilities. It's designed to streamline operations across industries by automating manual and repetitive tasks.

Automation Anywhere empowers organizations with its easy-to-use platform that simplifies automation processes through its drag-and-drop functionality. With features like MetaBot and IQ Bot, it provides advanced automation solutions. The platform seamlessly integrates with business applications, ensuring efficient operation and data protection through security features like the credential vault. Despite its strengths, there is room for improvement in integration with source control systems and third-party applications. Enhancing UI friendliness, IDE capabilities, and licensing flexibility, along with improved support in the Citrix environment, are needed. Better OCR accuracy, AI functionalities, and Excel integration would enhance user experiences.

What are Automation Anywhere's key features?

Ease of Use: Offers a user-friendly platform that allows straightforward automation of processes for non-technical users.
Advanced Bots: Includes MetaBot and IQ Bot for complex automation tasks.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with business applications for smooth operations.
Security: Features like credential vault ensure robust data protection.
Scalability: Provides flexibility and scalability for expanding automation needs.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Efficiency: Automates repetitive tasks, enhancing process efficiency.
Accuracy: Improves accuracy in operations like finance and HR.
Scalability: Offers scalable solutions for growing enterprises.
Cost Reduction: Reduces operational costs by streamlining processes.
Flexibility: Adapts to various industry requirements allowing broad implementation.

In the finance sector, Automation Anywhere is used for tasks like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and invoice processing. In HR, it's implemented for onboarding, payroll, and attendance verification. Its deployment also extends to supply chain, compliance, and customer service, providing streamlined operations by automating complex business processes.

Automation Anywhere

IBM Datacap helps you streamline the capture, recognition and classification of business documents and extract important information. Datacap supports multiple-channel capture by processing paper documents on scanners, mobile devices, multi-function peripherals and fax. It uses natural language processing, text analytics and machine learning technologies, like those in IBM Watson, to automatically identify, classify and extract content from unstructured or variable documents. The software can reduce labor and paper costs, deliver meaningful information and support faster decision making.

IBM

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

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Turkcell, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Central Nacional Unimed, Conqord Oil

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap

March 2025

Free Report: Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap

Find out what your peers are saying about Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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See our Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Datacap report.

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