Automic Automation vs VisualCron comparison

Broadcom and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Workload Automation category. Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while SMA Technologies is ranked #24. Broadcom holds a 5.5% mindshare in WA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SMA Technologies users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Automic Automation and VisualCron based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Workload Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Automic Automation vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Automic Automation vs. VisualCron

June 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 904,054 peers since 2012

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

JAMS

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of JAMS is 3.1%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Automic Automation is 5.5%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Automic Automation	5.5%
JAMS	3.1%
VisualCron	2.0%
Other	89.4%

Workload Automation

Featured Reviews

Latha Viswanathan

Principal Data Base And Infrastructure Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees

Automation has replaced nightly monitoring and delivers reliable, unified job scheduling

We have really enjoyed working with JAMS in terms of notifications, alerts, and streamlining. There used to be a process with Automate, which is another product from Fortra, but even before that, the other division of the company that we were merging with had a tool that was built in-house called a file handler or file distributor. It was an in-house developed tool, but it was not as streamlined or as efficient as JAMS is. We literally had to have a dedicated nighttime person monitoring. Although we are 24/7, the divisions of the company that we were using JAMS for have been small scale. While we have automated it, we have streamlined it in such a way that notifications go out and alerts go out, but if there is anything, then we get paged and alerted, and if anything needs to happen at midnight, we can wake up. On the other hand, with the tool I mentioned, the file handler and distributor, we used to have a dedicated nighttime person that had to be sitting and monitoring it to see when a file arrived, whether it met the conditions, and then execute the next particular job. By using JAMS, we have gained a lot more efficiencies in terms of all of those to streamline it, and there is no necessary need for having an overnight engineer just keeping an eye on all of this.

Read full review

Peter Grundler

Senior Consultant at Tricise

Helps to move away from manual tasks and offers wide platform support and web-based interface

Customers want to move away from manual monitoring and checking processes. Automating these processes helps in time-saving and reduces human error. When you automate business processes, it reduces mistakes. It eliminates the risk of manual errors such as typos. There is a 20% to 30% reduction in human error. It fulfills all the needs when it comes to visibility and control across various operating platforms. It is the perfect product for managing processes that span multiple operating platforms. Automic Automation has the widest platform support compared to other products, such as Control-M, Tivoli from IBM, or Stonebranch. It definitely helps with compliance processes. We have had a lot of customers for two years with a focus on compliance, and it works. They were successful. Due to the fact that our customers can automate a lot of things, it reduces operating costs. It is hard to give a number because the savings are different for each customer. If a customer never had any automation, there could be about 80% savings after implementing Automic Automation, whereas for a customer who already has automated tasks, the difference will be less by adding Automic Automation. They might see 5% to 10% more savings. Automic Automation helps improve our ability to meet SLAs. In the recent versions, SLA management has been integrated, which previously was an external component. Because a lot of customers used it and asked Broadcom to implement SLA management into the workload engine, Broadcom included it. We see more and more customers running their SLA management via the Automic Automation product.

Read full review

Sourav-Dutta

Technical Lead - Database Administrator at SMART ENERGY SYSTEMS LLC

It's user-friendly, and I didn't need long to understand the process

We use VisualCron for all our automation needs, like connecting to FileZilla, calling APIs, generating PGP keys, creating encryption files with the PGP key login to Azure, etc. It can automatically log in to SQL Server and execute SQL script jobs in bulk. We had 2,000-3,000 users at my previous…

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

"It has definitely drastically improved our capabilities to scale our automation. Before JAMS, there were a lot of manual processes. We had a couple of operators who spent all day doing that. A lot of the time with human intervention and human processes, it is as good as the person who may be following a procedure and human error is a big problem."

"The fact that we no longer need to use Excel spreadsheets is huge. Before JAMS, every group was keeping track of their own batch jobs. Nobody really knew what the other jobs were. So, if jobs failed, other groups wouldn't necessarily know. With JAMS, everything is done through a single scheduler. You can choose who to notify."

"In summary, this product is top class."

"I like how you can add new execution methods on the fly. It isn't overly complex to add Python script support to an execution method in the JAMS system. The scheduling is excellent. You can schedule a maintenance window and take that resource unit out of everything. It halts all of the jobs."

"I find the historical tracking feature of JAMS invaluable for reviewing past events."

"The planning capabilities are most valuable."

"We also use the solution’s Interactive Agents. If we need to push something to our dealer portal, we can just drop a file in a folder and it goes. Running interactive tasks helps me users focus on business processes since I don’t have to take care of running the jobs manually."

"We have over 50 jobs running daily to manage all the integration of our systems and we don’t have to monitor these jobs; they just run, JAMS centralizes the management of jobs in our environment, has streamlined our monitoring, saves us about four hours a week in troubleshooting time, and has helped free up about eight hours a week of IT staff time."

More JAMS pros

"People are called back five minutes after I establish a ticket or incident. They are often doing WebEx and web sessions to get to the point."

"One of the big features that they did implement, that a lot of people, us included, were asking for for a long time, is the ability to do zero downtime upgrades. They have introduced that."

"Look at it and test it, because it is a very good product."

"It will increase all delivery due to an impact on efficiency, in terms of time and faster resources."

"The most valuable features are that a lot systems are supported. You can use this for z/OS, Windows, Unix, SAP, etc."

"We have seen a cost improvement from it."

"The reason we went with Automic is very simple; we were using ESP, which was a Broadcom product, so Automic happened to be a natural fit and it was a much easier transition from ESP to Automic because we had familiarity with the vendor and the product."

"They just talked about adding support for hundreds of thousands of agents, and I know it goes up to about a thousand clients per engine, so you can do a lot with that. It's a very scalable solution."

More Automic Automation pros

"What I found most beneficial from VisualCron is that you can directly connect it with different databases, user accounts, and credentials. You can run queries from one machine to another using the credentials, unlike PowerShell, that's run by the machine itself. With VisualCron, you can directly ask other machines and run requests through user credentials. Suppose you have an AWS or Azure environment. In that case, you can maintain the connection between on-premises and cloud-based machines, which is the type of setup in the organization I'm working for. You can directly call some of the services via VisualCron on your local on-premises machine, and I found that an excellent feature of the tool."

"The ability to clone jobs to shorten the time it takes to implement a process has been invaluable, but its flexibility also gives us the ability to create a job that can handle a multifaceted process with a complex workflow."

"The most valuable feature of VisualCron is its ability to schedule interactive jobs so that you can have interdependencies within the job and interdependencies of a job on another job, and so on."

"VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain."

"VisualCronv is currently handling so many different critical processes for our company, it's become a key factor in our livelihood and success."

"What I like about VisualCron is that like its name, it's a very visual tool. In my previous company, there were a lot of scripts for all kinds of services, and through VisualCron, you get to group all flows and get a nice visual overview. VisualCron also has an alerting feature, so you receive alerts from it. VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain. Every other solution that I was looking for almost always needed a programmer, but with VisualCron, you can do what you need to do without programming skills, so this is another valuable feature of the tool."

"I love VisualCron because we previously spent a lot of time writing Power switches to connect to SQL Server. VisualCron makes it easier to execute services or connect to FileZilla by only adding the credentials to the master credentials stored in the solution."

"We don't have to do any coding. We just plug and play and it works."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"If around 5,000 or more jobs run at a time, JAMS slows down, and we have to wait around five to 10 minutes or restart JAMS scheduler services."

"Sometimes the UI is not the most responsive I've ever used. But because it does its job, I don't complain."

"I would like to see the ability to interface with Microsoft group-managed service accounts, but they're still in the research phase. They need to ensure everything's legit and safe. The report designer and dashboards could also be improved. We're running 7.3, so I don't know if they have updated the reporting in 7.5, but I think the reports and dashboards could be better."

"I would enhance the compatibility feature of JAMS because sometimes when the server is under high load, it does not inform us and we cannot get answers."

"It is important to receive notifications if a charged job fails and SQL is halted. JAMS does not provide halted notifications by default, which is a critical feature that needs to be added."

"JAMS notifications for hung jobs could be improved."

"The cost has definitely gone up tremendously. That is where I do know, as much as the feature sets are there, and if the newly acquired company is going to be doing a pushback, they might just say, 'Do we still need to pay this much? Or at that point, should we look into an alternative?'"

"The error messages from JAMS often need clarification, hindering our ability to resolve issues swiftly."

More JAMS cons

"Today, we use a rich client for this product. In the future, or for the next release, they will be using a web interface. This web interface is not as scalable as the rich client for us. The web client is not 100 percent programmed as we need it."

"Choosing Automic Automation essentially locks us into their ecosystem, making it nearly impossible to switch to a different product."

"It costs too much. That's why we are now looking at other products."

"ServiceNow creates problems with the Automic entry of the connector, so the stability could be a little bit better with this product."

"For power users, it does not work well for them at the moment."

"There are some problems when using the new interface, which is normal, as it is a new technology."

"The only thing that we would like improved is the FTP agent. It only supports SOCKS proxy, and we would like it to also support an HTTP proxy."

"I am heading up the AWI. I desperately miss the possibility to show my read-only users on the Explorer side only their folders, not all the folders."

More Automic Automation cons

"An area for improvement in VisualCron is its cluttered interface. It isn't always easy to find all functionalities, so what VisualCron needs is a user interface expert who can improve the interface. There's a learning curve in terms of finding what you need from the interface of VisualCron. The technical support for VisualCron also needs improvement in terms of response time. Currently, there's no live support or hotline you can call to get quick answers, so this is what I'd like to see in the next version of VisualCron. A less cluttered and more streamlined interface, where you don't need to hunt for some of the features, is also what I'd like to see in the next VisualCron update."

"An area for improvement in VisualCron is its cluttered interface."

"I want to improve the UI in VisualCron, as it's not as user-friendly, particularly when setting up the task scheduler. If you're familiar with the tool, then no problem, but if not, you'll have a problem typing text because sometimes, the cursor points to other places, so there's an issue with text box alignment in VisualCron. That was painful for me when I was just a VisualCron novice, but when you become used to it, there won't be a problem."

"The documentation is a bit weak."

"The only problem I face when I use the tool is that it doesn't contain much documentation or it doesn't have many video tutorials on its features."

"VisualCron is software, and you will experience performance degradation when you scale up. VisualCron takes too much memory or CPU power. We have to increase the hardware resources of a specific server or system."

"I would like for VisualCron to expand audit log to show who changed job variables that are initialized per job run."

"I want to improve the UI in VisualCron, as it's not as user-friendly, particularly when setting up the task scheduler."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Definitely check how many single processes you want to run and count them as jobs. That is how you would work out your pricing on JAMS. For example, if you're running a number of commands and you can put them all into one script and run that script, you can count that as one job."

"The pricing of JAMS has not been an issue for us, as it has allowed us to save time."

"Take advantage of its scalability. You can start small. The initial cost is very reasonable. Once you have started picking up the tool and adopting it, then you can scale up from there and buy more agents."

"This is a good product at a fair price."

"JAMS is relatively inexpensive, with additional costs only incurred for tags, other services, and optional support renewals."

"The pricing is very fair. We have seen very minimal to no price increases over the years. We are not banging down the door of support all the time either. I would imagine if we were a company that submitted a dozen support tickets a week for the last nine years, then it might be a little different because we would be eating up everybody's time. However, for what we get out of it, the pricing is extremely fair. Back when we were originally looking and brought in JAMS, we were looking at a couple of the other competitive products that were in this space, but the pricing from JAMS was far and away better than what the other competitors could offer for the same functionality."

"In the end, you'll find that it's really worth the price. There is some sticker shock, but it's worth every dime."

"JAMS is close to the lower end of the pricing models for enterprise scheduling solutions. They are much cheaper than Control-M, as well as some other products that I've used. I also don't know of another solution where you can actually get true, unlimited licensing, where you can have as many instances and as many agents as you want."

More JAMS pricing and cost advice

"This is a support system for us, not our core business, so we purchased this product inexpensively."

"Automatic is heavily integrated in our organization. The cost to change would be a huge factor for us, and we have not found any other product that is better out there."

"It costs too much. That's why we are now looking at other products."

"Before I joined this company, Automic had a contract with its parent company, and their pricing was very competitive. However, when we split into multiple businesses, the contract increased significantly, becoming an expensive tool."

"I only know that AWA is cheaper than Control-M, but I'm not aware of the numbers."

"We came to a very good deal, but it took us three years to finalize."

"Automic Automation's pricing is excellent, especially in comparison to similar solutions."

"The pricing of Automic Automation varies depending on the specific contract terms."

More Automic Automation pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is extremely fair, and because of that I recommend purchasing multiple instances to split out the processing load across multiple application servers."

"ROI is 95 percent."

"The price is a bit high."

"VisualCron is correctly priced because it wasn't very cheap, and it wasn't overly expensive, so the price for it was set correctly. When my previous company bought VisualCron, it was €800 per server per year. On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing for VisualCron a five because it was just right. The tool was affordable, and it has one of the most competitive pricing in the market."

"ROI is one month."

"We are fine with a rather cheap setup. Licensing with VisualCron is fair. You have a simple one-year licence in different sizes. There isn't a licensing jungle with hundreds of options and opt-ins."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Workload Automation solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

904,054 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

25%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	67

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JAMS?

I was not really involved in the pricing, setup cost, and licensing at that level. I am more involved in the technica...

See all answers

What needs improvement with JAMS?

To improve JAMS, it should resolve the issues with the JD Edwards application and the need for the SSH client connect...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for JAMS?

My main use case for JAMS is to install, set up, and configure for customers working with JD Edwards application. A s...

See all answers

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

The pricing was client-wise, but they are changing it to execution-wise pricing. So, we are in negotiation.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Automic Workload Automation?

Automic Automation has some disadvantages; it is more simplified, and sometimes it can be complicated. The technical ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Automic Workload Automation?

I have been dealing with Automic Automation for probably around ten years. I have been both a partner with Automic, w...

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Control-M vs JAMS

Compared 11% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs JAMS

Compared 9% of the time

Stonebranch vs JAMS

Compared 8% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs JAMS

Compared 6% of the time

BMC AMI Ops vs JAMS

Compared 5% of the time

More JAMS Competitors

Control-M vs Automic Automation

Compared 13% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Automic Automation

Compared 7% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Automic Automation

Compared 7% of the time

AppWorx Workload Automation vs Automic Automation

Compared 6% of the time

Fortra's Automate vs Automic Automation

Compared 3% of the time

More Automic Automation Competitors

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 9% of the time

UiPath Platform vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

CData Arc vs VisualCron

Compared 4% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

JAMS

July 2026

Download JAMS product report

Buyer's Guide

Automic Automation

July 2026

Download Automic Automation product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

June 2026

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

No data available

Automic Dollar Universe

No data available

Interactive Demo

JAMS Software

Demo not available

Broadcom

Demo not available

SMA Technologies

Overview

JAMS is an automation and job scheduling solution designed for workflow optimization, catering to businesses large and small with flexible licensing and integration options.

Offering both Core and Advanced packages, JAMS supports a range of environments from small teams to large-scale operations. Its standout features include integration with platforms like PowerShell, SQL, and SAP, coupled with capabilities such as dependency management and natural language scheduling. JAMS simplifies job management, centralizes workflows, and boosts productivity with its robust automation features. Customizable workflows and insightful logging make it adaptable for diverse needs, supported by responsive customer service ensuring seamless operations.

What are JAMS's key features?

Automation & Scheduling: Flexible automation helps manage complex job schedules efficiently.
Integration: Connects seamlessly with platforms like SQL Server, SAP, and Python for diverse applications.
Centralized Job Management: A unified interface for handling thousands of jobs daily.
Dependency Management: Supports complex workflows with efficient dependency tracking.
Insightful Logging: Provides detailed logs and notifications for precise task execution.

What benefits should users look for in JAMS reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Automates repetitive tasks, freeing up resources for strategic initiatives.
Scalability: Flexible licensing models grow with business size and needs.
Efficient Workflow Automation: Streamlines job orchestration across environments.
Responsive Support: Helps ensure smooth operations with quick troubleshooting.

In industries, JAMS is employed for automating workflows and managing batch jobs. Organizations utilize it for SSIS, SQL Server tasks, file transfers, and integrating with vendor systems, achieving efficient file automation and data management. Scheduler enables precise execution of thousands of tasks daily, enhancing operational efficiency.

JAMS Software

Automic Automation offers a web-based GUI for high scalability and flexibility, integrating with platforms like SAP and Oracle. It promotes efficient process automation and supports multiple OS environments, benefiting diverse industries with its robust predictive capabilities.

Automic Automation facilitates process automation and workload management, providing valuable integration with applications like SAP and Oracle. It supports a wide range of operating systems and environments, enabling seamless workflow automation. It features a web-based interface accessible across devices, ensuring scalability and flexibility for complex job automation. Users find its predictive capabilities and platform support instrumental in enhancing operations, although improvements are noted in reporting, cloud integration, and documentation. Licensing and pricing structures also present room for optimization, along with workflow dependency management and smoother upgrade paths.

What are the key features of Automic Automation?

Web-based GUI: Accessible on any device, enhancing user convenience
Application Integration: Supports SAP, Oracle, and others for robust workflows
Comprehensive Scripting: Allows detailed automation customization
Process Automation: Powers efficient and complex job automation
Scalability and Flexibility: Expands across various platforms and environments

What benefits and ROI should users expect from Automic Automation?

Improved Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks and streamlines processes
Extensive Platform Support: Cost-effective management of different systems
Predictive Capabilities: Enhances operational decision-making
Robust Integration: Harmonizes with diverse applications, aiding business functions

Automic Automation sees implementation in industries like banking, finance, and telecommunications, where it automates ERP systems, schedules batch jobs, integrates workloads, and manages file transfers. By supporting SAP, Oracle, and ETL tasks, it aids efficiency and workload automation across varied environments including cloud and mainframe systems.

Broadcom

VisualCron offers task automation through a visual interface, eliminating the need for programming skills. With capabilities like alerting and variable usage, users benefit from integration with databases, timely task execution, and cross-platform operations.

VisualCron empowers users by simplifying complex workflows. It allows seamless task automation through features like interactive scheduling and role-based operations. Users appreciate its integration capabilities, replacing multiple tools with a comprehensive automation solution. The support system ensures quick assistance, making it a reliable choice for workflow visualization and task execution. However, areas like error handling and interface design require enhancements for improved user experience.

What are the key features of VisualCron?

Visual Interface: Users automate tasks without needing programming skills.
Integration: Connects with databases and multiple systems to streamline operations.
Alerting: Notifies users about tasks and system statuses.
Task Scheduling: Allows interactive management of automated tasks.
Credentials Management: Enables cross-platform operations securely.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating VisualCron?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces the time spent on manual processes.
Cost Reduction: Eliminates the need for multiple tools by consolidating functionalities.
Enhanced Support: Offers robust post-sales support for quicker assistance.
Streamlined Workflows: Simplifies complex task automation.

Organizations leverage VisualCron in industries like finance and logistics to automate tasks such as encryption and secure file transfers. It's also integral in managing data operations, facilitating communications between systems, and executing SQL jobs, enhancing operational efficiency across sectors.

SMA Technologies

Sample Customers

Teradata, Arconic, General Dynamics, Yum!, CVS Health, Comcast, Ghiradelli, & Boston’s Children’s Hospital

ING, Adidas, 84.51, ESB

7 Eleven, ABB Sécheron SA, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Amazon Europe Core, Apple, Assa Abloy, Aston Martin, Banco Santander, BMW (Australia)

Buyer's Guide

Automic Automation vs. VisualCron

June 2026

Free Report: Automic Automation vs. VisualCron

Find out what your peers are saying about Automic Automation vs. VisualCron and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

904,054 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Automic Automation vs. VisualCron report.

See our list of best Workload Automation vendors.

We monitor all Workload Automation reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.