Blue Prism vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

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Blue Prism Logo
23,997 views|12,103 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
Microsoft Logo
42,349 views|23,043 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 20, 2022

We performed a comparison between Blue Prism and Microsoft Power Automate based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some users of Blue Prism find deployment to be simple. However, there are also a few reviewers that say it has a medium level of difficulty and can be complex, especially as the number of applications increases. In contrast, users of Microsoft Power Automate generally find deployment to be straightforward.
  • Features: Valuable features of both Blue Prism and Microsoft Power Automate include ease of use and stability.

    Valuable features of Blue Prism include scalability, flexibility, reliability, and robustness. Reviewers would like to see improvement in the laggy control room and also mention that the user interface could be better.

    Valuable features of Microsoft Power Automate include simplicity of automation, native integration with other Microsoft products, and drag-and-drop functionality. Users mention that they find the scalability to be unreliable, and say that the product does not handle complicated tasks very well.
  • Pricing: Reviewers feel that Blue Prism is expensive. Microsoft Power Automate users find the pricing to be reasonable and also point out that there is a free trial version.
  • Service and Support: Users of Blue Prism express that the technical support is good. Only a few Microsoft Power Automate users have had experience using the technical support, and for those that did use it, they mention it was unhelpful.

Comparison Results: The two solutions have similar ratings with regard to ease of use and stability. However, Blue Prism seems to be slightly more favorable because even though it is more expensive, it has a lot of great features to offer, and also has good service and support, unlike Microsoft Power Automate.

To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: What are the main technical differences between Microsoft Power Automate and Blue Prism?
Answer: Adding to the answer here are the finer points: 1. Workflow technical features - a. ability to create a multi-level approval task. b. ability for the workflow engine to wait till the approval or rejection or any action is performed on the tasks. c. ability to delegate the task in the approval chain. e. Log of all activities within the workflow for the purpose of audit or tracing back the history. f. integration with third-party, internal or line-of-business applications for any data retrieval or data push to the system. g. drag and drop features (a kind of no-code solution) wherein the only configuration is required to create a workflow solution. h. user interface-driven or run as a back-end job to support the workflow process. 2. Robotics automation software features - a. a pure-play automation software that can detect images and other user interface elements on the application and interact with them. b. ability to mimic all human actions and steps while interacting with the software product. c. ability to interact with all types of software environments Citrix, Desktop, Server-based, Cloud, Web, Mobile, etc. d. ability to log activities performed on the application automated and perform all transactional activities and re-execute for any failed transactions. e. ability to interact with a standard application using either web services or another integration framework. g. OCR features to identify user interface elements, etc.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The ease of development is the most valuable. Standard VBOs are pretty useful there with Excel and different things. Our custom developments for SAP and things like that are pretty easy to set up and quick to get going.""Blue Prism supports the multi-bot architecture, which is really good. It is also really good at OCR. Blue Prism is integrated with Abbey OCR, and it provides at least 90% right information on period documents. This is something that is really good in Blue Prism. Blue Prism can deal with huge amounts of data. We can track each and every record, and then we can see the data. If you don't have much coding experience, it makes it easy to build automations and deploy them. It is also easy to learn and easy to work with. It has a lot of features, which makes it reliable for any sort of automation.""The use cases range from document ingestion, process enablement, and data management, including financial records cleanup.""We've automated web applications in the banking domain using Blue Prism. This involved automating long and complex banking processes. Every action we automate with the tool generates an audit log, which is safe within the LogRhythm environment. I do find the Decipher feature very useful when it comes to document automation.""Blue Prism currently supports SQL Servers and structured data.""The solution enables process creation and is object oriented.""It's fast to get up and running if you use a cloud deployment.""The solution is way more efficient for debugging than other tools."

More Blue Prism Pros →

"The whole platform seamlessly integrates well.""From my personal experience of using Microsoft Power Automate, I think that the automatic document processing feature is helpful for many organizations in streamlining administrative processes. It is a very good feature. It has helped many enterprises to process documents without spending much time on them.""Its integration with SharePoint and Outlook is the most valuable. I found it very easy to use. I could do everything that I wanted very quickly, and I didn't have any complications at all. I never had a problem in using Microsoft Power Automate.""It's an intuitive product. It's not overly technical.""To me, what's most useful in WinAutomation by Softomotive is that it's quite intuitive, especially because most of the capabilities of the older WinAutomation remain. You also don't need to do or know hard coding, and this is another useful feature of the solution. I also like that WinAutomation by Softomotive integrates very well with Microsoft products, especially Microsoft Office, and this is great news because most companies use Microsoft Office. Having a very good integration with the Microsoft Office suite covers a lot of bases, and is one of the advantages of WinAutomation by Softomotive.""The solution offers a lot of documentation and tutorials for users to learn about various aspects and features.""Its ease of use is most valuable. A lot of the bulk functionality is done either through standalone or custom connectors and standard API processes.""The email routing, consolidation of the reports, and management features are strong."

More Microsoft Power Automate Pros →

Cons
"I would like to see machine learning functionality integrated with the automation.""Blue Prism could improve by having better integration with Computer Vision.""Developing is more time consuming than with other products.""The reporting system, specifically the system admin reporting could be improved.""In the next release of this solution, I would like to see support for attended robots.""My clients report that there is a little bit of a challenge regarding the cost-benefit ratio.""Our primary challenge at present is that we are finding it difficult to get additional business insights into existing processes so that we can identify where we need to improve.""Technical support is in need of improvement."

More Blue Prism Cons →

"Enhancing Power Automate to work synchronously instead of asynchronously would eliminate the need for additional coding, saving time in project implementation.""These products have some limitations, such as the need to build some custom controls in PCF or use the JSON format.""Looping can be a bit tricky.""There should be a comprehensive or enterprise level of application to provide the cognitive AI, and there should be orchestration so that I can control all the robots on one station. The other tools are currently providing these features.""Their connector to Oracle or premium data sets that aren't Microsoft would often fail for me. The information given back about why it failed wasn't always robust to understand how to fix it and why it happened.""When you try to create a flow or work on the flow in Microsoft Power Automate you cannot undo changes. There are no options to edit or, undo an action. This feature would be useful. The editing option within the flow can be enhanced.""The technical support has room for improvement.""There is a limitation in setting up loops, where it does not support multiple conditions."

More Microsoft Power Automate Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Blue Prism is pretty steep compared to the others, much more than Automation Anywhere."
  • "We really don't bear the costs. The cost is borne by the customer. It runs into about $100,000 per year per customer for Blue Prism. We normally budget around $30,000 for the first year for the hardware, setup, and people cost."
  • "Other than your infrastructure, in terms of servers that you have to set up, I don't think that there are any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "Compared to other tools on the market, it is one of the most expensive."
  • "The pricing is really good for an enterprise-level solution. It's quite scalable and it's quite comparable with the market."
  • "Our licensing fees are approximately $5,000 USD per year."
  • "The licensing fees are low compared to other tools."
  • "Blue Prism is less expensive than some of the other RPA solutions."
  • More Blue Prism Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "This solution is bundled with our Office 365, so there is no additional licensing fee."
  • "You pay for use and if you want a premium connector or adapter, but a lot of things are available for free."
  • "Power Automate is a much less expensive product than the competition."
  • "This solution is reasonably priced and offers a free trial period."
  • "There are many different ways to license it."
  • "There is flexibility in pricing."
  • "This solution can save money when used for simple tasks specifically using only Microsoft products."
  • "There is zero licensing cost. It comes with our Microsoft Office subscription."
  • More Microsoft Power Automate Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Tarek Fanous
    Ram Chenna - PeerSpot reviewerRam Chenna (Blueray Digital Services)
    Real User

    Hello,


    There is a subtle difference between Microsoft's flagship workflow product Microsoft Power Automate and an Enterprise Robotics Automation Product as Blue Prism.



    Well, to begin with, the technical community has attempted to use the Power Automate tool to perform Automation as well, but that's not what it is intended for.


    Like any other Workflow Software Tool, Product or Framework, Power Automate is a no-code solution. The business use cases, for which it can be applied are purely workflow scenarios.

    E.g., if you raise a Leave request in HR software which eventually gets to your manager for approval or a  Retail Loan approval workflow Application (in a Banking Application) that has various levels of verification and validation by various departments and individuals before it is either approved or rejected.


    Whereas when we talk about Robotics automation (like Blue Prism) it is a purely out and out Automation software that can automate and mimic all human actions while interacting with an application/software/product in a typical IT-driven organization, eventually requiring no or little human interaction while interacting with an application and can replace the human.


    Hope I have answered the question to an extent. 


    Please do let me know if you have any specific queries you want me to answer.

    Thanks.

    Shiv Chandra - PeerSpot reviewerShiv Chandra
    Real User

    Hi @Tarek Fanous


    Happy to talk you through what I have experienced in RPA. 


    Feel free to reach out to me via DM or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sh...

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Hello Netanya, it depends on your needs and your expertise.  In my humble opinion you can start a big RPA project implementation with Blue Prism which is stable and mature software, in order to serve… more »
    Top Answer:I'm very familiar with UiPath and the RPA industry: was hired by Daniel Dines in 2015 when there were 35 employees and left in 2019 when there were 3K+. I'm a big believer in the product, leadership… more »
    Top Answer:Blue Prism provides both on-premises and cloud versions.
    Top Answer:Yes, Attended Bots  which can run without centralized control Module. RPA Tools like Automation Anywhere, uiPath ,Power Automation they do support this.
    Top Answer:Microsoft‌ ‌Power‌ ‌Automate‌ ‌is‌ ‌intuitive‌ ‌and‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌integrate‌ ‌and‌ ‌use.‌ ‌I‌ ‌like‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌is‌ ‌no‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience‌ ‌necessary,‌ ‌and‌ ‌appreciate‌ ‌the‌ ‌automated‌… more »
    Top Answer:‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great‌ ‌drag-and‌ ‌drop‌ ‌functionality.‌ ‌The‌ ‌training‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌for‌ ‌AA‌… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    23,997
    Comparisons
    12,103
    Reviews
    19
    Average Words per Review
    508
    Rating
    8.1
    Views
    42,349
    Comparisons
    23,043
    Reviews
    33
    Average Words per Review
    468
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive
    Learn More
    Overview

    Blue Prism is an intelligent, business-developed, no-code automation platform for SaaS deployments as well as for on-premises, public cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Unlike other automation technology, Blue Prism combines robotic process automation with expanded artificial intelligence and cognitive capabilities. Blue Prism gives users instant access to the tools you need for building and delegating automations, as well as a digital workforce that is already AI-equipped.

    With Blue Prism’s code-free RPA, deployed through use of their Robotic Operating Model, your business can scale efficiently, improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and augment its talent to take on new responsibilities. Blue Prism helps to accelerate operational agility and efficiency by making it easy to automate the most important processes. Allocating everyday tasks to your Digital Workforce gives you immediate increased capacity and allows your teams to focus on their strategic goals. In addition, it delivers a return on investment, increases efficiency gains, and can even introduce new revenue streams.

    “Workforce of the Future”

    Blue Prism’s all-in-one intelligent automation platform consists of:

    • Design Studio with drag-and-drop process automation building, reusable “objects” across your business, and updates to objects and processes saved throughout the process library.
    • Control Room where you can assign processes to digital workers, scale digital worker and task volume ondemand, and gain real-time transparency of process proficiencies.
    • Digital Workforce of autonomous software robots that can learn and mimic business processes like humans and are equipped with six intelligent automation skills:
      1. Knowledge and Insight - The ability to harvest, understand, and deliver insights from multiple disparate data sources.
      2. Visual Perception - The ability to read, understand, and contextualize visual information.
      3. Learning - The ability to derive contextual meaning and adapt to evolving process patterns.
      4. Planning and Sequencing - The ability to optimize workloads and identify opportunities for better outcomes.
      5. Problem-solving - The ability to autonomously solve system, logic, and business problems.
      6. Collaboration - The ability to seamlessly work with both people and systems.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Blue Prism stands out for its enterprise-level functionality, which is why many companies choose it over its competitors. PeerSpot users note that the solution is easy to use, stable, and robust scalability-wise. The security is also top-notch. One user pointed out that "One of the most powerful features in Blue Prism is exception handling. It's one of the features that really differentiates it from other platforms." Blue Prism helps businesses with everything from compliance to quality control and error-avoidance.

    Microsoft Power Automate is a powerful tool that streamlines and automates tasks within an organization. 

    It is used for workflow automation, data integration, and creating automated notifications and approvals. 

    Power Automate connects different applications and services, such as SharePoint, Excel, and Outlook, to automate data transfer and synchronization. 

    Sample Customers
    Coca-Cola, Walgreens, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, Pfizer, Shop Direct, O2, Siemens, Ascension Healthcare, Jaguar Land Rover
    1. Coca-Cola 2. General Electric 3. Siemens 4. Accenture 5. Deloitte 6. Johnson & Johnson 7. Ford 8. Nestle 9. Procter & Gamble 10. IBM 11. Amazon 12. Google 13. Microsoft 14. Adobe 15. Cisco 16. Oracle 17. SAP 18. Intel 19. HP 20. Dell 21. Verizon 22. AT&T 23. T-Mobile 24. Walmart 25. Target 26. Home Depot 27. McDonald's 28. Starbucks 29. Nike 30. Apple 31. Facebook 32. Twitter
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Government9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise74%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise70%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Blue Prism is ranked 4th in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with 85 reviews while Microsoft Power Automate is ranked 2nd in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with 123 reviews. Blue Prism is rated 7.8, while Microsoft Power Automate is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Blue Prism writes "Way more efficient for debugging than other tools but the UI is complicated". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power Automate writes "Provides valuable integration with other Microsoft tools". Blue Prism is most compared with UiPath, Automation Anywhere (AA), Pega Robotic Process Automation, Blue Prism Cloud and Tungsten RPA, whereas Microsoft Power Automate is most compared with UiPath, Automation Anywhere (AA), IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Tungsten RPA and Fortra's Automate. See our Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate report.

    See our list of best Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vendors.

    We monitor all Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 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.