IBM Datacap vs Python RPA comparison

IBM and Python RPA are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Python RPA users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Datacap and Python RPA 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 IBM Datacap vs. Python RPA Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Datacap vs. Python RPA

April 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

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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DeekshithShetty

Software Development Senior Specialist at NTT Data

High-accuracy document processing with easy integration and good image enhancement

The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now. The integration with other tools is very easy, with inbuilt actions to configure and directly export to multiple depositories. It is also good at image enhancement, including the removal of lines, which is helpful in processing and automation and ensures very little user intervention, thus saving time.

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Natalia Raffo

Co - Founder & Chief Data Officer -CDO at Data360

Robust and good for data processing while being helpful for building data science use cases

The processing of data is good. We can use many different types of data, including images and videos. We can use different libraries to do better preprocessing of different types of data. We can do different models in recommendation systems for things like videos and sales strategy. We can do language processing or sentiment analysis to predict things for our clients. We can design and develop machine learning applications that can predict events. We can use these on libraries to solve complex problems when we have a lot of data. It's possible to use the solution with other tools. It's very agile. In the financial advisory and portfolio management space, several budget management applications are now available in the market. These have machine learning based functionality. In Python, I use different machine learning algorithms to enable customers to keep track of their expenses and provide recommendations on better savings. These are machine learning algorithms that customize financial portfolios by looking at income rate tolerance and preferences, et cetera.

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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

"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."

"A great feature that you seldom see in these kind of systems is the ability to use a database as trigger to launch a task. This is something I asked for a few years ago and that was added."

"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."

"The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation."

"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."

"I find the ease of use from a programming perspective very valuable."

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

"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."

More Automate pros

"Both Datacap Studio and Datacap Navigator are great features."

"At the forefront of my thoughts, the standout feature of this intelligent product is its remarkable capability. This project we're currently engaged in revolves around streamlining workflows within both our company and the customer's company. It entails handling information from various documents with diverse formats and types, even when they contain the same data. The ability to connect this information with the appropriate database and recognize it irrespective of the format or source is an extremely valuable feature. Moreover, leveraging machine learning is crucial since our customer deals with an extensive archive of over five million documents. Machine learning can significantly alleviate the backlog by becoming well-versed in various scenarios they might encounter during their work once we've completed our application."

"It reduces human error and saves time."

"It's a platform, not a configured application, so you can do what you want with it."

"It is the best solution for scanning purposes."

"The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now."

"The solution automates manual data entry."

"The second thing that I like about Datacap is the fingerprint capture which is easy to configure on Datacap. From the form of the document, if a document is redundant in the same department, we can configure the capture based on the form of the documents"

More IBM Datacap pros

"Keyword-driven automation has been beneficial in streamlining operations."

"Instead of writing multiple lines of code, we can do it in a single statement."

"It's possible to use the solution with other tools. It's very agile."

Cons

"Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be."

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

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

"They do not encrypt passwords, so this is an issue with HIPAA compliance."

"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."

"I currently have three bugs open with them that I don't know if they are addressed in the new release."

"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."

"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."

More Automate cons

"It can take some time to implement."

"Datacap has performance issues when processing large volumes of documents. We're doing 18,000 pages daily. Scanning takes almost 20-30 minutes, but it normally takes one or two minutes. We informed IBM and opened a ticket for that. They forwarded the issue to developers but didn't give a specific timeline for it to be resolved. Version 8.1 is already at the end of support."

"Recognition between certain numbers and letters could be improved. Sometimes this solution misreads five with an "S" for Singapore."

"Going forward, IBM needs to ensure that the output is perfect (as it can make the product) while staying true to platform's core."

"I would like to see the product have the ability to process more documents in parallel. Right now, it is a single queue. Therefore, if you want to really test the load and stress test it, having multiple instances and the ability to scale it up would be great."

"What could be improved in IBM Datacap from a technical perspective is having everything together all in one place, rather than having several different interfaces. The addition of cloud-based OCR technology would also make this solution better. There's also room for improvement for their technical support."

"The reading efficiency of the solution needs to be improved."

"The user interfaces for exception processing can be tweaked. I commonly find that we try to tweak and customize some of those components to more of what the industry standard is. The product is still trying to play catch-up a little bit in those areas."

More IBM Datacap cons

"When we call an API and there is an error, it doesn't tell you what the error is."

"It can be expensive to deploy a lot of models in the cloud, especially if there are large amounts of data."

"Support could be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."

"It has gone up in price. The price of Fortra's Automate has increased since we first started using it. It does a lot but also costs a lot. It was a lot more affordable before Fortra owned the software."

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

"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."

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

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"IBM could offer more competitive pricing. This would allow them to attain more users. Some of our clients are considering moving to a different solution called Encapture which is similar but offers more competitive pricing."

"You save a lot of time and money, but the benefit is you have people who are able to run the systems, check to see if there are any errors at all, and there are a lot less errors than a human system."

"It varies, and it depends on the client's requirements and negotiations. Nowadays, Datacap is also included in the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation."

"In Egypt, we have exchange rates that change year to year, and currently, we're facing an increase in the exchange rate between our Egyptian pound and the dollar. Since we have been using IBM DataCap two years ago we had a good price, it was not expensive. However, I cannot say now if it is expensive or not because of the exchange rate. Additionally, I don't have the data of other competitors and I don't know the prices."

"We were using the User Value Unit licensing, which means we get charged per active user of the system, and if I'm not mistaken, we also had it for the rule runner service. They had a PVU license model, which is a processor value unit. For each process that we have in our system, we pay a certain amount of money. We found the pricing to be quite steep. It was really an expensive solution in comparison to Kofax, which had a different licensing model and was actually cheaper overall because they charge per page and not per user and per process."

"This solution is the most expensive in the market."

"It is an expensive solution."

"Pricing needs to stay competitive."

More IBM Datacap pricing and cost advice

"The tool is not expensive."

"I am using an open-source solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

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What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scra...

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

The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would ra...

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What do you like most about IBM Datacap?

The installation of the solution is very simple.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Datacap?

This solution is the most expensive in the market.

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What needs improvement with IBM Datacap?

When a client's requirement is not available in Datacap, out-of-the-box actions should be simpler to implement and no...

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What do you like most about Python RPA?

Keyword-driven automation has been beneficial in streamlining operations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Python RPA?

The tool is not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Python RPA?

I've worked with file detection for secure transactions. I use a machine learning model to predict events related to ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 38% of the time

UiPath Platform vs Automate

Compared 35% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 7% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 7% of the time

More Automate Competitors

ABBYY Vantage vs IBM Datacap

Compared 32% of the time

Amazon Textract vs IBM Datacap

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Datacap

Compared 15% of the time

Tungsten TotalAgility vs IBM Datacap

Compared 12% of the time

OpenText Intelligent Capture vs IBM Datacap

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Datacap Competitors

Automation Anywhere vs Python RPA

Compared 39% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Python RPA

Compared 39% of the time

UiPath Platform vs Python RPA

Compared 12% of the time

Blue Prism vs Python RPA

Compared 11% of the time

More Python RPA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

April 2025

Download Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Datacap

April 2025

Download IBM Datacap product report

Buyer's Guide

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

April 2025

Download Python RPA product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Datacap

No data available

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

IBM Datacap helps you streamline the capture, recognition and classification of business documents and extract important information. Datacap supports multiple-channel capture by processing paper documents on scanners, mobile devices, multi-function peripherals and fax. It uses natural language processing, text analytics and machine learning technologies, like those in IBM Watson, to automatically identify, classify and extract content from unstructured or variable documents. The software can reduce labor and paper costs, deliver meaningful information and support faster decision making.

IBM

Users employ Python RPA for automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows, reducing manual errors, and enhancing efficiency in processing data, web scraping, and application integration.

Python RPA is valued for its ability to handle complex automation processes, its flexibility, and its compatibility with different systems. It is particularly beneficial for large-scale data handling and business process automation. Users find the extensive library and strong community support helpful for swift issue resolution and knowledge sharing. Its intuitive design and clear documentation simplify the learning curve and implementation. However, documentation can lack depth, making troubleshooting challenging. The setup process can be cumbersome, requiring more intuitive guidance. Execution speed can be slow, causing inefficiencies in workflows, and there is a need for better support and resources for developers. Some users report difficulties with integration into existing systems, suggesting enhanced compatibility and flexibility are needed.

What are the key features?

Flexibility: Capable of handling a wide range of automation tasks.
Ease of Integration: Seamlessly integrates with different systems.
High Customization: Allows for tailored automation solutions.
Extensive Library: Provides comprehensive tools and resources.
Community Support: Strong user community for knowledge sharing.
Scalability: Efficient for various business process scales.
Intuitive Design: Simplifies learning and implementation.

What are the benefits and ROI?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces time spent on repetitive tasks.
Error Reduction: Minimizes manual errors.
Cost Savings: Decreases operational costs through automation.
Improved Accuracy: Enhances precision in data processing.
Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business needs.
Faster Processes: Streamlines workflows for quicker results.

In industries where large-scale data processing is essential, such as finance or healthcare, Python RPA helps automate data entry, validation, and reporting, significantly reducing manual labor and improving accuracy. In retail, it integrates with e-commerce platforms to automate order processing and inventory management, ensuring smooth operations. Other sectors, like logistics, benefit from Python RPA by streamlining dispatch and tracking processes, enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Python RPA

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

Turkcell, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Central Nacional Unimed, Conqord Oil

Home Credit, Silimed, Hilton, Al Hilal Bank, Baskin and Robbins

Buyer's Guide

IBM Datacap vs. Python RPA

April 2025

Free Report: IBM Datacap vs. Python RPA

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