UiPath vs Blue Prism: Which RPA Tool Should Businesses Choose

We live in an age marked by disruptive changes. Today, business leaders are under constant pressure to meet the evolving needs of their customers. The adoption of technology simplifies many business processes. This allows organizations to easily accomplish their objectives. One such technology is Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

RPA involves the use of software bots to automate common rule-based tasks. With RPA, several monotonous activities such as data entry in Excel sheets or scrapping data from websites can be delegated to bots. These bots are not only faster- they also produce error-free output. As a result, humans are free to focus on activities that demand ingenuity or empathy.


Today, several RPA tools are available for use. In this article, we will cover two such tools- UiPath and Blue Prism.

What is UiPath?

UiPath is a comprehensive tool capable of automating a range of tasks. It was founded in 2005 by Daniel Dines and Marius Tîrcă. Over the years, UiPath has become popular on account of its user-friendly interfaces and extensive automation capabilities. It comes with over 300 built-in activities that cover a broad spectrum of automation requirements- data entry, data extraction, and more.

UiPath has been designed in such a manner that individuals with little technical knowledge will find it easy to use. Its visual workflow editor enables users to effortlessly build and manage automation workflows.

UiPath is among the leading RPA vendors in the world. As a result, it enjoys active community support. So, if a user faces an issue while using the tool, they are able to seek help from top-tier developers. These developers also share best practices to optimize their UiPath environment.

Benefits of UiPath

• UiPath comes with user-friendly interfaces and drag-and-drop features. These allow users to deploy bots within minutes. Ease of deployment also translates to quicker ROI.
• UiPath is flexible enough to support the needs of all kinds of organizations.
• UiPath also provides ease of access. It is possible to access the tool from a mobile app as well as a web browser.
• UiPath comes with a library of built-in connectors and APIs. As a result, it is easy to integrate it with third-party applications.
• UiPath has a thriving community that offers support through tutorials, forums, and documentation. Its developers are also easily available.
• The platform offers debugging features that allow users to identify and address issues in their workflows.

• UiPath cannot interpret data that is unstructured or in a non-electronic format.
• UiPath isn’t the best platform when it comes to large-scale deployments. It has been found to crash regularly in medium-scale automation projects.
• Relatively high licensing costs, particularly for enterprise deployments.

Blue Prism is a popular automation tool created by David Moss in 2001. It is based on Microsoft’s .NET framework. Blue Prism offers a visual designer (Process Studio) with drag-and-drop features that help create bots for automating back-office operations.

As an RPA tool, Blue Prism provides unmatched scalability. It doesn’t depend on scripts or recorders for automation. That is why it is a great fit for large organizations that need to expand their automation capabilities. In fact, Blue Prism has been designed keeping in mind the needs of medium and large-sized enterprises. Besides, it provides strong security and governance features.

Benefits of Blue Prism

• Bots created on Blue Prism are intuitive and respond dynamically to data in different kinds of environments.
• Blue Prism offers a great degree of flexibility in the sense that automation efforts can be easily scaled up depending on an organization’s needs.
• Blue Prism comes with several robust features for data encryption and governance.
• The tool also provides intuitive dashboards where users are able to analyze automated processes, view data, and much more.
• Blue Prism also provides seamless debugging capabilities. Here, users get to interact with variables during debugging to identify and resolve issues.

• Blue Prism doesn’t come with a trial version. This may deter many from experimenting with the tool.
• To work on Blue Prism, any user needs a moderate degree of technical knowledge. Its learning curve is, therefore, steeper than UiPath.
• Community support for Blue Prism is also limited when compared to UiPath and other similar tools. Blue Prism certified developers are also more difficult to find.

Let’s compare both the RPA tools on some key parameters.

Installation

Both the tools are easy to install. Blue Prism comes with a Windows installation package. Users might connect the package to a SQL server database and start using the tool within minutes.

However, in UiPath, users need to connect the visual designer UiPath Studio with the Orchestrator which may take time to get started.

Accessibility

UiPath can be accessed through both a web browser and a mobile app. Blue Prism, however, can be accessed only through a browser extension.

Debugging

Blue Prism allows users to make changes to a process dynamically. This means they will be able to modify the value of variables or add more steps while the process is running.

UiPath doesn’t offer dynamic debugging capabilities. Users need to stop running a process to make changes to it.

Integration

Both the automation tools easily integrate with emails, spreadsheets, and other desktop applications. UiPath, however, has better integration capabilities overall. This is because it handles both front-office and back-office automation. In contrast, Blue Prism supports only back-office automation.

Ease of Use

Working with Blue Prism requires the knowledge of C#. For UiPath, on the other hand, a background in programming is not needed.

Type of Automation

UiPath allows users to create both attended bots as well as unattended bots. Blue Prism is designed for unattended bots only. Unattended bots work independently; they follow rule-based processes for completing tasks. Attended bots, on the other hand, are designed to work alongside human workers. These bots usually handle more complex tasks.

Pricing

UiPath comes with a flexible pricing model. There are options for per-user and per-process licensing. Blue Prism has a per-bot pricing model which makes costs more predictable but might be expensive in the long run. The total cost of ownership for either tool depends on the needs of an organization.

Wrapping up

It’s clear that UiPath and Blue Prism are top-notch automation tools. Both offer many features that enable businesses to create bots and work with greater precision and efficiency. The tool an organization should choose depends on the processes they want to automate as well as their technical prowess and budget.

Blue Prism may be a great choice if they are looking for a scalable solution while being cost effective. Conversely, UiPath may be more suitable if they need a versatile, user-friendly solution.