IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition comparison

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 2.8%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition is 0.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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GeorgeTzifas

Chief Operating Officer at Anyrobotics RPA Experts

Provides smart AI tools and easy to use

I would like to have more flexibility in connecting the platform with third-party systems. It is easy to connect IBM RPA with other IBM products, but it is complicated when connecting to non-IBM systems. So, I would like IBM RPA to be even more flexible in connecting to third-party systems.

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Amarjeet Kamble

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

User-friendly and enables automation in finance, HR, and SDM

There is room for improvement, considering no tools having everything inside it is right. So the room for balancing improvement lies in automation enhancement with respect to the feature areas, considering dealing directly with Excel and reviewing it to do some additional stuff for it in the end system so that reading the right thing, picking up the values, and everything. Right now, you can do it with a little bit of custom scripting in addition to eight. But rather than custom scripting, if we can have a direct feature integrated inside this tool, it will be a major achievement. So, it already has that capability, as you can do custom scripting, and you can go ahead with creating your own. But the direct functions are not available. That's where we are lagging behind. However, importing the values or importing the service can be achieved. So, that is where I can see the room for improvement. In this particular area, the entire system can be improved.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."

"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."

"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."

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

"Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities."

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

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

"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."

More Automate pros

"The solution’s performance is good."

"The solution is scalability."

"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."

"One of the most impactful features of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been its one-time setup capability."

"IBM Robotic Process Automation is very easy to use."

"The solution's ease of use is its most valuable aspect."

"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."

"It's not inclusive, in terms of automation, you can just do it standalone, in its own silo. It's not going to force your existing system or teams, your admin teams, to create new IDs for you or even force them to create new services or APIs for you or expose something from there. They can just keep the way they are doing it right now, but you still automate it."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros

"So the best thing is ease of use."

"Redwood has a great feature where it logs every transaction. So, at any point, we can see every step taken for each transaction. It creates an audit trail of the entire process execution. It is a really good feature. This eliminates the need for extra coding or report generation. The audit report is readily available within the tool itself."

"The out-of-the-box finance modules within the Redwood Finance framework help to speed up the process, versus designing and writing generic BOT code."

Cons

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

"The documentation is not that great."

"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."

"I currently have three bugs open with them that I don't know if they are addressed in the new release."

"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."

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

"It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help."

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

More Automate cons

"The product must be promoted more."

"There are certain limitations in the solution for screen reading."

"IBM Robotic Process Automation should be more stable."

"The product's document readers must be improved to capture the data well."

"The time it takes for approvals, and risk analysis could be faster."

"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."

"We can use its inbuilt activities, and it's a complete package, but just like ElectroNeek, a limitation is that we have to depend on its inbuilt activities. We can't include our own activities or we can't introduce other activities."

"IBM should provide specific solutions for specific problems, like templates for invoicing processes, or general templates for creating efficient processes."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons

"The room for balancing improvement lies in automation enhancement with respect to the feature areas, considering dealing directly with Excel and reviewing it to do some additional stuff for it in the end system so that reading the right thing, picking up the values, and everything."

"Mapping the process steps to an existing R2R process quickly would be a definite step forward."

"would like to see AI integration for automation in future releases. Post-automation, I envision a generative AI model. If I could ask the bot questions like the number of invoices or their current status, it should be able to provide answers directly."

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."

"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."

"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 perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."

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

"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 Automate pricing and cost advice

"The license is paid annually."

"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."

"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."

"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."

"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."

"The product has a yearly licensing fee."

"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pricing and cost advice

"The licensing was purely based on the number of transactions being processed in production."

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850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

17%

Educational Organization

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

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...

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...

What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.

What needs improvement with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

The pricing of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) could be improved.

What is your primary use case for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

We usually use IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) ( /products/ibm-robotic-process-automation-rpa-reviews ) to autom...

What do you like most about Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

Redwood has a great feature where it logs every transaction. So, at any point, we can see every step taken for each t...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

The pricing is very client-specific. It's not a one-size-fits-all price. They don't have a single price for everyone....

What needs improvement with Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

Everything seems to be working well. However, I see value in integrating AI for automation. So, I would like to see A...

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Comparisons

Compared 38% of the time

UiPath Platform vs Automate

Compared 35% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 7% of the time

More Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 70% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 11% of the time

UiPath Platform vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 10% of the time

Blue Prism vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 7% of the time

Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Competitors

BlackLine vs Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

Compared 100% of the time

More Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition Competitors

Product Reports

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Automate

May 2025

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Download IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) product report

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) report

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

Download Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition product report

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

IBM RPA

Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition, Redwood Robotics, Redwood Finance Automation

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

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

The volume of repetitive, manual tasks across finance is overwhelming – every day or at the end of every month, quarter or year. Redwood’s finance automation reduces that unnecessary and time-consuming manual effort. We know because our customers tell us that our finance automation solution helps them achieve a much higher degree of back-office process automation compared with alternatives.

Redwood Software

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

The Hanover Insurance Group

ArcelorMittal, Alliant Energy, Allianz, Arla, Bacardi, CPS Energy, DSM, Faurecia, Genetech, Jabil, Jumbo,

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition