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IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs SAP Intelligent RPA comparison

 

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

IBM Robotic Process Automat...
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Intelligent RPA
Ranking in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
17th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 3.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Intelligent RPA is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)3.0%
SAP Intelligent RPA2.1%
Other94.9%
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
 

Featured Reviews

MA
Business Solutions Manager at valleysoft
Has improved analytics and reporting but needs better integration and support
To improve IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for the next release, there should be more integration with external systems, and more integration with IBM's data and AI platforms is needed. There is an AI part in IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for Machine Learning, but IBM has another platform specifically for data and AI, which is integrated right now. More features are hoped for in the future.
SS
RPA Technical Solution Lead at Infomentum
Helps automate processes but needs to offer different licensing models to users
Right now, I am not working on process mining at the minute. Before I switched to the company, I worked extremely closely with the process mining tool from UiPath, SAP BTP, and the process mining that they had created. I am working with MuleSoft Automation and Anypoint. We are not doing any sort of process mining at the minute, but in my company, because MuleSoft is one of the only RPA tools that we are looking at, we have another application called Appian that we are trying to explore now. Appian has process mining capability, which is why we thought we would look at it along with AI capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can connect with different database types, and they have included a different package for a terminal connection to, for example, AS400. When it comes to UI development, it's not using the drivers or anything. It's not a selector-based development like UiPath."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"It is a good tool for automation."
"IBM Robotic Process Automation has greatly improved the organization by improving the speed of performance, as the speed of the robot is estimated to be 20 times faster than the human being."
"It's integrated with all the other products within the Salesforce ecosystem."
"The solution's ease of use is its most valuable aspect."
"The analytics and reporting tools in IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are the best compared to all other RPAs because all other RPAs only use dashboards while IBM is the only one to have a reporting tool that includes dashboards."
"The solution’s performance is good."
"The standout features of SAP Intelligent RPA are its flexibility and integration capabilities."
"The initial setup of SAP Contextor is easy."
"Contextor is a good solution for a Citrix environment. It's the first with this tool. Other tools provide the same functionality, but not with the Citrix environment."
"Scalability is fine. It is pretty nice."
"The most valuable feature of SAP Contextor is that everyone is in one place in the program that I need."
"Most of the details are already in the help portal and SAP notes are available. It is well documented as part of the product support."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"It is remarkably easy to configure and code, and it doesn't require an extensive technical background or coding expertise."
 

Cons

"Needs better integration with artificial intelligence or with machine-learning."
"My impression of the support experience is lower than middle. I would rank it as that. They need to improve their support by having more experienced level one support."
"The time it takes for approvals, and risk analysis could be faster."
"IBM’s support should improve response time."
"The scalability of the solution can be challenging."
"This RPA should be under the umbrella of BPM. This is what the future should be."
"The product's document readers must be improved to capture the data well."
"Extensibility is the key, especially in terms of the Recorders feature that we have. That should be browser independent. Enhance it because some people have Chrome, some have Internet Explorer, etc. Also, integration with PDFs: Not just the ability to read information from PDFs but the ability to write information from PDFs, make it secure, sign it, etc. Finally, if they can allow a token exchange inside the tool itself, that would help."
"I would like to see a better capacity for unstructured data, for example, PDF, or text within images."
"The initial setup is of medium complexity. It is neither too hard nor too simple. You need some background in SAP and an understanding of it."
"SAP Contextor could improve by automating some processes."
"I found that the SAP scripting of a program is easier than SAP Contextor."
"One way SAP Intelligent RPA could improve is by integrating built-in DI services for document processing."
"The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge...At the moment, the tool does not offer different licensing models to users."
"For potential features or improvements, one aspect I would suggest enhancing is the flexibility of the extraction process."
"There should be more of an error, like a proper error feature, in future releases. Sometimes, we don't understand why that automation is not learning what, like, where it is stuck, or what is the reason like, or what is the criteria we are missing to add. So a proper error message would be helpful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is paid annually."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."
"There is a free trial for one month, so you can use it to run your payloads or proof of concept. After that, you can pay for the license on a monthly or annual basis."
"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."
"The product has a yearly licensing fee."
"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."
"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."
"The initial cost might seem higher, but over time, with continued use over five or ten years, the cost tends to decrease, making it a more economical choice."
"The pricing is not that expensive. It is manageable."
"This is not a tool or software with a license as others are. The SaaS model is based on the usage of the tool."
"It all comes with a bundle right now. Having advanced features, it is competitively priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Media Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.
What needs improvement with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
To improve IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for the next release, there should be more integration with external systems, and more integration with IBM's data and AI platforms is needed. There ...
What is your primary use case for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
My customers' main use cases for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are especially in the banking industry, particularly KYC.
What needs improvement with SAP Contextor?
The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge. If the tool can bring up a usage-based licensing model, it would be really good. Even a flat rate kind of licensing model would be good, where, fo...
What is your primary use case for SAP Contextor?
The inputs of SAP Intelligent RPA used to come from the process mining output. Whenever we connect process mining to the SAP instances, their SAP instances give us what processes, where the bottlen...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP Contextor?
Speaking about bot creation and management features, I rate the tool as four out of five compared to the other market leaders. UiPath is much better, but SAP is not very far behind. For SAP Intelli...
 

Also Known As

IBM RPA
SAP Contextor, Contextor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Hanover Insurance Group
BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Kabel Deutschland, Orange, Carrefour
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. SAP Intelligent RPA and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.