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AutomationEdge vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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

Fortra's Automate
Sponsored
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
AutomationEdge
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Power Automate
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Process Mining (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AutomationEdge is 1.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 20.7%, 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 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
BhargavJotva - PeerSpot reviewer
An RPA tool to automate functions, tasks, and processes that also allows users to do coding from the scratch
The initial setup of AutomationEdge was satisfactory for our company. For deployment for a large process, it will take around two months to develop the process. Else, it can be done in fifteen days. My organization gets to automate the banking processes using the solution. There are different requirements for different departments. Finance departments need something to automate their processes, and the requirements may vary for the information management department. There is a different type of automation requirement if there are some secretive documents that we have to keep on triggering mail.
Nilesh Pundkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for email routing and management features but additional costs for plug-ins
Power Automate has fewer features and more limitations in general. It's not as mature a product as some of the others, like UiPath or Automate Anywhere. One of the main issues I've found is that Power Automate struggles with accessing Excel or other Office documents on servers. Even though it's a Microsoft product, we often have to log in through remote systems, and syncing can be problematic due to the way we use servers. At the very least, they should provide access to Office 365 directly, without requiring additional logins on servers. Most people utilizing Power Automate are already working within the Office 365 environment. Any proof of concepts (POCs) using Power Automate would naturally be built on top of Office 365.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."
"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."
"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."
"I find the ease of use from a programming perspective very valuable."
"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."
"The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation."
"Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities."
"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."
"The ability to automate our processes with external plug-ins and zero code is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of AutomationEdge is creating accounts."
"If we want to change your processes, we can code it from scratch, making it a beneficial feature of the product."
"The initial setup was easy and straightforward."
"The support from the vendor is very good."
"It helps us with cost optimization and easy implementation."
"The studio design is fine compared to other similar products. There is nothing extraordinary about it, but at the same time, there are not any negatives."
"It is a valuable tool for developing efficient solutions, especially in finance and banking."
"The most valuable feature is how much you can do with this solution."
"Automation is the best feature of the product."
"It's an intuitive product. It's not overly technical."
"Different trigger events were most valuable. You could schedule a process on a recurring basis, at a certain time of day or week, or when something happens, which is huge."
"For people who already use Office 365, Power Automate is very easy to integrate and use."
"The most valuable feature is that it easily integrates with other Microsoft products, so it has multiple connectors. You can create solutions that connect to Teams, Outlook, SharePoint, and OneDrive."
"Currently, we are mostly using the desktop part of it for data. We are basically extracting the data and then putting it in."
"We have a good overview of our processes now thanks to Power Automate."
 

Cons

"The workflow for variables could be better. The input and output of task-level variables could be made a little clearer in terms of passing those around from one task to another upon success, etc. Things like that could be a little easier potentially."
"The technical support could be better. We suffer from language barriers, as we are in Argentina."
"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 documentation for errors needs improvement as many of the error messages we receive are very vague."
"Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be."
"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."
"It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help."
"The documentation is not that great."
"The ease of use is the main thing on which they really have to focus. If they want to go against the giants, it should be improved in ease of use, and it should be more user-friendly. It would be helpful because everyone should be empowered irrespective of whether they know how to code or not. They should enhance its user interface and make it more intuitive."
"We cannot use extra modules while working with AutomationEdge. It crashes if we have lots of data to process in Excel."
"AutomationEdge's primary issue is its price point, especially compared to other products."
"The price of the solution could be improved."
"It's not an intuitive tool."
"They could provide more technologies for IT and security to enhance machine learning capabilities."
"In the future, they should have a similar version for the cloud and on-premises, and the installation should be flawless within few minutes."
"The installation process could improve. It was difficult to complete."
"WinAutomation is scalable to a certain extent. I would rate it seven for the scalability, which could be better. Softomotive is better scalable than WinAutomation in this regard."
"Microsoft Power Automate could improve by adding more features to the free version it would be good because there are many features that you have to pay for. There are some functions that IT personnel, like myself, have a difficult time using and could be made more user-friendly."
"Microsoft Power Automate requires some knowledge and understanding of nuances for setup and security approvals."
"Any task that is automated needs to be very simple. This tool does not seem to handle complicated tasks very well."
"AI-enabled voice recognition features could be included in the product."
"From an improvement perspective, Microsoft just needs to make sure that they have a real enterprise RPA tool. PowerApps and Power Automate are still not at the level of UiPath and Automation Anywhere. It could be because Automation Anywhere and UiPath have been in the market for quite some time. It's just about Microsoft increasing their focus in terms of product reviews and development and making them competitive products that one can consider at an enterprise level. Right now, their use cases are limited as compared to what one would consider doing with UiPath and Automation Anywhere."
"Power Automate has fewer features and more limitations in general. It's not as mature a product as some of the others, like UiPath or Automate Anywhere."
"While using this solution, we found it to be basic."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."
"From a distributor's side, one of the biggest selling points is its price point. Without going into any numbers, compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, we're significantly cheaper. The main difference is that other competitors usually charge you per process. However, in Automate's case, it's priced per bot. So, a bot can run multiple processes at the same time, but you are only priced for a single bot."
"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."
"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
"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."
"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."
"If you are looking for a budget solution, you can consider AE. It has all the features. Scaling it is way easier because of the cost itself."
"The product is available at the lowest price."
"I give the price of the solution a nine out of ten."
"Pricing can be made better. Currently, I think the pricing is based on the market. The pricing also depends on the business partners that offer you the solution."
"The licensing for this solution should have a more competitive pricing model. The price is in the top five of similar products."
"It is expensive but its value can justify the cost."
"Price-wise, AutomationEdge is pretty affordable, making it not so expensive when you compare this with other tools in the market."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"You can have two types of licenses, one is user-based, and the other is app-based in the Power Platform."
"We have it on our system. I don't really know if we need a separate license."
"The solution is $150 per month for the unattended add-on, and the normal Power Automate comes with an E3 license."
"You pay for use and if you want a premium connector or adapter, but a lot of things are available for free."
"It comes with the Microsoft suite. I'd rate it an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive because there are charges for additional plug-ins."
"Power Automate is comparatively less costly than UiPath."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
15%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
5%
 

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.
What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?
We used the platform primarily for task automation, including transmitting EDR files. Additionally, we've utilized it...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
The starter pack was all we needed and was reasonable. Others were either more expensive or didn't do all that I want...
What do you like most about AutomationEdge?
It helps us with cost optimization and easy implementation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AutomationEdge?
I rate AutomationEdge's pricing as a six to seven. It is expensive but its value can justify the cost.
What needs improvement with AutomationEdge?
AutomationEdge's primary issue is its price point, especially compared to products from companies like Microsoft that...
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...
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 ‌...
How is Automation Anywhere compared to Microsoft Power Automate?
‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great...
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
No data available
Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive, Minit
 

Overview

 

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
Smart Dubai Government (SDG)
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
Find out what your peers are saying about AutomationEdge vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.