Blue Prism Cloud vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

SS&C Blue Prism and Microsoft 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 Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 1.3% mindshare in RPA, compared to Microsoft’s 21.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of SS&C Blue Prism users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Blue Prism Cloud and Microsoft Power Automate compete in the automation software category. Microsoft Power Automate seems to have the upper hand due to its seamless integration within the Microsoft ecosystem and a cost-effective licensing model.

Features: Blue Prism Cloud is valued for its stability, robust backend office automation, and support for security controls, appealing to high-security sectors like banking. Its Object Studio tool allows users without programming expertise to automate tasks. Microsoft Power Automate excels in its integration capabilities with Microsoft applications like Excel and Outlook, providing a low-code environment that makes automation accessible to non-programmers. It also offers a wide range of connectors and templates.

Room for Improvement: Blue Prism Cloud needs to enhance its user interface for more intuitive use, improve AI capabilities, offer clearer licensing terms, and provide better integration and training resources. Microsoft Power Automate should focus on streamlining complex tasks, improving integration with non-Microsoft systems, and enhancing its documentation and training offerings. Additionally, its pricing model needs clarity, especially concerning the cost related to handling large datasets and using premium connectors.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Blue Prism Cloud supports various deployment models, including on-premises and private cloud strategies. Microsoft Power Automate, primarily a cloud-based solution, provides simplified setup within the Microsoft ecosystem. In customer support, Blue Prism Cloud generally receives positive feedback but has slower response times, while Microsoft Power Automate offers responsive support with significant community-driven resources.

Pricing and ROI: Blue Prism Cloud is viewed as expensive due to its high initial licensing costs, but it promises substantial ROI through effective automation. Its pricing structure is deemed complex. Microsoft Power Automate offers a cost-effective licensing approach, especially for users of the Microsoft Suite, making it a valuable choice for simple automation tasks. However, premium connectors could lead to increased expenses based on usage levels.

To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism Cloud vs. Microsoft Power Automate Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud vs. Microsoft Power Automate

January 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

Fortra's Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Blue Prism Cloud is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 21.2%, down from 21.8% 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 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.

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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.

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Nilesh Pundkar

IVR Developer at Orange

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.

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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

"This product is quite easy to install, learn, and use, with our new employees being able to start using it in projects for clients after only two weeks of internal training."

"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."

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

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

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

"The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation."

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

"The most valuable feature is the drag-and-drop interface, which is very Windows-like."

More Fortra's Automate pros

"There is no latency in the product."

"It is secure and supports unattended mode of operations."

"The most valuable feature of a non-programmer is diagrams. Someone from an IT background can find it easier to start automation."

"The reusability of the solution is excellent. It's a superior feature - far superior to any other tool on the market."

"The corporate leverage is better with Blue Prism. They just present better in a large corporation. It's easier to sell suits and ties than it is sneakers and jeans in financial institutions. That's not really about the application per se; it's the perception."

"We used it for process automation."

"It is an easily scalable solution."

"The most valuable feature is security."

More Blue Prism Cloud pros

"It's an intuitive product. It's not overly technical."

"Its ease of use is most valuable. A lot of the bulk functionality is done either through standalone or custom connectors and standard API processes."

"The solution helps automate manual tasks and interacts with multiple applications."

"The most advantageous aspect of the solution is its cloud capabilities."

"I like the scalability option and the simplicity, the way we can really use the interface to easily scale up."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The development time for ProcessRobot is very good compared to other solutions."

"The connectors are a very good feature."

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

Cons

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

"The documentation is not that great."

"It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help."

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

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

"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."

"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 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."

More Fortra's Automate cons

"Blue Prism is slightly difficult for the non-technical user."

"Lacking advance features like CIO and optical character recognition"

"The version control could be improved and made consistent. There is a discrepancy between the versions on premise and the cloud versions."

"The solution is unable to read some UI components in legacy systems."

"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."

"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."

"Pricing for Blue Prism Cloud is a pain as it's a little higher."

"Blue Prism could be more efficient in its resource use. Having one LPR agent per virtual machine wastes resources. If we could execute many applications at the same time, it would improve and optimize the resource used."

More Blue Prism Cloud cons

"We expect Microsoft Power Automate to work like any other RPA software, but at present, it is fairly lax, especially in the RPA space. We have a very limited set of use cases today for Microsoft Power Automate. Microsoft should make it a full-featured RPA product like other solutions that we use, such as Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath. This is predominantly the area that they need to improve on. Microsoft Power Automate is quite complex to use as well, especially if you want to do advanced workflows or advanced automation. The regular simple workflows are quite easy and straightforward, but the moment you want to do something complex, it is almost impossible for one of our employees to work on it."

"Technical support needs to be able to respond quickly to queries. Right now, they are much too slow."

"Not suitable for connecting other applications like browsers and third party applications."

"It would be great if you could integrate outside of Microsoft environments."

"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."

"I rate the technical support from Microsoft Power Automate a four out of five."

"The initial setup is complex and has room for improvement."

"It would be good to have some kind of on-premises solution for BPMN users, but I don't think Microsoft will ever go back to the on-premises solution. They all train their clients to use their online services. It is easy, but it doesn't follow the industry-wide standards. I can only use the processes that Microsoft gives us. I can't map a business process by using other standards or notations, such as Business Process Management (BPM). I have to use whatever Microsoft gives us. I would like to have support for some standards because if we decide to use another BPM tomorrow, we will have to remap everything in notation to transfer from this solution. This is the only block or obstacle that I see in using this solution. It is closed in its infrastructure."

More Microsoft Power Automate 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

"It is highly-priced."

"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive."

"Though I don't have many details, I think Blue Prism Cloud is an expensive product compared to the other tools in the market since you need to pay for resources like machines."

"Blue Prism Cloud's cost is very high."

"The pricing for Blue Prism Cloud is two out of ten because it's higher than every other technology. My company is on a three-year Blue Prism Cloud license."

"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."

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

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

More Blue Prism Cloud pricing and cost advice

"We are using the free version of Power Automate."

"Microsoft Power Automate is part of our Office 365 package, there are no additional licensing costs."

"This solution can save money when used for simple tasks specifically using only Microsoft products."

"They have the community edition that people can use for free, and they also have the enterprise edition. My company uses the enterprise edition, and I don't know how much they pay."

"When accompanying customers, we discuss the license requirements. Based on these requirements, we suggest whether a per-user plan or multiple platforms per-user plan would be best."

"This is a cost-effective RPA solution."

"The licensing cost for us at this time is between $8 and $20 per user, per month."

"It's more fragmented licensing, where every little thing that you add, you get an extra license cost."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

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?

We used the platform primarily for task automation, including transmitting EDR files. Additionally, we've utilized it...

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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...

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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.

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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 req...

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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.

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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...

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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 vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 36% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 7% of the time

Blue Prism vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

MOVEit vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Blue Prism vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 26% of the time

UiPath vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Intelligent RPA vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Robocorp vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

ServiceNow Automation Engine vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

More Blue Prism Cloud Competitors

UiPath vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 34% of the time

Blue Prism vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 19% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 17% of the time

Python RPA vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 3% of the time

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power Automate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

January 2025

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud

January 2025

Download Blue Prism Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

January 2025

Download Microsoft Power Automate product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

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

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

Learn More

Video not available

Fortra

SS&C Blue Prism

Microsoft

Overview

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.

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.

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.

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

Cabot Credit Management, Hovis, Utilita

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

Blue Prism Cloud vs. Microsoft Power Automate

January 2025

Free Report: Blue Prism Cloud vs. Microsoft Power Automate

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