Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM Datacap vs IQ Bot [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

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

IBM Datacap
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (6th)
IQ Bot [EOL]
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Bhasker ReddyPIdintla - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Delivery Head at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Has improved document scanning accuracy with advanced OCR capabilities
IBM needs to improve on scanning and reading accuracy for unstructured documents. Additionally, an important missing feature is the ability to merge documents and present data across different UI screens. This is especially beneficial for customer onboarding where documents are scanned not all at once but periodically. Incorporating automation could also aid in this area.
RP
Director of Global Automation at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Valuable connectivity and coherent solutions simplify maintenance but require cost adjustments for industry-based needs
There are areas of improvement, especially in having industry-based solutions that we could easily tap on. It would help reduce the time spent on feeding information and creating outputs. More flexibility and specific models for specific purposes would be beneficial. Additionally, pricing is a concern as IQ Bot is considered costly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The OCR extractions are very good, almost 100% accurate now."
"I can have all scanners accessible from my end."
"The big thing these days is really the Insight Edition component and being able to build annotators to extract from literally unstructured content: paragraphs and information where there's no start anchor point to define where that data is located. There could be a number of entities in that which you have to draw information from. Being able to extract from them is really the differentiator today between that product and many of the other products..."
"The installation of the solution is very simple."
"Very scalable and stable data capture and extraction solution that's very simple to install."
"Datacap is good at processing unstructured data. You can build up some nice data flows, and it is simple to configure. The tool adopts a low-code approach, but you can do a lot of coding if you want to customize and automate your flows. Datacap also has the flexibility to integrate."
"It helps companies figure out how to use advanced imaging techniques, processes, best practices, and other tools."
"At the forefront of my thoughts, the standout feature of this intelligent product is its remarkable capability. This project we're currently engaged in revolves around streamlining workflows within both our company and the customer's company. It entails handling information from various documents with diverse formats and types, even when they contain the same data. The ability to connect this information with the appropriate database and recognize it irrespective of the format or source is an extremely valuable feature. Moreover, leveraging machine learning is crucial since our customer deals with an extensive archive of over five million documents. Machine learning can significantly alleviate the backlog by becoming well-versed in various scenarios they might encounter during their work once we've completed our application."
"The initial setup is easy."
"IQ Bot is relatively easy to use and develop."
"PDF classification and basic data extraction are useful features."
"IQ Bot is easy to use compared to some of the other solutions out there."
"The most valuable features are rapid development, stability, and ease of use."
"I would say that the best feature is that it has native automation for the US."
"It is very easy to set up and use this tool to get information from documents. It can get the information about the purchase order number, average, description of purchase orders in several formats without any problem."
"I like most of the algorithms that it has, such as classified algorithms. I also like the OCR engines that it provides. We get a lot of options to explore and deal with. IQ Bot has added a lot of value in terms of extracting the information. Some OCR engines have limitations in terms of extracting the information. They have recently added a new feature that allows us to add Python scripting. Earlier, we had to do the post-processing work in terms of formatting and updating the proper values, but now, we have the option to write a Python script, which is really helpful for us in terms of getting the output. We can manage everything using Python."
 

Cons

"Reporting and analytics seem to often be something of an afterthought. With Datacap, they've started building out some dashboards, but one thing we hear from our clients a lot is, "Well, gee, we really love reports. What Datacap has is not really helpful. We'd like something better. We'd like more dashboards." That's one area where we've seen some feedback that the product could do better."
"There should be an increase in the capacity of the workflows. Datacap is a little limited in this aspect. So, you cannot really implement all the possibilities."
"Going forward, IBM needs to ensure that the output is perfect (as it can make the product) while staying true to platform's core."
"Datacap's technology seems a little behind the industry. It's still using the old .NET framework. They should move to .NET Core and start integrating some machine learning. You can do some integration yourself, but you expect a solution to include the latest machine-learning approaches if you're paying reasonable money for it."
"We have page requirements where some values must be copied on each page. For example, say I need to scan a bunch of documents, and the name will be a field on every page. We don't have a default functionality in Datacap to copy the field value on the first page to all the pages. That feature would make the documents easy to prepare."
"IBM needs to improve on scanning and reading accuracy for unstructured documents. Additionally, an important missing feature is the ability to merge documents and present data across different UI screens."
"When I scan a document in Datacap that has a watermark or the document is a little distorted, the image output is poor. It either becomes completely black, or there is so much distortion that we cannot read the numbers or the addresses mentioned in the POD. When we scan a document, we expect the output to be at least 95 percent accurate."
"What could be improved in IBM Datacap from a technical perspective is having everything together all in one place, rather than having several different interfaces. The addition of cloud-based OCR technology would also make this solution better. There's also room for improvement for their technical support."
"When you update to a new version, you have to migrate your applications. That should be automated because it should not affect your ability to complete the task. If the version of the application changes, then you need to automate some part of that again."
"The first place it could be improved is its price - it is too high. I'm having a lot of difficulty moving it to the customers."
"I've used versions 11 and 2019 of this solution. The problem with version 11 is integration. When you are using a conventional bot and you try to use IQ Bot development, you don't have a specific feature for integrating these two pieces or components of Automation Anywhere. I was seeing some issues while trying to, for example, send some PDF to an IQ Bot processor and get a response for that process. So, there is a problem with integrating the conventional task automation and IQ Bot in version 11. In contrast, version 2019 already has the integration feature, and we can easily integrate two components. There are some features that must be there in version 11 but are currently missing. There is no total control over some features in IQ Bot. Some variables cannot be parametrized when using IQ Bot directly. The AI features that IQ Bot has must be more open to being parameterized by the user. It would be good if Automation Anywhere exposed some parameters so that I can adjust them as a customer. This is an improvement that Automation Anywhere can do. I would like to see some features related to deep learning in the next releases of IQ Bot. These will be some interesting features to see."
"The solution could improve by having more domain-specific templates, such as for documents other than invoices or contracts. For example, having templates for IDs or Passports."
"IQ Bot needs to scale up further because many other industry products that are capable of capturing handwritten information are doing much better. So, it would be better if IQ Bot spent more time on handwritten data extraction."
"We don't get any kind of technical support or training for IQ Bot. There's a total lack of communication from them."
"Building IQ bots is time-consuming. Initially, script-wise, it would take a lot of time and also the testing of testing part of it."
"There should be built-in or native intelligent processing capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution offers seamless integration with other enterprise products, which is my area of responsibility, focusing on government sector projects. Larger enterprise projects don't pose problems. It might be suitable for small businesses as well."
"This solution is the most expensive in the market."
"In Egypt, we have exchange rates that change year to year, and currently, we're facing an increase in the exchange rate between our Egyptian pound and the dollar. Since we have been using IBM DataCap two years ago we had a good price, it was not expensive. However, I cannot say now if it is expensive or not because of the exchange rate. Additionally, I don't have the data of other competitors and I don't know the prices."
"It is an expensive solution."
"It varies, and it depends on the client's requirements and negotiations. Nowadays, Datacap is also included in the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation."
"Pricing depends on how much we use it. We pay per bulk quantity. We pay as you go. Therefore, it sort of depends on our usage of it."
"IBM could offer more competitive pricing. This would allow them to attain more users. Some of our clients are considering moving to a different solution called Encapture which is similar but offers more competitive pricing."
"Pricing needs to stay competitive."
"I feel that the price of IQ Bot could be lower."
"Solutions from Automation Anywhere are expensive."
"The cost can be high."
"The product’s price is always in the higher range."
"The price of IQ Bot could improve by being less expensive."
"The price could be lower."
"The pricing is complicated but I wouldn't say that they are expensive."
"The package that includes Automation Anywhere and IQ Bot starts at $10,000 USD."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Datacap?
Pricing is in the mid-range but could be more affordable, rated at four point five.
What needs improvement with IBM Datacap?
IBM needs to improve on scanning and reading accuracy for unstructured documents. Additionally, an important missing feature is the ability to merge documents and present data across different UI s...
What is your primary use case for IBM Datacap?
I primarily use IBM Datacap ( /products/ibm-datacap-reviews ) for data capture and scanning documents with OCR. Specifically, it's used for DocuSign ( /products/docusign-reviews ) as well.
When evaluating Robotic Process Automation, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
My answer is going to a bit different as I am a business user with limited programming skills 1. Software costs including recurring fees are very important. Automation Anywhere wants to charge a ...
What do you like most about IQ Bot?
IQ Bot is relatively easy to use and develop.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IQ Bot?
In my experience, compared to Power Automate ( /products/microsoft-power-automate-reviews ), IQ Bot ( /products/iq-bot-reviews ) is high-priced, but when compared to UiPath, it is lower priced. For...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Datacap
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Turkcell, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Central Nacional Unimed, Conqord Oil
Synergy
Find out what your peers are saying about ABBYY, UiPath, Automation Anywhere and others in Intelligent Document Processing (IDP). Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.