Blue Prism vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

SS&C Blue Prism and Microsoft are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. SS&C Blue Prism is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. SS&C Blue Prism holds a 10.5% mindshare in RPA, compared to Microsoft’s 21.1% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of SS&C Blue Prism users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

In the realm of RPA solutions, Blue Prism and Microsoft Power Automate are key competitors, with Blue Prism having an edge in enterprise-level automation capabilities while Microsoft Power Automate excels in user-friendly interface and integration with Microsoft products.

Features: Blue Prism offers robust capabilities such as SQL database access, integration with analytics tools, and strong security and custom logic features. It effectively supports complex business processes and exception handling. Microsoft Power Automate is renowned for seamless integration with Microsoft products, offering a low-code environment and numerous connectors to simplify automation tasks.

Room for Improvement: Blue Prism needs to enhance AI capabilities, ease of integration with external systems, and community support. Its licensing model and attended automation features also require improvement. Microsoft Power Automate should expand RPA capabilities, improve integration with non-Microsoft products, and enhance its AI functionalities for complex workflows and better desktop automation features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Blue Prism provides multiple deployment options including on-premises and private cloud, but faces mixed reviews due to slow technical support. Microsoft Power Automate, while offering flexible public and hybrid cloud deployment through the Microsoft ecosystem, also has room for improvement in customer service efficiency.

Pricing and ROI: Blue Prism is perceived as expensive with complex licensing, yet provides considerable ROI for complex enterprise needs over time. Microsoft Power Automate, often bundled with Office 365, presents a cost-effective solution for smaller tasks, though its pricing can become intricate with premium connectors. Both claim ROI advantages, but Blue Prism may require longer engagements to maximize benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate

March 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 April 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Blue Prism is 10.5%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 21.1%, down from 21.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Q&A Highlights

Tarek Fanous

Unit Business Director (SAP) - FICO -PM at Abudawood

Mar 11, 2022

What are the main technical differences between Microsoft Power Automate and Blue Prism?

Adding to the answer here are the finer points: 1. Workflow technical features - a. ability to create a multi-level approval task. b. ability for the workflow engine to wait till the approval or rejection or any action is performed on the tasks. c. ability to delegate the task in the approval chain. e. Log of all activities within the workflow for the purpose of audit or tracing back the history. f. integration with third-party, internal or line-of-business applications for any data retrieval or data push to the system. g. drag and drop features (a kind of no-code solution) wherein the only configuration is required to create a workflow solution. h. user interface-driven or run as a back-end job to support the workflow process. 2. Robotics automation software features - a. a pure-play automation software that can detect images and other user interface elements on the application and interact with them. b. ability to mimic all human actions and steps while interacting with the software product. c. ability to interact with all types of software environments Citrix, Desktop, Server-based, Cloud, Web, Mobile, etc. d. ability to log activities performed on the application automated and perform all transactional activities and re-execute for any failed transactions. e. ability to interact with a standard application using either web services or another integration framework. g. OCR features to identify user interface elements, etc.

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Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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Mohamed Salah Baccouche

Robotic Process Automation Consultant at Ernst & Young

Way more efficient for debugging than other tools but the UI is complicated

The UI is more complicated than other tools. In Power Automate, it doesn't even feel like you are working because the tool does the job for you. But in the solution, there are studio, process, and object interfaces and you have to decode your own objects. The free objects that are predefined are not good compared to other tools. There is still a lot of work to do on the solution's intelligent automation part.

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Nilesh Pundkar

IVR Developer at Orange

Good for email routing and management features but additional costs for plug-ins

Power Automate has fewer features and more limitations in general. It's not as mature a product as some of the others, like UiPath or Automate Anywhere. One of the main issues I've found is that Power Automate struggles with accessing Excel or other Office documents on servers. Even though it's a Microsoft product, we often have to log in through remote systems, and syncing can be problematic due to the way we use servers. At the very least, they should provide access to Office 365 directly, without requiring additional logins on servers. Most people utilizing Power Automate are already working within the Office 365 environment. Any proof of concepts (POCs) using Power Automate would naturally be built on top of Office 365.

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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

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

"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."

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

"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."

"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."

"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."

"It's very easy to use. That's a big selling point for it. It has got a drag-and-drop interface, so you can quickly deploy bots."

"The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation."

More Automate pros

"I like the solution’s simplicity in process and objects. The solution has very clear guidelines and demarcation on processes and objects which is not present in other tools. The tool’s architecture is also very simple and clear. The product’s licensing model is also very simple. Other tools do not have such a simple licensing model."

"I like the error handling, it's very good."

"We find many of Blue Prism's features valuable. One recent one we're using is Decipher IDP. We're also looking at a couple of other tools and working on proofs of concept. Decipher IDP helps us create templates to extract data from images and PDF files, which is especially useful for processing invoices accurately and feeding that information into our systems."

"Access to the SQL database allows for extra capabilities."

"My company decided to go with Blue Prism because of the security it provides."

"One key feature is the workflow design is able to be customized according to the way that you want the automation to work."

"Blue Prism takes good security measures and is user friendly."

"It is a stable solution."

More Blue Prism pros

"Power Automate has allowed us to simplify the business process and improve operational efficiency."

"It is a great solution for simple automation activities or simple automation of simple tasks. It is also integrated with Office 365. Integration is an absolute breeze with any RPA software."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the automation interface and the RPA automation."

"The solution is very easy to use. It's a code three platform that works very easily with documents to create custom automations."

"The most valuable features are that it is low-code and simple."

"Microsoft Power Automate is a no-code platform which is very easy to learn, allowing businesses to build their own small automations."

"Its usability is very valuable because it has a quite simple flow. It is very user-friendly. It provides you templates. I started learning with the help of Teams templates, and then I started providing them. It is always good to start with a template so that you understand how it works. Its branches are quite user-friendly. You can put expressions in it. It allows you to link and test the flow so that you can check whether everything is running properly. From a business standpoint, Power Automate is quite good for a non-tech person. It is not like Java, HTML, or C++, which are very developer-driven. Power Automate is a more business-oriented kind of tool."

"It is quick, so I'm quite happy with it. It is also easy to use."

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

Cons

"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."

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

"We really need a free development environment for customers. Building and testing automation on production isn't ideal."

"The documentation for errors needs improvement as many of the error messages we receive are very vague."

"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."

"I currently have three bugs open with them that I don't know if they are addressed in the new release."

"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."

"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."

More Automate cons

"Our primary challenge at present is that we are finding it difficult to get additional business insights into existing processes so that we can identify where we need to improve."

"Blue Prism could be compatible with Oracle's suite of ERPs. We have seen some issues related to this. They could do much better with their intelligent document processing solution. They're pretty behind and don't have attended bots."

"Technical support is in need of improvement."

"We didn't find it much useful for unstructured data. It is not easy to do the automation with Blue Prism if you have unstructured data. It should have better automation processes or connectors for unstructured data such as PDFs or pictures. It has a connector for different applications, such as SAP, but we use a few other applications for which it doesn't have a connector. It should have a more comprehensive dashboard that we can use to see the processes that are running and control the parameters."

"I believe that there could be more community support, or there could be more support for developers like us from Blue Prism. Blue Prism provides a lot of documentation, but there is a lack of support."

"A feature that I would like to see in the next release is the ability to easily call on the robots to fulfill part of the process, and be run by the users in the business, where the robot can simply be activated rather than running mass processes from a control room."

"In Nigeria, I don't know what their marketing is like. However, they're losing market shares to other solutions. Most customers know UiPath more than Blue Prism."

"Navigation within the UI could be improved."

More Blue Prism cons

"The debugging tools require improvement as well as the monitoring which goes along with it."

"I would recommend removing the AI Builder feature from the automatic document processing functionality. The tool can serve even better with free automatic document processing features, it shouldn’t only be available in the trial version."

"More scripting capabilities could be included in Microsoft Power Automate."

"It can have customizations like enterprise solutions. In the approval section, there should be an option to reassign approval to some other employee. It would be good if we are able to create custom tables by linking to an item, and there is an integration with the HTML table through HTTP calls or Swagger connectors."

"One of the challenges is dealing with OCR text recognition."

"The solution lacks maturity."

"The solution's licensing model is very complex and not straightforward."

"Things need to be improved with respect to RPA kinds of solutions."

More Microsoft Power Automate cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"With Blue Prism, there are no additional fees"

"Blue Prism is less expensive than some of the other RPA solutions."

"We really don't bear the costs. The cost is borne by the customer. It runs into about $100,000 per year per customer for Blue Prism. We normally budget around $30,000 for the first year for the hardware, setup, and people cost."

"Due to our financial structure, we need fixed costs. So, a license based on the usage would not be feasible. If we have a license model that is based on tasks per year or something else, it could create a very dynamic range of costs. Due to our public financial input, we have to know what it will cost. So, we have licenses per server. This helps us in planning, and we know exactly when we need additional servers. We can then request additional money for them."

"Blue Prism is quite costly."

"It is expensive for us. It should be cheaper for a market like ours. We are based in India."

"My clients tend to feel that the overall implementation cost is a little high."

"The pricing is really good for an enterprise-level solution. It's quite scalable and it's quite comparable with the market."

More Blue Prism pricing and cost advice

"I don't deal with the financial side. I know that we pay for a per-user license. It is probably less than $20 a user, but I am not sure about the exact figures."

"This is a cost-effective product and now that it has been acquired by Microsoft, we don't expect the cost to increase with the next release."

"The solution is $150 per month for the unattended add-on, and the normal Power Automate comes with an E3 license."

"Its license is a part of our enterprise agreement. It is a three-year contract, but we pay yearly. So, it is a yearly license. There are no additional costs."

"It has a cost-effective pricing model compared to competitors."

"It comes with the Microsoft suite. I'd rate it an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."

"Initially, we had a Microsoft account for Office 365. Later, we discovered that our license included access to Power Automate at no additional cost. There was a small fee for additional features, but it was negligible compared to the benefits. There are not any additional fees required to use the solution."

"There is flexibility in pricing."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Tarek Fanous

Unit Business Director (SAP) - FICO -PM at Abudawood

Mar 11, 2022

What are the main technical differences between Microsoft Power Automate and Blue Prism?

2 out of 4 answers

Shiv Chandra

Senior Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 10, 2022

Hi @Tarek Fanous, Happy to talk you through what I have experienced in RPA. Feel free to reach out to me via DM or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sh...

Read full answer

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Mar 10, 2022

Hello @Okay Akdeniz, @Biswajit Mohanty, @KinjalDangeria, @Nancy_Sachdeva, @Shantanu Chande and @Mattia Mezzacapo, Can you please help @Tarek Fanous by sharing your insights?

Read full answer

See all 4 answers

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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?

I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scra...

See all answers

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

The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would ra...

See all answers

Should I choose Blue Prism or Microsoft Power Automate?

Hello Netanya, it depends on your needs and your expertise. In my humble opinion you can start a big RPA project imp...

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I am evaluating Blue Prism and UiPath for RPA for my company. Which one do you recommend?

I'm very familiar with UiPath and the RPA industry: was hired by Daniel Dines in 2015 when there were 35 employees an...

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What do you like most about Blue Prism?

It is a stable solution.

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RPA that Bots can run without centralized control?

Yes, Attended Bots which can run without centralized control Module. RPA Tools like Automation Anywhere, uiPath ,Pow...

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How do I choose between UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft‌ ‌Power‌ ‌Automate‌ ‌is‌ ‌intuitive‌ ‌and‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌integrate‌ ‌and‌ ‌use.‌ ‌I‌ ‌like‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌...

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How is Automation Anywhere compared to Microsoft Power Automate?

‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great...

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Comparisons

UiPath vs Automate

Compared 38% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

More Automate Competitors

UiPath vs Blue Prism

Compared 33% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism

Compared 12% of the time

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Blue Prism

Compared 4% of the time

Python RPA vs Blue Prism

Compared 2% of the time

NICE Robotic Automation vs Blue Prism

Compared 1% of the time

More Blue Prism Competitors

UiPath vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 27% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 16% of the time

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 5% of the time

ServiceNow Automation Engine vs Microsoft Power Automate

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Power Automate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

March 2025

Download Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism

March 2025

Download Blue Prism product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

March 2025

Download Microsoft Power Automate product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

No data available

Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive, Minit

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

Blue Prism is an intelligent, business-developed, no-code automation platform for SaaS deployments as well as for on-premises, public cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. Unlike other automation technology, Blue Prism combines robotic process automation with expanded artificial intelligence and cognitive capabilities. Blue Prism gives users instant access to the tools you need for building and delegating automations, as well as a digital workforce that is already AI-equipped.

With Blue Prism’s code-free RPA, deployed through use of their Robotic Operating Model, your business can scale efficiently, improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and augment its talent to take on new responsibilities. Blue Prism helps to accelerate operational agility and efficiency by making it easy to automate the most important processes. Allocating everyday tasks to your Digital Workforce gives you immediate increased capacity and allows your teams to focus on their strategic goals. In addition, it delivers a return on investment, increases efficiency gains, and can even introduce new revenue streams.

“Workforce of the Future”

Blue Prism’s all-in-one intelligent automation platform consists of:

Design Studio with drag-and-drop process automation building, reusable “objects” across your business, and updates to objects and processes saved throughout the process library.
Control Room where you can assign processes to digital workers, scale digital worker and task volume ondemand, and gain real-time transparency of process proficiencies.
Digital Workforce of autonomous software robots that can learn and mimic business processes like humans and are equipped with six intelligent automation skills:
1. Knowledge and Insight - The ability to harvest, understand, and deliver insights from multiple disparate data sources.
2. Visual Perception - The ability to read, understand, and contextualize visual information.
3. Learning - The ability to derive contextual meaning and adapt to evolving process patterns.
4. Planning and Sequencing - The ability to optimize workloads and identify opportunities for better outcomes.
5. Problem-solving - The ability to autonomously solve system, logic, and business problems.
6. Collaboration - The ability to seamlessly work with both people and systems.

Reviews from Real Users

Blue Prism stands out for its enterprise-level functionality, which is why many companies choose it over its competitors. PeerSpot users note that the solution is easy to use, stable, and robust scalability-wise. The security is also top-notch. One user pointed out that "One of the most powerful features in Blue Prism is exception handling. It's one of the features that really differentiates it from other platforms." Blue Prism helps businesses with everything from compliance to quality control and error-avoidance.

SS&C Blue Prism

Microsoft Power Automate is a powerful tool that streamlines and automates tasks within an organization.

It is used for workflow automation, data integration, and creating automated notifications and approvals.

Power Automate connects different applications and services, such as SharePoint, Excel, and Outlook, to automate data transfer and synchronization.

Microsoft

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

Coca-Cola, Walgreens, American Express, Royal Bank of Canada, Pfizer, Shop Direct, O2, Siemens, Ascension Healthcare, Jaguar Land Rover

1. Coca-Cola 2. General Electric 3. Siemens 4. Accenture 5. Deloitte 6. Johnson & Johnson 7. Ford 8. Nestle 9. Procter & Gamble 10. IBM 11. Amazon 12. Google 13. Microsoft 14. Adobe 15. Cisco 16. Oracle 17. SAP 18. Intel 19. HP 20. Dell 21. Verizon 22. AT&T 23. T-Mobile 24. Walmart 25. Target 26. Home Depot 27. McDonald's 28. Starbucks 29. Nike 30. Apple 31. Facebook 32. Twitter

Buyer's Guide

Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate

March 2025

Free Report: Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate

Find out what your peers are saying about Blue Prism vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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