ActiveBatch by Redwood vs BizTalk Server comparison

ActiveBatch by Redwood and Microsoft are both solutions in the Process Automation category. ActiveBatch by Redwood is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.4, while Microsoft is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.1. ActiveBatch by Redwood holds a 0.6% mindshare in PA, compared to Microsoft’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ActiveBatch by Redwood users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

ActiveBatch by Redwood

Read 35 ActiveBatch by Redwood reviews

532 Views
177 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

BizTalk Server

Read 14 BizTalk Server reviews

495 Views
124 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

ActiveBatch by Redwood

BizTalk Server

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

BizTalk Server and ActiveBatch by Redwood are workflow automation solutions that compete in the business orchestration space. ActiveBatch holds a slight edge due to its comprehensive scheduling and automation capabilities, favored by those needing robust task handling across environments.

Features: BizTalk Server's integration features include supporting a broad range of protocols, seamless system communications, and advanced messaging capabilities. ActiveBatch stands out with its powerful workload scheduling, ability to manage complex workflows, and single-pane visibility for task automation across various platforms.

Room for Improvement: BizTalk Server could benefit from simplifying its deployment process and reducing entry costs. Enhancing user-friendliness is another potential area. ActiveBatch needs more intuitive customization options and improved interface updates. Enhanced built-in tutorials and guides for new users would also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BizTalk Server’s deployment can be intricate due to its complex integrations, although it has detailed documentation. ActiveBatch offers a more streamlined deployment with strong customer support focused on simplifying automation, distinguishing it through ease of use and support.

Pricing and ROI: BizTalk Server generally incurs higher initial setup costs due to its extensive integration capabilities but offers significant ROI in integration-heavy environments. ActiveBatch provides competitive pricing and clear ROI by optimizing resources and automation efficiencies, making it a cost-effective choice for comprehensive automation needs.

To learn more, read our detailed ActiveBatch by Redwood vs. BizTalk Server Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs. BizTalk Server

June 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

ActiveBatch by Redwood

Ranking in Process Automation

9th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Managed File Transfer (MFT) (11th), Workload Automation (8th)

BizTalk Server

Ranking in Process Automation

14th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of ActiveBatch by Redwood is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BizTalk Server is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Shubham Bharti

Senior Analyst at Capgemini

Flexible, easy to use, and offers good automation

Occasionally, I find myself contemplating if there is room for improvement in the user interface (UI), and envisioning that with certain enhancements. The UI could potentially offer a more refined and user-friendly experience, fostering smoother interactions and facilitating easier navigation for users engaging with the application. New users might encounter a minor setback due to the absence of readily accessible training videos, which could have otherwise proven to be an invaluable resource in aiding their initial familiarization with the platform, potentially hindering their seamless onboarding process and delaying their ability to harness the software's full range of capabilities to its utmost potential.

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Vignesh Kumar Sekar

Senior Analyst at Sword Group

Enables message routing and provides a secure way to communicate between two systems

The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes. It enables a handshake with the source and target systems using certificates. It is the most secure way of communicating between two systems. It is an advantage. We can do a lot of message routing. If we want to handle large data, we can put the data into different patterns to process it. We can do it through sequential convoy or parallel convoy orchestration. BizTalk comes with SQL Server. We can load temporary data in the database and use the batch process from BizTalk. It is an added advantage. Creating agreements is a manual job, but it's quite easy in BizTalk. Even a fresh college graduate can configure AS2 certificates and partner profiles and communicate with other systems. It is easy.

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

"The user interface is really incredible."

"Since we are no longer waiting for an operator to see that a job is finished, we have changed our daily cycle from running in eight hours down to about five. We had a third shift-operator retire and that position was never refilled."

"ActiveBatch provides summary reports and logs for further analysis and improvements in monitoring servers, which is very handy."

"As far as centralization goes it's nice because we can see all these processes that are tied to this larger process. The commissions, FTP processing, the reporting, the file moves to the business users — all that is right there. It's very easy to read. It's easy to tie it together, visually, and see where each of these steps fits into the bigger picture."

"The Jobs Library has been a tremendous asset. For the most, that's what we use. There are some outliers, but we pretty much integrate those Jobs Library steps throughout the process, whether it's REST calls, FTP processes, or file copies and moves... That has helped us to build end-to-end workflows."

"ActiveBatch helped us automate and schedule routine tasks such as data backups, file transfers, database updates, and report generation, which frees IT staff to focus on other studies."

"The most valuable feature is its stability. We've only had very minor issues and generally they have happened because someone has applied a patch on a Windows operating system and it has caused some grief. We've actually been able to resolve those issues quite quickly with ActiveBatch. In all the time that I've had use of ActiveBatch, it hasn't failed completely once. Uptime is almost 100 percent."

"The product offers a centralized platform for managing activities across many environments, applications, etc."

More ActiveBatch by Redwood pros

"The AS2 communication protocol is one of the most advanced processes."

"We can handle a large number of messages without any issues, ensuring that everything runs smoothly."

"Essentially, you can do whatever you like with these systems, and you do not have to take care about the scaling because if one server is overloaded, it just forwards the message to the next server, even if it were designated to a specific server. It weeds out the messages according to the load. If you want to scale it, you just add new servers."

"The most valuable feature is its reliability and stability. The first version of BizTalk was released in 2000, and many companies still use it. It was stable until 2013 when we had support."

"Compared to the current solutions I use, like Azure Logic Apps and other cloud services, BizTalk was far better and more reliable."

"I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of BizTalk Server is that it will turn XML into flexible transactions."

"BizTalk Server offers workflow functionality that I find very effective for process automation."

More BizTalk Server pros

Cons

"There are very few documents that provide us with detailed information on the troubleshooting of errors that occur during integration with the existing environment."

"They have some crucial design flaws within the console that still need to be worked out because it is not working exactly how we hoped to see it, e.g., just some minor things where when you hit the save button, then all of a sudden all your job's library items collapse. Then, in order to continue on with your testing, you have to open those back up. I have taken that to them, and they are like, "Yep. We know about it. We know we have some enhancements that need to be taken care of. We have more developers now." They are working towards taking the minor things that annoy us, resolving them, and getting them fixed."

"Except for the GUI, everything looks good."

"The help center and documentation are not that helpful."

"One thing I've noticed is that navigation can be difficult unless you are familiar with the structure that we have in place. If someone else had to look at our ActiveBatch console and find a job, they might not know where to find it."

"The documentation is very limited, and it can be improved."

"ActiveBatch is a little complex."

"There is this back and forth, where ActiveBatch says, "Your Oracle people should be dealing with this," and Oracle people say, "No, we don't know anything about ActiveBatch." Then, it all falls back on me as to what happens. Nobody is taking responsibility. This is the biggest failing for ActiveBatch."

More ActiveBatch by Redwood cons

"BizTalk Server is an outdated legacy system that does not support messaging."

"The product could be improved in monitoring, managing, and support functionalities."

"BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages."

"BizTalk lacks native cloud support. BizTalk doesn't offer in-built support for cloud. We need to use third-party adapters to connect it to cloud services."

"It's an on-premises system, requiring physical servers for deployment. This is different from Azure; you don't need any servers with Azure. If you have a subscription, you can do whatever you want. There are unit restrictions based on the environment (like non-production vs. production) in BizTalk. You need physical servers and databases. In Azure, those are not required – it's all in the cloud."

"The product's deployment can be quicker"

"Updating things in BizTalk is a headache."

"BizTalk is in the past, Microsoft is not going to evolve it any further or add any new features."

More BizTalk Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price was fairly in line with other automation tools. I don't think it's exorbitantly expensive, relatively speaking."

"I like ActiveBatch Workload Automation's licensing model because they're not holding you down on an agentless model or agent model, where every server needs to have an agent. That's the main selling point of the solution and I hope they stay that way."

"Currently, we are paying approximately $7,000 yearly, which includes support."

"The pricing was fair. There are additional costs for the plugins. We have the standard licensing fees for different pieces, then we have the plugins which were add-ons. However, we expected that."

"I don't think we've ever had a problem with the pricing or licensing. Even the maintenance fees are very much in line. They are not excessive. I think for the support that you get, you get a good value for your money. It's the best value on the market."

"If you compare ActiveBatch licensing to Control-M, you're looking at $50,000 as opposed to millions."

"It allows for lower operational overhead."

"ActiveBatch is currently redesigning themselves. In the past, they were a low cost solution for automation. They had a nice tool that was very inexpensive. With their five-year plan, they will be more enhancement-driven, so they're trying to improve their software, customer service, and the way that their customers get information from them. In doing that, they're raising the price of their base system. They changed from one pricing model to another, which has caused some friction between ActiveBatch and us. We're working through that right now with them. That's one of the reasons why we're why we were evaluating other software packages."

"Based on the knowledge, it is relatively cheaper than Azure Identity Services and cloud services in general."

"It was not cheap, but it was affordable."

"BizTalk Server is not freeware. There's a significant licensing cost involved. Be sure you will actually utilize its features fully."

"The cost will depend on the client's requirements."

"The solution is expensive."

"BizTalk Server is cheap. I would rate its pricing a two out of five."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ActiveBatch Workload Automation?

Managing the workload and monitoring the tasks were very difficult with manual interventions. Now, by using ActiveBatch, the process is automated and it runs tasks on a scheduled basis.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ActiveBatch Workload Automation?

I'd advise users to start by knowing what the actual requirement is and thoroughly assess the automation needs. New users should take advantage of the demos and trial versions so they get an idea o...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ActiveBatch Workload Automation?

After upgrades we are facing a few issues and errors triggered, so focusing on this would be appreciated. Some of the advanced features in the user interface are a bit confusing even after referrin...

See all answers

What do you like most about BizTalk Server?

The tool's most valuable feature is its integration with the banks. Its messaging and routing capabilities are good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with BizTalk Server?

BizTalk Server needs improvements, especially because we use it for EDI messaging, and it would be very useful to have enhanced tracking capabilities for message tracking and archiving of messages....

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering BizTalk Server?

BizTalk Server has adapted to the changing needs of business over time with steady development, but there are new requirements, for example, on APIs, application programming interfaces. That functi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Control-M vs ActiveBatch by Redwood

Compared 18% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs ActiveBatch by Redwood

Compared 13% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs ActiveBatch by Redwood

Compared 11% of the time

Stonebranch vs ActiveBatch by Redwood

Compared 10% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs ActiveBatch by Redwood

Compared 9% of the time

More ActiveBatch by Redwood Competitors

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs BizTalk Server

Compared 17% of the time

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs BizTalk Server

Compared 13% of the time

Camunda vs BizTalk Server

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services vs BizTalk Server

Compared 11% of the time

Control-M vs BizTalk Server

Compared 8% of the time

More BizTalk Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ActiveBatch by Redwood

June 2025

Download ActiveBatch by Redwood product report

Buyer's Guide

BizTalk Server

June 2025

Download BizTalk Server product report

Also Known As

ActiveBatch

No data available

Overview

ActiveBatch by Redwood automates and manages batch processes, data integration tasks, and workflow scheduling. It's used for file transfers, data processing, server monitoring, and report generation, supporting both on-prem and cloud environments.

Organizations implement ActiveBatch by Redwood to automate complex job scheduling and data workflows, integrating seamlessly with FTP, SQL, PowerShell, and other systems. With features like real-time monitoring, error handling, and centralized management, users can significantly boost productivity while minimizing manual intervention. Its flexibility in supporting on-premises and cloud environments makes it adaptable for diverse IT landscapes. The tool simplifies workflow orchestration with an extensive library of pre-built steps and robust API integrations, ensuring efficiency in handling various workloads.

What are ActiveBatch by Redwood's key features?

Job automation: Automates routine and complex jobs.
Real-time monitoring: Offers instant insights into job performance.
Customizable workflows: Tailors workflows to specific business needs.
PowerShell integration: Supports advanced script execution.
Job triggering: Initiates tasks based on specific conditions.
File handling: Manages file transfers and processing efficiently.
Server management: Monitors and handles server tasks consistently.
API integration: Connects with various applications for streamlined operations.
Alerting: Provides notifications for critical job events.
Flexible scheduling: Enables detailed and adaptable job scheduling.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Centralized management: Simplifies oversight of all processes.
Productivity boost: Reduces manual effort and errors.
Time savings: Accelerates task completion and workflow execution.
Comprehensive visibility: Enhances monitoring of all job activities.
Reliable performance: Ensures consistent task execution.
Scalability: Adapts to growing business and IT needs.

In various industries, ActiveBatch by Redwood is used to streamline operations, whether in finance handling large-scale data processing, healthcare managing patient records, or retail optimizing supply chains. It addresses specific needs by offering robust automation, efficient job scheduling, and seamless integration with existing systems, driving operational excellence and efficiency.

ActiveBatch by Redwood

Connects systems both inside and across organizations, exchange data and orchestrate business processes across multiple systems.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Informatica, D&H, ACES, PrimeSource, Sub-Zero Group, SThree, Lamar Advertising, Subway, Xcel Energy, Ignite Technologies, Whataburger, Jyske Bank, Omaha Children's Hospital

Centrebet, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, QualCare, Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, DTEK, Allscripts, United BioSource, Hogg Robinson

Buyer's Guide

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs. BizTalk Server

June 2025

Free Report: ActiveBatch by Redwood vs. BizTalk Server

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