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 1.4% mindshare in RPA, compared to Microsoft’s 20.7% 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 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 Blue Prism Cloud is 1.4%, 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

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.

Read full review

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.

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

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

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

"I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality."

"It's very easy to use. That's a big selling point for it. It has got a drag-and-drop interface, so you can quickly deploy bots."

"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."

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

"I find the ease of use from a programming perspective very valuable."

"The interface is simple, user-friendly, and very intuitive."

More Fortra's Automate pros

"We used it for process automation."

"Ability to see the blueprint of the design executed alongside the actual process."

"The ease of building automation and the development environment"

"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."

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

"The solution works well overall."

"This solution comes with a lot of good features."

"With Blue Prism, I like the feature that you build, I don't know the exact name now, but blocks or standards can be reduced later. You configure, for example, the CRM system, and you create a standardized manner of inputting data into the CRM system that you can reuse later. I'm not sure what that's called, but I enjoy it whether it's a feature or not."

More Blue Prism Cloud pros

"The initial setup isn't too difficult."

"The RPA robotic process automation is a good feature. We can make a flow within a flow. We just made a UI flow. The flow is to run every day so far it's been quite helpful."

"So far, the tech support has provided me with good enough support and knowledge."

"The integrations that are built into Power Automate for those different Microsoft functions are good."

"Technical support is available regionally and it's quite good."

"Very reasonably priced."

"One of the most valuable features of Power Automate is its ability to extract text from a website."

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

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

Cons

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

"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."

"We really need a free development environment for customers. Building and testing automation on production isn't ideal."

"There is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

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

"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."

"The documentation is not that great."

"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."

More Fortra's Automate cons

"The vendor does not make their pricing clear when you are searching for it, which is something that needs to be improved."

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

"Decipher, one of their solutions, is a waste of time."

"Blue Prism Cloud needs to improve support, though documentation is available online. It is not detailed, which does not help."

"I wouldn't call Blue Prism user-friendly. It's one of its downfalls. They would benefit from having drag and drop functionality, for example. It would make them a strong competitor in the space. There needs to be less reliance on coding for customization, similar to Microsoft's Power Automate."

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

"The main issue is screen scraping with Blue Prism gives us a big challenge because we need to define which technologies are web-based have been built instead of by itself discovering the technology that it is built on."

More Blue Prism Cloud cons

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

"If the product had onscreen help, it would be easier to learn and use."

"Compared to other RPA solutions, there is a little bit of a feature gap."

"Microsoft Power Automate is limited if we want to create a complex flow because we have to split the log into two flows."

"It lacks a lot of functionality that other tools have. There should be queue management, and there should also be the capability to deal with a little bit more complex automation. If it had queue support and if it was capable of doing more complex automation, it would be a much better tool."

"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."

"Microsoft shouldn't charge extra for the database license if you want to store the data in the database during the trial. We wanted to have a historical trend of the data, and we started with the trial version of the tool. The database license is not included with the trial version, and you have to purchase it separately. Because we had a budget constraint, we had to pull all the information manually from the system, massage it, and push it to the dashboard. About two months ago, we have upgraded to the full-fledged version in which the database is integrated. The database license should be there in the trial version, but they have totally decoupled it. They should have provided a bundle, at least for the trial version, so that once a person or a firm gets a sense of it, they can start building. It might be because they wanted to sell additional licenses or premium licenses, and that's why they have added it in the premium version. It should have more cognitive features. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are different because they have cognitive functionality plus intelligent automation. The cognitive functionality is currently not there in Microsoft Power Automate. It is just for workflow automation and basic bot-level tasks. It should have more cognitive features, which probably will be launched in a couple of years."

"I think the language Microsoft Power Automate uses when you do expressions could be better. What they use is not a popular programming language. It would be better for Microsoft to find a more popular programming language, such as Python. It would take away the whole no-code aspect of the solution but you don't need to write that many lines of code to improve something in a process. Instead of no-code, they could be a low-code environment."

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."

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

"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 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."

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

"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."

"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."

"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

"It is highly-priced."

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

"The price is very competitive when you are comparing to other providers."

"Annual licensing costs were somewhere between $5,000 - $10,000 for the development tool. For the control tower, I think fees were about $50,000 annually."

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

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

"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."

"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."

More Blue Prism Cloud pricing and cost advice

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

"Initially, we had a Microsoft account for Office 365. Later, we discovered that our license included access to Power Automate at no additional cost. There was a small fee for additional features, but it was negligible compared to the benefits. There are not any additional fees required to use the solution."

"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."

"Due to the pricing model, the solution is more convenient than any other tools."

"Its license is a part of our enterprise agreement. It is a three-year contract, but we pay yearly. So, it is a yearly license. There are no additional costs."

"There is flexibility in pricing."

"We are just using the free products at the moment. We are using the ones that come with the license that we have got."

"I give the cost a three out of ten."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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...

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 want...

See all answers

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 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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 37% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Blue Prism vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Blue Prism vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 22% of the time

UiPath vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Robocorp vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Intelligent RPA vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

ServiceNow Automation Engine vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

More Blue Prism Cloud Competitors

UiPath vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 31% of the time

Blue Prism vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 18% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 17% of the time

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 4% of the time

ServiceNow Automation Engine vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power Automate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

February 2025

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud

February 2025

Download Blue Prism Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

February 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

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.

Fortra

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.

SS&C Blue Prism

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.

Microsoft

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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