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IBM Datacap vs Pega Robotic Process Automation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

IBM Datacap
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (6th)
Pega Robotic Process Automa...
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (20th)
 

Featured Reviews

Bhasker ReddyPIdintla - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Delivery Head at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has improved document scanning accuracy with advanced OCR capabilities
IBM needs to improve on scanning and reading accuracy for unstructured documents. Additionally, an important missing feature is the ability to merge documents and present data across different UI screens. This is especially beneficial for customer onboarding where documents are scanned not all at once but periodically. Incorporating automation could also aid in this area.
reviewer1458102 - PeerSpot reviewer
Regional Director at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has raised concerns due to outdated framework and high ownership costs
Pega Robotic Process Automation is a temporary solution to a bigger issue, and the cost of implementation especially with Pega really stops customers from proceeding. The total cost of ownership could be improved. From a technical perspective, the product performs adequately. The installation can be quite complex as it's not standalone, and customers need to get the whole Pega platform up and running. The total cost of ownership is not very attractive. RPA as a concept is outdated now, with agentic AI becoming more prominent. We don't see much interest from customers in going down the RPA route; Pega Robotic Process Automation is losing its prominence in the market.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Both Datacap Studio and Datacap Navigator are great features."
"Very scalable and stable data capture and extraction solution that's very simple to install."
"I work for an insurance company, and we use Datacap for document processing."
"It helps companies figure out how to use advanced imaging techniques, processes, best practices, and other tools."
"It is highly extensible, which we found to be most valuable. It is a very extensible solution because it is based on configurable rule sets. We were able to amend and adjust the solution and very easily add custom code and custom components. It does require some programming experience, but we found that not to be an issue. We liked its extensibility."
"The solution automates manual data entry."
"The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now."
"The big thing these days is really the Insight Edition component and being able to build annotators to extract from literally unstructured content: paragraphs and information where there's no start anchor point to define where that data is located. There could be a number of entities in that which you have to draw information from. Being able to extract from them is really the differentiator today between that product and many of the other products..."
"Pega Robotics offers all the required features to build end-to-end process automation like any other similar tools. It's unique development style using data line and control flow line makes it easy to debug through the flow."
"Pega Robotic Process Automation's most valuable feature is that it is robust. Additionally, they have plenty of online documents that are good and Pega Academy is helpful, they are doing a great job. They give training on practical use cases. They take domain use cases, and they are great."
"In terms of measuring efficiency gains from automating routine compliance tasks in financial services with Pega Robotic Process Automation, automation consistently yields a 25 to 30% efficiency increase."
"The most valuable aspect for myself was access to the .net framework. If I couldn't figure something out using the objects that they had provided, I could bring in the .net objects and do so using similar logic that I would in a .net or C sharp coding language. Having that familiarity was helpful."
"Pega is very mature. It's very old. They have grown with time, and they have learned. Other robotic process automation solutions are basically focused on only doing the automation, whereas Pega also gives you a workflow system so that you can create a workflow."
"If you want to make any kind of base automation, you can easily code exactly what you want."
"It is a scalable solution."
"​It is a good and matured solution."
 

Cons

"Its weaknesses are primarily tied to the lack of available resources and expertise in the market to effectively support and provide solutions and services to each customer for seamless implementation. Expertise in this specific product is rare throughout the market. One key reason is the product's limited downloads. Additionally, archiving solutions are often perceived as complex and challenging, dissuading many companies from venturing into this domain. Consequently, partners who specialize in archiving solutions are always seeking straightforward, uncomplicated options that are easy to manage and meet customer expectations."
"It can take some time to implement."
"Its weaknesses are primarily tied to the lack of available resources and expertise in the market to effectively support and provide solutions and services to each customer for seamless implementation."
"I've faced some bugs or issues. They should do deeper testing of the product before releasing it because some of the bugs that I found were a bit simple. I understand that it is a massive product, and some of the functionalities can get overlooked."
"There are times when external features impact services. For example, Windows patching or antivirus updates can affect production-level services."
"Our main language in Egypt is Arabic, and IBM DataCap does not support it perfectly. All our documentation is in Arabic. It's not English or any other language. However, we have overcome this problem by using QR codes in the document to extract the data from it. They should have better support for Arabic."
"I give the scalability of the solution a six out of ten."
"The solution's scalability needs improvement."
"The ease-of-use could be improved."
"The handwritten structured and semi-structured data recognition accuracy is much lower and is an area that definitely needs to improve."
"The orchestration needs to be better."
"Pega has a no-code low-code environment. We do everything based on established rules. You kind-of have to learn how all their rules work and how it works for robotics before you can use the solution effectively."
"The way integration classes are created could be improved."
"In Pega, the UI has to be improved because that is the most challenging area that most of our customers ask for because we have to depend on some other React JS or some other tool to bring that kind of UI experience. So, there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of UI and UX."
"The solution's configuration and settings could be more comprehensive."
"I would like to see an enhanced auditing feature included."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We were using the User Value Unit licensing, which means we get charged per active user of the system, and if I'm not mistaken, we also had it for the rule runner service. They had a PVU license model, which is a processor value unit. For each process that we have in our system, we pay a certain amount of money. We found the pricing to be quite steep. It was really an expensive solution in comparison to Kofax, which had a different licensing model and was actually cheaper overall because they charge per page and not per user and per process."
"Pricing needs to stay competitive."
"In Egypt, we have exchange rates that change year to year, and currently, we're facing an increase in the exchange rate between our Egyptian pound and the dollar. Since we have been using IBM DataCap two years ago we had a good price, it was not expensive. However, I cannot say now if it is expensive or not because of the exchange rate. Additionally, I don't have the data of other competitors and I don't know the prices."
"Pricing depends on how much we use it. We pay per bulk quantity. We pay as you go. Therefore, it sort of depends on our usage of it."
"IBM could offer more competitive pricing. This would allow them to attain more users. Some of our clients are considering moving to a different solution called Encapture which is similar but offers more competitive pricing."
"You save a lot of time and money, but the benefit is you have people who are able to run the systems, check to see if there are any errors at all, and there are a lot less errors than a human system."
"This solution is the most expensive in the market."
"This solution offers seamless integration with other enterprise products, which is my area of responsibility, focusing on government sector projects. Larger enterprise projects don't pose problems. It might be suitable for small businesses as well."
"The licensing cost is too high."
"In terms of Pega Robotic Process Automation pricing, I would rate it a five out of five because the solution has a good price. Pricing is not very high, though I'm unsure of the exact cost, based on my experience, the price for Pega Robotic Process Automation is less than Blue Prism because I worked with a few clients that have both solutions and my clients prefer Pega Robotic Process Automation over Blue Prism particularly because of the licensing costs."
"I would rate the product's pricing a nine out of ten."
"Pega is as competitive as the basic players such as UiPath or Automation Anywhere. UiPath is the most expensive, but Pega is at par with Automation Anywhere."
"​I was not involved in licensing and pricing, but it is worth the cost​."
"Pega Robotic Process Automation is an expensive solution."
"Pega is pretty costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Datacap?
Pricing is in the mid-range but could be more affordable, rated at four point five.
What needs improvement with IBM Datacap?
IBM needs to improve on scanning and reading accuracy for unstructured documents. Additionally, an important missing feature is the ability to merge documents and present data across different UI s...
What is your primary use case for IBM Datacap?
I primarily use IBM Datacap ( /products/ibm-datacap-reviews ) for data capture and scanning documents with OCR. Specifically, it's used for DocuSign ( /products/docusign-reviews ) as well.
What do you like most about Pega Robotic Process Automation?
The solution's automation handling capability has positively impacted the overall automation process in my experience.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pega Robotic Process Automation?
I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive.
What needs improvement with Pega Robotic Process Automation?
Pega Robotic Process Automation is a temporary solution to a bigger issue, and the cost of implementation especially with Pega really stops customers from proceeding. The total cost of ownership co...
 

Also Known As

Datacap
Pega RPA, OpenSpan
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Turkcell, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Central Nacional Unimed, Conqord Oil
eBay Enterprise, M&I Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Datacap vs. Pega Robotic Process Automation and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.