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Automation Anywhere vs IBM Business Automation Workflow 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
7.2
Automation Anywhere users report savings and productivity gains, with ROI varying by application and industry context over time.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM Business Automation Workflow enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and accelerates digital transformation for improved ROI and user experience.
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.
Initially performed manually, workflows now provide a better user experience and increased efficiency.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere offers responsive, knowledgeable support with quick resolutions, 24/7 availability, and personalized assistance, though complex responsiveness could improve.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM Business Automation Workflow's support has mixed reviews, but many find value once acquainted with their processes.
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.
If the solution is readily available to IBM support team, they provide it instantly.
IBM provides long-term support and maintains a traditionally good customer-vendor relationship.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Automation Anywhere offers scalable, flexible solutions with centralized management, seamless integration, and efficient resource optimization for cloud and on-premises environments.
Sentiment score
7.8
IBM Business Automation Workflow is highly scalable, supporting extensive transactions, concurrent users, and both cloud and on-premises deployments.
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.
We are implementing load balancing and horizontal scalability.
We can manage the license usage and scale our environment while optimizing license use.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere's stability improves with setup and management but faces challenges with upgrades, complex scenarios, and legacy integrations.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM Business Automation Workflow is stable, with minor bugs, improving over time; users rate stability highly due to IBM's robust infrastructure.
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.
Outside of these maintenance periods, the environment is quite stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Automation Anywhere users seek enhanced cost-effectiveness, better integrations, improved stability, robust support, and user-friendly interfaces for optimal functionality.
IBM Business Automation Workflow needs improved integration, usability, cloud features, and support to enhance user experience and modernize the platform.
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.
Many developments are focused on AI, LLM models, and data science.
IBM Business Automation Workflow could be more intuitive, with more advanced low-code features and services definition.
Code management lacks merging capabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Automation Anywhere's pricing is high, with potential discounts, but clarity and licensing improvements are needed for small businesses.
IBM Business Automation Workflow is costly but offers high-quality features, flexible licensing, and worthwhile enterprise-level capabilities.
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.
It is not a cheap license but in line with expectations for such software.
The price of IBM Business Automation Workflow is on the higher side compared to the features it offers.
 

Valuable Features

Automation Anywhere offers user-friendly automation with cognitive tools, seamless integration, and scalability for efficient task management and productivity.
IBM Business Automation Workflow offers agile, user-friendly workflow solutions with RPA integration, enhancing collaboration, customization, and AI-driven processes.
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.
The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant.
It assisted in making users concentrate on the process flow rather than just features.
It offers robust workflow features and, despite being a low-code tool, provides extensive customization options.
 

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
591
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (2nd), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (3rd), Agentic Automation (1st)
IBM Business Automation Wor...
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.2%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Q&A Highlights

WS
May 25, 2022
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable features empower seamless workflow automation
The system is fully customizable, very resilient, and fault-tolerant. We have first-line support from IBM, so there are no issues. We have integrations with different banks, ERP systems, and other human resource management systems by integrating through different systems. It provides many ways to integrate, and we are utilizing it effectively.
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Answers from the Community

WS
May 25, 2022
May 25, 2022
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 a...
2 out of 6 answers
DR
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.
JF
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.  
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
35%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What do you like most about IBM Business Automation Workflow?
It performs the basic tasks that are required for the BBM solution as part of the overall integration with ECM or enterprise contact management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Business Automation Workflow?
The price of IBM Business Automation Workflow is on the higher side compared to the features it offers.
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise
Business Automation Workflow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Key Bank, Barclays, Control€xpert, MIR Insurance Brokers, Conqord Oil
Find out what your peers are saying about Automation Anywhere vs. IBM Business Automation Workflow and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.