Blue Prism Cloud vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comparison

SS&C Blue Prism and IBM are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. SS&C Blue Prism is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.5. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 1.4% mindshare in RPA, compared to IBM’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of SS&C Blue Prism users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

IBM Robotic Process Automation and Blue Prism Cloud are leading competitors in the robotic automation solutions sector. IBM RPA seems to have an edge due to its user-friendly interface and integration flexibility.

Features: IBM RPA offers a simple interface for non-technical users, integration with AI components like IBM Watson, and a flexible suite with drag-and-drop functionalities. Blue Prism Cloud focuses on stability and security, allowing easy customization and excels in backend office automation, appealing especially to financial and banking sectors.

Room for Improvement: IBM RPA could enhance cognitive capabilities and AI integration, improve extensibility, and support more languages. Blue Prism Cloud would benefit from better user-friendliness, integration with emerging technologies like ML and AI, and a less restrictive licensing model to attract smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM RPA provides deployment flexibility and generally satisfactory support, though it's noted for slower response times. Blue Prism Cloud is praised for its deployment ease and robust support, but there are issues with its newer environment support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM RPA's pricing is flexible but considered expensive and shows strong ROI within a year, while Blue Prism Cloud, despite being high-priced with a restrictive model, also provides solid ROI within the same timeframe.

To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism Cloud vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

July 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

Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.9%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Blue Prism Cloud is 1.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 3.1%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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PARTH DAVE

RPA Developer at Canadian Pacific Railway

A reliable and easy-to-use tool that reduces the code development time by a month

It works really well with systems like SAP. There is no latency in the product. It also works as a cloud-based CoE. It can be used for orchestration and deciphering documents. The tool is very easy to use. It is a low-code and no-code solution. It reduces the code development time by a month. It is a very productive and powerful tool.

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Saman Guruge

Senior Engineer at MIT ESP

We can connect to different databases and use inbuilt activities, but we can't include our own activities

We can use its inbuilt activities, and it's a complete package, but just like ElectroNeek, a limitation is that we have to depend on its inbuilt activities. We can't include our own activities or we can't introduce other activities. When it comes to deployment and scheduling bots, there are some conflicts. They are using Microsoft MQ to communicate with their bots, but it's not reliable. When we are scheduling time, if I need to schedule an interval of one minute, sometimes, the queue gets loaded with a lot of processes or bots, and they don't wait until the first one gets complete. So, that sort of disadvantage is there. I have found one bug in version 22 when sending or configuring mail. While using their orchestration environment, on IBM Server, you can configure an SMTP connection to send out the details you want. For example, when you create a user, they send out an email. That part didn't work, and I created a few tickets. The issue is that there's a typo in the endpoint API. They have probably corrected it in version 23.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities."

"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."

"It's very easy to use. That's a big selling point for it. It has got a drag-and-drop interface, so you can quickly deploy bots."

"Compared to other vendors, it's the scheduling tool because a lot of vendors want to charge you extra for their enterprise-level license to have a scheduling tool built in to give you the ability to set up regular schedules to run and do certain data checks."

"This product is quite easy to install, learn, and use, with our new employees being able to start using it in projects for clients after only two weeks of internal training."

"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."

"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."

"The interface is simple, user-friendly, and very intuitive."

More Automate pros

"The ease of building automation and the development environment"

"It is more secure for complex implementations."

"The technical support team of Blue Prism Cloud is very good...I rate the support a ten out of ten."

"It is secure and supports unattended mode of operations."

"The solution works well overall."

"Blue Prism offers the whole package for LPR developers. It's a useful tool to automate anything. As an LPR developer, I think the most important feature is that it lets you get anything into blocks of code that you can use anywhere."

"It’s scalable."

"We used it for process automation."

More Blue Prism Cloud pros

"It's integrated with all the other products within the Salesforce ecosystem."

"IBM Robotic Process Automation has greatly improved the organization by improving the speed of performance, as the speed of the robot is estimated to be 20 times faster than the human being."

"Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy."

"The solution is very user-friendly."

"The solution’s performance is good."

"The good stuff about IBM is the fact that it's very easy to use, there are very nice and smart AI tools within the licensing that you don't have to pay any access. Moreover, it's more precise and more secure."

"IBM Robotic Process Automation is very easy to use."

"I think simplicity is key. One of the things that we've noticed is how our developers have been able to quickly adopt the platform; but not only the developers or the techy people, also the business."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros

Cons

"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."

"There is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"I believe we need to test various OCR tools that assist in evaluating, let's say, six different customer resyncs. We analyze their spending patterns and documentations, but current OCR support has limitations, requiring highly standardized documents, which isn't always the case. With a more advanced OCR system, we could improve processes related to credit risk management and legal matters. We're exploring how to integrate Fortra's Automate with our CRM platform, taking cues from instances where Salesforce seamlessly merged with Automate. However, we use a different CRM, Insight for New Enterprise, and we're seeking ways to connect the automation process within our CRM. We aim for the automation to continue smoothly, even in instances where traditional automation methods might face hurdles."

"It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help."

"The interface could be more user-friendly and easier to navigate."

"The intelligent automation feature could be improved. It's interesting because it's simple, but the automation quality isn't always good. It's easy to use, but sometimes you need to make a slight improvement to the automation, and that's not so easy."

More Automate cons

"I would like to see a web-based control room, rather than the one that is in-built with the desktop version."

"I think that there are some improvements in the product performance that are needed in Blue Prism Cloud...The initial setup of the product needs a lot of time and effort."

"Blue Prism Cloud needs to improve its AI capabilities."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"The tool’s customer support should improve. There were instances where I tried to call them up and was put on hold. However, they do revert back through emails once a ticket has been issued. They should be quick with their responses on calls."

"Decipher, one of their solutions, is a waste of time."

"The version control could be improved and made consistent. There is a discrepancy between the versions on premise and the cloud versions."

"I wouldn't call Blue Prism user-friendly. It's one of its downfalls. They would benefit from having drag and drop functionality, for example. It would make them a strong competitor in the space. There needs to be less reliance on coding for customization, similar to Microsoft's Power Automate."

More Blue Prism Cloud cons

"There are certain limitations in the solution for screen reading."

"We would like more focus on understanding AI and how it can be used to manage exception handling."

"We can use its inbuilt activities, and it's a complete package, but just like ElectroNeek, a limitation is that we have to depend on its inbuilt activities. We can't include our own activities or we can't introduce other activities."

"We're based in Thailand, but the documentation is not in Thai, which makes it difficult for us. If they could translate all of their documentation into our language, we'd be very grateful."

"We would like a decreased need for customer support."

"The product must be promoted more."

"Capturing GUI operations is very easy, but capturing IBM Logistics automation is hard. It does not always work with browsers or automotive applications like SAP."

"IBM’s support should improve response time."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a distributor's side, one of the biggest selling points is its price point. Without going into any numbers, compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, we're significantly cheaper. The main difference is that other competitors usually charge you per process. However, in Automate's case, it's priced per bot. So, a bot can run multiple processes at the same time, but you are only priced for a single bot."

"While solutions like UiPath and Blue Prism cost around $11,000-$12,000 for each license, this product costs around $7,000 and you can keep it forever."

"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."

"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."

"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."

"I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."

"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."

"I believe the price falls within a reasonable range, which significantly influenced our decision regarding the product. This aspect is crucial for any technological solution, especially in our country where enterprises might be hesitant to invest heavily in something untested or uncertain about its practicality and potential returns."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"The default configuration does not include large-scale log injection, but if you require, such integration, it may incur additional costs per gigabyte. I don't have the exact pricing information for log injection, but it is possible that it varies depending on the volume of data. While there may be a basic service included, additional features might come at an extra cost. When working with cloud environments like VMs, calculating costs involves considering factors such as usage duration, network traffic, inbound and outbound data transfer, as well as network access control. The pricing structure for cloud coverage solutions follows a similar pattern, although specific pricing details would need to be obtained separately."

"The pricing is fine."

"When compared with UiPath, I believe it will be difficult for Blue Prism to maintain its market share."

"It is highly-priced."

"The licensing structure is complex and the minimum contract length is three years."

"Blue Prism Cloud’s pricing is fine for commercial usage."

"Though I don't have many details, I think Blue Prism Cloud is an expensive product compared to the other tools in the market since you need to pay for resources like machines."

"The pricing for Blue Prism Cloud is two out of ten because it's higher than every other technology. My company is on a three-year Blue Prism Cloud license."

More Blue Prism Cloud pricing and cost advice

"The license is paid annually."

"There is a free trial for one month, so you can use it to run your payloads or proof of concept. After that, you can pay for the license on a monthly or annual basis."

"The product has a yearly licensing fee."

"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."

"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."

"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Insurance Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?

We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

The main purpose is for automation. That has been the purpose why I have been using it so far.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?

Regarding pricing, it is very friendly. I would not say that it is really cheap or very expensive, but it fits within...

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What do you like most about Blue Prism Cloud?

It's easy to use, the interface, the the the the queries is which we use. It's user friendly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blue Prism Cloud?

If we utilize Blue Prism's full capabilities, then it is cost-effective. Otherwise, the pricing can seem high. It req...

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What needs improvement with Blue Prism Cloud?

Decipher, one of their solutions, is a waste of time. Other than that, there's nothing specific I can think of.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

To improve IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for the next release, there should be more integration with external ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

My customers' main use cases for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are especially in the banking industry, particu...

See all answers

Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automate

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 24% of the time

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 6% of the time

More Automate Competitors

UiPath Platform vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 19% of the time

Blue Prism vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

ServiceNow Automation Engine vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

More Blue Prism Cloud Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 68% of the time

UiPath Platform vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 12% of the time

Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 6% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 6% of the time

Blue Prism vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud

August 2025

Download Blue Prism Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

August 2025

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) report

Download IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Blue Prism Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce, Blue Prism Virtual Workforce, Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce

IBM RPA

Overview

Automate offers a user-friendly solution with a drag-and-drop interface for efficient task automation and integration with major platforms like SAP and Azure, making it ideal for quick deployment with minimal coding and training.

Automate provides powerful features for businesses seeking efficient automation, offering compatibility with databases, email integration, and cloud platforms. Its simple interface supports both beginners and experienced users, simplifying tasks like invoice processing, HR automation, and data transformation. Cost-effective pricing and flexible licensing enhance its appeal while integration capabilities and scheduling tools ensure smooth workflow automation.

What are Automate's Key Features?

Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies automation with intuitive design.
Integration Capabilities: Connects with platforms like SAP and Azure for seamless data flow.
Database and FTP Triggers: Enhances automation potential through direct data interaction.
Efficient Scheduling: Automates tasks with precise timing and control.
Web Scraping: Automates data extraction for quick analysis and reporting.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Expect?

Rapid Deployment: Minimizes coding efforts for quick implementation.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers flexible pricing models to suit budget constraints.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual workloads and enhances productivity.
Comprehensive Integration: Facilitates improved data management across systems.
Scalability: Adapts to growing business needs with ease.

In industries such as healthcare, banking, and logistics, Automate is used for tasks like invoice payment automation, data transformation, and task automation. This leads to streamlined processes and reduced manual workload, illustrating its value in enhancing operational efficiency through diversified workflows.

Fortra

The Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce is a highly flexible intelligent automation platform. It uses software to replicate the way people work in existing applications and systems, the processes they follow, and the decisions they make, to deliver automation without disruption.

SS&C Blue Prism

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a technology that encompasses the use of smart robots in any process requiring efficiency, consistency and speed, with no risk of mistakes. In a nutshell, RPA simulates a human user working.

Today, it is possible to automate processes through the use of digital robots, or bots, which execute pre-programed, repetitive tasks in a safe and mistake free manner. There are literally thousands of opportunities for Robotic Process Automation to make an impact on your organization today, including: automatic invoice emission, system integration, information reconciliation, report generation, intelligent email management to lead generation, and many others.

IBM

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories

Cabot Credit Management, Hovis, Utilita

The Hanover Insurance Group

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism Cloud vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

July 2025

Free Report: Blue Prism Cloud vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism Cloud vs. IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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