IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs UiPath comparison

IBM and UiPath are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. IBM is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.8, while UiPath is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. IBM holds a 1.9% mindshare in RPA, compared to UiPath’s 26.5% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of UiPath users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

UiPath and IBM Robotic Process Automation compete in automation solutions. IBM presents a superior product for enterprises due to its robust features, while UiPath is attractive for businesses focusing on cost efficiency with competitive pricing and strong support.

Features: UiPath offers scalability, AI integration, and user-friendly design for rapid deployment and operation. IBM RPA provides strong security and integration features, suitable for businesses requiring comprehensive automation solutions with seamless application integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: UiPath supports a cloud-based deployment model for quick implementation and flexibility, with responsive and accessible customer service. IBM RPA allows both on-premise and cloud options, offering customizable deployment with potentially longer setup times and emphasizes personalized support for larger projects.

Pricing and ROI: UiPath is noted for lower setup costs and quicker ROI, appealing to organizations concerned with initial budgeting and rapid benefits. IBM RPA involves higher initial costs but its extensive features justify investment for companies needing deep integration and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. UiPath Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. UiPath

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 January 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 1.9%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UiPath is 26.5%, up from 26.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Q&A Highlights

Walter Sitoe

General Director at BCI

May 25, 2022

IBM digital business automation with UiPath vs IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere?

Sincerely we are just using UiPath, I haven't tryied Automation Anywhere however I've heard it's easy to use too.

See all answers

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at Software Greenhouse

Can automate several processes with only one bot and is easy to implement, administer, and use

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 can automate several processes with only one bot, so it's much cheaper than other products where you need to buy additional licenses. We need a good value for our automation. The other solutions might be more robust, but Automate is perfect for us because we're not a large enterprise.

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Karinne Carnevalli De Almeida

Consultant at Universidade Federal Fluminense

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.

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Navinkumar Sadasivam.

Senior Software Engineer at Tata Consultancy

Reduces the cost of digital transformation and helps our client reduce their on-premises footprint

Building automation using UiPath is easy and in most cases can be done with a single click. There is no need to write coding. We can insert and delete columns or remove duplicate frames easily. We have already implemented a couple of solutions, one of which is a maintenance automation database. The users of the database want to send emails with attached files and other artifacts, and previously this was done manually. Each day, up to 300-500 items were manually processed by 50-60 people who would navigate to a separate application, search for the file, upload it, and send the email. This was a tedious task and accuracy and reliability were questionable, requiring manual verification. This process was repeated monthly for around 10,000-12,000 items, taking around 25-30 days to complete. We automated this process and provided a high-level solution initially, which was later built, bought, and deployed. The bot we created is capable of processing 900-950 items per day, meaning that all 10,000 items can be processed within eight to ten days. This reduces the processing time by one-third and the cost from 100 to around 12 months, as we only need three to four rotational shifts to monitor the bot. Sometimes the bot may disconnect or encounter issues beyond our control, but we address these promptly to reinstate the process. This is the work we are doing in our organization. End-to-end automation is a crucial aspect of completing tasks within the specified time frame. Clients do not want to wait for extended periods, such as a month or two, and prefer to see progress at least one-third or one-fourth of the way through. This ensures that clients are not preoccupied with a single task and can focus on improving their business while also increasing accuracy. UiPath aims to provide clients with a high return on investment from both the software build and business development perspectives. This is achieved by delivering effective solutions that meet clients' needs. We are satisfied with UiPath's community. Occasionally, we encounter some queries or doubts, such as whether we should use a particular feature or MAC code, or whether we can use a certain file. While we cannot always rely on direct support for such minor issues, we found that the UiPath community can be a helpful resource. We search for similar issues that other users may have faced and posted about, and we often find solutions to our questions in a timely manner. Overall, we find the UiPath community to be effective and useful. UiPath has helped our client reduce their on-premises footprint. This decision is purely based on the client's interests and has nothing to do with our personal or company interests. Generally, clients prefer cloud integration as they want their systems to be up and running 99.9 percent of the time. However, sometimes they may opt for on-premises solutions based on the CDRT of a particular application, which refers to the sensitivity of the data involved. We have some limited automation that deals with sensitive information, such as credit-related automation, which the client cannot access. In such cases, clients may prefer an on-premises solution, but overall, cloud integration is becoming more important. With the implementation of AI, we can utilize UiPath for automation, which is more dependable. UiPath reduces the cost of digital transformation. Our clients are highly satisfied with the nearly 99 percent reduction in human error achieved through the use of UiPath. This includes both individual and team errors. However, during the development phase, some human input was necessary to create rules for the bot to follow. Any potential issues were identified and resolved during testing by our IT and testing teams. Overall, our clients are pleased with the system's reliability and performance.

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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."

"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."

"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 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."

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

"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 pricing is excellent. I would give them perfect marks in that regard."

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

More Fortra's Automate pros

"The solution is very user-friendly."

"The solution’s performance is good."

"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 user-friendly; even non-technical people can program bots using drag-and-drop functionalities."

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

"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 feature I found most valuable is the TCO."

"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."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros

"UiPath is a low-code solution that allows us to build automations fairly quickly and see the results promptly."

"The ease of use of Studio is valuable. In terms of features, Excel Application Scope, web automation suite of products, and screen scraping are the features I use the most."

"UiPath's most valuable feature is its ability to view and extract any data throughout the entire development process in the automation framework."

"The most valuable aspect of UiPath is the fact that it's a low-code platform. Being able to use a low-code platform really lowers the barrier entry of introducing automation. Normally, you fill in a request to go to IT to get a development resource allocated, and then you spend six months trying to do a project. Because UiPath is a bit of a platform, you can quickly, within weeks, start to knock off automation and get it checked and then successfully deployed. The low-code development environment is key for us."

"The artificial intelligence and document understanding features are very good and have been helpful when it comes to processing handwritten or unstructured, especially when there is a high volume and it is repetitive."

"The overall UiPath platform, including the Orchestrator, Studio, and the robots, is valuable. UiPath's competitors don't do orchestration as well."

"The feature that I like the most is the Document Understanding for extracting information from PDFs."

"if you are a business user, even if you don't have a technical team, you can install the second version of the Community edition, which is StudioX. This is specifically made for business people who don't have a lot of ideas about technicalities. This is a great feature."

More UiPath pros

Cons

"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 product also has a limited use case in some respects."

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

"The documentation is not that great."

"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."

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

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

"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."

More Fortra's Automate cons

"I would like to improve the efficiency of this solution and the Surface Level Agreement."

"Stability could be better."

"We would like a decreased need for customer support."

"The users should be allowed to create folders in Control Center."

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

"The scalability of the solution can be challenging."

"This RPA should be under the umbrella of BPM. This is what the future should be."

"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."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons

"Optical character recognition for hand written documents could be improved."

"My biggest problem is that UiPath is growing so fast and adding integration with so many different products that it's hard to keep up. The COEs at various companies and our developers aren't able to keep pace with what's happening. It's a good problem to have. I'm not complaining, but there are so many features and little time for developers to learn and implement them."

"I think the only issue we have faced is with the upgrade compatibility."

"There should be more growth, but the platform is there. As they grow those things they should take each piece and make it better. If you start with a good platform and you build it up, it's going to get better. What we have today is very usable, and is only going to get better. I look forward to it."

"An area which the UiPath team is rapidly working on is machine learning and artificial intelligence. At the moment, it is a little difficult to understand. If they could add some more training on it in their Academy, it would help customers to learn about these features."

"I would like a better ability to connect and integrate with other software systems."

"They recently addressed a major problem of kick-off processes for the integration function. That addressed a lot of the community concerns around that. If you are using queues, their queue system isn't as reliable as I would like it to be."

"Orchestrator needs to have better integration to include business users."

More UiPath 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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

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

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

"The license is paid annually."

"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The product has a yearly licensing fee."

"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."

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

"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."

"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."

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

"On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most expensive, I would rate the price an eight out of ten."

"It is expensive. Every product or component is built separately. All the components have a separate fee. UiPath Studio has a license cost. The cloud has a license cost, and bots have a license cost. These costs are recurring on a yearly basis. So, every product or component has to be licensed for a year, and on expiry, you have to renew it. Their licensing structure should be improved. The cost of a bot is a lot. It is more expensive as compared to some of the competitors. It is probably $8,000 for an unattended bot."

"Overall, I think that the pricing is reasonable and it is similar to competitors."

"The price for the attended bot is between $1,800 and $3,000. The unattended bot was $8,000 last year. Orchestrator is around $20,000."

"I rate UiPath a five out of ten for affordability. UiPath costs a bit more than other tools like Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere."

"The Community Edition is free for everyone and you get all the features, but there is a limitation on the number of bots. The Enterprise Edition is a bit costly for the advanced features."

"Given how cheap it is to initially buy the product, the licensing methodology that they have in terms of renewing every year is appropriate. Later on, if they start charging more early on, for deployment, buying the license, and deploying it initially, then having a lower maintenance fee might be more appropriate. Now, with the scale they are at, it is an appropriate way to do the licensing."

"UiPath is a pretty expensive tool compared to what the market offers, including open-source alternatives that can do similar things."

More UiPath pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Walter Sitoe

General Director at BCI

May 25, 2022

IBM digital business automation with UiPath vs IBM RPA with Automation Anywhere?

2 out of 6 answers

Daniel Robus

Go To Market Executive at #Liferocks Consulting

Nov 3, 2020

My question to you would be - Why are you mixing the two vendors? Do you have licenses for both and are trying to maximize investment? If you have IBM automation you probably have other IBM technology - let the IBM automation run on that as its integration is a little more complicated than UiPath and may cost you time in execution. If you have both IBM and UiPath then I would use UiPath for any areas that are not integral to the IBM technology or systems. I would need to know a little more about your strategy before giving a definitive answer to your question but all 3 are good technical foundations depending on the scenario.

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Jack Frano

Principal at Adaptive Growth, Inc

Jul 6, 2021

Although I've worked with UiPath (not Automation Anywhere), my experience is now solely with AutoMate from Help Systems. I would recommend aligning IBM's digital business automation with Robotic Process Automation and how it works. It seems to be a very different tool from RPA. If programming is required in the use of IBM's digital business automation go with RPA.

Read full answer

See all 6 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

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.

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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...

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.

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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...

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Best RPA tools for IBM iSeries

I can only speak to UiPath since that is the only RPA solution that I have used. I know that there are specific packa...

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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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Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 48% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 7% of the time

Blue Prism vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

MOVEit vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 41% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 22% of the time

Blue Prism vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 10% of the time

Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs UiPath

Compared 29% of the time

Blue Prism vs UiPath

Compared 14% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs UiPath

Compared 11% of the time

Robocorp vs UiPath

Compared 6% of the time

Laiye UiBot vs UiPath

Compared 1% of the time

More UiPath Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

January 2025

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

January 2025

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) report

Download IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) product report

Buyer's Guide

UiPath

December 2024

Download UiPath product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

IBM RPA

No data available

Learn More

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Fortra

IBM

UiPath

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.

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.

UiPath is a user-friendly automation software that streamlines business processes by automating repetitive tasks. It offers extensive automation capabilities, seamless integration with other systems, and robust security measures.

Users appreciate its intuitive design, ease of use, and ability to automate complex workflows.

Its seamless integration with various applications ensures smooth data exchange and enhances workflow management, while strong security measures protect sensitive data and maintain compliance with industry standards.

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

1. Accenture 2. Deloitte 3. PwC 4. IBM 5. Capgemini 6. KPMG 7. Ernst & Young 8. Infosys 9. Cognizant 10. Wipro 11. Tata Consultancy Services 12. HCL Technologies 13. Genpact 14. Tech Mahindra 15. DXC Technology 16. Atos 17. NTT Data 18. CGI 19. L&T Infotech 20. Hexaware Technologies 21. Mindtree 22. Mphasis 23. Virtusa 24. Syntel 25. Zensar Technologies 26. WNS Global Services 27. Hexaware Technologies 28. Larsen & Toubro Infotech 29. Persistent Systems 30. QuEST Global 31. Sonata Software 32. Zensar Technologies

Buyer's Guide

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. UiPath

January 2025

Free Report: IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. UiPath

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. UiPath and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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