Top 3 Blue Prism Alternatives in '24 According to Business Users

Blue Prism is one of the top players in the robotic process automation (RPA) market. The company, founded in 2001 and acquired by SS&C in 2022 Q1, is one of the oldest RPA vendors and is even credited to have coined the term “robotic process automation”.

However, Blue Prism’s RPA tool lags behind similar tools in terms of overall user rating, as seen in Table 1:

Table 1. Overall user ratings of popular RPA tools on 6 platforms*

* Ratings as of October 2022

** The product is not listed on the platform

Common features of Blue Prism and other tools on the table are that:

• They can integrate AI capabilities into RPA bots for intelligent automation,
• They have no-code/low-code bot builders that allow non-developers to automate processes,
• They provide process mining capabilities to understand business processes better and identify automation opportunities.

In this article, we’ll examine user reviews from various platforms to see what users think of Blue Prism and its competitors in terms of:

• Ease of use
• Integrations
• Customer support
• Pricing

Shortcomings of Blue Prism according to user reviews

Figure 1. Top used phrases in Blue Prism reviews

Ease of use: Review data aggregated from public sources demonstrates that “Difficult” is one of the top-used keywords in user reviews of Blue Prism RPA, as seen in Figure 1. Compared to other tools, Blue Prism has the lowest score on ease of use and ease of setup on G2:

Figure 2. Comparison of 4 RPA tools. Source: G2

Integrations: As seen in Figure 3, its ratings on integration capabilities are relatively similar to other tools. Users, however, highlight that its integration with developer tools such as Git or Docker is not perfect.

Figure 3. Comparison of 4 RPA tools. Source: Gartner Peer Insights

Customer support: As seen both in Figures 2 & 3, Blue Prism has the lowest score on customer support among the four tools. Moreover, users say its peer user community is not as huge and active compared to other tools.

Pricing: We couldn’t find publicly available pricing information about Blue Prism RPA. However, as seen in Figure 4, users grade Blue Prism’s pricing flexibility and ability to understand needs about licensing as the lowest among the four tools.

Figure 4. Comparison of 4 RPA tools in terms of pricing. Source: Gartner Peer Insights

Now, we’ll examine four Blue Prism RPA alternatives and competitors for workflow automation and whether these tools address Blue Prism’s downsides:

1. IBM Robotic Process Automation

Here is the end-user opinion about IBM RPA in terms of these four aspects:

• Ease of use: IBM RPA has, by far, the highest score on ease of use and ease of setup (Figure 2). It also shares the top position in terms of ease of deployment, as seen in Figure 3. Users highlight IBM RPA’s easy-to-navigate interface.
• Integrations: IBM RPA has the highest rating in terms of integrations, as seen in Figure 3. It also seamlessly integrates with other IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation products.
• Customer support: In terms of the quality of technical support, IBM RPA provides the best support according to users (Figure 2). However, it lags behind other tools in terms of peer user community (Figure 3).
• Pricing: For concurrent execution with attended and unattended bots included, the platform starter pack starts at USD 840.00 per month. According to user reviews, IBM’s ability to understand licensing needs is the best among the four tools.

2. UiPath

Regarding the number of user reviews, UiPath RPA is one of the most popular RPA tools in the market. According to user reviews:

• Ease of use: Customers find UiPath to be easier than Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere but more difficult than IBM RPA in terms of use, setup, and administration (Figure 2). However, its end-user training courses and third-party resources are rated the highest among the four tools (Figure 3).
• Integrations: Its ability for integration with third-party applications is rated high, similar to IBM RPA (Figure 3). It provides out-of-the-box connectors and connectors through its bot marketplace.
• Customer support: Users say that it has better customer support than Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. The quality and availability of its peer user community, on the other hand, are rated the highest among the four tools.
• Pricing:  Price for 1 developer & 30 users (1 attended + 1 unattended) is 1380$ per month. Check our article on RPA pricing for a more detailed analysis of the pricing model of different RPA tools. Customers rated the UiPath the highest in terms of overall pricing (Figure 4).

3. Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is another one of the most popular tools on the market, based on the total number of reviews. Users say that:

• Ease of use: It is slightly easier to use and set up compared to Blue Prism but harder to administer (Figure 2).
• Integrations: Users rate Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism as relatively equal in terms of integrations, both lagging behind IBM RPA and UiPath (Figure 3).
• Customer support: Its customer support and peer user community are slightly better than Blue Prism’s (Figures 2 & 3).
• Pricing: Price for 1 developer & 30 users (1 attended + 1 unattended) is $875 per month. Check our article on RPA pricing for a more detailed analysis. Customers rated Automation Anywhere’s pricing flexibility the highest among the four tools.

Further reading

Feel free to check our other articles on RPA and intelligent automation software:

• Top 6 Intelligent Automation Tools & Solutions
• 7 Steps to Select the Best RPA Tool & Vendor
• Technical Buyer’s 11 Point RPA Checklist: In-Depth Guide
• Top 6 Open Source RPA Providers

You can also explore our data-driven lists of RPA software and intelligent automation solutions. If you have other questions, feel free to reach out:

Transparency Statement: AIMultiple works with multiple RPA companies including IBM mentioned in this article.