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Automation Anywhere vs SmartBear TestComplete comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Automation Anywhere
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
526
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (3rd), Process Mining (1st)
SmartBear TestComplete
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Functional Testing Tools (7th), Regression Testing Tools (5th), Test Automation Tools (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

IPSIT JANA - PeerSpot reviewer
Terminal emulator enhances efficiency while error handling needs improvement
There are improvements needed in error handling processes, as currently, they rely on start and end error commands. A more strategic approach could enhance efficiency. While the implementation of a structured development approach has been introduced, further enhancements could be made to accommodate non-technical users better, perhaps by making the platform more accessible and user-friendly through a flowchart or diagram-based setup. Automation Anywhere can be moderately challenging for business users without technical skills. While the platform offers some drag-and-drop functionality, building automation requires a strong understanding of logical operations and scripting. To become proficient, users may need to invest time in learning basic coding concepts or pursuing relevant certifications. This learning curve can mean that users typically require a few months of training before they can effectively build and implement automation.
Prakhar Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for integration automation, user-based automation, and web automation
The solution's most valuable features are the drag-and-drop feature, keyword-driven approach, and reusability of the scripts. The solution has introduced a new feature that helps us identify objects we cannot normally identify. It gives you a fair idea of objects, resolving the object recognition issue. The solution can be used to perform different tests on different machines.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's easy to use for business users. Everything is good. It's a nice product."
"We have seen AA bringing immense value to the clients once operational. Bot deployment is easy and controlling Access is easy with RBAC With Recent additions. User groups and user management is on par with tools like Blue Prism & UiPath."
"This solution has gives us greater employee satisfaction because manual recurring work has been reduced."
"A cloud deployment typically takes no more than one business day."
"We are using it to backfill a lot of our resources who are retiring, so we are hiring less people as we go."
"Our organization used to have a process which took five business days to do: our monthly pricing update. This was a very manual process. Our very first bot built was to automate this process. Now, the bot runs in the background every month and the process takes less than a day to run."
"Object cloning is one of the main features that are using. We are very happy with it. as It has enabled us to capture a lot of things on screen and use them."
"Our workforce has limited capacity. By adding this solution, we can increase the amount of work coming in without adding to our workforce."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is regression testing tools."
"I like the cross browser compatibility. It saves a lot of time re-writing scripts to accommodate different browsers."
"You can record your actions and play them back later."
"Recording and playback of tests were easier with SmartBear TestComplete...It is a scalable solution."
"SmartBear TestComplete performs some self-healing and has a feature called OCR (optical character recognition)."
"Customer service and technical support responsiveness are high. Everyone is very professional."
"Selenium integration."
"The most valuable features of the SmartBear TestComplete are self-healing, they reduce the maintenance required. The different languages SmartBear TestComplete supports are good because some of our libraries are written in Python, JavaScript, and C#. It's very easy to put them all under one project and use them. The are other features that SmartBear TestComplete has but the competition widely has them as well."
 

Cons

"Had we had access to the RPA bots in advance, we would have practiced before fully implementing."
"As a solution, it could have been easier to use than in the current state."
"It would be great if they provide installation documents that are easier to understand, place more focus on capturing the fields, and most importantly, concentrate more on the OCR capability."
"I feel the tool has to provide deeper insights for debugging issues, considering both internal and external factors."
"I would like more integration with Microsoft Excel. More screenshots that can be integrated with Excel would help our customers too."
"The UI can be improved a little bit to make it easier for beginners to understand."
"Applications like Microsoft Power Automate do have zero-code systems. I've not done much research on Automtin Anywhere in comparison. However, if Automation Anywhere could also have something of that sort, that would be a game changer."
"Automation Anywhere has to improve its technical features."
"Product is not stable enough and it crashes often."
"The test object repository needs to be improved. The hierarchy and the way we identify the objects in different applications, irrespective of technology, needs adjustments. The located and test objects are not as flexible compared to other commercial tools."
"The code editor, though following eclipse-style, is still a work in progress and gives a very poorly formatted code once viewed via other editing tools."
"Headless testing would be a big improvement."
"I didn't use it very heavily. One issue that I found was that there wasn't a quick way or a button to move Visual Basic scripts to TestComplete. We have a lot of such scripts in our organization, and it would be very useful to have some option to easily move these scripts. It is currently possible to convert these scripts to TestComplete, but it is not easy. I have to write some code, but everything is not available immediately."
"During the distribution of our regression test cases, the control IDs are not always recognized correctly."
"In SmartBear TestComplete the integration with Jenkins could be easier. Additionally, some of the controls could have better customization options. For example, if a grid is used and it contains multiple controls within it, it can be a checkbox, radio button, or any kind of control, the way the Object Spy is operating currently there is a lot of room for improvement."
"The initial setup of SmartBear TestComplete was complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Automation Anywhere might have a higher upfront cost than some competitors, but its extensive features and seamless integration with other tools can save organizations money in the long run."
"It's cheaper than other similar solutions."
"Our pricing a year ago was $600 per license."
"I would rate the price of Automation Anywhere a six out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"My only suggestion in terms of pricing is very generic and that is to consider that as much as RPA saves cost and does automation, please get a realistic estimation done on whether you are really achieving any ROI over your investment with RPA."
"Our advice is that anybody interested in this product should negotiate product bundles in order to reduce the cost of installation and setup."
"It saves on the quality of work, because the quality can be bad when somebody's doing it. If a bot does the work, it's faster and comes with good quality. These are two important things along with the cost saving in the long run. That's where the value is."
"Automation Anywhere is expensive."
"The price is less, compared to other products, such as QTP."
"We have a TestComplete 12 license."
"It is approximately $6,000 a year."
"The licensing costs are in the range of $1,000 to $3,000."
"The solution is around $1500. Some are perpetual licenses, and some get a yearly report card."
"My advice so far, is that while it’s not quite as powerful and easy to use as UFT, its price tag more than makes up for it."
"The solution's pricing is too high."
"The option we chose was around $2,000 USD."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 very good in certain situations but lacks in others. For me, it's more the team tha...
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 applications that AA has limitations for, such as the Oracle. For web-based applicatio...
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.
What do you like most about SmartBear TestComplete?
TestComplete has strong reporting capabilities. The reports they generate are really good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartBear TestComplete?
I don't know much about the pricing, however, I think it's cheaper.
What needs improvement with SmartBear TestComplete?
The recording function, when using Python, could be improved, as it does not work well in recording testing.
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Cisco, J.P. Morgan, Boeing, McAfee, EMC, Intuit, and Thomson Reuters.
Find out what your peers are saying about Automation Anywhere vs. SmartBear TestComplete and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
830,824 professionals have used our research since 2012.