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Automation Anywhere vs SmartBear TestComplete vs Visual Studio Test Professional 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 reported varying ROI, with benefits in time savings, productivity, and efficiency, despite diminishing returns over time.
Sentiment score
6.8
SmartBear TestComplete automation saves time, enhances client satisfaction, and boosts efficiency, with annual savings of approximately $10,000.
Sentiment score
7.3
Visual Studio Test Professional boosts productivity and ROI, enhancing development speed and quality, while varying ROI across companies.
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.
Once set up, only one person is needed to handle all tasks, reducing the requirement for multiple personnel.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Automation Anywhere's support is responsive and helpful, despite occasional delays; higher-tier services like Gold are especially praised.
Sentiment score
6.9
SmartBear TestComplete's customer support is knowledgeable but inconsistent, with delays and unresolved issues needing faster escalation and responses.
Sentiment score
7.1
Visual Studio Test Professional's support is well-rated for responsiveness, knowledgeable staff, and helpful resources, despite navigation challenges.
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.
Sometimes, the documentation is not readable, being too long or too detailed and not connected to my problem.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Automation Anywhere offers scalable automation with seamless cloud integration, supporting diverse processes and rapid expansion across environments.
Sentiment score
7.4
SmartBear TestComplete is scalable and adaptable, with flexible scripting, but may require licensing for wider deployment.
Sentiment score
7.5
Visual Studio Test Professional is highly scalable, effectively supporting various team sizes and projects despite cost and infrastructure considerations.
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
7.1
Automation Anywhere shows improved stability and reliability, with occasional challenges in integration or system dependencies noted by users.
Sentiment score
6.9
SmartBear TestComplete generally stable, but users report crashes, memory leaks, and HTML5 testing delays in certain scenarios.
Sentiment score
7.9
Visual Studio Test Professional is generally stable, with updates enhancing reliability, though occasional performance issues are reported.
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

Automation Anywhere users seek enhanced cost-effectiveness, better integrations, improved stability, robust support, and user-friendly interfaces for optimal functionality.
SmartBear TestComplete faces challenges in object recognition, integrations, licensing, performance, and support across browsers and mobile devices.
Visual Studio Test Professional needs improved performance, integration, usability, compatibility, and support for automation and web application testing.
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.
While using SmartBear TestComplete, we are fine with the current capabilities, however, it would be beneficial to improve some performance aspects, especially the image comparison feature.
Sometimes, the library version is not compatible with other libraries, causing errors in my application.
The product needs contextual help integrated within its interface.
The Git extensions are very basic and can be more extensive compared to other software focused on Git, like GitTower or SmartGit.
 

Setup Cost

Automation Anywhere's pricing suits enterprises with flexible negotiations, but high costs deter small businesses, especially for advanced features.
SmartBear TestComplete's pricing and licensing receive mixed reviews, seen as both reasonable and costly depending on usage and modules.
Visual Studio Test Professional is costly but offers competitive value, priced at $52 monthly per user, with multi-user discounts.
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.
The price is expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Automation Anywhere offers user-friendly automation with cognitive tools, seamless integration, and scalability for efficient task management and productivity.
SmartBear TestComplete excels in cross-platform automation, integration, and support for multiple languages, enhancing automated testing efficiency and maintenance.
Visual Studio Test Professional excels in code testing, user interface, integration, debugging, and scalability for efficient software development.
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 most valuable feature of SmartBear TestComplete for me is the image comparison functionality.
It supports cross-platform functionality.
Visual Studio Test Professional is highly valuable because it provides extensive extensions and plugins that assist in measuring code quality.
 

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.
Prakhar Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for integration automation, user-based automation, and web automation
The solution's most valuable features are the drag-and-drop feature, keyword-driven approach, and reusability of the scripts. The solution has introduced a new feature that helps us identify objects we cannot normally identify. It gives you a fair idea of objects, resolving the object recognition issue. The solution can be used to perform different tests on different machines.
CharlesChang - PeerSpot reviewer
Valuable performance and libraries but needs compatibility improvements
We use Visual Studio Test Professional to develop our internal applications for our company The performance of Visual Studio Test Professional is valuable. Additionally, there are many libraries that I can use, and it supports cross-platform functionality. Visual Studio Test Professional is…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
 

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 ver...
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 applic...
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.
What do you like most about SmartBear TestComplete?
TestComplete has strong reporting capabilities. The reports they generate are really good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartBear TestComplete?
I am not involved in pricing or licensing; our management team handles these aspects.
What needs improvement with SmartBear TestComplete?
While using SmartBear TestComplete, we are fine with the current capabilities, however, it would be beneficial to imp...
What do you like most about Visual Studio Test Professional?
The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and availability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Studio Test Professional?
The tool is free, resulting in no costs associated with its use. The absence of price makes it cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Visual Studio Test Professional?
The product needs contextual help integrated within its interface. Currently, I need to search online to find out how...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Cisco, J.P. Morgan, Boeing, McAfee, EMC, Intuit, and Thomson Reuters.
Transport for Greater Manchester, Ordina, Bluegarden A/S, CLEAResult, Jet.com, OSIsoft, Australian Taxation Office, BookedOut, Tracasa
Find out what your peers are saying about Tricentis, OpenText, Katalon Studio and others in Regression Testing Tools. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.