Fortra's Automate vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortra's Automate and Microsoft Power Automate based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Fortra's Automate vs. Microsoft Power Automate Report (Updated: September 2023).
734,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues.""We have tried other RPA solutions like UiPath or Automation Anywhere. They are fantastic products but complex, and it's hard to understand everything. It would be best if you had a skilled developer or several. Automate is easy to implement, administer, and use. It's appropriate for us because our cases are simple and easy to automate. We don't need complicated tools with many features; We prefer to get a significant ROI quickly.""The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature.""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.""The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point.""I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task.""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.""It gives us a central place to schedule tasks and run them distributed."

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"Microsoft Power Automate is an easy-to-understand solution.""Technical support is responsive.""The solution helps automate manual tasks and interacts with multiple applications.""The most advantageous aspect of the solution is its cloud capabilities.""Different trigger events were most valuable. You could schedule a process on a recurring basis, at a certain time of day or week, or when something happens, which is huge.""It's not hard to learn, which means we'll be able to make more workflows in the future.""AI Builder is a good add-on.""The solution has saved us hours of work."

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Cons
"The workflow for variables could be better. The input and output of task-level variables could be made a little clearer in terms of passing those around from one task to another upon success, etc. Things like that could be a little easier potentially.""There is room for improvement regarding cloud functionality; there are a few missing features, and the logging could be better, especially air logging. We can go into logging events and create our own task, but it would be nice if this were more detailed.""Error messages should be better. For error status, there should be better documentation because a lot of times, error messages that you get are quite vague. For example, you get a message saying that the workflow has run into an unknown status, which is vague. It just tells you that it failed, but you don't know how or why it failed. It makes debugging difficult.""Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be.""The documentation for errors needs improvement as many of the error messages we receive are very vague.""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.""Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem.""It would be an improvement if Automate had better stability tools, whether by recommending a certain amount of memory because it can be a memory hog at times."

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"Microsoft could offer more AI education and training.""The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it.""The initial setup is complex and has room for improvement.""There are frequent version updates and that impacts different algorithms so we have to adjust our code.""Microsoft Power Automate could improve by offering recurring execution on the desktop.""It's not as user-friendly as a solution such as UiPath, which is really easy to use.""Power Automate is too complicated - it forces you to go through extra tasks instead of streamlining your workflow.""Things need to be improved with respect to RPA kinds of solutions."

More Microsoft Power Automate Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."
  • "The pricing is quite reasonable. We can run the process with one bot. The limitation is at the server level because they have some resources, and sometimes that is enough. It isn't too expensive, so you can get a good return off of one, and you can also have a pack of five bots that is quite competitive."
  • "From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
  • "The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."
  • "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."
  • "Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."
  • More Fortra's Automate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The license cost could be better."
  • "The licensing price should be more cost-effective."
  • "Due to the pricing model, the solution is more convenient than any other tools."
  • "They have the community edition that people can use for free, and they also have the enterprise edition. My company uses the enterprise edition, and I don't know how much they pay."
  • "We've got a subscription package. We are on a monthly package of $40. We've got some discount because we're a big corporate client of Microsoft 365 and other solutions, but the standard price of the package that we use is $40. For the product, you don't have to pay anything extra. If you're using a partner, you need to pay for their coding, advice, and services, which is a separate cost. The majority of the features are available for free for anyone who is on Microsoft 365."
  • "Good price-quality relationship. Its features for its price were the best fit for our company."
  • "This is the cheapest option among competitors. You can choose to have the RPA with attendance at $40/month with add-on's totaling about $190. There are standalone options that require someone to run the process and there are fully automated options that are integrated within the cloud."
  • "The licensing model is flexible in that you can pay per automation or per user. My client receives a discount because of the large number of users and pays approximately $15 for each one."
  • More Microsoft Power Automate Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost.
    Top Answer:There is room for improvement regarding cloud functionality; there are a few missing features, and the logging could be better, especially air logging. We can go into logging events and create our own… more »
    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
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    Rating
    8.5
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    HelpSystems Automate, Automate
    Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive
    Learn More
    Fortra
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    Overview

    Automate is an easy-to-use RPA software solution that boosts your productivity by transforming virtually any business or IT process. Get scalable automation capabilities whether you need a solution for one department, a small business, or an enterprise-wide Center of Excellence (CoE) initiative—Automate is built and priced right for employee-driven automation for any organization.

    Automate allows you to get up and running fast with no-code automation for both GUI and back-end functionalities. Form-based development lets you quickly build bots and leverage over 600 pre-built automation actions. Powerful out-of-the-box API and native integrations bring together the applications that keep your business running. And with the Automate Recorder, easily build, update, and deploy robust, UI-driven automation. Plus, bots can be deployed as attended or unattended with concurrent execution of tasks—no restrictions.

    A Key Part of Fortra (the new face of HelpSystems) Automate is proud to be part of Fortra’s comprehensive portfolio. Fortra simplifies today’s complex business landscape by bringing complementary products together to solve problems in innovative ways. These integrated, scalable solutions address the many challenges you face in streamlining your operations. With the help of Automate robotic process automation and other solutions, Fortra is your relentless ally, here for you every step of the way on your automation journey.

    Microsoft Power Automate is an intelligent, cloud-based solution that allows users to boost their productivity by creating automated workflows between multiple services and applications.

    These workflows are used to synchronize files, receive notifications, and retrieve data. The system creates workflows by recording user actions, like mouse clicks, data entry, and keyboard use, which are processed into intelligent, secure workflows.

    Users can easily add intelligence to their workflow automation with AI Builder. AI Builder has a set of AI tools which range from language comprehension to image recognition, as well as hundreds of pre-built connectors and thousands of templates.

    Power Automate utilizes triggers and events to create chain reactions within each workflow so that all manual and repetitive tasks are carried out without any human intervention. The automation of time-consuming manual tasks frees teams up to focus on other strategic opportunities for their organization.

    The workflow creation tool allows users to easily set up custom integrations and processes between Office 365 and third-party applications by using pre-built connectors. These integrations are typically services like data loss prevention and access management services.

    Microsoft Power Automate seamlessly integrates and automates tasks with hundreds of out-of-the-box data sources. Some of the more popular third-party applications include:

    • SharePoint
    • Microsoft BI
    • Microsoft Office
    • Asana
    • Mailchimp
    • Twitter
    • Trello
    • Google Docs
    • Salesforce
    • OneDrive

    Microsoft Power Automate was designed to allow non-technical business users to create their own automated processes with AI builder’s easy-to-use drag-and-drop-based interface, using four different types of automation flows:

    • Cloud flows: Automations that are triggered by a specific event in the cloud or on-premises, such as an email or a social media post related to your organization.
    • Scheduled flows: As soon as a designated time is reached, a scheduled process is triggered and continues to run until it completes all of its assigned scheduled tasks.
    • Desktop flows: This allows users to automate their desktop by recording their screen. The visual flow designer automates mouse and keyboard clicks. Desktop flows can be used for extracting text from files, retrieving files from folders, and more.
    • Business process flows: This automation can be designed in order for employees with different security roles to have a smooth work experience that best suits the tasks they need to perform.

    A few of the major benefits of Microsoft Power Automate include:

    • Automated processes improve workforce productivity and reduce human error.
    • Streamlined repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
    • Constant access to the solution via the mobile app to create, run, and monitor automated workflows from anywhere at any time.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft Power Automate stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its user-friendly interface, its automation capabilities, and its integration options.

    Thiago R., the head of Digital transformation at Zaact, writes, "Workflow management is what clients select the most. It is very intuitive and pretty much drag-and-drop, so we can create escalation, decision flows, and if-else conditions pretty much by dragging and dropping boxes. Even someone who is not technical can develop a workflow for the business."

    Offer
    Learn more about Fortra's Automate
    Learn more about Microsoft Power Automate
    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
    SNCF, Air France, Avanade
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Security Firm17%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Healthcare Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company13%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business56%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise17%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise68%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortra's Automate vs. Microsoft Power Automate
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra's Automate vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    734,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortra's Automate is ranked 10th in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with 8 reviews while Microsoft Power Automate is ranked 2nd in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with 51 reviews. Fortra's Automate is rated 8.6, while Microsoft Power Automate is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Fortra's Automate writes "An all-round automation tool that easily helped us save about a million dollars in operating costs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power Automate writes "Easy to use solution with automated reporting capability". Fortra's Automate is most compared with UiPath, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Automation Anywhere (AA), MOVEit and Blue Prism, whereas Microsoft Power Automate is most compared with UiPath, Automation Anywhere (AA), Blue Prism, IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and VisualCron. See our Fortra's Automate 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.