Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Blue Prism vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comparison

SS&C Blue Prism and IBM are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. SS&C Blue Prism is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.1, while IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.8. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 10.9% mindshare in RPA, compared to IBM’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of SS&C Blue Prism users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IBM users who would recommend it.
Sponsored
Automate
Read 26 Automate reviews
  • 1,654 Views
  • 768 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
Blue Prism
Read 88 Blue Prism reviews
  • 14,220 Views
  • 8,049 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
IBM Robotic Process Automat...
Read 23 IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) reviews
  • 2,195 Views
  • 1,631 Comparison Views
87% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Blue Prism and IBM Robotic Process Automation compete in the field of robotic process automation. Blue Prism appears to have the upper hand in process customization and management, while IBM RPA is noted for its cost-effectiveness and ease of use.

Features: Blue Prism is renowned for robust exception handling, comprehensive control room functionalities, and its ability to manage complex business processes with ease. Its Visual Basic Objects feature enhances process customization. IBM RPA stands out with its less complex pricing structure, user-friendly interface, and effective bundling options, making it cost-effective overall.

Room for Improvement: Blue Prism users suggest enhancements in AI capabilities, better attended automation, improved cloud service integration, and addressing cognitive learning issues. IBM RPA could focus on quicker customer support responses and better third-party system integration to increase its flexibility and usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Blue Prism offers versatile deployment, including on-premises, public cloud, and hybrid solutions but receives mixed reviews on customer support responsiveness. IBM RPA matches this deployment flexibility. However, customer service is also critiqued for promptness, despite its focus on user-centric designs and integration ease.

Pricing and ROI: Blue Prism tends to be more expensive, with costs involving both licensing and necessary infrastructure. It is often seen as straightforward but high-priced. In contrast, IBM RPA offers annual licensing with a focus on Virtual Processor Cores, resulting in better flexibility and lower costs. Both platforms deliver significant ROI, but Blue Prism's high initial investment is a key consideration for buyers.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Report (Updated: March 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
March 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 842,296 peers since 2012

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

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
Blue Prism
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Robotic Process Automat...
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Blue Prism is 10.9%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 2.2%, down from 2.4% 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.
Read full review
Mohamed Salah Baccouche - PeerSpot reviewer
Way more efficient for debugging than other tools but the UI is complicated
The UI is more complicated than other tools. In Power Automate, it doesn't even feel like you are working because the tool does the job for you. But in the solution, there are studio, process, and object interfaces and you have to decode your own objects. The free objects that are predefined are not good compared to other tools. There is still a lot of work to do on the solution's intelligent automation part.
Read full review
Karinne Carnevalli De Almeida - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly interface and good stability
I would recommend using IBM RPA. I would advise you to learn about your main processes to automate inside your company. So you can apply it in big and small processes depending on the investment for your company. That is an advantage or not. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It has some difficulty in the tool, but it's a very stable and useful tool for automating processes.
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 pricing is excellent. I would give them perfect marks in that regard."
"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."
"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."
"The most valuable features of Fortra's Automate include its FTP functionality and file manipulation capabilities."
"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."
"We are still in the process of rolling it to production and tweaking it (our AD groups are a mess), but the improvements are priceless. Having users ID's created the same way every time without human error is the best part. We don't need to worry about why groups were not added, user rights not set to folders or missing a private folder being created, typos or just even knowing when things are done and logged."
"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."
"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."
More Automate pros
"The development interface is quite easy to work with."
"The tool is very technically sound."
"We have integrated the product with our centralized infra-monitoring tool, which gives us real-time insights into BOT health and also the health of the underlying resources."
"A feature I like about Blue Prism is the Control Room and how easy it is to find exceptions, to find common issues, and to troubleshoot your exceptions. Your Control Room person, without any development skills, can easily pick up what the problem is, with the exceptions, especially when there are a lot of exceptions related to one use case or process."
"The most valuable features are the exception handling and embedded control room."
"Its ability to talk to different systems that we have is a valuable feature. We use Pega, which is like a credit card processing system. We also use a Debit Process Manager, which is like the Visa debit application. In the bank, we have credit card and debit card sections, and we need to kind of investigate some of the transactions when customers are complaining about the charges. Blue Prism can log in to a different system to perform the exact actions that the agents are doing. This feature has been very helpful. Its ability to engage with external systems and websites is also very valuable. Each of our RPA projects could go across different systems. We have an in-house banking system. We also use the Visa network, and we have to go to different sites to do a lot of data scraping to ensure the data in our system matches the data in the Visa systems, and we just deal with some of the charges."
"Access to the SQL database allows for extra capabilities."
"Blue Prism is very good at doing background processing."
More Blue Prism pros
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"I think simplicity is key. One of the things that we've noticed is how our developers have been able to quickly adopt the platform; but not only the developers or the techy people, also the business."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to automate mundane tasks. This improves efficiency, reliability, etc. You can form critical operations which can be highly automated."
"It's integrated with all the other products within the Salesforce ecosystem."
"IBM Robotic Process Automation has greatly improved the organization by improving the speed of performance, as the speed of the robot is estimated to be 20 times faster than the human being."
"The solution is scalability."
"IBM Robotic Process Automation is very easy to use."
"The solution’s performance is good."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros
 

Cons

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."
"The vendor is currently working on a solution that allows us to automatically create a process that is based on a document that we receive via email."
"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."
"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."
"It would be an improvement if Automate had better stability tools, whether by recommending a certain amount of memory because it can be a memory hog at times."
"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."
"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 OCR for Hebrew text needs to be improved."
More Automate cons
"Blue Prism can improve a lot. The interaction with Google Chrome can be massively improved. I know in the next version there are slight improvements. We don't know how much, but we are comparing them. At this moment, Google Chrome is a massive issue within the toolset, due to the way Google Chrome receives updates regularly but Blue Prism is unable to cope. The spy method of Google Chrome is not as user-friendly as Internet Explorer is. However, Internet Explorer is being discontinued from their support, therefore it's not the best browser to be using. This has caused us major issues in the last six months."
"Everyone uses Workday and Salesforce and all that stuff. If they had specific plugins to interact with these enterprise tools, that would be very helpful."
"There is a need for a co-management product to manage multiple developers using Blue Prism."
"From a monitoring perspective, the way the screens are set up, or the reporting within Blue Prism, is not really user-friendly. You need a technical person to basically put that up. It's not necessarily easily viewable."
"We would like to see some desktop automation, although we have been told that the product is not going to be taken in that direction."
"Optical character recognition has room for improvement."
"It isn't very easy or intuitive for our developers to program the bot to make intelligent decisions. A bot, for the lack of a better word, is stupid, and it can only do what we program it to do. It cannot make intelligent decisions. For example, if we are reviewing Uber charges, they could be posting their transactions under different corporation names, even though they are under the same parent company or group. A human can easily understand that it is the name of the same company, and it just has an asterisk or space, but a bot cannot do that. When a bot cannot complete the transaction, it sends out an exception rate, business exception, or system exception for a human to do a manual review. The exception rate has been high because the bots cannot make decisions that we think are very simple, which is understandable because that's how they were programmed. There is potential in utilizing the higher intelligence side of the tool, but it is not easy to code higher intelligent actions. It is a very lengthy process to get the provisioning to ensure that it is kind of doing what it needs to do. Provisioning involves multiple things, and it is quite complicated and not the best experience, but it is not just because of Blue Prism. Blue Prism is easy, but it takes a long time to onboard into our in-house system."
"They have OCR technology, but it's not that great."
More Blue Prism cons
"Capturing GUI operations is very easy, but capturing IBM Logistics automation is hard. It does not always work with browsers or automotive applications like SAP."
"Stability could be better."
"We are looking to see how it can connect with various interfaces seamlessly, through APIs."
"We're based in Thailand, but the documentation is not in Thai, which makes it difficult for us. If they could translate all of their documentation into our language, we'd be very grateful."
"This RPA should be under the umbrella of BPM. This is what the future should be."
"We would like more focus on understanding AI and how it can be used to manage exception handling."
"Extensibility is the key, especially in terms of the Recorders feature that we have. That should be browser independent. Enhance it because some people have Chrome, some have Internet Explorer, etc. Also, integration with PDFs: Not just the ability to read information from PDFs but the ability to write information from PDFs, make it secure, sign it, etc. Finally, if they can allow a token exchange inside the tool itself, that would help."
"IBM’s support should improve response time."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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 perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
"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."
"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."
More Automate pricing and cost advice
"The tool is expensive."
"I chose Blue Prism because it is priced well. The pricing was right for me at that moment even though Automation Anywhere is better in other aspects."
"Blue Prism is quite costly."
"To use Blue Prism, there is a need to pay INR 15,000 per customer."
"I don't have an idea about Blue Prism, but I have an idea about UiPath. UiPath is scaling its business in different products. It has got products for intelligent document processing (IDP) to test or log integrations for chatbots. If you want to work on something like a true test automation, you have to buy a test book. In such cases, they have a predefined way of working with, implementing, or running things. This is where I see that UiPath might be a bit costly or expensive when compared to Blue Prism because UiPath charges for each and every product."
"The solution is enterprise software so we will try to maximize our usage during the available slots. We will get ROI with the high price since there will be some value added with automation. I think that after doing a cost-benefit analysis, we are on the positive side."
"My clients tend to feel that the overall implementation cost is a little high."
"Blue Prism has a higher cost with respect to RPA enablement, particularly if you are trying to start with RPA."
More Blue Prism pricing and cost advice
"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."
"The license is paid annually."
"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."
"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The product has a yearly licensing fee."
"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."
"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pricing and cost advice
report
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
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
16%
Educational Organization
8%
Government
7%
 

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?
I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scra...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would ra...
See all answers
Should I choose Blue Prism or Microsoft Power Automate?
Hello Netanya, it depends on your needs and your expertise. In my humble opinion you can start a big RPA project imp...
See all answers
I am evaluating Blue Prism and UiPath for RPA for my company. Which one do you recommend?
I'm very familiar with UiPath and the RPA industry: was hired by Daniel Dines in 2015 when there were 35 employees an...
See all answers
What do you like most about Blue Prism?
It is a stable solution.
See all answers
What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
The product must be promoted more. There are no promotions.
See all answers
What is your primary use case for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
We're working with different clients from the manufacturing environment. We have implemented end-to-end solutions. We...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate Logo
Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate
Compared 47% of the time
UiPath vs Automate Logo
UiPath vs Automate
Compared 36% of the time
Automation Anywhere vs Automate Logo
Automation Anywhere vs Automate
Compared 8% of the time
VisualCron vs Automate Logo
VisualCron vs Automate
Compared 5% of the time
More Automate Competitors
Microsoft Power Automate vs Blue Prism Logo
Microsoft Power Automate vs Blue Prism
Compared 36% of the time
UiPath vs Blue Prism Logo
UiPath vs Blue Prism
Compared 33% of the time
Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism Logo
Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism
Compared 12% of the time
Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Blue Prism Logo
Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Blue Prism
Compared 4% of the time
More Blue Prism Competitors
Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 66% of the time
Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 13% of the time
UiPath vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
UiPath vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 12% of the time
Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 2% of the time
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Automate
March 2025
Automate reportDownload Automate product report
Buyer's Guide
Blue Prism
March 2025
Blue Prism reportDownload Blue Prism product report
Buyer's Guide
IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
March 2025
IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) reportDownload IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) product report
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
No data available
IBM RPA
 

Overview

Automate offers a user-friendly solution with a drag-and-drop interface for efficient task automation and integration with major platforms like SAP and Azure, making it ideal for quick deployment with minimal coding and training.

Automate provides powerful features for businesses seeking efficient automation, offering compatibility with databases, email integration, and cloud platforms. Its simple interface supports both beginners and experienced users, simplifying tasks like invoice processing, HR automation, and data transformation. Cost-effective pricing and flexible licensing enhance its appeal while integration capabilities and scheduling tools ensure smooth workflow automation.

What are Automate's Key Features?
  • Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies automation with intuitive design.
  • Integration Capabilities: Connects with platforms like SAP and Azure for seamless data flow.
  • Database and FTP Triggers: Enhances automation potential through direct data interaction.
  • Efficient Scheduling: Automates tasks with precise timing and control.
  • Web Scraping: Automates data extraction for quick analysis and reporting.
What Benefits and ROI Should Users Expect?
  • Rapid Deployment: Minimizes coding efforts for quick implementation.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Offers flexible pricing models to suit budget constraints.
  • Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual workloads and enhances productivity.
  • Comprehensive Integration: Facilitates improved data management across systems.
  • Scalability: Adapts to growing business needs with ease.

In industries such as healthcare, banking, and logistics, Automate is used for tasks like invoice payment automation, data transformation, and task automation. This leads to streamlined processes and reduced manual workload, illustrating its value in enhancing operational efficiency through diversified workflows.

Fortra

Blue Prism is an intelligent, business-developed, no-code automation platform for SaaS deployments as well as for on-premises, public cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Unlike other automation technology, Blue Prism combines robotic process automation with expanded artificial intelligence and cognitive capabilities. Blue Prism gives users instant access to the tools you need for building and delegating automations, as well as a digital workforce that is already AI-equipped.

With Blue Prism’s code-free RPA, deployed through use of their Robotic Operating Model, your business can scale efficiently, improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and augment its talent to take on new responsibilities. Blue Prism helps to accelerate operational agility and efficiency by making it easy to automate the most important processes. Allocating everyday tasks to your Digital Workforce gives you immediate increased capacity and allows your teams to focus on their strategic goals. In addition, it delivers a return on investment, increases efficiency gains, and can even introduce new revenue streams.

“Workforce of the Future”

Blue Prism’s all-in-one intelligent automation platform consists of:

  • Design Studio with drag-and-drop process automation building, reusable “objects” across your business, and updates to objects and processes saved throughout the process library.
  • Control Room where you can assign processes to digital workers, scale digital worker and task volume ondemand, and gain real-time transparency of process proficiencies.
  • Digital Workforce of autonomous software robots that can learn and mimic business processes like humans and are equipped with six intelligent automation skills:
    1. Knowledge and Insight - The ability to harvest, understand, and deliver insights from multiple disparate data sources.
    2. Visual Perception - The ability to read, understand, and contextualize visual information.
    3. Learning - The ability to derive contextual meaning and adapt to evolving process patterns.
    4. Planning and Sequencing - The ability to optimize workloads and identify opportunities for better outcomes.
    5. Problem-solving - The ability to autonomously solve system, logic, and business problems.
    6. Collaboration - The ability to seamlessly work with both people and systems.

Reviews from Real Users

Blue Prism stands out for its enterprise-level functionality, which is why many companies choose it over its competitors. PeerSpot users note that the solution is easy to use, stable, and robust scalability-wise. The security is also top-notch. One user pointed out that "One of the most powerful features in Blue Prism is exception handling. It's one of the features that really differentiates it from other platforms." Blue Prism helps businesses with everything from compliance to quality control and error-avoidance.

SS&C Blue Prism

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a technology that encompasses the use of smart robots in any process requiring efficiency, consistency and speed, with no risk of mistakes. In a nutshell, RPA simulates a human user working.

Today, it is possible to automate processes through the use of digital robots, or bots, which execute pre-programed, repetitive tasks in a safe and mistake free manner. There are literally thousands of opportunities for Robotic Process Automation to make an impact on your organization today, including: automatic invoice emission, system integration, information reconciliation, report generation, intelligent email management to lead generation, and many others.

IBM
 

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
Coca-Cola, Walgreens, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, Pfizer, Shop Direct, O2, Siemens, Ascension Healthcare, Jaguar Land Rover
The Hanover Insurance Group
Buyer's Guide
Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
March 2025
Free Report: Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our Blue Prism vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 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.