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Fortra's Automate vs IDERA ER/Studio comparison

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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
6.6
Automation Anywhere boosts efficiency, cuts costs, reduces errors, and enhances productivity, benefiting finance, HR, and customer experiences.
Sentiment score
6.7
Fortra's Automate cuts manual labor by 60-70%, saves $1 million annually, and boosts productivity with quick ROI.
Sentiment score
5.2
Users perceive varied ROI from IDERA ER/Studio, with significant time savings noted in data modeling and publishing.
In terms of cost, we participated in projects achieving two to three million dollars in annual savings.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
As a return on investment, we have achieved a 250% ROI in six to nine months, and sometimes it increases up to 380% percent.
Software Engineer Intern at a university with 11-50 employees
Automation Anywhere has helped us save money.
RPA Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The tasks Fortra's Automate is doing can be done by many employees, saving us from employing many people to monitor these servers 24/7.
Information Technology Manager at Everseen
Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money.
Chief Technology Officer at DOB Systems LLC
It has reduced our expenditures in terms of purchasing more products and employing more technicians.
System Administrator
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays, valuing communication and feedback integration.
Sentiment score
7.5
Fortra's Automate support is praised for quick, effective service, though documentation and communication improvements are needed.
Sentiment score
7.0
IDERA ER/Studio's customer service is responsive and professional, with occasional delays; documentation is comprehensive and useful.
Whenever we need help, we can reach out to them, and they help us out.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
We also have dedicated account managers and technical experts to solve our problems related to Automation Anywhere.
Software Engineer Intern at a university with 11-50 employees
We just have to raise a ticket, after which we receive a call, email, or ping from the Automation Anywhere team.
Solution architect at Boston Scientific
They don't always understand the processes I'm trying to implement.
Senior Data Analyst at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
They handle customers like me to get to the exact issue, detailing where that issue originates from a technical point of view, the resolution, and the summary they provided.
Software Engineer at Cateina Technologies
I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous.
Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The documentation is more robust than Erwin's, but their interface is not as intuitive.
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
There is plenty of documentation available online for assistance, making it straightforward to address any issues.
Managing Partner at DXC Technology
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Automation Anywhere excels in scalability, efficiently expanding across projects, integrating with infrastructures, and adapting via centralized management.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortra's Automate is scalable, supports cloud platforms, fits all teams, but needs careful integration monitoring and can incur costs.
Sentiment score
7.1
IDERA ER/Studio's scalability is generally satisfactory, but repository performance issues persist, particularly with extremely large databases.
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.
Sr. Manager, Finance Transformation at Amkor Technology, Inc.
The centralized control room allows us to orchestrate and manage bots seamlessly.
Associate Leadership Team at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I can scale it in terms of hundreds of bots and configure hundreds of parallel robots easily.
Director at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The scalability of Automate also scores a ten out of ten.
IT Project Manager at Labo des histoires
I can deploy it on multiple infrastructures such as cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid model.
Software Engineer at Cateina Technologies
Fortra's Automate automates the work, but it needs continuous monitoring.
Information Technology Manager at Everseen
It scales well to teams of one hundred plus people.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere is praised for stability and reliability, with user expertise and infrastructure influencing performance despite occasional upgrade issues.
Sentiment score
7.4
Users of Fortra's Automate highly value its stability, reliability, scalability, and robust technical support despite minor connectivity issues.
Sentiment score
7.8
IDERA ER/Studio is reliable, but issues may arise with outdated versions or large models, mostly due to server problems.
With the latest applications, there are no significant issues like freezing or crashing.
Senior RPA Team Leader at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
From a stability and reliability perspective, we can remain confident that the product performs as an enterprise solution and meets expected standards.
Director Automation CEO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
If you have good best practices, reusable code, an effective framework, and a solid development methodology, bots can be very stable.
Intelligent Automation Engineering Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The stability of the solution is a ten out of ten.
IT Project Manager at Labo des histoires
For stability on a scale from one to ten, I would give it a solid nine.
Cloud Engineer - ll at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
It has very robust features, and it is not prone to instability.
Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Erwin is a very stable product.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Automation Anywhere struggles with integration, costs, learning curve, and needs improvements in documentation, interface, AI, and OCR features.
Fortra's Automate needs improvements in UI, debugging, integrations, scalability, community, monitoring, stability, cloud functionality, and pricing.
IDERA ER/Studio faces complex deployment, performance issues, inadequate documentation, and lacks seamless integrations, impacting user experience and efficiency.
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.
Low Code Developer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Making the product more lightweight by reducing its dependency on infrastructure could greatly help in the long run.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
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.
Rpa Infrastructure Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
This is a significant concern, especially with critical workloads where visibility into errors is essential.
DevOps Engineer at Teksphere Global Services Limited
My major recommendation would be for easier upgrade paths between major versions.
Project Manager - DevOps Engineer at ACC
When new employees join our company, we created automation so they receive AWS credentials and all their AWS access and cloud access.
Cloud Engineer - ll at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Both Erwin and ER/Studio do not have AI or machine learning features for automation.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Erwin's metadata management is better in how it handles data.
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Automation Anywhere offers competitive pricing and features for large-scale projects, with flexibility that justifies its higher costs.
Fortra's Automate offers cost-effective, flexible pricing, making it attractive to enterprises compared to pricier competitors like UiPath and Blue Prism.
IDERA ER/Studio's pricing is high and licensing complex, but features and support are valued despite comparisons to competitors.
It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms.
AI/Robotics Process Automation Specialist at Bell
Automation Anywhere costs are aligned with UiPath and Blue Prism, which are also expensive.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It is not cheap, with costs ranging between 700 to 800 dollars per month.
Director, Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Competitors are often more expensive than Automate.
Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It offered what we wanted at a good, competitive price.
Senior Data Analyst at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
It does a lot but also costs a lot.
Chief Technology Officer at DOB Systems LLC
The setup cost may have been around $1500 to $2000.
Data Modeler at Ascendion
In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Automation Anywhere offers user-friendly automation, boosting productivity and efficiency with AI features and seamless business application integration.
Fortra's Automate streamlines complex tasks with no-code automation, supporting various cloud services, enhancing productivity, and ensuring security.
IDERA ER/Studio offers robust data modeling, intuitive interface, collaboration tools, automation, and integration with third-party tools for teams.
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.
Low Code Developer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
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 Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Automation Anywhere has undergone drastic changes over the past five years, transitioning from version 10 to A360, including desktop-based and cloud-based options.
Solution architect at Boston Scientific
Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.
Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
In my opinion, the best feature Automate offers is the scheduling.
DevOps Engineer at Teksphere Global Services Limited
Automate's compatibility with existing IT infrastructure has impacted our business operations positively by providing smooth integration with other software that we use, such as Gmail, Jira, and Microsoft 365 apps, which gives us a unified platform instead of having to keep switching from one software to another, saving a lot of time and streamlining the whole workflows.
IT Project Manager at Labo des histoires
When we built an application, it facilitated the development process by providing the skeleton of the application and the foundation for functions.
Managing Partner at DXC Technology
It has strong versioning support and can even integrate with third-party versioning tools like GitHub.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
IDERA ER_Studio does a lot more and performs model comparison much better than Erwin.
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
636
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (1st), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
Fortra's Automate
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (4th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (5th)
IDERA ER/Studio
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (8th), Database Development and Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortra's Automate2.8%
UiPath Platform10.2%
Microsoft Power Automate6.7%
Other80.3%
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IDERA ER/Studio3.0%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect8.9%
LeanIX7.6%
Other80.5%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
Anthony Tuhame - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Manager at Everseen
Automation has reduced night-time server checks and now manages reporting and cloud monitoring
The downsides I normally mention about Fortra's Automate are about reports and deep analytics. While Fortra's Automate can manage our servers, it can give you a problem report that says what happened, but it doesn't give you a clear picture of why it happened or how many times your servers went offline. This pushes us to get another third-party tool. We have to generate those simple reports from Fortra's Automate and push them to another software in Tableau. We use Tableau for analytics to analyze that data and understand what the trends are, what the instance is telling us, and what the clear problem is. It lacks that deep analytics feature. Additionally, I am not impressed with the interface, as it feels outdated and it has taken a long time to see any updates or changes. I believe those are the two downsides, but the customer support is adequate.
reviewer2796111 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Improved data modeling has reduced system footprint and strengthened finance workflows
I assess the benefits of IDERA ER_Studio's metadata management for my organization as not as good as Erwin's. Erwin's metadata management is better in how it handles data. There is a lot more user involvement in managing the metadata, primarily because in IDERA ER_Studio, the logical and physical models are separately defined in the same file, so you have to map them every single time. In Erwin, it has a unified structure, so if you make a change in the logical model, it automatically shows up in the physical model. You have to go through a couple of steps in the IDERA model to make sure everything has moved over. While that is not that inconvenient when you are actually doing development, as far as metadata management, that is prone to things getting dropped and missed. The collaboration tools in IDERA ER_Studio are adequate, but I think with Erwin, there is more of an opportunity for things to crash. Changes can be merged in IDERA more fluidly; however, the locking and sharing are a little bit more defined in Erwin. I think the learning curve for Erwin might be easier than IDERA ER_Studio, especially with connecting to different models and systems.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business152
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise535
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
 

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 is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?
Fortra's Automate has two or three use cases in this scenario. The feature I appreciate most is the drag and drop opt...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
Regarding the pricing of Fortra's Automate, for a startup or mid-market company, I would say it is not cheap and is d...
What needs improvement with Fortra Automate?
One thing I dislike about Fortra's Automate is that it does not perform well with OCR software, which is optical char...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IDERA ER Studio?
In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.
What is your primary use case for IDERA ER Studio?
I work in the finance industry, and the use cases for this product are very similar to what I mentioned previously wh...
What advice do you have for others considering IDERA ER Studio?
I have not used IDERA ER_Studio's impact analysis tools, so I really could not judge that regarding mitigating databa...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
HelpSystems Automate, Automate
IDERA ER Studio, ER/Studio, ER/Studio Enterprise Team Edition
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
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
Newmont Mining, Entrust, Accolade, TalkTalk, Catalina, Protective Life, NTT Data, dir systèmes, Microsoft; American Express, Astellas Pharma, AstraZeneca, Coriant, Fedex, GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Prudential, Wells Fargo
Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Updated: May 2026.
899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.