Pega Robotic Process Automation vs VisualCron comparison

Pega and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Pega is ranked #20 with an average rating of 6.7, while SMA Technologies is ranked #18 with an average rating of 9.0. Pega holds a 3.3% mindshare in RPA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Pega users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SMA Technologies users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Pega Robotic Process Automation and VisualCron compete in automation tools. Pega seems to have the upper hand in enterprise-level integrations, while VisualCron stands out for user-friendly scheduling without programming expertise.

Features: Pega Robotics stands out for its robust end-to-end process automation, enterprise-level solutions, and advanced features like Workforce Intelligence. Its integration capabilities allow seamless connectivity across platforms. VisualCron offers a simple, visual interface suitable for scheduling without coding. It efficiently integrates with various databases, making it ideal for diverse automation tasks.

Room for Improvement: Pega Robotics could improve its OCR capabilities, streamline its setup process, and enhance certain integrations and UI elements. VisualCron would benefit from a more streamlined user interface, better documentation for new users, and an enriched support community for faster troubleshooting.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pega supports deployment in both cloud and on-premises environments, suiting large enterprises, although it sometimes faces technical support delays. VisualCron is praised for easy deployment, covering cloud and on-premises setups, and receives positive feedback for its responsive support and straightforward setup process.

Pricing and ROI: Pega Robotics is considered costly, but it delivers a satisfactory ROI due to its comprehensive features. Pricing varies based on deployment and licensing. VisualCron offers transparent, fair pricing, supporting cost-effective automation across different environments and ensures a strong ROI according to user feedback.

To learn more, read our detailed Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron

September 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

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 2.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pega Robotic Process Automation is 3.3%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Automate	2.3%
VisualCron	0.9%
Pega Robotic Process Automation	3.3%
Other	93.5%

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Jane Rachma Kiniti

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.

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reviewer4848291

Global Head of Digital, Process Automation at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Pega Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates repetitive, rule-based tasks across systems without human intervention. Struggling with flexibility but integrates easily for small-scale automation tas

1. Enhanced Cross-Platform Support Currently optimized for Windows-based applications. Needs better support for web, cloud-native, and non-Windows environments (e.g., Linux, macOS). 2. Simplified Development Experience Pega Robot Studio has a steep learning curve, especially for non-developers. Could benefit from a more intuitive, drag-and-drop interface and prebuilt automation templates. 3. Stronger AI/ML Integration Bots rely heavily on rule-based logic. Native integration with AI/ML models (e.g., for document understanding, sentiment analysis) could make bots smarter and more adaptive. 4. Improved Debugging & Testing Tools Debugging complex automations can be time-consuming. Needs better simulation, logging, and error tracing tools for faster troubleshooting. 5. More Scalable Bot Orchestration While Pega Robot Manager is powerful, managing large bot fleets can become complex. Could improve auto-scaling, load balancing, and dynamic resource allocation. 6. Broader Integration Ecosystem Limited out-of-the-box connectors compared to competitors like UiPath. Expanding the integration library (e.g., for SaaS apps, APIs, databases) would reduce custom development. 7. Licensing Flexibility Licensing can be cost-prohibitive for smaller teams or departments. More modular or usage-based pricing could improve adoption.

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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…

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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

"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."

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

"The peace of mind I have using Automate for scheduling tasks allows me to focus on other responsibilities without worrying about operational issues."

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

"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."

"Overall, the whole product is really nice and provides significant benefits."

"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 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."

More Automate pros

"It helped cut short the release cycle by almost 40% compared to the previous solution."

"We have a very large operational team and we are able to avoid mistakes and ensure accuracy and speed using Pega."

"The number of human steps that have been eliminated is significant, and we try to maximize straight-through processing."

"The most valuable aspect for myself was access to the .net framework. If I couldn't figure something out using the objects that they had provided, I could bring in the .net objects and do so using similar logic that I would in a .net or C sharp coding language. Having that familiarity was helpful."

"It is a scalable solution."

"The workflow system is very intuitive."

"The most valuable feature of Pega Robotic Process Automation is the technique: you can create a user interface that can interact with a human being for attended robots."

"Pega is also broadening its landscape by building on top of PRPC (CRM, EPC, etc.), and with a cloud offering available, it is a genuine contender to compete with Salesforce."

More Pega Robotic Process Automation pros

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"'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."

"I love VisualCron because we previously spent a lot of time writing Power switches to connect to SQL Server. VisualCron makes it easier to execute services or connect to FileZilla by only adding the credentials to the master credentials stored in the solution."

"The ability to clone jobs to shorten the time it takes to implement a process has been invaluable, but its flexibility also gives us the ability to create a job that can handle a multifaceted process with a complex workflow."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"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."

"Currently, there are many instances where I see empty logs, indicating that, while tasks are scheduled, commands are not executing successfully."

"The technical support could be better. We suffer from language barriers, as we are in Argentina."

"The user interface could be slightly enhanced to make it more modern."

"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."

"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."

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

More Automate cons

"I have faced many scenarios in the business workflow, where a few applications run on the Citrix environment. That could be a critical part of the process without which business won't be able to accept the automation solution. Because of one small bottleneck, you will lose a very good candidate for process automation."

"Rule versioning and deployment to enable parallel development could still be improved"

"There have been some scenarios where the bot was not able to replace some of the controls and could not recognize and personalize the task we wanted to automate."

"Pega Robotic Process Automation using OpenSpan has a very low adoption because it does not provide the flexibility that UiPath or Automation Anywhere offers, which includes more benefits such as the bot manager."

"The orchestration needs to be better."

"Pega Robotic Process Automation can improve the OGR area. You don't have a feature to read documents in computer voices."

"In this modern world, in this automation space, if Pega could provide more options that are user-friendly and provide a way to quickly develop an automation solution that is drag-and-drop with a minimal coding approach, then it would be great for automation."

"The OCR capabilities of the solution could be improved."

More Pega Robotic Process Automation cons

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

"The error timeout and info could be better. When making web request calls, it will time out sometimes and we won't get any useful info out of the error response."

"VisualCron's command console is a little bit difficult to understand and needs to improve."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"VisualCron seems to operate like an efficient machine when it comes to improvements and enhancements and new features. I always appreciate the quick response I get when bringing up an issue or coming up with suggestions. I've mentioned before that it would be great to see a move away from SQLCE and XML configuration files."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

"I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."

"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."

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

"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."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"I was not involved in licensing and pricing, but it is worth the cost."

"Pega is as competitive as the basic players such as UiPath or Automation Anywhere. UiPath is the most expensive, but Pega is at par with Automation Anywhere."

"The licensing cost is too high."

"Pega Robotic Process Automation is an expensive solution."

"In terms of Pega Robotic Process Automation pricing, I would rate it a five out of five because the solution has a good price. Pricing is not very high, though I'm unsure of the exact cost, based on my experience, the price for Pega Robotic Process Automation is less than Blue Prism because I worked with a few clients that have both solutions and my clients prefer Pega Robotic Process Automation over Blue Prism particularly because of the licensing costs."

"Pega is pretty costly."

"I would rate the product's pricing a nine out of ten."

"The price is a bit high."

"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."

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

"ROI is one month."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

28%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

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?

My main use case for Automate is automating my everyday tasks, such as reporting, task assignment, and updating proje...

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

The pricing for Automate is affordable, even for a small organization, and it's well-packed and affordable.

See all answers

What do you like most about Pega Robotic Process Automation?

The solution's automation handling capability has positively impacted the overall automation process in my experience.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pega Robotic Process Automation?

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pega Robotic Process Automation?

Pega Robotic Process Automation is a temporary solution to a bigger issue, and the cost of implementation especially ...

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 19% of the time

Nintex RPA vs Automate

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 14% of the time

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

Control-M vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

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Microsoft Power Automate vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 49% of the time

UiPath Platform vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 27% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 7% of the time

IPsoft 1RPA vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 6% of the time

Blue Prism vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 5% of the time

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Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 32% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 22% of the time

OpCon vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

JAMS vs VisualCron

Compared 6% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Pega Robotic Process Automation

October 2025

Download Pega Robotic Process Automation product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

October 2025

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Pega RPA, OpenSpan

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

With Pega Robotic Process Automation (RPA), organizations can automate the mundane, tedious, time-consuming, manual work that is hampering productivity and efficiency. Whether adjudicating claims, onboarding customers or employees, reconciling financials, updating customer information in systems record, Pega RPA can manage the work across your enterprise.

Pega

VisualCron offers task automation through a visual interface, eliminating the need for programming skills. With capabilities like alerting and variable usage, users benefit from integration with databases, timely task execution, and cross-platform operations.

VisualCron empowers users by simplifying complex workflows. It allows seamless task automation through features like interactive scheduling and role-based operations. Users appreciate its integration capabilities, replacing multiple tools with a comprehensive automation solution. The support system ensures quick assistance, making it a reliable choice for workflow visualization and task execution. However, areas like error handling and interface design require enhancements for improved user experience.

What are the key features of VisualCron?

Visual Interface: Users automate tasks without needing programming skills.
Integration: Connects with databases and multiple systems to streamline operations.
Alerting: Notifies users about tasks and system statuses.
Task Scheduling: Allows interactive management of automated tasks.
Credentials Management: Enables cross-platform operations securely.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating VisualCron?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces the time spent on manual processes.
Cost Reduction: Eliminates the need for multiple tools by consolidating functionalities.
Enhanced Support: Offers robust post-sales support for quicker assistance.
Streamlined Workflows: Simplifies complex task automation.

Organizations leverage VisualCron in industries like finance and logistics to automate tasks such as encryption and secure file transfers. It's also integral in managing data operations, facilitating communications between systems, and executing SQL jobs, enhancing operational efficiency across sectors.

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

eBay Enterprise, M&I Bank

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

Buyer's Guide

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron

September 2025

Free Report: Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron

Find out what your peers are saying about Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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