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Atera vs Hornbill Systems Supportworks comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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
664
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)
Atera
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (12th), Network Monitoring Software (37th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (41st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (11th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (5th), Patch Management (13th), AIOps (22nd), Agentic Automation (12th), Autonomous Endpoint Management (7th)
Hornbill Systems Supportworks
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (33rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (31st)
 

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.
NC
IT Manager at Telstra
Remote monitoring has streamlined endpoint management and consistently reduced ticket resolution time
The best features Atera offers include the per-technician pricing, which is honestly one of the biggest things. Unlimited endpoints for a flat monthly fee per tech is a model that makes sense for us, since we are not paying more every time we add a new endpoint. The AI Copilot feature has been a nice addition that helps our techs summarize tickets and suggest fixes faster, which has cut our resolution times noticeably. The AI Copilot feature has specifically helped my team because the automation handles a lot of the routine work, such as patch deployments, maintenance tasks, and monitoring alerts. Atera has positively impacted my organization by transforming how our team operates day-to-day, and the pricing model is hard to beat. The outcomes or metrics showing how Atera has made a positive impact include the 30% reduction in ticket resolution time I mentioned earlier.
it_user1262703 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Desk Team Leader at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Excels in call logging and call flows but is limited in terms of scalability
I'd advise others to map their processes out before starting with the solution. Hornbill has recently generated a new version of its product and it meets some of the requirements that we would have been looking for. It's a bit more scalable, a bit more responsive to a customer-focused model for support, and they've improved a lot of things like process flow and self-service. In terms of rating the solution, it's difficult to grade. It really depends on the size of the organization that's trying to use it as that tool. One of the reasons why we're looking to shift is because we've grown quite a bit over the years that we've had it, which makes it difficult for it to meet our demands. However, for an organization the size of what we were when we started our journey with it, I'd rate it ten out of ten. Where we are now, with our company size and needs, I'd rate it six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Automation Anywhere has improved my company significantly; earlier we were dependent on the client installed on local machines, but now it is completely web-based, so we don't have to worry about having a dedicated VM."
"A valuable feature of Automation Anywhere for my needs is IQ Bot because it covers most of the semi-structured and structure data. That's where we are struggling a lot. So, IQ Bot is a very good solution to know and bring onboard for the automation of unstructured and semi-structured data."
"We've delivered tremendous value in a really short amount of time and gotten a lot of support from our organization."
"Our business has seen a good return on investment with Automation Anywhere, and they are so pleased that they are requesting to add more processes."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the MetaBot, which gives you the power to add many DLLs and customize them for the automation."
"Automation Anywhere is the first RPA solution we have taken and suggested implementing it to our customers, and it has helped tremendously in assisting our customers in achieving their goals."
"V.11 has three different recorders but A2019 Automation Anywhere created an all-in-one recorder called Universal recorder which more reliable to use."
"Earlier users were converting the unstructured data from the PDF into the structured format to process the task but now, this activity is replaced by IQ Bot."
"It is reliable, and when it is working, it works without issues."
"There are a lot fewer hardware replacements. Once people migrated from old style hard disks over to SSDs, you have things like hard disks filling up faster. So, I run a script to clear out all the waste, e.g., all the temporary files and downloads. A lot of our business runs through a custom web application that we built. This involves people downloading a lot of PDFs and Excel files, and not just having them sitting in folders. With Atera, I can just go through and clean the temporary files out."
"Just because it is low cost doesn't mean it is low quality."
"Atera has positively impacted my organization by transforming how our team operates day-to-day, and the pricing model is hard to beat."
"Atera has helped me to provide more accurate solutions based on a given problem."
"We value the alerts that come with the product which allow me to reach out to my clients. Overall, Atera generates additional revenue streams for work done on their machines."
"The most valuable features of this solution are automatic batch matching and unattended support access."
"I really like the Shared Script Library and automation tasks which they have implemented... because all the Atera users in the community can share their scripts and their automation tasks knowledge. The same goes for the Shared SNMP Template Library."
"It is quite user friendly to use and has a lot of very useful features that makes the analyst/technician's life easier."
"We've definitely seen an ROI; we've had the system in place for eight years, and it's provided a solid platform for us to deliver our services during that period."
"The solution's business process flow is quite strong. Its reporting is quite good. The standard, basic ITSM functionality like call logging and call flow, for example, are areas the solution really excels in."
 

Cons

"The main issue I identify is that the cost of the enterprise-scale license and add-ons can be a barrier for small businesses."
"My main issue with Automation Anywhere might be the logging of bots and getting more detailed feedback of what my bot is doing, step by step. It is hard to track fine-tuning in larger codes."
"Enhancing the support tiers might be beneficial, and pricing has been a primary challenge, with a need for cheaper options and more tiered support."
"There is a lot of scope for improvement in terms of stability. It is a concern, because right now we are close to 20 to 25 percent false negatives that are coming up."
"I would like to see more stability around scheduling a bot to run headless."
"If there were one thing I could ask for it would be a text-based language. Right now it's proprietary, so you always have to go through the tool, even for things like basic compares."
"Having fewer connection instances would make it more secure, more simple to troubleshoot, and possibly more flexible with the type of applications in use."
"IQ Bot has some limitations that should be improved in future releases."
"They are working on an update, and I would like to see more stuff outside of just computers and servers. Increasingly, we need to be able to monitor and manage network devices. Atera is improving on that already, which is one place that it is currently lacking."
"The chat solutions need improvement because we first need to connect to the customer. This needs to improve so that there is a particular feature that can provide support to customers even if they are not connected to a computer."
"The one thing that could do with improvement is the reporting."
"I would like to see more mobile device management. iPad is a big one."
"There is definitely room for improvement with its automation capabilities."
"It will be interesting if Atera can integrate all kinds of products. In North America, there are a lot of resellers, like Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Arrow Electronics, etc. It would be amazing if Atera could integrate with these products. If they could integrate with these products for MSPs, it would be much easier. Then, if you are buying something, and need to add something, you don't need to jump from place to place because this is a very quick sales instrument for use on a daily basis."
"It should improve its processes."
"The solution is scalable. However, in the past, we did have some issues."
"It's worked well for us for a significant period of time. However, we are kind-of outgrowing it at the moment. We're struggling a bit with making it meet our requirements."
"Customer Service: I'd rate it as a 5/10 or 6/10."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I've seen the price vary by whether the client is going to scale and adopt a tool."
"Automation Anywhere is flexible in terms of costing and licensing."
"My only suggestion in terms of pricing is very generic and that is to consider that as much as RPA saves cost and does automation, please get a realistic estimation done on whether you are really achieving any ROI over your investment with RPA."
"It is fantastic. It has been great. It is perfectly priced for the quality received. When paying for quality, that is exactly what you get."
"We purchase on a bot basis. Our costs are approximately $5,000."
"Overall, the pricing of Automation Anywhere is good."
"We save approximately 10,000 hours per year."
"The price is a little bit high but the support is good."
"We pay per user. I am the only user. It is $150 per user. If I need to add one, it is not as costly as expanding with other providers."
"With Atera, the more you add, the cheaper the cost of the additional endpoints will be."
"Atera's pricing stays fixed and predictable, enabling us to add more customers and unlimited monitored devices. We still have a number of clients who fit a break/fix IT model. This is something where clients are complaining more about having to pay extra month-by-month for technology services. With Atera's model, we don't have to be going out and asking for more from clients each month. Right now, with where we are at in terms of scale, this is very important to us."
"It comes with unlimited devices, so the fixed price cost is taken out of my budget. So, I'm all good."
"Pricing is my favorite part of it. It was per user, not per client."
"The value of the product is perfect, neither cheap nor expensive. I think it is the right rate. It would be awesome if it continued to be the same price because it is a great solution that I like. I like it because I'm not paying per device. I have some customers on monthly contracts and some of them are on break'n fix. If I have a client who is on break'n fix, and they need to pay per agent, then I am losing money. If they were ever to change structures, going to pay-per-device model, then I would need to think about changing to something else."
"One of the biggest issues I face is the need to pay per technician. I've dealt with other platforms that you need to have 250-500 devices. Even though the cost declines as the number of devices a person has increases, they still require you to pay for 250 or 500, respectively. With Atera, the number doesn't matter as you always pay the same amount. I approximate that Atera saves me $100 per week."
"The solution cost approximately $200 Canadian per month."
"Our organization pays about $40,000 annually. There are ongoing consultancy costs and if we want to change anything, we're charged a day rate. Other than that, there are no other extra costs involved in working with the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Construction Company
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise85
Large Enterprise560
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Large Enterprise1
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atera?
The prices have increased over time. After expressing concerns about pricing to account managers, they offered a 30% ...
What needs improvement with Atera?
Reporting is probably the main frustration. Some of the more advanced reports are locked behind higher pricing tiers,...
What is your primary use case for Atera?
My main use case for Atera is remote monitoring and management across all our endpoints. We have devices spread acros...
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Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
No data available
Supportworks
 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
MSPs, IT consultants, and IT departments worldwide trust and use Atera. 
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