Blue Prism Cloud vs Fortra's Automate comparison

SS&C Blue Prism and Fortra are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. SS&C Blue Prism is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5, while Fortra is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.7. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 1.3% mindshare in RPA, compared to Fortra’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of SS&C Blue Prism users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Fortra users who would recommend it.

Blue Prism Cloud

Read 43 Blue Prism Cloud reviews

1,179 Views
883 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Fortra's Automate

Read 23 Fortra's Automate reviews

1,766 Views
867 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Blue Prism Cloud

Fortra's Automate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Fortra's Automate and Blue Prism Cloud compete in the automation software market, where Automate is preferred for smaller companies due to its affordability and user-friendly interface, while Blue Prism Cloud suits larger enterprises with complex needs through its stability and integration capabilities.

Features: Fortra's Automate stands out for its ease of use, drag-and-drop interface, and cost-effective licensing model. It allows quick deployment and is favored for flexible automation solutions for smaller businesses. Blue Prism Cloud is known for its sophisticated automation, secure cloud-based capabilities, and integration with multiple cloud platforms, making it ideal for large enterprises needing advanced security and functionality.

Room for Improvement: Fortra's Automate could benefit from improving its web automation capabilities, user interface, and increasing third-party integrations. A community edition would aid broader adoption. Blue Prism Cloud should work on simplifying its complex licensing structure and making the product more approachable for non-technical users. Enhancing AI features and improving pricing and development resources for smaller companies could broaden its appeal.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortra's Automate is recognized for its responsive customer support and effectiveness, ensuring strong support infrastructure, particularly in Europe. It is primarily deployed on-premises. Blue Prism Cloud offers flexibility through private and public cloud deployment models but faces criticism for the complexity of its knowledge base, suggesting a need for better community support to increase engagement.

Pricing and ROI: Fortra's Automate is praised for being cost-effective with a one-time licensing fee, delivering quick ROI through reduced manual effort and increased productivity. Its affordability makes it attractive for smaller enterprises. Blue Prism Cloud, despite its features, is considered expensive, presenting a higher financial commitment that necessitates a careful evaluation of ROI, especially relevant to smaller enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate

December 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 824,052 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Blue Prism Cloud

Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fortra's Automate

Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Blue Prism Cloud is 1.3%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Keith Mcdowell

Chief Executive Officer at Keith F Kube and Associates

It helps us save on staff costs

I rate Blue Prism Cloud eight out of 10 for ease of setup. It's a cloud-based solution, so it isn't hard to set up. The deployment time is hard to quantify because I work for the government, and we need to go through all these internal reviews, but the technical part takes three to four weeks. The biggest challenge is security because we need to integrate it with Active Directory and set up VPN tunnels, security profiles, etc. We deployed Blue Prism in-house and used three people to set it up. One solution engineer is enough to maintain it.

Read full review

Anabel Marco

Account Director at Software Greenhouse

Can automate several processes with only one bot and is easy to implement, administer, and use

We have tried other RPA solutions like UiPath or Automation Anywhere. They are fantastic products but complex, and it's hard to understand everything. It would be best if you had a skilled developer or several. Automate is easy to implement, administer, and use. It's appropriate for us because our cases are simple and easy to automate. We don't need complicated tools with many features; We prefer to get a significant ROI quickly. We can automate several processes with only one bot, so it's much cheaper than other products where you need to buy additional licenses. We need a good value for our automation. The other solutions might be more robust, but Automate is perfect for us because we're not a large enterprise.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We used it for process automation."

"The most valuable feature is security."

"Blue Prism is able to scale up at an enterprise-level. It's what I used when I was working for a big bank in Belgium."

"It’s scalable."

"The primary focus lies in integrating the three major cloud platforms with Blue Prism Cloud: Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and GCP. This integration goes beyond security measures for the primary template policies. It also includes addressing compliance requirements. For instance, I can incorporate specific compliance templates and policies generated in Blue Prism and integrate them with local templates for ISO 27001 and GDPR, particularly concerning software tools and headsets. This integration eliminates the need for auditing and reviewing technical details individually. Instead, I can simply examine the container report. This approach proves beneficial when clients heavily rely on container environments."

"The solution works well overall."

"Its AI features allow customers to find specific documents via an index."

"The solution is very complete. It's a good solution, for the kind of features that they offer."

More Blue Prism Cloud pros

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

"We have found the pricing to be very reasonable."

"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."

"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."

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

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

"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."

"We have tried other RPA solutions like UiPath or Automation Anywhere. They are fantastic products but complex, and it's hard to understand everything. It would be best if you had a skilled developer or several. Automate is easy to implement, administer, and use. It's appropriate for us because our cases are simple and easy to automate. We don't need complicated tools with many features; We prefer to get a significant ROI quickly."

More Fortra's Automate pros

Cons

"Selecting the right business processes that are stable enough to automate can be challenging."

"Blue Prism Cloud could improve by having more innovations for the solution, such as more capability. I am looking for cloud-based services, such as Power Automate that we can recommend for cloud customers. UiPath and Automation Anywhere have more innovation in their solution."

"Several things need improvement, like ease-of-use, adding tended robots, adding process recording, and updating the look and feel so it seems modern."

"I would like to see a web-based control room, rather than the one that is in-built with the desktop version."

"Improvement should be per customer requirements."

"The pricing was a bit high, from what I understand. That might have played a role in the decision to migrate to another solution."

"If Blue Prism could integrate into Azure SQL because it's essentially an on-prem code, on infrastructure as a service. So, Blue Prism has moved the infrastructure into the cloud, but they haven't necessarily moved the application into cloud-native."

"The tool’s customer support should improve. There were instances where I tried to call them up and was put on hold. However, they do revert back through emails once a ticket has been issued. They should be quick with their responses on calls."

More Blue Prism Cloud cons

"The documentation is not that great."

"While this solution is continually improving, as it is now, the user interface could use improvement when I compare it to a product like UiPath."

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

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

"The intelligent automation feature could be improved. It's interesting because it's simple, but the automation quality isn't always good. It's easy to use, but sometimes you need to make a slight improvement to the automation, and that's not so easy."

"The interface could be more user-friendly and easier to navigate."

"Error messages should be better. For error status, there should be better documentation because a lot of times, error messages that you get are quite vague. For example, you get a message saying that the workflow has run into an unknown status, which is vague. It just tells you that it failed, but you don't know how or why it failed. It makes debugging difficult."

"The OCR for Hebrew text needs to be improved."

More Fortra's Automate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Blue Prism Cloud’s pricing is fine for commercial usage."

"There are many RPA solutions available from different vendors and the pricing for Blue Prism is competitive."

"Pricing can be negotiated in situations where there will be heavy usage."

"The licensing of the solution is on a subscription-based model and costs around 4,999 for one bot's license. If someone wants to increase the number of bots you want from Blue Prism, then they provide a discount."

"The default configuration does not include large-scale log injection, but if you require, such integration, it may incur additional costs per gigabyte. I don't have the exact pricing information for log injection, but it is possible that it varies depending on the volume of data. While there may be a basic service included, additional features might come at an extra cost. When working with cloud environments like VMs, calculating costs involves considering factors such as usage duration, network traffic, inbound and outbound data transfer, as well as network access control. The pricing structure for cloud coverage solutions follows a similar pattern, although specific pricing details would need to be obtained separately."

"It is highly-priced."

"When compared with UiPath, I believe it will be difficult for Blue Prism to maintain its market share."

"There are costs for the machine to run the robots."

More Blue Prism Cloud pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

"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'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."

"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."

"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."

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

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Blue Prism Cloud?

It's easy to use, the interface, the the the the queries is which we use. It's user friendly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blue Prism Cloud?

If we utilize Blue Prism's full capabilities, then it is cost-effective. Otherwise, the pricing can seem high. It requires the right processes.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Blue Prism Cloud?

Decipher, one of their solutions, is a waste of time. Other than that, there's nothing specific I can think of.

See all answers

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?

We used the platform primarily for task automation, including transmitting EDR files. Additionally, we've utilized it for repetitive tasks, such as downloading web-based reports using the browser a...

See all answers

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 wanted to do without an addon.

See all answers

Comparisons

Blue Prism vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 25% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 17% of the time

Robocorp vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 16% of the time

UiPath vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

SAP Intelligent RPA vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

More Blue Prism Cloud Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 48% of the time

UiPath vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 37% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 7% of the time

MOVEit vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 5% of the time

Blue Prism vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud

December 2024

Download Blue Prism Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

December 2024

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Also Known As

Blue Prism Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce, Blue Prism Virtual Workforce, Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Learn More

SS&C Blue Prism

Video not available

Fortra

Overview

The Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce is a highly flexible intelligent automation platform. It uses software to replicate the way people work in existing applications and systems, the processes they follow, and the decisions they make, to deliver automation without disruption.

Fortra's Automate is predominantly used in HR and operational departments for automating reports, file manipulation, and data processing. Key uses include automating repetitive tasks, integrating PDFs and emails, running scripts, processing large data sets, transforming file formats, synchronizing databases, managing job schedules, and transferring files.

Users commend Fortra's Automate for its ease of implementation and user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, which requires minimal technical skills for efficient bot deployment. The software is appreciated for its effective scheduling tools, reliable integration capabilities, and a wide range of functions such as file interaction, secure file transfers, and extensive automation without the need for coding. Businesses achieve significant time savings and simplified processes, bolstered by continuous updates and robust customer support.

What are the key features?

Scheduling Tools: Enables precise control and timing for automation tasks
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly connects with various systems and software
File Interaction: Comprehensive functions for file manipulation and transfer
Secure Transfers: Ensures data safety during file transfers
User-Friendly: Minimal technical skills needed for deployment and use

What benefits should you look for in reviews?

Ease of Implementation: Fast and simple setup process
Time Savings: Reduces time spent on repetitive tasks
Process Simplification: Streamlines complex workflows
Customer Support: Access to continuous support and updates

In various industries such as healthcare, transportation, and payroll, Fortra's Automate automates workflows like invoice generation, data retrieval, data uploading, and insurance eligibility checks, enhancing efficiency and accuracy for HR and operational tasks.

Sample Customers

Cabot Credit Management, Hovis, Utilita

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

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate

December 2024

Free Report: Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate

Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Blue Prism Cloud vs. Fortra's Automate report.

See our list of best Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vendors.

We monitor all Robotic Process Automation (RPA) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.