W H I T E PA P E R

UiPath Versus
Automation Anywhere:
An RPA Buying Guide
Introduction
The maturation of robotic process
automation (RPA) has led to the emergence
of a number of market leaders. This
comparison is based on Arrow Digitals
experience with two of the three leading
vendors: UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

oth platforms possess the potential to boost

productivity through the automation of
knowledge work, but businesses can only select
one. Making the right choice requires a thorough
assessment of your current level of RPA maturity and
circumspect consideration of strategic RPA plans.

This white paper provides detailed comparisons of

UiPath and Automation Anywhere, highlights specific
features that make each suitable for different stages
of RPA maturity and concludes by identifying the
stronger of the two solutions.

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Placement Level 1: Personal Assistant Bots
Self-service automation of a specific
repetitive task.

on the RPA Limited IT involvement; focused on

individual desktops.

Maturity Curve Level 2: Personal Multiplication Bots

Users leverage bots in variable use cases
by adding in configurability through
efore making any decisions, a branching logic and variables or run a
business must define RPAs desired single bot in parallel multiple times to
role in the organization. This manage processes which need to be done
multiple times.
requires a clear set of business objectives IT is necessary to train and enable users so
and a complete understanding of the they can reuse their bots.
resources necessary to achieve them. Most
Level 3: Organization Scaling
businesses will hereby fall into one of four Business users support organization-wide
levels along the RPA maturity curve: automation efforts to reduce manual tasks
for mission-critical scenarios. Bots are
designed to automate a task for a given
process, function or discipline rather than a
specific person.
IT heavily involved in providing the
infrastructure for bots to run at scale.
Additional support and monitoring
requirements will apply for
unattended processing.

Level 4: Innovation Enablement

Leadership identifies costly or tedious tasks
and guide developers as they automate
those tasks.
IT builds the bots and infrastructure (APIs
and development) between processes and
workflows that can be automated.
RPA is leveraged to enable innovation
without having to take on the entire
landscapes technological uplift.

Once a business identifies with a level on this

curve, it can begin evaluating UiPath and
Automation Anywhere according to their
associated strengths and weaknesses.

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Getting Started
UiPath and Automation Anywhere can be
divided into three primary parts: the designer,
back-end automation (bots) and central
management server (Orchestrator for UiPath,
Control Room for Automation Anywhere).
The combined licensing fee for all three parts
is comparable between the two solutions.
However, there are critical distinctions in the
initial procurement of each.

UiPath

UiPath offers businesses free access to its workflow

designer through its downloadable Community
Edition. Users will also be able to access the back
office and a public Orchestrator demo so they can test
the solution prior to buy-in.

Additionally, trial or novice users can access free

RPA Developer Foundation Training complete with
lessons, video tutorials, testing, exams and certification.
Advanced training courses will also be made available
in the future.

Automation Anywhere WINNER: UiPath

Automation Anywhere requires a sales contract and The ability to interface with the Community Edition
NDA before business users can perform a hands-on and access online self-learning tools lets users
evaluation of the software. This barrier to entry makes familiarize themselves with the solution before buy-in.
it more difficult for users to interface with the tool. This benefit is universally applicable regardless of an
organizations position on the RPA maturity curve.
Like UiPath, Automation Anywhere also features Additionally, access to the demo and to comprehensive
some training materials, but these are not self-learning training material makes it possible to scale an entire
tools. Users will still require live classroom training for team of users in less time.
proficient interfacing.

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Ease of Use for
Business Users
UiPath and Automation Anywhere both
have learning curves, but familiar functions
may come more naturally to business users
of one platform than the other.

UiPath

UiPaths workflow design tool is more developer-

oriented and may not be as intuitive for a business
user out of the box. The tool was designed with
technologists in mind, and this is implicitly expressed
through the interface. UiPaths workflow design tool
typically requires a higher degree of customization
to work seamlessly with pre-existing, familiar
business functions.

Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywheres default capabilities tend to

be more supportive of data manipulation in tools that
are native to a users business function. For example,
Automation Anywheres data-processing behaves in a
way that makes it intuitive for a business user to iterate
with spreadsheets and create lists in Excel.

WINNER: Automation Anywhere

Business users can operate Automation Anywhere for

simple, repetitive workflows with less need for technology
support once the solution has been properly installed.
This makes Automation Anywhere especially suitable
for level-one and -two businesses that are primarily
interested in immediate automation of knowledge work.

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 Ease of Use for
IT Users
Technologists must also be considered in
the decision-making process, particularly in
organizations that lean heavily on robust
in-house tech support.

UiPath

UiPaths developer-friendly interface allows for

greater dev control. This makes it easier to leverage
bots that require variations or looping. UiPaths
rich extensibility model also makes it easier to
engineer custom activities and subsequently scale
process automation.

Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywheres Control Room allows for

some complex functions, scheduling and triggers,
but its primary strength is that it takes less time to
configure than Orchestrator. However, from the point
of view of a technologist, Automation Anywheres
business-user-friendly UI can be somewhat limiting.

WINNER: UiPath

The flexibility and intuitive customization are ideal

for organizations structured in such a manner that
programmers are the stewards of workflows, seeking
to scale RPA (levels three and four) across mission-
critical workflows. Technologists will feel more enabled
through UiPath, and can use their existing tech-support
resources to provide training for users as needed.

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Product Features
UiPath and Automation Anywhere supply
many of the same features, but critical
distinctions can be made in how these
features enable certain capabilities.

UiPath Automation Anywhere

Bot Dev Functions: UiPath is extensible, Bot Dev Functions: Automation Anywhere
robust and Rest API-capable. These qualities features strong data-processing functions for CSV,
make it ideal for customization and scalability. Excel and other core business-user functions.

Screen Recorder: UiPath has a strong screen Screen Recorder: A precise, accurate screen
recorder, but it may require more assistance than recorder helps users acclimate quickly to
Automation Anywheres at launch. running workflows.

Security/Governance: UiPath provides the Security/Governance: Automation Anywhere

control over security and governance that is also provides the control over security and
needed to use bots securely and compliantly. governance that is needed to enable bots securely
Additionally, UiPath supports multi-tenancy. and compliantly. However, it does not support
multi-tenancy.
Flexibility: Orchestrator is more flexible and
can publish out to more environments. This Flexibility: Simple UI makes Automation
is partly because it leverages NuGet packages. Anywhere easy to configure for the business user,
NuGet infrastructure already exists in many but also means pared-down customization
organizations, making UiPath readily conducive options through the interface.
to those ecosystems. Iterating is therefore faster.

WINNER: UiPath

As the newer of the two platforms, and with a

rich set of educational tools and features that are
added to on a monthly basis, UiPath currently has
greater momentum. Additionally, UiPath has greater
potential for longer-term customization. Automation
Anywheres feature set is comprehensive. Both tools
enable fine-tuning of security configurations and both
provide analytics detailing success rates and logging.
However, UiPaths features sustain greater utilization
further along the RPA maturity curve.

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The Winner
Overall: UiPath
he cumulative value of UiPaths
elemental benefits make it the
stronger solution for organizations
targeting level four of the maturity curve
for RPA:
Rapid platform innovation.
Extensible capability model.
Accessible software.
Accessible training.
Accessible community support.
Available certification.

UiPaths extensible interface enables flexibility and

scalability for organizations with ample tech support
that are ready to scale RPA across mission-critical
processes. This makes it more conducive to RPA
development deeper into the maturity model.

Organizations that identify more closely with levels

one and two of the maturity curve can still realize
significant value in Automation Anywhere. Business
users will find its UI slightly less intimidating in
the early phases of deployment, and the solution is
perfectly capable of executing powerful automation
workflows within Excel and other staple business tools.

Nevertheless, UiPath ultimately scores better than

Automation Anywhere. It can match Automation
Anywheres feature set, but its qualities (flexibility,
scalability, quick on-boarding) provide maximum value
by going all the way through the maturity model,
facilitating potential for longer-term innovation.

Want to learn more? Lets talk.

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