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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs Vtiger CRM comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
666
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 (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (32nd)
Vtiger CRM
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
CRM (25th), Help Desk Software (44th), Sales Force Automation (11th)
 

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.
KM
Computer System Engineer at Informatika d.d.
Has centralization and asset management features, and a helpful and knowledgeable technical support team
What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.
Valdi Venter - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner | Director of Operations at Expert Technology Solutions
A modular, easy-to-use solution that needs to improve support and include automation
There are one or two annoying things. For example, if you make a drop-down list of something, it doesn't automatically alphabetize the drop-down list. You have to manually go and drag items up and down and alphabetize them yourself. That's annoying. If you have five items in the drop-down list or if you have a hundred, it's just pathetic. It makes no sense that you have to do that because I've never seen it not work before in any other system that I've ever worked with. If you make a list of things, most solutions automatically put it in an alphabetized order. Or it'll put it in date order, but there is some order. It doesn't just go randomly in the order you create them. For example, I might load about 20 neighborhoods into a drop-down list, starting at "a" and ending at "z." But I might miss one of the "b's" and two of the "c's," so I add them, but they are added after the "z." Then I have to go to the bottom of the list, click on the one that starts with "b," and drag it all the way up to the "b's." That's just a pain in the butt.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My experience with the deployment has been very good."
"The addition of excel advanced to directly append worksheets, add formulas, etc was very beneficial and made the code development faster."
"I like the OCR feature, where we can capture information from PDFs."
"The error handling and troubleshooting are very good, and it is easy for a developer to know what happened in any particular line of code."
"It is a great product."
"A good example is a process that we automated where, on that specific process, the return on investment is above 30,000 percent."
"Some of the key features of Automation Anywhere include the simplicity that enables developers to build bots very quickly in a standard delivery fashion."
"The universal recorder is a kind of hybrid recorder that enables the user to record the data across devices."
"Overall, it's a good product that I would recommend."
"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."
"The most valuable are its flexibility and agility. It's quick to change it, to adapt it to your needs. That's the most important for us."
"The solution has been stable."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."
"What I like about the Control Desk is that everything is centralized, you have all the requests in one place, you know which ones are for whom and who is working on them, so you have one big package and nothing is lost."
"In the early stages of our company, all requests were done in notebooks, and none of it was centrally managed. But now we have a central tool which is an entry point for all requests that come in."
"Very flexible and customizable; we appreciate being able to host it locally with direct access to the backend."
"The fact that we can build our own modules on the solution is really quite attractive, and it's not overly complex."
"The most valuable feature of Vtiger CRM is automation."
 

Cons

"The error handling command on this solution still needs improvement, especially when compared to other platforms that are doing very well."
"We would like to see more options for merging and un-merging PDFs. More flexibility there would be good. We've figured out ways around this and, using their software, we've been able to do everything we wanted to do. It just took a bit more time to do it. We were on version 10.5 and in their Bot Store they actually had a bot that did exactly what we wanted to do, but it was for Version 11.0."
"The initial setup for the program was not straightforward. It was definitely complex."
"The time taken to execute a Bot through A2019 can be reduced."
"We noticed slowness in a few of the commands like Object Cloning, Web Recorders, etc. on which Automation Anywhere can work to make it more robust. There are improvements required in the WLM solution provided by AA, which can make it a more robust queuing system and the system should retry by itself in case of failure due to system error."
"Automation Anywhere's network has room for improvement."
"Citrix is only in the development stage. Automation Anywhere could put some time into improving this more."
"We would like a better coding interface for developers. We would also like to have a user interface which reduces the time to learn the product so more people in the organization can use software, like Automation Anywhere, quickly automating processes."
"Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."
"Technical support can be slow in terms of resolving issues."
"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us. I understand that because we use the product of a global company, some changes are not quick to deploy."
"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."
"Overall the user experience, as opposed to the system and databases, could be improved. It does work as it should and it's good, but they should invest more in the user interfaces to be less data oriented and more appealing for the user."
"The user interface is not very interesting."
"If you make a drop-down list of something, it doesn't automatically alphabetize the drop-down list. You have to manually go and drag items up and down and alphabetize them yourself."
"The charts and graphs available out of the box are pretty outdated, and you're a little limited in how you can present information on the dashboard without adding modules."
"The mobile design could improve in Vtiger CRM. It could be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price for Automation Anywhere is reasonable."
"I am not sure about the costs, but two Bot Runners and four Bot Creators may cost approximately 1CR."
"Based on what I've heard, it's costly, but I don't know much about its pricing."
"The price is a little bit high but the support is good."
"It is one of the most affordable RPA solutions, and as for licensing, they offer a community edition that greatly helps anyone who aspires to learn about the product before buying the enterprise solution."
"We have seen a return of investment because it takes less time to market in our current process. I would estimate a times savings between 20 to 30 percent."
"One of the things that will be good for the community will be to get the free version to download, which came out just a month ago called Community Edition. So, you can actually download it and try it for yourself."
"I'm not sure what the monthly licensing cost is, as that is taken care of by another team, but I would say it's around $100,000."
"It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others."
"The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."
"The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that."
"The price doesn't change when you add users. It's a flat fee, and that's attractive."
"We are using the free open-source version of Vtiger CRM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Performing Arts
12%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
19%
Construction Company
16%
Retailer
15%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise85
Large Enterprise561
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
No data available
 

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.
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Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
SmartCloud Control Desk
Vtiger Sales CRM, Vtiger All-In-One CRM, Vtiger Help Desk
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology
Contus, eLobe, Breezway, Milky Way Ventures, GB Advisors
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Vtiger CRM and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.