UiPath vs Automation Anywhere?
Before diving into the comparison between UiPath and Automation Anywhere, it’s worth setting the stage. When two competitors try to imitate each other’s strengths, they frequently end up with more points in common than differences. Their deployment model is an eye-catching example.
Historically, Automation Anywhere used a client-server approach, in which clients requested and received services from a centralized server. UiPath, on the other hand, has taken a cloud-based strategy, which means it has shared its resources and services with customers via the internet rather than a direct connection to a server.
1. The best tools and features
Users of both platforms can rely on a diverse set of tools to help them automate their business activities. Starting with Automation Anywhere, some of its key features include:
Control Panel: Consider it an “overlord,” a server that oversees all bots developed with this platform.
Bot Creator: Developers use this tool to generate new bots.
Bot Runner: Essentially, the machine on which your bots run.
Automation Anywhere also includes several special features, such as the Email Automation command that intelligently automates email server operations and the PDF Integration command that extracts form fields from PDFs. Also, the platform has a large bot store and many ready-to-use solutions pre-configured to suit different needs and available to other users to reduce deployment time.
UiPath, on the other hand, has the following core RPA tools (in addition to other toolkits that enable full-cycle hyper-automation)
UiPath Studio: An easy-to-use visual designer for creating automated processes from a library of pre-built alternatives.
UiPath Robot: The component responsible for executing the workflows defined in the previous section.
UiPath Orchestrator: A program that allows you to install, manage and monitor UiPath bots in your business environment.
2. Cognitive and process analysis skills
We’ve already discussed some of the primary characteristics of these platforms, but let’s take a quick look at the ones directly related to AI and process analytics. In this regard, one of Automation Anywhere’s strong points is its impressive selection of cognitive automation solutions that enhance RPA bots with AI-based capabilities and so-called IQ bots.
- Automation Anywhere is at the edge of business analytics. Its Bot Insight tool monitors and predicts the performance of your business processes, and provides useful information to further automate or improve corporate workflows.
- UiPath, for its part, has recently developed its cognitive services through integrated tools and integration with partner solutions such as ABBYY.
- This is also accomplished by acquiring other companies in 2019, such as Step Shot and Process Gold.
- The business plan aims to complement UiPath’s existing RPA solution with artificial intelligence, data mining, analytics, and other functions.
3. Process design and usability
UiPath is well-known for providing a very intuitive and user-friendly visualization tool for business process design that visually depicts the sequence of tasks you work on and requires relatively simple drag-and-drop operations to set up your bots.
- This makes debugging processes easier because you can clearly understand what is wrong without going through the code line.
- According to peer-to-peer review site G2, customers find UiPath easier to set up and manage than Automation Anywhere.
- However, Automation Anywhere has also made significant progress in this area and no longer requires a strictly script-based process design that necessitates a significant amount of code.
- Indeed, many of these tasks are aided or automated by various built-in tools and capabilities, such as Discovery Bot.
4. Scalability
While UiPath is easy to use, Automation Anywhere’s solutions are generally considered easier to scale due to the platform’s Java-based microservices design. The Forrester Wave Q1 2021 survey appears to confirm this overall sentiment, with the highest ranking for automation anywhere based on scaling experience.
UiPath, on the other hand, has good scalability. Its cloud platform, UiPath Automation Cloud, in particular, offers a “scalable” option that lets you grow as many robots and tenants as you need to meet your organization’s needs.
5. Partnerships
In terms of partners, it’s worth noting Automation Anywhere’s relationship with Microsoft, which focuses on letting customers access their bots through the Microsoft Azure cloud service. Another significant collaboration was formed with Workday Ventures to deliver new automation capabilities to Workday customers and accelerate their digital transformation.
UiPath, for its part, can rely on a partnership with business intelligence company Sisense to combine its solutions with advanced analytics capabilities and measure their real influence on customers’ business operations.
- It has partnered with ABBYY, a software development business specializing in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining.
- This collaboration aims to transform UiPath’s RPA bots into better IPA tools, improving their content intelligence and providing better data extraction and classification capabilities when working with unstructured data sources.
- In our article on IPA vs RPA, we have explored the nature of such developments in detail.
6. Pricing
We’ve saved the most confusing and controversial topic for last: UiPath vs Cost of Automation Anywhere. “Mysterious” because these two sellers are reluctant to release specific price lists. We’re sure you get what you pay for, and this case is no different. Both platforms, major automation leaders, and first-rate service providers offer some of the most affordable solutions in the market.
According to Captera, UiPath’s entry-level solutions start at $3,990.00 per year, although pricing for the rest of the platform was not specified.
- However, Automation Anywhere’s official website lists the cloud starter pack for small companies starting at $750 per month but does not mention the price of the advanced pack for medium and large companies.
- The cost of Automation Anywhere’s ready-made bots, on the other hand, is freely published and can be found in its bot store.
