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IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs SAP Intelligent RPA comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

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

Fortra's Automate
Sponsored
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (5th)
IBM Robotic Process Automat...
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Intelligent RPA
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
17th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 2.7%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 3.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Intelligent RPA is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortra's Automate2.7%
IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)3.0%
SAP Intelligent RPA2.1%
Other92.2%
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
 

Featured Reviews

Jane Rachma Kiniti - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Project Manager at Labo des histoires
Automate has streamlined workflows and increased efficiency with powerful automation
The best features of the solution are the flexible automation features, it is rich with beautiful connectors, and it is easy to use with little to no coding knowledge required to get started, so anybody can use the tool. The intuitive interface of Automate has an intuitive design, which makes it easy to learn and use even without a strong technical background, and it has a drag-and-drop interface, which makes everything so easy and straightforward. The error handling capabilities in complex automation tasks are powerful, as it handles all types of tasks, whether complex or simple. I've never faced any problems even when dealing with complex tasks, so everything is super smooth and highly reliable, even when dealing with big tasks, as it has never slowed down. 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. The automated analytics have helped improve our business processes since it has increased our efficiency by automating our everyday tasks, freeing up time for us to focus more on strategic activities such as analyzing data and developing new business strategies. It is also cost-saving. By minimizing manual labor, it decreases human errors that can lead to costly mistakes. By automating the tasks, it helps to save costs, and it also improves our accuracy by reducing these errors to ensure that tasks are done almost perfectly.
MA
Business Solutions Manager at valleysoft
Has improved analytics and reporting but needs better integration and support
To improve IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for the next release, there should be more integration with external systems, and more integration with IBM's data and AI platforms is needed. There is an AI part in IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for Machine Learning, but IBM has another platform specifically for data and AI, which is integrated right now. More features are hoped for in the future.
SS
RPA Technical Solution Lead at Infomentum
Helps automate processes but needs to offer different licensing models to users
Right now, I am not working on process mining at the minute. Before I switched to the company, I worked extremely closely with the process mining tool from UiPath, SAP BTP, and the process mining that they had created. I am working with MuleSoft Automation and Anypoint. We are not doing any sort of process mining at the minute, but in my company, because MuleSoft is one of the only RPA tools that we are looking at, we have another application called Appian that we are trying to explore now. Appian has process mining capability, which is why we thought we would look at it along with AI capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Automate helps me reduce manual work by automating tasks such as access keys and security rotations that we were not able to automate before, diminishing human dependency, and helps minimize errors."
"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."
"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."
"It gives us a central place to schedule tasks and run them distributed."
"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."
"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."
"The peace of mind I have using Automate for scheduling tasks allows me to focus on other responsibilities without worrying about operational issues."
"The automated analytics have helped improve our business processes since it has increased our efficiency by automating our everyday tasks, freeing up time for us to focus more on strategic activities such as analyzing data and developing new business strategies."
"The analytics and reporting tools in IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are the best compared to all other RPAs because all other RPAs only use dashboards while IBM is the only one to have a reporting tool that includes dashboards."
"It is a good tool for automation."
"The quality is great! It's very strong and has a very strong platform."
"It's user-friendly; even non-technical people can program bots using drag-and-drop functionalities."
"It's not inclusive, in terms of automation, you can just do it standalone, in its own silo. It's not going to force your existing system or teams, your admin teams, to create new IDs for you or even force them to create new services or APIs for you or expose something from there. They can just keep the way they are doing it right now, but you still automate it."
"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."
"If you have a business process, and once you have automated that process, you have a readily available workflow in place."
"The feature I found most valuable is the TCO."
"The standout features of SAP Intelligent RPA are its flexibility and integration capabilities."
"Contextor is a good solution for a Citrix environment. It's the first with this tool. Other tools provide the same functionality, but not with the Citrix environment."
"It is remarkably easy to configure and code, and it doesn't require an extensive technical background or coding expertise."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"Scalability is fine. It is pretty nice."
"Most of the details are already in the help portal and SAP notes are available. It is well documented as part of the product support."
"The most valuable feature of SAP Contextor is that everyone is in one place in the program that I need."
"The initial setup of SAP Contextor is easy."
 

Cons

"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."
"While this solution is continually improving, as it is now, the user interface could use improvement when I compare it to a product like UiPath."
"Automate could simplify the UI for creating a workflow for automation. As a technical person, I can understand it easily. However, there are few activities in the software that our HR department cannot understand."
"The interface could be more user-friendly and easier to navigate."
"There are newer AWS services such as Lambda or Security Hub that security analysts use to detect malicious traffic or alerts, but the integration is not available for these, so we still rely on custom scripting because there are no options for drag-and-drop with these newer services."
"The technical support could be better. We suffer from language barriers, as we are in Argentina."
"Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be."
"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."
"The product must be promoted more."
"We would like more focus on understanding AI and how it can be used to manage exception handling."
"Extensibility is the key, especially in terms of the Recorders feature that we have. That should be browser independent. Enhance it because some people have Chrome, some have Internet Explorer, etc. Also, integration with PDFs: Not just the ability to read information from PDFs but the ability to write information from PDFs, make it secure, sign it, etc. Finally, if they can allow a token exchange inside the tool itself, that would help."
"The time it takes for approvals, and risk analysis could be faster."
"There are certain limitations in the solution for screen reading."
"The scalability of the solution can be challenging."
"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."
"I would like to improve the efficiency of this solution and the Surface Level Agreement."
"For potential features or improvements, one aspect I would suggest enhancing is the flexibility of the extraction process."
"The initial setup is of medium complexity. It is neither too hard nor too simple. You need some background in SAP and an understanding of it."
"There should be more of an error, like a proper error feature, in future releases. Sometimes, we don't understand why that automation is not learning what, like, where it is stuck, or what is the reason like, or what is the criteria we are missing to add. So a proper error message would be helpful."
"I would like to see a better capacity for unstructured data, for example, PDF, or text within images."
"The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge...At the moment, the tool does not offer different licensing models to users."
"I found that the SAP scripting of a program is easier than SAP Contextor."
"SAP Contextor could improve by automating some processes."
"One way SAP Intelligent RPA could improve is by integrating built-in DI services for document processing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."
"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."
"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."
"The product has a yearly licensing fee."
"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."
"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."
"The license is paid annually."
"The pricing is not that expensive. It is manageable."
"The initial cost might seem higher, but over time, with continued use over five or ten years, the cost tends to decrease, making it a more economical choice."
"This is not a tool or software with a license as others are. The SaaS model is based on the usage of the tool."
"It all comes with a bundle right now. Having advanced features, it is competitively priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Performing Arts
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

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.
What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?
I have used it mainly for internal process automation, including file transfer, data extraction, and scheduling jobs.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
Regarding the pricing of Fortra's Automate, I think it is neither expensive nor inexpensive. From what I have seen, i...
What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.
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 ...
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...
What needs improvement with SAP Contextor?
The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge. If the tool can bring up a usage-based licensing model, it would b...
What is your primary use case for SAP Contextor?
The inputs of SAP Intelligent RPA used to come from the process mining output. Whenever we connect process mining to ...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP Contextor?
Speaking about bot creation and management features, I rate the tool as four out of five compared to the other market...
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
IBM RPA
SAP Contextor, Contextor
 

Overview

 

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
The Hanover Insurance Group
BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Kabel Deutschland, Orange, Carrefour
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. SAP Intelligent RPA and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.