UiPath vs. Automation Anywhere: Choose Your Perfect RPA Tool

The year is 2019. Gartner has just released its first-ever Magic Quadrant for RPA Software to reveal who’s in the RPA industry. Two companies come out on top: UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

Fast forward to 2023, and… little has changed. The only major difference for the duo is the widening gap between them and the RPA peloton. As a result, the two tools dominate the industry more than ever, at least according to the newest edition of Gartner’s report.

To say that their rule is indivisible would be an overstatement. There’s no shortage of competitors like Power Automate who breathe down on their necks in the RPA race. Still, UiPath and Automation Anywhere remain unbeatable, and for some good reasons. So what are they, and which of the two is “better”? These are just the questions we’ll answer in this post.

UiPath is the pizza of the automation world—most people love it, and you can’t go wrong with it. The tool shares over 25% of the RPA market, which makes it the most popular RPA vendor. The platform mainly targets bigger enterprises but is flexible enough to be used by small companies, too.

UiPath owes this acclaim to its versatility, security, native integrations with dozens of applications, and ease of use in virtually any industry. All that wouldn’t be possible without powerful features, some of which include:

• Orchestrator — Automation is all about coordination, especially as the number of processes increases. As an all-purpose RPA interface, Orchestrator is UiPath’s answer to the challenges of provisioning, managing, and monitoring your bots from a single control center.
• Toolkit — UiPath has the right tool for all your RPA needs. Process recording? Boot TaskCapture. Automation opportunity discovery? Automation Hub is coming up. Issue fixing? Test Suite got you covered.
• AI and cognitive features — UiPath leverages the power of AI and recognition technologies to facilitate everyday tasks. For example, document Understanding can interpret and extract text (invoices or hand-written receipts). AI Computer Vision enables bots to recognize on-screen elements, which may be useful, for instance, fraud detection in finance or health monitoring and diagnostics enhancement in medicine). And AI Center allows for a flawless deployment of AI and ML automation solutions.
• Task Mining — This autonomous tool identifies and captures tasks fit for automation to streamline project workflows and unleash efficiencies. Task Mining doesn’t come cheap, but in the longer term, it’s more than just helping you find room for savings.

All that considered, it’s easy to see why UiPath is the best in RPA. And not just in terms of popularity; the Gartner above’s report and other influential studies from Everest Group and Forrester unanimously name UiPath as the RPA leader.

Discover SAP Automation with UiPath.

From the software development perspective, it’s also worth considering the following pros and cons when evaluating UiPath:

Pros

UiPath is not only based on C#, but it also allows developers to use the language to implement many features. Thus, for programmers familiar with C#, the platform makes their work streamlined, efficient, and much easier.

Cons

On the other hand, for developers with a background in classical programming only (frontend/backend), UiPath allows only a block-based view, which can sometimes get frustrating (as opposed to the list-based idea that provides more information useful when coding – see the developer’s pros for Automation Anywhere).

If UiPath is the pizza, Automation Anywhere is also pizza from another joint. So whether you get one or the other is frequently a matter of one’s subjective taste.

Like UiPath, Automation Anywhere supports numerous integrations; it is secure and can be successfully used by organizations from various sectors. It also comes with its own set of solid, Java-based functionalities. Additionally, modern and legacy systems compatibility allows Automation Anywhere to run on the existing software. Here are some of the other AA’s highlight features:

• IQ Bot — This bot is just as intelligent as it sounds. It uses AI technologies to extract unstructured data from documents and process it, a task normally performed by human employees. As a result, IQ Bot can facilitate and speed up working with CVs, invoices, contracts, spreadsheets, emails, purchase orders, and other files.
• Strong security standards — Automation Anywhere boasts high-security measures, such as multi-layer control, incident response, centralized credential vault, and stringent identity checks, all topped off with some of the highest security standards. Additionally, all communications are secured in transit via SSL and TLS.
• Bot Store — Looking for a digital workforce to perform custom tasks? Bot Store is the right place. It’s an App Store for AA, full of free bots ready-made for working with specific applications and workflows. In addition, each bot comes with documentation and an installation guide for smooth implementation.
• AARI digital assistant