Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Microsoft and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.7, while SMA Technologies is ranked #30. Microsoft holds a 5.3% mindshare in RPA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Microsoft 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 Dec 4, 2024

VisualCron and Microsoft Power Automate both compete in the automation and integration category, with notable strengths in various areas. Based on the comparison, VisualCron seems to have the upper hand in flexibility and customization, while Microsoft Power Automate shines in integration within the Microsoft ecosystem and ease of use due to its low-code environment.

Features: VisualCron's strengths include flexibility in handling nightly sync tasks, the ability to use job variables for customized templates, and process-specific logging. It offers intuitive scheduling for complex workflows and an alerting feature for error notifications. Microsoft Power Automate features seamless integration with Microsoft tools, out-of-the-box connectors, and minimal coding requirements. It provides an easy-to-use interface, a vast array of templates, and significant AI and third-party application integration.

Room for Improvement: VisualCron could improve its error handling and audit logs while enhancing user account management, community support, and UI. It also needs to bolster its documentation and security features. Microsoft Power Automate, on the other hand, needs to advance its AI capabilities, improve error handling and Excel integration, and simplify its licensing. Users also desire better documentation and more training resources.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VisualCron supports on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, offering deployment flexibility. Its customer support is generally quick and competent, although some users experience slow responses. Microsoft Power Automate provides versatile deployment options across public, private, and hybrid clouds, benefiting from a strong Microsoft support infrastructure. However, it could improve community interaction and the availability of support.

Pricing and ROI: VisualCron is praised for its fair and competitive pricing, supporting multiple instances that boost processing capabilities, with a high ROI due to reduced manual tasks. Microsoft Power Automate is cost-effective, particularly with its integration into Microsoft Office 365. Though licensing can be complex, its pay-for-use model and bundled free features enhance affordability. Its high ROI is attributed to its efficient integration capabilities within Microsoft tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Power Automate vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate vs. VisualCron

September 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

Automation Anywhere

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 4.9%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Power Automate is 5.3%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Automation Anywhere	4.9%
Microsoft Power Automate	5.3%
VisualCron	1.2%
Other	88.6%

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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Brijesh-Kumar

Sr. General Manager , Global IT Services at a non-profit with 5,001-10,000 employees

No-code workflows have streamlined daily operations and support seamless cross-application automation

Microsoft Power Automate's no-code workflows help my team in daily operations to a great extent. Automating a particular activity may not be so useful, but when you connect the whole workflow, then it starts helping a lot. I cannot say much about the best features in Microsoft Power Automate because I have not used it personally, but first of all, it is very easy, it is a low-code platform, and Microsoft has a lot of integration with Microsoft technologies, making it very easy to connect with MS Teams and different Microsoft products, including MS Azure. From that point of view, it provides a lot of connectivity options. From a cost point of view, Mendix is much more costly compared to Microsoft Power Platform, allowing us to develop applications very quickly.

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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

"Automation Anywhere performs efficiently."

"One thing I really like is the the recorder where you can connect with multiple systems. The OCR is also good."

"AA control room is one central system to manage our tasks. We found it excellent to administrate. It was used for easy scheduling of process/task in Remote desktop. This helped to avoid manual intervention to trigger tasks."

"Tasks or activities that were taking almost six hours a day have been reduced drastically to 30 minutes, which saves time as well as business costs."

"While RPA is the cutting-edge technology to bring digital transformation, the RPA as a service will reduce costs and increase efficiency with ease of deployment, less maintenance, and cheaper upgrade costs."

"The tool is now more stable, with more opportunities and new commands, like recording for the UI or advanced Excel features."

"Our development time has been reduced because the solution is very user-friendly."

"AA is a global market leader and the best RPA software to go with, in all aspects."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"Power Automate is doing really well."

"The pricing of the solution is competitive, which is good for the Romanian market."

"Third-party integrations with third-party applications are quite easy."

"We saw a significant return on investment because we were able to save a lot of time from our financial and human resources staff, so this saves a lot of money and the return on investment on that 1,000 euros is quickly felt."

"Power Automate is a much less expensive product than the competition and you can still accomplish a lot with it."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to integrate across multiple systems."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Power Automate are the connectors, such as loops, which make things easier."

"We have saved thousands of hours by automating tasks that would have been labor-intensive and error-prone if done manually."

More Microsoft Power Automate pros

"VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"It helped us reduce manual steps."

"'ve only had a few cases where I've had to request support in the past 12 years of use, but the support response time and resolution were was extremely quick."

"VisualCronv is currently handling so many different critical processes for our company, it's become a key factor in our livelihood and success."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"I believe Automation Anywhere can be improved by leading in the direction of seamless integration with the LLM models that are readily available today in the market."

"The Automation Anywhere community is less active than the UiPath community, which is a downside. When I ask questions in the Automation Anywhere community, responses take a longer time."

"There are a lot of issues in the tool. There are a lot of breakdowns."

"Automation Anywhere has some limitation with its integrations."

"In the 10.7 version, the back-end port for the MetaBot password has looping. This has been a type of limitation."

"I used document automation about two years ago, however, it did not work as expected at that time, providing results around 70% to 80%. After that, we turned to third-party tools."

"In Mexico, where our company is based, we face issues regarding obtaining new licenses, as this has to be done through a third-party company."

"As a developer, I find Automation Anywhere's bot editor riddled with minor workflow issues that hinder productivity."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"AI agents could be included in the next releases. Additionally, chatbots would be a great addition."

"The solution could offer more specific training. There should be more examples of what the functions can do and more instructions and explanations to the process."

"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."

"They can build more templates and more connectivity with other platforms."

"Their connector to Oracle or premium data sets that aren't Microsoft would often fail for me. The information given back about why it failed wasn't always robust to understand how to fix it and why it happened."

"We find the solution to be not that user-friendly, and might be using the older version, which really did not have a lot of features, so my review is mostly based on the older version."

"Microsoft Power Automate requires some knowledge and understanding of nuances for setup and security approvals."

"They should include a custom plugin feature so that we can add our custom connections."

More Microsoft Power Automate cons

"I've mentioned before that it would be great to see a move away from SQLCE and XML configuration files."

"The documentation is a bit weak."

"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. If you're familiar with the tool, then no problem, but if not, you'll have a problem typing text because sometimes, the cursor points to other places, so there's an issue with text box alignment in VisualCron. That was painful for me when I was just a VisualCron novice, but when you become used to it, there won't be a problem."

"I would like for VisualCron to expand audit log to show who changed job variables that are initialized per job run."

"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. This is an improvement that could be useful. For example, some people put "invoice" in the subject and others put "invoice" in the body. If I want to make a trigger for everybody whose sending invoices, I have to make two jobs for this now."

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

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Yearly, our licensing costs are about $90,000 to $100,000. There will be additional licensing costs when we add more Bot Runners to our infrastructure."

"I don't deal have cost specifics but I can say it is a tool that provides value for the money."

"There are a lot of savings in terms of effort and time as well as costs. Automation Anywhere automates a lot of processes. It allows an organization to save the efforts of a lot people. It saves a lot of time because people can't work a whole day (24/7), but Automation Anywhere bots can."

"I would like them to have better license management."

"One of the key features that we chose, the bot as a service or the BotFarm, when they launched version 11.3, they decided not to have the BotFarm anymore. This put us in a situation because we expected to have bots on demand, just like our cloud software. This would have been cost efficient for us to use. We hope to see this again being realized with A2019. I hope the scalability from an on demand basis improves."

"Whatever investment, licensing, and resource costs together are put in for development and delivery, we are still at an ROI of 250 percent."

"The control room access gives the ability to create different roles, which helps when purchasing additional licensing."

"I do not know the price, but I am told that it is cheaper than UiPath."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"It had by far the fairest licensing on the market. For the money, you got a very good value."

"The cost to use Microsoft Power Automate is approximately $15 per user per month, for the basic plan. However, the solution comes free with the Microsoft 365 Suite."

"Its licensing is flexible."

"It is free for us. It is embedded directly in the Office package."

"The licensing cost for us at this time is between $8 and $20 per user, per month."

"I am not aware of the recent pricing model, but during the time that I was using this solution is was reasonable."

"The licensing price should be more cost-effective."

"It is free with Office 365 subscription."

More Microsoft Power Automate pricing and cost advice

"ROI is 95 percent."

"ROI is one month."

"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."

"The pricing is extremely fair, and because of that I recommend purchasing multiple instances to split out the processing load across multiple application servers."

"The price is a bit high."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	162
Midsize Enterprise	86
Large Enterprise	565

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	67

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

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

See all answers

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ‌...

See all answers

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

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Compared 10% of the time

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AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

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Fortra's Automate vs Microsoft Power Automate

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ABBYY Vantage vs Microsoft Power Automate

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Compared 7% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

October 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate

October 2026

Download Microsoft Power Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

October 2026

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

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

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

Microsoft

Demo not available

SMA Technologies

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

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

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

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Power Automate vs. VisualCron

September 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Power Automate vs. VisualCron

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Power Automate vs. VisualCron and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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