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Apache Airflow vs Automation Anywhere 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Apache Airflow offers high ROI due to open-source features, Python integration, and efficient pipeline building, though measurement varies.
Sentiment score
6.8
Organizations experience mixed returns with Automation Anywhere, noting both financial and non-financial benefits, with varying timelines for success.
In terms of cost, we participated in projects achieving two to three million dollars in annual savings.
As a return on investment, we have achieved a 250% ROI in six to nine months, and sometimes it increases up to 380% percent.
Automation Anywhere has helped us save money.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Users primarily rely on community resources and comprehensive documentation for Apache Airflow, with minimal direct technical assistance needed.
Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere's support is generally helpful but experiences varied response times, with users valuing communication and resources.
There is enough documentation available, and the community support is good.
Forums and community resources like Stack Overflow are helpful.
Whenever we need help, we can reach out to them, and they help us out.
We also have dedicated account managers and technical experts to solve our problems related to Automation Anywhere.
We just have to raise a ticket, after which we receive a call, email, or ping from the Automation Anywhere team.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Apache Airflow is scalable and flexible, ideal for adaptable workflows but may pose challenges in cloud-native integration and large-scale tasks.
Sentiment score
7.3
Automation Anywhere offers scalable solutions with flexible deployment, but faces challenges in cost, hardware needs, and process complexity.
The solution is very scalable.
Apache Airflow scales well, especially when deployed in Kubernetes environments.
As we are using Microsoft Copilot for our AI agents, I look forward to integrating it with Automation Anywhere and its solutions, seeing it as a beneficial partnership as Automation progresses toward AI as the main solution.
For Windows-based applications, it provides UI interface automation, which enhances its scalability.
Automation Anywhere is highly scalable for both horizontal and vertical expansions.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Apache Airflow's stability is praised, though some face bugs, configuration issues, and performance challenges, especially in cloud environments.
Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere is stable but may face issues with integrations and upgrades, reliant on infrastructure and developer skill.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten out of ten.
Apache Airflow is stable and I have not experienced significant issues.
I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.
With the latest applications, there are no significant issues like freezing or crashing.
From a stability and reliability perspective, we can remain confident that the product performs as an enterprise solution and meets expected standards.
If you have good best practices, reusable code, an effective framework, and a solid development methodology, bots can be very stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Airflow needs improvements in flexibility, UI, documentation, scalability, performance, integration, and version control for better workflow orchestration.
Automation Anywhere needs improved integrations, UI, debugging, support, scalability, pricing, and training resources for better adoption.
It is not suitable for real-time ETL tasks.
There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better.
If we desire to add custom messengers or a rest API, those options are unavailable.
It is better to write a Python script instead of using Automation Anywhere's package when dealing with Excel because it is buggy and tends to break.
Making the product more lightweight by reducing its dependency on infrastructure could greatly help in the long run.
It would be beneficial if the platform provided options for power developers to integrate seamlessly with languages like Java or C#, allowing them to write their own scripts and code.
 

Setup Cost

Apache Airflow is free, but enterprises may incur costs using cloud services or managed services for additional features.
Automation Anywhere's extensive features justify higher pricing, but affordability is a concern for SMEs despite flexible licensing options.
I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.
It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
Apache Airflow is a community-based platform and is not a licensed product.
It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms.
Automation Anywhere costs are aligned with UiPath and Blue Prism, which are also expensive.
It is not cheap, with costs ranging between 700 to 800 dollars per month.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Airflow offers customizable, scalable workflows with Python support, seamless integration, and strong community backing for efficiency and maintainability.
Automation Anywhere simplifies bot creation with intuitive tools, AI-driven features, and strong integration, enhancing productivity and process automation.
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform that allows easy integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Reliability is good, and when integrated with Kubernetes, it performs better compared to on-premises environments.
We can create notifications for successful or failed tasks, providing a practical way to monitor our workflows.
I can set it up to provide users with a form to fill in all required information, and then the bot operates based on those specifications.
For example, the email module has been enhanced over the years to support all the latest authentication technologies. That is very important as we move away from username and password and embrace multi-factor authentication.
Automation Anywhere has undergone drastic changes over the past five years, transitioning from version 10 to A360, including desktop-based and cloud-based options.
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Airflow
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Automation Anywhere
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
609
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (2nd), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (3rd), Agentic Automation (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Apache Airflow is 5.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Automation Anywhere0.2%
Apache Airflow5.7%
Other94.1%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Madhan Potluri - PeerSpot reviewer
We efficiently manage and monitor production pipelines through job resumption and error log integration
We utilize Apache Airflow for managing machine learning production pipelines. The deployment of our machine learning models takes place through Apache Airflow. We configure pipelines, decide on the frequency of recalibration, deployment, and dataset training Apache Airflow allows us to resume…
Vatsal Mehta - PeerSpot reviewer
Accommodates diverse use cases and effectively meets customer requirements
AI agents need further improvements. AI agent technology in agentic process automation is still evolving. We have only scratched the surface, and there are many potential use cases yet to be explored. As technology advances, I believe it will enable us to implement more comprehensive automation solutions. Document Automation has issues related to speed. When I compare Document Automation with IQ Bot, IQ Bot is faster than Document Automation. My understanding is that they are still evolving Document Automation, and this issue of slowness will be resolved in the upcoming .35 version, so we are good with that. They are working on signature identification and validations for handwritten documents. Currently, we are able to extract data out of scanned but digital images, but there is still scope for improvement for handwritten documents.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Insurance Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business138
Midsize Enterprise81
Large Enterprise514
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - Camunda Platform or Apache Airflow?
Camunda Platform allows for visual demonstration and presentation of business process flows. The flexible Java-based option was a big win for us and allows for the integration of microservices very...
What do you like most about Apache Airflow?
Apache Airflow is easy to use and can monitor task execution easily. For instance, when performing setup tasks, you can conveniently view the logs without delving into the job details.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Airflow?
We don't experience issues with pricing as Apache Airflow is part of a larger platform. It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is very good in certain situations but lacks in others. For me, it's more the team tha...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applications that AA has limitations for, such as the Oracle. For web-based applicatio...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
 

Also Known As

Airflow
Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Agari, WePay, Astronomer
Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Find out what your peers are saying about Apache Airflow vs. Automation Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.