Blue Prism 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 #4 with an average rating of 8.1, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 11.3% mindshare in RPA, compared to Microsoft’s 20.7% mindshare. Additionally, 88% 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 Jan 12, 2025

In the realm of RPA solutions, Blue Prism and Microsoft Power Automate are key competitors, with Blue Prism having an edge in enterprise-level automation capabilities while Microsoft Power Automate excels in user-friendly interface and integration with Microsoft products.

Features: Blue Prism offers robust capabilities such as SQL database access, integration with analytics tools, and strong security and custom logic features. It effectively supports complex business processes and exception handling. Microsoft Power Automate is renowned for seamless integration with Microsoft products, offering a low-code environment and numerous connectors to simplify automation tasks.

Room for Improvement: Blue Prism needs to enhance AI capabilities, ease of integration with external systems, and community support. Its licensing model and attended automation features also require improvement. Microsoft Power Automate should expand RPA capabilities, improve integration with non-Microsoft products, and enhance its AI functionalities for complex workflows and better desktop automation features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Blue Prism provides multiple deployment options including on-premises and private cloud, but faces mixed reviews due to slow technical support. Microsoft Power Automate, while offering flexible public and hybrid cloud deployment through the Microsoft ecosystem, also has room for improvement in customer service efficiency.

Pricing and ROI: Blue Prism is perceived as expensive with complex licensing, yet provides considerable ROI for complex enterprise needs over time. Microsoft Power Automate, often bundled with Office 365, presents a cost-effective solution for smaller tasks, though its pricing can become intricate with premium connectors. Both claim ROI advantages, but Blue Prism may require longer engagements to maximize benefits.

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

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism 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 is 11.3%, down from 11.6% 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)

Q&A Highlights

Tarek Fanous

Unit Business Director (SAP) - FICO -PM at Abudawood

Mar 11, 2022

What are the main technical differences between Microsoft Power Automate and Blue Prism?

Adding to the answer here are the finer points: 1. Workflow technical features - a. ability to create a multi-level approval task. b. ability for the workflow engine to wait till the approval or rejection or any action is performed on the tasks. c. ability to delegate the task in the approval chain. e. Log of all activities within the workflow for the purpose of audit or tracing back the history. f. integration with third-party, internal or line-of-business applications for any data retrieval or data push to the system. g. drag and drop features (a kind of no-code solution) wherein the only configuration is required to create a workflow solution. h. user interface-driven or run as a back-end job to support the workflow process. 2. Robotics automation software features - a. a pure-play automation software that can detect images and other user interface elements on the application and interact with them. b. ability to mimic all human actions and steps while interacting with the software product. c. ability to interact with all types of software environments Citrix, Desktop, Server-based, Cloud, Web, Mobile, etc. d. ability to log activities performed on the application automated and perform all transactional activities and re-execute for any failed transactions. e. ability to interact with a standard application using either web services or another integration framework. g. OCR features to identify user interface elements, etc.

See all answers

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

Mohamed Salah Baccouche

Robotic Process Automation Consultant at Ernst & Young

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.

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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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."

"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."

More Fortra's Automate pros

"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."

"Blue Prism MAPIEx and the Java Bridge are really great features provided for automating Java-based applications and for allowing mail to send and receive smoothly."

"Mostly we use the Design Studio to develop the automation. It's great. We put them into deployment and have the automated process running. It's essentially the Design Studio for Blue Prism and the entire methodology of delivery that is the most useful or valuable to us."

"I like the cloud features such as IADA and Decipher."

"The technical support is very good."

"It is a scalable solution."

"It is a stable solution."

More Blue Prism pros

"It is basically free for me because it comes with my Office 365 subscription. The main feature is that there is abundant learning material on platforms like YouTube. You can find information about whatever you want to be done in Spanish or English without a problem. It is very easy to learn. Users can start using it on their own without any former training, which is something I like about this solution."

"This product is a really easy-to-use solution for quickly developing prototypes."

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

"It servers our purposes in bringing together all types of applications, being able to automate them with the right intelligent output from the data that we plugin."

"The product is very stable."

"The most valuable feature is that it is very easy to use."

"Microsoft Power Automate offers over 200 connectors that enhance the user experience."

"The solution is very easy to use. It's a code three platform that works very easily with documents to create custom automations."

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

Cons

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

"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem."

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

"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."

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

"They do not encrypt passwords, so this is an issue with HIPAA compliance."

More Fortra's Automate cons

"We had a lot of challenges managing authentication and reusing or using external authentication providers."

"The solution could be more user-friendly. I would like the see the inclusion of a recording feature as in Microsoft, SAP, and other legacy systems. Users can play the recording and use it for future use cases. The recording can help with the automation and configuration. I would rate the tool’s interface a seven out of ten. It needs to improve."

"The initial setup and deployment could be simplified."

"We would like to see intelligent process automation that integrates RPA and machine learning."

"Emerging technologies adoption is a challenge for every organization, especially the products which address productivity/automation."

"Blue Prism needs to provide better customer support because there are some bugs in the product that make implementation tricky. Blue Prism is designed more for operational than transactional processes. If Blue Prism incorporated a lot of IQ bots and cognitive processing, then it might be of better value at a lower cost. The issue of the cost of the tool needs to be addressed. To become a Blue Prism partner, it's costly. I think that this is one of the negative aspects of using Blue Prism."

"Its image recognition or the OCR part should be improved. The quality has improved in the latest version, but some of the handwritten documents are not that accurate. Its interaction with the Citrix environment should also be improved. Their technical support should also be improved."

"User interface could be improved and a web interface included for easy access to robot information."

More Blue Prism cons

"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."

"The tool should improve its price."

"They can build more templates and more connectivity with other platforms. They can provide a more user-friendly way to connect with other platforms. They have their own in-built plugins for certain third-party vendors, but there are still a lot of third-party vendors that are not there."

"Microsoft could offer more AI education and training."

"It's not as user-friendly as a solution such as UiPath, which is really easy to use."

"The solution is not actually satisfying the complex programs that we want to execute."

"I need to have more integration capabilities from this solution."

"The solution lacks maturity."

More Microsoft Power Automate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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

"Its price is sometimes higher."

"The license for Blue Prism is very straightforward, we only need one license."

"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 tool’s licensing is on a monthly basis."

"Its pricing is okay. Its price is pretty similar to the price of other tools."

"The pricing is really good for an enterprise-level solution. It's quite scalable and it's quite comparable with the market."

"Blue Prism is less expensive than some of the other RPA solutions."

"My clients tend to feel that the overall implementation cost is a little high."

More Blue Prism pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"I don't deal with the financial side. I know that we pay for a per-user license. It is probably less than $20 a user, but I am not sure about the exact figures."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing two to three out of ten."

"The price is right. If you have Office 365 It's included."

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

"Microsoft is providing an automatic license with a cost of $20 million per month, which is reasonable."

"This is the cheapest option among competitors. You can choose to have the RPA with attendance at $40/month with add-on's totaling about $190. There are standalone options that require someone to run the process and there are fully automated options that are integrated within the cloud."

"It depends and varies a lot according to the licensing terms. There is no cost to maintain if we have less than 10 forms. Microsoft only charges if there are more than 10 forms. So, most of the companies can survive without paying anything extra. It is included in the Office 365 licensing."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Tarek Fanous

Unit Business Director (SAP) - FICO -PM at Abudawood

Mar 11, 2022

What are the main technical differences between Microsoft Power Automate and Blue Prism?

2 out of 4 answers

Shiv Chandra

Senior Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 10, 2022

Hi @Tarek Fanous, Happy to talk you through what I have experienced in RPA. Feel free to reach out to me via DM or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sh...

Read full answer

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Mar 10, 2022

Hello @Okay Akdeniz, @Biswajit Mohanty, @KinjalDangeria, @Nancy_Sachdeva, @Shantanu Chande and @Mattia Mezzacapo, Can you please help @Tarek Fanous by sharing your insights?

Read full answer

See all 4 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

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...

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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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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...

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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...

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What do you like most about Blue Prism?

It is a stable solution.

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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 37% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 8% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

UiPath vs Blue Prism

Compared 33% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism

Compared 12% of the time

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Blue Prism

Compared 4% of the time

Blue Prism Cloud vs Blue Prism

Compared 2% of the time

More Blue Prism Competitors

UiPath vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 31% 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

Pega Robotic Process Automation 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

February 2025

Download Blue Prism product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

February 2025

Download Microsoft Power Automate product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

No data available

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

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

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

Coca-Cola, Walgreens, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, Pfizer, Shop Direct, O2, Siemens, Ascension Healthcare, Jaguar Land Rover

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 vs. Microsoft Power Automate

January 2025

Free Report: Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate

Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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