Pega Robotic Process Automation vs VisualCron comparison

Pega and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Pega is ranked #19 with an average rating of 6.7, while SMA Technologies is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0. Pega holds a 3.2% mindshare in RPA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.0% 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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron

December 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

Fortra's Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 2.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pega Robotic Process Automation is 3.2%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.0%, 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 (%)
Fortra's Automate	2.5%
VisualCron	1.0%
Pega Robotic Process Automation	3.2%
Other	93.3%

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.

Read full review

reviewer1458102

Regional Director at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Has raised concerns due to outdated framework and high ownership costs

Pega Robotic Process Automation is a temporary solution to a bigger issue, and the cost of implementation especially with Pega really stops customers from proceeding. The total cost of ownership could be improved. From a technical perspective, the product performs adequately. The installation can be quite complex as it's not standalone, and customers need to get the whole Pega platform up and running. The total cost of ownership is not very attractive. RPA as a concept is outdated now, with agentic AI becoming more prominent. We don't see much interest from customers in going down the RPA route; Pega Robotic Process Automation is losing its prominence in the market.

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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

"The drag and drop workflow builder is what I genuinely appreciate about Fortra's Automate, as it allows me to sketch out logic the way I am thinking about it, is visual, reduces the back and forth of writing scripts from scratch, and is quite friendly for people who are not hardcore developers."

"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 most valuable feature is the drag-and-drop interface, which is very Windows-like."

"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 licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."

"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."

"This tool has machine learning and voice recognition and computer vision, which are both quite useful aspects. These aren't available in other tools. It's a good addition to this tool and it gives the solution an edge on the market."

"The pricing is excellent. I would give them perfect marks in that regard."

More Fortra's Automate pros

"Pega Robotics offers all the required features to build end-to-end process automation like any other similar tools. It's unique development style using data line and control flow line makes it easy to debug through the flow."

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

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

"Pega Robotic Process Automation's most valuable feature is that it is robust. Additionally, they have plenty of online documents that are good and Pega Academy is helpful, they are doing a great job. They give training on practical use cases. They take domain use cases, and they are great."

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

"The initial setup is pretty easy and quite fast."

"Using the tool actually ends up teaching you about making workflows more efficient."

"The platform's most valuable feature is the ability to perform most tasks reliably. It efficiently integrates with other systems and automates various tasks."

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."

"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."

"We don't have to do any coding. We just plug and play and it works."

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

"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 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."

"'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."

"It helped us reduce manual steps."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"One aspect I dislike about Fortra's Automate is that debugging slows me down."

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

"Areas for improvement in Automate would be a more modern web-based workflow designer, an enhanced real-time monitoring dashboard, and built-in API integration tools for REST and SOAP."

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

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

"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."

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

More Fortra's 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"

"The new players such as UiPath and ABBYY are moving very quickly, but Pega is not. I'd definitely like to see Pega doing a few more interesting things on the AI or machine learning front so that we can use the platform for multiple things."

"The way integration classes are created could be improved."

"Pega Robotic Process Automation is a temporary solution to a bigger issue, and the cost of implementation especially with Pega really stops customers from proceeding."

"Excel connectors need to be improved as there are a few connectors in Excel areas."

"They have tied the deployment with the Pega BPM product, the robot manager. You need to have the BPM installed."

"The orchestration needs to be better."

More Pega Robotic Process Automation cons

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

"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 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."

"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."

"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."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

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

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

"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."

"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."

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

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

"Pega Robotic Process Automation is an expensive solution."

"The licensing cost is too high."

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

"Pega is pretty costly."

"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 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."

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

"ROI is one month."

"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."

"ROI is 95 percent."

"The price is a bit high."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

28%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	8

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.

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What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

We have been using Automate for approximately one to one and a half years for the automation component. For complex a...

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

The pricing aspect is covered by my senior, but Automate is a centralized tool, so we do not need to buy different to...

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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 Fortra's Automate

Compared 13% of the time

Nintex RPA vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 10% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 8% of the time

MOVEit vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 48% 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

Blue Prism vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 6% of the time

IPsoft 1RPA vs Pega Robotic Process Automation

Compared 6% of the time

More Pega Robotic Process Automation Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 27% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 18% of the time

OpCon vs VisualCron

Compared 9% of the time

JAMS vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

December 2025

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Pega Robotic Process Automation

December 2025

Download Pega Robotic Process Automation product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

December 2025

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Pega RPA, OpenSpan

No data available

Overview

Fortra's Automate offers a user-friendly platform for task automation, featuring a drag-and-drop interface that aids in scheduling, file management, and integrating with services like Azure and AWS.

Fortra's Automate provides substantial ease in automating complex tasks through its intuitive design. It offers seamless integration capabilities, especially with Azure and AWS, and comes equipped with strong error handling. Cost-effective and requiring minimal coding, it supports a broad range of industries by effectively automating tasks such as HR operations, invoice management, and data processing across servers.

What features stand out in Fortra's Automate?

Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies task setup and automation without deep coding expertise.
Scheduling and File Management: Ensures efficient, automated handling of tasks and file transfers.
Integration Capabilities: Works with platforms like Azure and AWS for enhanced performance.
Error Handling: Offers solid solutions to manage and resolve task execution errors.
Minimal Coding: Facilitates automation with limited coding requirements, broadening accessibility.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides affordable licensing options for diverse businesses.
Operational Efficiency: Enhances productivity by automating repetitive tasks, reducing manual errors.
Versatility: Adapts well across sectors like banking, healthcare, and transportation.
Robust Support: Offers extensive assistance with automation features.
IT Compatibility: Easily integrates into existing IT infrastructures.

In industries such as healthcare and transportation, Fortra's Automate facilitates the automation of client management, HR operations, and data processing, boosting efficiency. Banks utilize it for managing extensive invoice workflows, while distribution sectors rely on its capabilities for insurance checks and system support. Its applicability across servers makes it a valuable tool for any sector seeking to reduce manual workload and improve task accuracy.

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

December 2025

Free Report: Pega Robotic Process Automation vs. VisualCron

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