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BotFarm vs Microsoft Power Automate comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 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

Automate
Sponsored
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
BotFarm
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Power Automate
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Process Mining (2nd)
 

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 BotFarm is 0.3%, down from 0.3% 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)
 

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Ganesh-Subramanian - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers enhancement in data accuracy with low-code requirements and easy onboarding
It's a scalable product. In our organization, we sometimes write a script once and reuse it several times, which improves workflow efficiency. Our team inputs the datasets one by one or in a batch mode into BotFarm and schedules them or calls individually as needed. For instance, if one individual has 15 or 20 forms that need to be scanned and logged immediately, it's possible to implement with BotFarm and its scheduling operations. The solution is ideal for small and medium-sized enterprises and can fit in for large enterprises as well, depending upon the use case. For instance, if 100 agents are working across different locations through a mobile app, all the data from the agents can be stored in a common repository and scheduled. BotFarm can be configured based on the architecture and business operations.
Nilesh Pundkar - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."
"I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality."
"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."
"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."
"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."
"Overall, the whole product is really nice and provides significant benefits."
"We have tried other RPA solutions like UiPath or Automation Anywhere. They are fantastic products but complex, and it's hard to understand everything. It would be best if you had a skilled developer or several. Automate is easy to implement, administer, and use. It's appropriate for us because our cases are simple and easy to automate. We don't need complicated tools with many features; We prefer to get a significant ROI quickly."
"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."
"The solution is easy to use and easy to apply."
"Automation Anywhere has good document extraction features where it can learn patterns."
"The most valuable feature of BotFarm is the fact that we can use escalations when we need more computer power to fulfill all embargo that we receive in one day."
"It is easy to use and very stable. It is a rugged product, and it doesn't break so easily."
"The most valuable feature is the rapid deployment of multiple bots."
"Automation Anywhere provides a very flexible UI."
"The solution has very good processes. It's very easy to deploy and has good reviews on it. It offers good automation and the solution has very good developers working on it."
"BotFarm has been working perfectly fine with our business model. Its scalability is the most valuable feature. We can easily scale out bots on a need basis. Portability is another valuable feature. We work with different payment systems like Visa and MasterCard and have bots for them. Because of BotFarm, we are able to reuse these bots."
"Power Automate is not complex and is very easy-to-use in deploying most development projects."
"The initial setup isn't too difficult."
"The solution is comparatively quick to deploy for making smaller automation processes."
"Power Automate has allowed us to simplify the business process and improve operational efficiency."
"There is an exhaustive amount of templates that users have access to."
"Different trigger events were most valuable. You could schedule a process on a recurring basis, at a certain time of day or week, or when something happens, which is huge."
"Currently, we are mostly using the desktop part of it for data. We are basically extracting the data and then putting it in."
"The approval feature is the most important feature. We also use the flow history feature. It is a very useful product as compared to other products. We can automate easily when a list is updated. We can also handle approval-related issues and integrate it with emails."
 

Cons

"I believe we need to test various OCR tools that assist in evaluating, let's say, six different customer resyncs. We analyze their spending patterns and documentations, but current OCR support has limitations, requiring highly standardized documents, which isn't always the case. With a more advanced OCR system, we could improve processes related to credit risk management and legal matters. We're exploring how to integrate Fortra's Automate with our CRM platform, taking cues from instances where Salesforce seamlessly merged with Automate. However, we use a different CRM, Insight for New Enterprise, and we're seeking ways to connect the automation process within our CRM. We aim for the automation to continue smoothly, even in instances where traditional automation methods might face hurdles."
"The documentation is not that great."
"The intelligent automation feature could be improved. It's interesting because it's simple, but the automation quality isn't always good. It's easy to use, but sometimes you need to make a slight improvement to the automation, and that's not so easy."
"We really need a free development environment for customers. Building and testing automation on production isn't ideal."
"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."
"Error messages should be better. For error status, there should be better documentation because a lot of times, error messages that you get are quite vague. For example, you get a message saying that the workflow has run into an unknown status, which is vague. It just tells you that it failed, but you don't know how or why it failed. It makes debugging difficult."
"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 find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."
"The deployment could be made a little bit easier."
"We do have some troubles with the internal software commands, but we have been troubleshooting this bug to fix it."
"The machine learning needs to be improved so that they perform better in terms of predictive analysis and sentiment analysis."
"I would like to be able to access BotForm using a mobile app."
"It would be ideal if the solution offered more language options, such as Arabic."
"An area for improvement in BotFarm is that the communication between the Control Room and the Bot Client Missions isn't utilized well. There's also the issue with PCI DSS compliance or certain regulations that require a set of configurations that are not fully supported by BotFarm. The product should be certified or designed according to the required regulations in the finance industry to make it better."
"The tool must execute remedial actions to resolve problems before they cause significant incidents."
"The OCR command needs to improve. This feature is used to convert the extracted data from an image file. While converting this file I was facing a lot of issues with the data because it was getting lost and some of the data which was extracted was mismatched. The data loss was rated as a nine and the data accuracy was a massive decrease and was up to 80%."
"They can build more templates and more connectivity with other platforms. They can provide a more user-friendly way to connect with other platforms. They have their own in-built plugins for certain third-party vendors, but there are still a lot of third-party vendors that are not there."
"They can provide a deeper level of feedback about running processes. When I compare it to Blue Prism, the control room has slightly less information about the running processes and possible errors. I'm not a pro, so I am not entirely sure if this is a core feature of the product or if it is because of the way our partners have developed it or set it up."
"If the product had onscreen help, it would be easier to learn and use."
"The OCR part or scanning of documents is missing."
"It is mostly integrated with the Microsoft environment. Unlike UiPath, we cannot really use external tools with Microsoft Power Automate. There should be a possibility to integrate it with external tools or systems."
"The UI of the solution is not so good."
"Some automation features on some programs did not work smoothly."
"What needs improvement in WinAutomation by Softomotive is its stability. Stability is quite important to me. Another area for improvement in the solution is robot scheduling because it's not 100% accurate, in particular, it's 90% accurate. The monitoring of the robot could also be improved because it's not very straightforward, and you have to look in a few places or at least two places which means that monitoring is not a one-glance process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."
"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."
"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."
"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."
"It has gone up in price. The price of Fortra's Automate has increased since we first started using it. It does a lot but also costs a lot. It was a lot more affordable before Fortra owned the software."
"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."
"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."
"There is a license for this solution and it is on an annual basis. I am satisfied with the price."
"We are on an annual license for the solution and is priced well."
"I think payment can vary but it's a re-occurring fee that needs to be paid every year."
"The pricing is fair."
"The solution prices are expensive. It would be more beneficial for customers to lower the pricing."
"The product is slightly expensive"
"The pricing model could be simplified."
"It is too expensive and not worth the price."
"When accompanying customers, we discuss the license requirements. Based on these requirements, we suggest whether a per-user plan or multiple platforms per-user plan would be best."
"They have the community edition that people can use for free, and they also have the enterprise edition. My company uses the enterprise edition, and I don't know how much they pay."
"Due to the pricing model, the solution is more convenient than any other tools."
"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."
"We are using the free version of Power Automate."
"Comparatively, WinAutomation is cheaper than the other automation tools. When we purchased the license, it was around $50 or $60 per user most probably per month."
"Power Automate is comparatively less costly than UiPath."
"It has a cost-effective pricing model compared to competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
28%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
5%
 

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.
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...
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...
What do you like most about BotFarm?
The product has increased efficiency and reduced the time spent on tasks.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BotFarm?
The product is slightly expensive. In comparison to competitor tools like UiPath, BotFarm's cost is greater. Our orga...
What needs improvement with BotFarm?
The solution can improve the accuracy of hand-written data reading. In some situations, the data needs to be hand-wri...
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...
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 ‌...
How is Automation Anywhere compared to Microsoft Power Automate?
‌Neither‌ ‌solution‌ ‌requires‌ ‌any‌ ‌coding‌ ‌experience,‌ ‌and‌ ‌both‌ ‌are‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌use‌ ‌and‌ ‌have‌ ‌great...
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
No data available
Power Automate, Microsoft Flow, MS Power Automate, WinAutomation by Softomotive, ProcessRobot by Softomotive, Minit
 

Overview

 

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
Cisco, CocaCola Bottlers Japan, Macy's, Whirlpool, Unilever
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
Find out what your peers are saying about BotFarm vs. Microsoft Power Automate and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.