Nintex RPA vs VisualCron comparison

Nintex and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Nintex is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.6, while SMA Technologies is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0. Nintex holds a 2.0% mindshare in RPA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Nintex users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SMA Technologies users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

VisualCron and Nintex RPA compete in the automation software category. VisualCron has an advantage in scheduling and alerting, while Nintex RPA stands out with its scalability and ease of integration across different systems.

Features: VisualCron's automation features include job variables, branching logic, extensive logging capabilities, and a visual tool layout for workflows without coding. Additionally, it supports plugins and database integration. Nintex RPA offers a visual design interface, cross-platform integration, and reusable components, focusing on seamless error handling and robust logging.

Room for Improvement: Users note VisualCron could improve its user role management, navigation for beginners, and documentation. Enhancements in its user community support are also suggested. For Nintex RPA, users desire better AI integration, document handling, and smoother integration with external platforms like Google and ServiceNow. Improved error handling for complex automation is also needed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VisualCron supports deployment across Private, Public, and Hybrid Cloud environments. It is praised for knowledgeable support, despite some slower response experiences, with a strong user community noted as beneficial. Nintex RPA provides similar deployment flexibility and is recognized for remarkable support responsiveness and an active user community.

Pricing and ROI: VisualCron offers a straightforward licensing model valued for lack of hidden costs, perceived to bring high ROI by reducing manual tasks. Nintex RPA, while possibly more expensive, is considered affordable for its features, with flexible licensing for scalable automation. Despite higher initial costs, its ROI and efficiency gains are seen as justifying investments.

To learn more, read our detailed Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,803 peers since 2012

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

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nintex RPA is 2.0%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

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.

Read full review

JonathanNg

Global Automation Lead - Customer Operations at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Helped us identify areas where frontline staff aren't following standard procedures or using unexpected systems, giving us better insight into our end users' workflows

To analyze and make sense of the data generated by Kryon process discovery can be a lot of effort. It's not as automatic as some might think. It really depends on how many processes you have and how actively you use them. But the scalability aspect isn't necessarily about deployment or technical maintenance. It's really about how you analyze and gain insights from the data gathering. I'd rate the scalability a seven out of ten because the solution has been scaling well for a long time. It's very easy to deploy. But getting value out of it at scale can be a challenge, just like with any deployment. We use it mainly for process discovery. We actually proceed it from different teams. So, we have 15 licenses that we rotate with different people, actually through different teams. So, we do discovery for the online team; we gather the results after about two weeks to a month. We analyze those results, and then we deploy them again on the analytics team. We regularly deploy it to different teams. So, it's in constant use. It just runs on the systems through discovery mode most of the time.

Read full review

Sourav-Dutta

Technical Lead - Database Administrator at SMART ENERGY SYSTEMS LLC

It's user-friendly, and I didn't need long to understand the process

We use VisualCron for all our automation needs, like connecting to FileZilla, calling APIs, generating PGP keys, creating encryption files with the PGP key login to Azure, etc. It can automatically log in to SQL Server and execute SQL script jobs in bulk. We had 2,000-3,000 users at my previous…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"This product is quite easy to install, learn, and use, with our new employees being able to start using it in projects for clients after only two weeks of internal training."

"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."

"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."

"I find it very user-friendly. Our IT department and other departments can seamlessly collaborate without requiring extensive training. As a business department, we particularly value this aspect, as our team doesn't consist of many IT users. However, we couldn't solely rely on a drag-and-drop approach to implement and utilize the solution within our departments."

"Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities."

"We are still in the process of rolling it to production and tweaking it (our AD groups are a mess), but the improvements are priceless. Having users ID's created the same way every time without human error is the best part. We don't need to worry about why groups were not added, user rights not set to folders or missing a private folder being created, typos or just even knowing when things are done and logged."

"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."

More Automate pros

"Nintex RPA often includes security features, including encryption and user access controls, which ensure the protection of sensitive data and compliance with security standards."

"Nintex RPA doesn't require much coding, and you can drag and drop the activities."

"As a business user, it's so easy to use. With the recording of the processes, we didn't need to hire a specific developer... we are able to build most of our processes without having to develop the actual development skillset... the simplicity is the biggest win."

"We use Kryon Studio to develop new wizards and we use the features to capture elements from the screen and automate processes... The screen capture allows us to interface with systems which don't have an API, or where the API is very expensive, and it allows us to do on-screen integration."

"Kryon RPA is very stable - we've not had many disruptions, and the product is updated regularly."

"The initial setup process is easy."

"The user-friendly environment allows for easy learning, and the end-to-end workflow management is excellent."

"All our users have no technical background. But Kryon is really simple and intuitive. Our business adapted very quickly and easily. This is the main thing and it's why we love the system so much. It's why we are always trying to put more processes into the system and make more use cases: because of the simplicity and the intuitive nature of the system."

More Nintex RPA pros

"'ve only had a few cases where I've had to request support in the past 12 years of use, but the support response time and resolution were was extremely quick."

"The tool has reduced our operational costs by 40%."

"What I like about VisualCron is that like its name, it's a very visual tool. In my previous company, there were a lot of scripts for all kinds of services, and through VisualCron, you get to group all flows and get a nice visual overview. VisualCron also has an alerting feature, so you receive alerts from it. VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain. Every other solution that I was looking for almost always needed a programmer, but with VisualCron, you can do what you need to do without programming skills, so this is another valuable feature of the tool."

"It has improved our organization with more automation within the business departments and less administration and development in the IT department. Usually, as the IT department, we are the bottleneck for many requirements within the business. With this tool, the business departments are able to perform many task themselves."

"The most valuable feature of VisualCron is its ability to schedule interactive jobs so that you can have interdependencies within the job and interdependencies of a job on another job, and so on."

"What I found most beneficial from VisualCron is that you can directly connect it with different databases, user accounts, and credentials. You can run queries from one machine to another using the credentials, unlike PowerShell, that's run by the machine itself. With VisualCron, you can directly ask other machines and run requests through user credentials. Suppose you have an AWS or Azure environment. In that case, you can maintain the connection between on-premises and cloud-based machines, which is the type of setup in the organization I'm working for. You can directly call some of the services via VisualCron on your local on-premises machine, and I found that an excellent feature of the tool."

"It helped us reduce manual steps."

"VisualCron is a very powerful program to automate different steps in your business processes. We use it to automate replacing files and inform departments about the replacement."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."

"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."

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

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

"I would like to see some better web automation, a wizard like the one in the product WinAutomation would be very nice."

"Some challenges include the system being too loaded or delayed in taking instructions and responding quickly as needed."

"I would prefer not having to log in to update a ticket; being able to respond via email would be beneficial."

"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."

More Automate cons

"Kryon RPA's integration with other solutions could be more seamless."

"Further simplifying the low-code development process can attract a broader user base by making automation accessible to those with minimal technical skills."

"When a project is very big, a lot of memory is taken up. Then, machines don't have enough memory. This could be improved upon to be more efficient."

"At first, we had problems with the object detection but in this latest release it has been better, and I think it keeps getting better."

"With the customer support, there have been some times where we have had to go through explaining the issue a couple times because it has gone through a couple of people's hands. There have been a couple of scenarios where we have had to re-explain the issue and bring somebody new up to speed on what is going on or what the problem is."

"We have found some difficulties regarding the integration with legacy systems where the screen has elements in the Hebrew language. The connection to Hebrew, right-to-left systems, is more challenging."

"The only unstable part is Studio where you build this stuff. In our version, the 5.25. It has a memory leak. If you leave it open for too long, eventually it just freezes. Saving your work, closing, and opening it just once a day is all it takes. However, this is a bug that I have noticed about the stability of the actual tool."

"I would expect that in the first year there is no ROI. It has to be measured over three or five years."

More Nintex RPA cons

"I would like for VisualCron to expand audit log to show who changed job variables that are initialized per job run."

"I want to improve the UI in VisualCron, as it's not as user-friendly, particularly when setting up the task scheduler. If you're familiar with the tool, then no problem, but if not, you'll have a problem typing text because sometimes, the cursor points to other places, so there's an issue with text box alignment in VisualCron. That was painful for me when I was just a VisualCron novice, but when you become used to it, there won't be a problem."

"VisualCron is software, and you will experience performance degradation when you scale up. VisualCron takes too much memory or CPU power. We have to increase the hardware resources of a specific server or system."

"There are some conditions in the mail trigger, but you can only use them as an "AND" condition, not as an "OR" condition. This is an improvement that could be useful. For example, some people put "invoice" in the subject and others put "invoice" in the body. If I want to make a trigger for everybody whose sending invoices, I have to make two jobs for this now."

"Our suggestion to make it better and more manageable in terms of GDPR: Implement it in a very partnership way."

"An area for improvement in VisualCron is its cluttered interface. It isn't always easy to find all functionalities, so what VisualCron needs is a user interface expert who can improve the interface. There's a learning curve in terms of finding what you need from the interface of VisualCron. The technical support for VisualCron also needs improvement in terms of response time. Currently, there's no live support or hotline you can call to get quick answers, so this is what I'd like to see in the next version of VisualCron. A less cluttered and more streamlined interface, where you don't need to hunt for some of the features, is also what I'd like to see in the next VisualCron update."

"The documentation is a bit weak."

"The only problem I face when I use the tool is that it doesn't contain much documentation or it doesn't have many video tutorials on its features."

More VisualCron cons

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."

"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."

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

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."

"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."

"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."

"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."

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

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"In addition to the standard licensing costs, there are manpower costs."

"It is very cheap. I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being expensive."

"We have a yearly license. It's about $5,000 per year."

"They license per robot and we have 25 robots. You get so many robot licenses and can allocate those licenses to either attended, unintended, or Process Discovery bots. If you have 25 licenses, for example, you could have 20 automation bots and five process discovery. This allocation is flexible. There are also maintenance costs."

"Kryon is slightly more expensive compared to UiPath."

"The product has reasonable pricing."

"We have been able to alleviate two FTEs, which was a big savings for us. We were able to reuse those resources in other locations. It is over 5000 hours a year in total savings."

"Can't beat the price... There are different pricing levels for every bot or unattended bot. You can buy however many you want. You'll need an additional virtual machine for it to work on."

More Nintex RPA pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is extremely fair, and because of that I recommend purchasing multiple instances to split out the processing load across multiple application servers."

"VisualCron is correctly priced because it wasn't very cheap, and it wasn't overly expensive, so the price for it was set correctly. When my previous company bought VisualCron, it was €800 per server per year. On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing for VisualCron a five because it was just right. The tool was affordable, and it has one of the most competitive pricing in the market."

"We are fine with a rather cheap setup. Licensing with VisualCron is fair. You have a simple one-year licence in different sizes. There isn't a licensing jungle with hundreds of options and opt-ins."

"ROI is 95 percent."

"The price is a bit high."

"ROI is one month."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

861,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

16%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

28%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

The main purpose is for automation. That has been the purpose why I have been using it so far.

See all answers

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

Regarding pricing, it is very friendly. I would not say that it is really cheap or very expensive, but it fits within...

See all answers

Best RPA tools for IBM iSeries

We have found that Foxtrot (Now NintexRPA) is a very solid solution for IBM iSeries integration using the IBM ACS 525...

See all answers

What do you like most about Nintex RPA?

Nintex RPA often includes security features, including encryption and user access controls, which ensure the protecti...

See all answers

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

Although Nintex RPA is expensive, it is somewhat affordable considering its features. I would rate the cost aspect as...

See all answers

What do you like most about VisualCron?

The tool has reduced our operational costs by 40%.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VisualCron?

The price is a bit high. However, it is okay.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VisualCron?

The documentation is a bit weak. The tool must provide a better set of documentation.

See all answers

Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automate

Compared 32% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 30% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

MOVEit vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

More Automate Competitors

UiPath Platform vs Nintex RPA

Compared 30% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Nintex RPA

Compared 15% of the time

Blue Prism vs Nintex RPA

Compared 15% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Nintex RPA

Compared 13% of the time

Jiffy.ai Automate vs Nintex RPA

Compared 9% of the time

More Nintex RPA Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 40% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 19% of the time

OpCon vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 6% of the time

MOVEit vs VisualCron

Compared 5% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

July 2025

Download Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Nintex RPA

June 2025

Download Nintex RPA product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

June 2025

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Kryon RPA

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

Using Nintex RPA, enterprises can leverage trained bots to quickly and cost-effectively automate routine tasks without the use of code in an easy-to-use drag and drop interface. Users are now equipped with a comprehensive, enterprise-grade process management and automation solution that streamlines processes fueled by both structured and unstructured data sources.

Nintex

VisualCron automates tasks like file encryption, scheduling SQL jobs, system integration, data workflow management, and application triggering, making it ideal for handling nightly syncs, FTP server file replacements, job scheduling, and invoice processing.

VisualCron provides an efficient automation solution with features like error and status reporting, API connections, PGP key generation, encryption file creation, and bulk SQL script execution. It simplifies task automation through its mail and event triggers, job variables, conditional execution, and logging with error alerts. Users benefit from its integration capabilities, scheduling flexibility, visual interface, and support for databases and credential management without extensive coding.

What are the most important features?

Simplicity: Easy-to-use interface for seamless automation.
Mail and Event Triggers: Automate tasks based on specific events.
Job Variables: Customize tasks using various input variables.
Conditional Execution: Execute tasks based on predefined conditions.
Error Alerts: Logging and error reporting to ensure task reliability.
Integration Capabilities: Easily connect and integrate with systems and APIs.
Scheduling Flexibility: Create complex schedules with ease.
Visual Interface: User-friendly GUI for efficient management.
Database Support: Manage and automate database tasks efficiently.
Credential Management: Securely handle credentials for various tasks.
PowerShell Commands: Execute PowerShell commands directly.

What are the benefits or ROI users should look for in the reviews?

Efficiency: Streamline and automate repetitive tasks to save time.
Cost Savings: Reduce manual labor and associated costs.
Reliability: Ensure consistency and accuracy in task execution.
Integration: Enhance workflows by integrating with different systems.
Flexibility: Adjust quickly to changes and handle complex scheduling needs.
Support: Benefit from extensive post-sales support and configuration options.
Innovation: Foster innovation by eliminating the need for coding.

Industries like finance, healthcare, and logistics implement VisualCron to automate data workflows, secure file transfers, and schedule critical tasks. It is used to streamline invoice processing, manage large-scale data operations, and ensure compliance through encryption and error reporting. VisualCron enhances operational efficiency, scalability, and security in various sectors, making it essential for businesses requiring robust automation capabilities.

SMA Technologies

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

Amazon, Audi, Chevron, Toyota, Uber, Walmart

7 Eleven, ABB Sécheron SA, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Amazon Europe Core, Apple, Assa Abloy, Aston Martin, Banco Santander, BMW (Australia)

Buyer's Guide

Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron

June 2025

Free Report: Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron

Find out what your peers are saying about Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

861,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Nintex RPA vs. VisualCron 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.