AutoSys Workload Automation vs VisualCron comparison

Broadcom and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Workload Automation category. Broadcom is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.6, while SMA Technologies is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.0. Broadcom holds a 7.0% mindshare in WA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Broadcom 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 Mar 29, 2026

AutoSys Workload Automation and VisualCron are competing in the workload automation category. AutoSys seems to have the upper hand due to its reliability and scalability, making it suitable for large enterprises managing complex workloads.

Features: AutoSys Workload Automation offers strong scheduling capabilities, seamless integration with multiple platforms, and high scalability for complex environments. VisualCron boasts flexibility with a wide range of tasks, ease of use, and powerful script execution options, appealing for diverse task management.

Room for Improvement: AutoSys could benefit from quicker integration with new market trends and improved deployment agility. Enhancing its user interface to be more intuitive and accessible could also be beneficial. VisualCron might improve by enhancing its robustness for handling very large-scale operations. Providing more in-depth documentation and scaling its solution to meet enterprise-level demands could further enhance its offering.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AutoSys has a traditional deployment model that often requires significant time and expertise, but it offers solid troubleshooting support. VisualCron offers a simpler deployment process and is more accessible for smaller teams. Its customer service is praised for responsiveness and accessibility, creating a smoother overall experience.

Pricing and ROI: AutoSys generally involves a higher setup cost aligning with its enterprise focus and long-term scalability benefits. VisualCron presents a cost-effective alternative for smaller organizations or those starting without heavy infrastructure commitments, offering quick returns on investment with lower initial expenses and simpler setup processes.

To learn more, read our detailed AutoSys Workload Automation vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AutoSys Workload Automation vs. VisualCron

April 2026

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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

JAMS

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Workload Automation category, the mindshare of JAMS is 3.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AutoSys Workload Automation is 7.0%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Workload Automation Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
JAMS	3.0%
AutoSys Workload Automation	7.0%
VisualCron	1.8%
Other	88.2%

Workload Automation

Featured Reviews

Latha Viswanathan

Principal Data Base And Infrastructure Engineer at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees

Automation has replaced nightly monitoring and delivers reliable, unified job scheduling

We have really enjoyed working with JAMS in terms of notifications, alerts, and streamlining. There used to be a process with Automate, which is another product from Fortra, but even before that, the other division of the company that we were merging with had a tool that was built in-house called a file handler or file distributor. It was an in-house developed tool, but it was not as streamlined or as efficient as JAMS is. We literally had to have a dedicated nighttime person monitoring. Although we are 24/7, the divisions of the company that we were using JAMS for have been small scale. While we have automated it, we have streamlined it in such a way that notifications go out and alerts go out, but if there is anything, then we get paged and alerted, and if anything needs to happen at midnight, we can wake up. On the other hand, with the tool I mentioned, the file handler and distributor, we used to have a dedicated nighttime person that had to be sitting and monitoring it to see when a file arrived, whether it met the conditions, and then execute the next particular job. By using JAMS, we have gained a lot more efficiencies in terms of all of those to streamline it, and there is no necessary need for having an overnight engineer just keeping an eye on all of this.

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Pavan Katta

Assistant VP at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Experience significant automation with robust integration and user-friendly interfaces

There are areas of AutoSys Workload Automation that have room for improvement. They are implementing good enhancements in the R24 release. The web UI needs some improvement. Cloud integrations are limited to 25 or 30 configurable plugins and integrations to the cloud. They can improve in that area. They have separate tools, not AutoSys Workload Automation, such as Atomic and other SaaS-based solutions that can run inside the cloud. AutoSys Workload Automation can be configured in the cloud, but it requires a substantial number of VMs depending on the load. For on-premises deployment, it is a very good solution. They need to increase their footprint in the cloud and improve the web UI. They are making excellent progress in the R24 release.

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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 most valuable aspect of JAMS is its robustness."

"JAMS is easier to use and cheaper than our previous solution. The installation is more straightforward, and JAMS has a graphical user interface, so it's more accessible."

"The feature or capability to import a job is most valuable. We can import an existing job from different platforms, and all the configurations get migrated as well without modifying the code, job schedule, etc."

"The alerting in it is really targeted... you can set specific alerting so that if jobs in a given folder fail, certain people are alerted. You can also set security at the folder level, so that only people in those areas can go set them. That means that the alerting and security can be set at a very granular level."

"JAMS has improved my organization by taking a myriad of manual processes and allowing us to automate them. It enables our folks to focus more on tasks that require their human intelligence and their creativity and less on just mundane tasks. It increases efficiency, accuracy, and consistency."

"The fact that we no longer need to use Excel spreadsheets is huge. Before JAMS, every group was keeping track of their own batch jobs. Nobody really knew what the other jobs were. So, if jobs failed, other groups wouldn't necessarily know. With JAMS, everything is done through a single scheduler. You can choose who to notify."

"JAMS offers diverse scheduling capabilities for any kind of job, including Linux, PowerShell scripts, and SQL, enabling automation of jobs, which has proven beautiful after three years of usage."

"The product is easy to use."

More JAMS pros

"It has streamlined our scheduling and cut down our overall run time; not in half, but significantly."

"The product itself has always been very, very stable, and extremely easy to upgrade."

"Visibility into the workflow and ease of use to be able to schedule have improved our organization."

"The integration that it provides and the auditing features are the most valuable to us."

"AutoSys Workload Automation is a stable solution."

"We use technical support all the time. We would be lost without them. They're fantastic. Really good job. We're able to reach the right person to help us out right away."

"We have gotten great support from CA; they are there whenever we need them, and whenever we open a case, they are very receptive to the issues that we have and resolve them in a timely manner."

"It has helped to simplify cross-dependency between MVS and Open systems jobs."

More AutoSys Workload Automation pros

"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."

"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."

"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."

"VisualCron is a very powerful program to automate different steps in your business processes."

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

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

"Using the Windows Task Scheduler means you have to do some coding while using VisualCron means the tool takes care of the coding from the backend; you're just using the visual interface of VisualCron, creating the logic, and telling the tool what actions need to be performed, so VisualCron would take care of everything on the backend for you, which helps you manage time better."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"The cost has definitely gone up tremendously. That is where I do know, as much as the feature sets are there, and if the newly acquired company is going to be doing a pushback, they might just say, 'Do we still need to pay this much? Or at that point, should we look into an alternative?'"

"The tabs in the JAMS file transfer could be clearer. It would help us demonstrate to our client that JAMS not only automates jobs but also does fast transfers, and it's an alternative that supports and filters different kinds of platforms. Filtering file transfers will be highly beneficial to them."

"The UI is completely unintuitive. We had to go and open up a support ticket with JAMS just to get something back."

"JAMS handles exceptions fairly well but there are some areas where it might improve a little bit. It has to do with being able to automatically handle exceptions, out-of-the-box, rather than having to code them."

"JAMS notifications for hung jobs could be improved."

"When looking at a folder in JAMS with many jobs, it would be good to have better information in the list display of what's inside those jobs. We get some information, but other important details are missing."

"I would like a simple web interface that I could give to my team to go in and kill jobs or see why jobs died so that we don't have to drill down deeper into the application and know everything about it. It would be good to have a really clean web engine that would say here are the jobs running. We can then click to see the time running and whether any of them fails and other similar things. I know they have one, but it's not very simplistic."

"I would like to see the ability to interface with Microsoft group-managed service accounts, but they're still in the research phase. They need to ensure everything's legit and safe. The report designer and dashboards could also be improved. We're running 7.3, so I don't know if they have updated the reporting in 7.5, but I think the reports and dashboards could be better."

More JAMS cons

"CA Workload Automation is not part of CA's strategic vision going forward."

"The solution could improve by having support for container environments."

"We received a 'Not active. "Scan Failed"; "The 'path/file' does not exist or not a directory" error message/email on one of our event level file triggers."

"With requirements, they have "always" and "skip" on them. That would be nice, for them to have it on triggers also."

"There should be easier migrations from a different bus scheduler."

"The reporting system, currently, could be better."

"The lack of documentation, that is an issue. When we do need to bring it down for maintenance, it is always a scary moment for us because we have never had it crash."

"The initial setup, what we had, was called 35 then we went to a 45 version. Now we went from the 45 to what's called R11, that was a nightmare."

More AutoSys Workload Automation cons

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

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

"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 want to improve the UI in VisualCron, as it's not as user-friendly, particularly when setting up the task scheduler."

"Some preferences and permissions are not quite self-explanatory, but those are rather advanced features."

"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."

"There are some conditions in the mail trigger, but you can only use them as an "AND" condition, not as an "OR" condition."

"An area for improvement in VisualCron is its cluttered interface."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's certainly a lot cheaper than Tivoli and Control-M. In comparison to them, you get a lot more bang for your buck. You get pretty much the whole functionality and more, in some cases, when compared to Control-M, but at a fraction of the price."

"This is a good product at a fair price."

"The pricing of JAMS has not been an issue for us, as it has allowed us to save time."

"It was $10,000 for the first year. Then, there is a maintenance cost for licensing every year that we get billed $5,000 for every year."

"There are no additional costs other than the license for Fortra's JAMS which is affordable."

"In the end, you'll find that it's really worth the price. There is some sticker shock, but it's worth every dime."

"Definitely check how many single processes you want to run and count them as jobs. That is how you would work out your pricing on JAMS. For example, if you're running a number of commands and you can put them all into one script and run that script, you can count that as one job."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More JAMS pricing and cost advice

"CA pricing has been a problem, and not looked upon favorably here at all."

"The pricing needs to be improved. Some of my client's complained that it was too expensive."

"There is an annual license to use AutoSys Workload Automation."

"I certainly think the pricing is worth the value."

"The price of this solution is reasonable and there is an annual license required."

"Validate how many agents you need beforehand."

"It is overpriced."

"The return on investment would be very high because doing things manually without this product would be extremely expensive."

More AutoSys Workload Automation pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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 one month."

"ROI is 95 percent."

"The price is a bit high."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

39%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	77

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

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JAMS?

I believe the pricing and licensing were fair. I was not here when that process took place and do not know exactly, b...

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What needs improvement with JAMS?

When it comes to improvements for JAMS, I think upgrading and migrating some of the current processes could benefit f...

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What is your primary use case for JAMS?

Our main use case for JAMS is to automate our data pump backups for our PeopleSoft Oracle system, as well as run a my...

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How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?

Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful b...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AutoSys Workload Automation?

It is reasonably priced compared to the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AutoSys Workload Automation?

There are areas of AutoSys Workload Automation that have room for improvement. They are implementing good enhancement...

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

Control-M vs JAMS

Compared 12% of the time

Stonebranch vs JAMS

Compared 8% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs JAMS

Compared 7% of the time

Automic Automation vs JAMS

Compared 6% of the time

Tidal by Redwood vs JAMS

Compared 5% of the time

More JAMS Competitors

Control-M vs AutoSys Workload Automation

Compared 23% of the time

Stonebranch vs AutoSys Workload Automation

Compared 10% of the time

Automic Automation vs AutoSys Workload Automation

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Workload Automation vs AutoSys Workload Automation

Compared 5% of the time

Astro by Astronomer vs AutoSys Workload Automation

Compared 3% of the time

More AutoSys Workload Automation Competitors

UiPath Platform vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

Tidal by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 2% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

JAMS

May 2026

Download JAMS product report

Buyer's Guide

AutoSys Workload Automation

May 2026

Download AutoSys Workload Automation product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

April 2026

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

No data available

CA Workload Automation, CA Workload Automation AE

No data available

Interactive Demo

JAMS Software

Demo not available

Broadcom

Demo not available

SMA Technologies

Overview

JAMS is an automation and job scheduling solution designed for workflow optimization, catering to businesses large and small with flexible licensing and integration options.

Offering both Core and Advanced packages, JAMS supports a range of environments from small teams to large-scale operations. Its standout features include integration with platforms like PowerShell, SQL, and SAP, coupled with capabilities such as dependency management and natural language scheduling. JAMS simplifies job management, centralizes workflows, and boosts productivity with its robust automation features. Customizable workflows and insightful logging make it adaptable for diverse needs, supported by responsive customer service ensuring seamless operations.

What are JAMS's key features?

Automation & Scheduling: Flexible automation helps manage complex job schedules efficiently.
Integration: Connects seamlessly with platforms like SQL Server, SAP, and Python for diverse applications.
Centralized Job Management: A unified interface for handling thousands of jobs daily.
Dependency Management: Supports complex workflows with efficient dependency tracking.
Insightful Logging: Provides detailed logs and notifications for precise task execution.

What benefits should users look for in JAMS reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Automates repetitive tasks, freeing up resources for strategic initiatives.
Scalability: Flexible licensing models grow with business size and needs.
Efficient Workflow Automation: Streamlines job orchestration across environments.
Responsive Support: Helps ensure smooth operations with quick troubleshooting.

In industries, JAMS is employed for automating workflows and managing batch jobs. Organizations utilize it for SSIS, SQL Server tasks, file transfers, and integrating with vendor systems, achieving efficient file automation and data management. Scheduler enables precise execution of thousands of tasks daily, enhancing operational efficiency.

JAMS Software

AutoSys Workload Automation delivers comprehensive scheduling capabilities and integration features, offering users scalability and efficiency in automation across platforms. Its enhanced user-friendliness and security make it a reliable choice for job scheduling and workload management.

AutoSys Workload Automation is well-regarded for its stability and intuitive graphical interface which facilitates efficient job scheduling across platforms. Users find its security features effective in ensuring controlled access, and appreciate its ability to handle high volumes of jobs while providing seamless orchestration and monitoring. However, the interface could benefit from modernization. Enhancements are suggested for reporting features and job flow clarity. Its integration with mobility and cloud platforms requires improvement as current support remains limited. Improving monitoring capabilities, managing cross-application dependencies, and simplifying upgrades are essential. Additionally, addressing the costly licensing model and enhancing high-level system process views are significant for maintaining competitiveness in automation.

What are AutoSys's key features?

Scheduling Capabilities: Provides robust and flexible scheduling options across platforms.
Integration Features: Allows seamless automation with diverse systems.
Security Measures: Ensures controlled and secure access to resources.
User-Friendly Interface: Offers an intuitive GUI for simplified use.
High Job Volume Support: Efficiently manages a large number of jobs with ease.

What benefits can users expect?

Reduced Manual Efforts: Automates processes minimizing the need for manual intervention.
Enhanced Visibility: Improves oversight and monitoring of tasks.
Effective Troubleshooting: Streamlines troubleshooting with well-organized workflows.
Scalability: Scales across diverse environments to meet enterprise demands.
Improved Efficiency: Increases operational efficiency with optimized automation.

AutoSys Workload Automation is extensively used in industries like banking, insurance, and retail for job scheduling, batch management, and server workload automation. It supports data processing for enterprise tasks, monitors tasks, and manages cross-platform dependencies, proving to be a reliable tool for complex job orchestration in these sectors.

Broadcom

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

Teradata, Arconic, General Dynamics, Yum!, CVS Health, Comcast, Ghiradelli, & Boston’s Children’s Hospital

Gaumont, Mercantil do Brasil, CCEE, Hanwha Life

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

Buyer's Guide

AutoSys Workload Automation vs. VisualCron

April 2026

Free Report: AutoSys Workload Automation vs. VisualCron

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