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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 8.0, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.8. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 10.5% mindshare in RPA, compared to IBM’s 2.5% 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
  • 1,578 Views
  • 764 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
Blue Prism
Read 88 Blue Prism reviews
  • 13,309 Views
  • 7,692 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
IBM Robotic Process Automat...
Read 23 IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) reviews
  • 2,164 Views
  • 1,642 Comparison Views
87% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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.

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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
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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

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)
12th
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 April 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Blue Prism is 10.5%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 2.5%, up 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

"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."
"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."
"I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality."
"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."
"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."
"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."
"I find it very user-friendly. Our IT department and other departments can seamlessly collaborate without requiring extensive training. As a business department, we particularly value this aspect, as our team doesn't consist of many IT users. However, we couldn't solely rely on a drag-and-drop approach to implement and utilize the solution within our departments."
"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."
More Automate pros
"Blue Prism is a great enterprise and it has offered the solutions that I have been needing in order to give my organization an RPA."
"Blue Prism takes good security measures and is user friendly."
"There are simple things you can put in place that help you understand workflow and how implementation acts."
"The only good thing about Blue Prism is the execution speed."
"The tool's user interface is very intuitive."
"We find the stability and the ease of reusing code design valuable."
"RPA processes are helpful when we need interaction with different applications and close the technical gaps between them. In one of the use cases that we evaluated, there was a single Excel template from a vendor. The Excel file has 7,000 objects, and it included information about the part numbers, prices, and some of the details about each object of the aircraft. This file had to be input to SAP, so a human had to enter these 7,000 objects one by one, which is a pretty mechanical and uninteresting task. The RPA bot was easily able to import this file. Without RPA, this import had to be done by a person who had to do the same task 7,000 times just to import one contract."
"The entire tool is valuable because it is an enterprise tool. It is on par with other tools like Automation Anywhere or UiPath with the OCR/ICR facilities, analytics, and the entire package for enterprise-level security. It has the highest level of security as compared to any other tool."
More Blue Prism pros
"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’s performance is good."
"The quality is great! It's very strong and has a very strong platform."
"The feature I found most valuable is the TCO."
"I like the integration with Watson and the possibility to have an intelligent reading of all the customers' documents."
"It is easy to use. We have enabled our resources who don't have a background in automation to be certified and trained, then implement this product within a very short period of time, as it is very user-friendly."
"We can connect with different database types, and they have included a different package for a terminal connection to, for example, AS400. When it comes to UI development, it's not using the drivers or anything. It's not a selector-based development like UiPath."
"The initial setup is very easy."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros
 

Cons

"Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be."
"I would like to see some better web automation, a wizard like the one in the product WinAutomation would be very nice."
"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."
"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."
"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 documentation is not that great."
"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."
"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."
More Automate cons
"There are some new tools on the market that work better than Blue Prism. When Blue Prism receives information I have found other RPA solutions refresh the application better. At this moment it's not the best application."
"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."
"As a user, I cannot directly work with the bot. On a daily basis, I use and do some work in Microsoft Excel, which cannot be directly taken into Blue Prism. Our company majorly runs on Microsoft Excel. Everybody has Excel sheets as their working sheets. Therefore, we need a kind of automation to be able to do things with this program. This bot is almost like an invisible staff that works between the servers but not with the users. This bot works well with SAP and things like that, but it doesn't work with Excel sheets. It doesn't work with the bots that we have, and I cannot invoke an RPA right now as a user. It has to be done by an administrator who has better control than me. It needs better integration with Microsoft Excel. Its price can be improved. It is expensive for us. It should be cheaper for a market like ours. We are based in India."
"They have OCR technology, but it's not that great."
"They cannot do assisted automation. That is a drawback because that technology is very old now."
"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."
"Blue Prism is not very flexible when it comes to integrations."
"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."
More Blue Prism cons
"We are looking to see how it can connect with various interfaces seamlessly, through APIs."
"I would like to have more flexibility in connecting the platform with third-party systems."
"Needs better integration with artificial intelligence or with machine-learning."
"I would like to improve the efficiency of this solution and the Surface Level Agreement."
"IBM’s support should improve response time."
"The time it takes for approvals, and risk analysis could be faster."
"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."
"The scalability of the solution can be challenging."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."
"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."
"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."
"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."
"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."
More Automate pricing and cost advice
"The solution is expensive."
"My clients tend to feel that the overall implementation cost is a little high."
"In the Philippines, fewer companies are using Blue Prism because of its cost. I don't know the price, but I know that its price is higher than UiPath."
"The tool is expensive."
"Blue Prism has a really simple licensing model, where the licenses are not confusing and there are no hidden costs the way there are in UiPath."
"Its price should be lower."
"This is a very expensive product and this is the reason that they're losing their market share."
"There is a one-time purchase fee for this solution."
More Blue Prism pricing and cost advice
"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."
"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."
"The license is paid annually."
"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."
"The product has a yearly licensing fee."
"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."
"There is a free trial for one month, so you can use it to run your payloads or proof of concept. After that, you can pay for the license on a monthly or annual basis."
"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."
More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare 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
9%
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 43% of the time
UiPath vs Automate Logo
UiPath vs Automate
Compared 38% of the time
Automation Anywhere vs Automate Logo
Automation Anywhere vs Automate
Compared 9% 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
NICE Robotic Automation vs Blue Prism Logo
NICE Robotic Automation vs Blue Prism
Compared 1% 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 68% of the time
Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 12% of the time
UiPath vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
UiPath vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 11% of the time
Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Logo
Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Compared 3% 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.
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