Priya, VP of Operations at a mid-sized manufacturing firm, had six weeks to finalize her company’s RPA platform selection. Her shortlist was down to two: Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. IT team argued for Blue Prism’s compliance controls and on-premises architecture. Digital transformation lead pushed for Automation Anywhere’s cloud capabilities and AI roadmap.
Neither camp was wrong. That was exactly the problem.
This plays out across industries every month. The global RPA market is on track to reach $13.39 billion by 2030, according to Statista, and the platform decision made today shapes whether an organization is accelerating or rebuilding three years from now. Most comparison articles solve this by listing feature tables and calling it analysis.
This one goes further — into real user frustrations, hidden costs, post-acquisition vendor risk, and a decision framework built around how enterprises actually operate.
TLDR: Blue Prism is the safer choice for highly regulated, on-premises enterprises that prioritize compliance and centralized IT control. Automation Anywhere is the better fit for cloud-forward organizations that need attended bots, AI integration, and faster scaling. Both carry migration and lock-in risks, so the real decision should be based on architecture fit, governance capability, and your three-year automation roadmap, not just feature tables.
Key Takeaways The Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere decision is less about features and more about architecture, governance model, AI roadmap, and long-term platform risk. Blue Prism is best suited for compliance-heavy, on-premises, IT-managed environments focused primarily on unattended automation at scale. Automation Anywhere A360 is stronger for cloud-native deployments, attended plus unattended automation, AI integration, and faster enterprise rollout. Migration risk is real on both sides. Blue Prism has architectural lock-in, while Automation Anywhere v11 to A360 requires full bot redevelopment. Total cost of ownership extends beyond licensing to include staffing, integration development, consumption pricing volatility, and re-build costs. Platform choice should follow process assessment, not vendor demos. Long-term automation success depends more on process clarity and governance maturity than on feature comparisons. Partner with Kanerika to Modernize Your Enterprise Operations with High-Impact Data & AI Solutions Call or Text Us Now
Not everyone has 20 minutes. This table gives you the honest version of who each platform is actually built for, before the detailed analysis begins.
Question SS&C Blue Prism Automation Anywhere Who is this built for? IT-managed, compliance-heavy enterprises running unattended automation at scale Cloud-forward teams needing attended and unattended bots with AI integration What does it do best? Granular audit control, regulated-industry compliance, stable unattended workflows Pre-built integrations, AI-powered document processing, citizen developer access Where does it struggle? No attended bot support, slower innovation post-acquisition, developer-intensive builds v11-to-A360 migration complexity, consumption cost spikes, AI feature delivery gaps Best-fit industries Banking, government, pharma, insurance with on-premises mandates Healthcare (cloud EMR), retail, logistics, manufacturing with hybrid tech environments Typical buyer profile CIO-led IT organization with dedicated RPA developers Digital transformation leader managing a federated automation model
This is a starting point, not a verdict. The right answer depends on factors that don’t fit in a table — your IT maturity, existing integrations, vendor risk appetite, and where your automation program needs to be in three years. The sections below unpack all of that.
Why This Comparison Looks Different in 2026 Most published RPA comparisons treat Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere as equals on a level playing field. They’re not, at least not anymore.
Blue Prism was acquired by SS&C Technologies in 2022. That acquisition brought financial stability but visibly slowed the innovation cadence that had made Blue Prism a recognized market leader. In the Forrester Wave: Robotic Process Automation, Q1 2023, Automation Anywhere was positioned as a Leader while Blue Prism was positioned as a Challenger — a meaningful shift from its earlier standing.
On Gartner Peer Insights, Automation Anywhere holds approximately 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 1,300 reviews, compared to Blue Prism’s 4.4 from roughly 688. The gap in review volume signals market momentum, not just satisfaction. In practitioner communities like r/rpa, Blue Prism is increasingly discussed as a legacy enterprise tool. That label is worth examining carefully before committing to a multi-year platform investment.
That context doesn’t make Blue Prism the wrong choice. But it changes the questions worth asking.
SS&C Blue Prism: Compliance-First, IT-Managed Automation Blue Prism was founded in 2001 and built its reputation in heavily regulated industries — banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, government. Its core strength is unattended automation in IT-controlled environments where auditability and access control are non-negotiable.
The architecture was designed for on-premises deployment. Hybrid cloud and cloud options have been added over time, but they were never the primary design philosophy. The product centers on Process Studio for workflow design, Object Studio for reusable automation components, and Decipher IDP for intelligent document processing.
What changed after the SS&C acquisition is pace. Roadmap transparency has declined. Major feature releases are less frequent. For organizations building three-to-five year automation programs today, that slowdown has real consequences.
Automation Anywhere A360: Cloud-Native, AI-Integrated Automation Automation Anywhere launched in 2003 and has moved decisively toward a cloud-native SaaS model. Its A360 platform — officially Automation 360 — replaced the legacy v11 architecture and supports both attended and unattended automation. The key components are IQ Bot and Document Automation for AI-powered document extraction and classification; AARI (Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface) for attended automation in human-in-the-loop workflows; AI Fabric for embedding machine learning models into automation workflows; Automation Co-Pilot, a generative AI assistant for bot development and process discovery; and Control Room for centralized bot orchestration and monitoring.
The company ships releases at a faster cadence and maintains a clearer public AI roadmap than Blue Prism. That said, enterprises that upgraded from v11 to A360 consistently describe the migration as rebuilding from scratch — a risk that rarely surfaces in vendor demos.
v11 vs. A360, plainly explained: v11 was desktop-based and built for on-premises infrastructure. A360 is entirely cloud-native, built on a new architecture that does not support direct migration of v11 bots. This is not a version upgrade. It’s a platform replacement — and every team that treated it otherwise paid for that misclassification.
What Enterprise Users Actually Say This section draws on Gartner Peer Insights, G2, and practitioner communities that have no stake in which platform you buy. These are recurring themes, not cherry-picked reviews.
Blue Prism: The Recurring Feedback Post-acquisition uncertainty is the most consistent theme in recent reviews. Users who invested in Blue Prism before the SS&C deal describe a sense that the product is being maintained rather than actively developed. New features are slower to arrive, and some roadmap commitments from prior years have gone quiet without formal explanation.
Developer dependency is structural. Blue Prism requires certified developers for all meaningful automation work. There’s no citizen developer pathway. For organizations without dedicated RPA engineering resources, that means ongoing hiring or consulting costs on top of licensing — costs that compound as the bot inventory grows.
Integration limitations are real. Blue Prism has no pre-built connector library. Connecting to SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, or Oracle ERP requires custom development — adding time, cost, and technical debt that rarely appears in initial vendor proposals.
Automation Anywhere A360: The Recurring Feedback v11-to-A360 migration pain is the most cited complaint among existing users. Enterprises moving from v11 to A360 consistently report complexity that exceeds initial estimates. Bot logic doesn’t translate one-to-one, and full re-development is the standard path — not the exception. Scope underestimation and architectural mismatch are the root causes in both cases.
AI feature delivery gaps surface in reviews from longer-term users. Some report that actual AI capability rollouts have lagged behind what early marketing suggested. The roadmap is directionally strong, but execution timelines vary significantly by feature and customer tier.
Licensing complexity at scale is an operational risk that compounds over time. Automation Anywhere’s consumption-based pricing is attractive early but can spike unpredictably at high bot volumes. Enterprise contracts have been described as difficult to renegotiate as usage grows beyond initial projections.
Partner with Kanerika to Modernize Your Enterprise Operations with High-Impact Data & AI Solutions Call or Text Us Now
Architecture and Capabilities Comparison These are the dimensions that determine whether a platform can do what you need it to do. Licensing can sometimes be negotiated. Architecture cannot.
Capability Dimension SS&C Blue Prism Automation Anywhere A360 Automation Type Supported Unattended only Attended and unattended Deployment Model On-premises primary; hybrid cloud available Fully cloud-native SaaS; private cloud option Ease of Development Certified developers required Low-code; citizen developer-friendly Bot Development Speed Longer (developer-intensive build cycles) Faster (low-code with Co-Pilot assistance) Native AI Capabilities Limited; Decipher IDP for documents Built-in generative AI, IQ Bot, AI Fabric, AARI Generative AI Roadmap Unclear post-SS&C acquisition Clearly articulated with regular releases Pre-Built Connector Library Minimal; custom development required 900-plus connectors including SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow Attended Bot Support Not available Available through AARI Scalability Model Strong for unattended, IT-managed scale Elastic cloud scaling with flexible deployment options Free Trial or POC Availability Via partner ecosystem 30-day free trial available Citizen Developer Access Minimal Strong through AARI and Co-Pilot Uptime SLA 99.9% (infrastructure-dependent for on-premises) 99.9% cloud SLA, vendor-managed
If the automation roadmap is 90% unattended, rule-based workflows in a stable IT environment, Blue Prism’s architecture is a match — not a liability. But if attended bots, AI document processing, or rapid multi-system deployment are real requirements, that same architecture becomes a structural ceiling.
Transform Your Business with AI-Powered Solutions! Partner with Kanerika for Expert AI implementation Services
Book a Meeting
Cost, Risk, and Total Cost of Ownership Capabilities tell you what the platform can do. This section tells you what it costs to operate — including what never appears in vendor proposals.
Cost and Risk Dimension SS&C Blue Prism Automation Anywhere A360 Licensing (per bot per year, approx.) $8,600–$18,000 and above $750–$5,000 and above (consumption model) Total Cost of Ownership Higher — licensing plus IT staffing plus custom integrations Variable; consumption pricing creates scale risk Security Certifications ISO 27001, GDPR compliant SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FedRAMP in progress Role-Based Access and Audit Logging Granular, built-in Available; cloud-dependent control configuration Vendor Stability Post-acquisition uncertainty Forrester Wave Leader, Q1 2023 Migration Complexity on Exit High; full rebuild required High; v11-to-A360 requires complete re-development Community and Partner Ecosystem Smaller, growth slowing Larger, active, continuing to grow Analyst Standing (Forrester Wave 2023) Challenger Leader CoE Governance Tooling Strong centralized IT governance Bot Insight and analytics; supports federated CoE model Support Responsiveness Mixed post-acquisition Mixed; community forums flag slow enterprise response times Vendor Lock-in Risk High (proprietary on-premises architecture) High (proprietary scripting and cloud dependencies)
Neither platform is cheap to exit. Vendor lock-in is real in both directions but takes different forms. Blue Prism’s lock-in is architectural: on-premises infrastructure that doesn’t port to another environment cleanly. Automation Anywhere’s is operational: proprietary scripting and A360 dependencies that don’t translate to other platforms. A thoughtful change management approach, built into the implementation plan from day one, significantly reduces the risk of discovering these constraints after contracts are signed.
Partner with Kanerika to Modernize Your Enterprise Operations with High-Impact Data & AI Solutions Call or Text Us Now
Security, Compliance, and Data Governance Security is where Blue Prism has historically held a credible edge — but the gap is narrowing in commercial enterprise contexts.
Blue Prism supports role-based access control, full audit logging, and granular process-level permissions. Its on-premises architecture allows organizations to keep all automation infrastructure within their own data centers, which matters in defense contracting, government, and parts of financial services where on-premises control is a procurement requirement. Both platforms hold ISO 27001 certification for information security management.
Automation Anywhere A360 holds SOC 2 Type II certification and ISO 27001, and is pursuing FedRAMP authorization for U.S. government workloads. Its private cloud deployment option partially addresses sovereign data requirements — but cloud-native infrastructure introduces vendor dependencies that purely on-premises environments don’t carry. Cloud security posture management discipline becomes critical in A360 deployments at enterprise scale.
For most commercial enterprise contexts, Automation Anywhere’s security posture is sufficient. For air-gapped or government environments with strict data residency mandates, Blue Prism’s architecture addresses those requirements by design — in a way Automation Anywhere currently cannot match.
Most enterprise RPA evaluations start with features and end with gut feel. This matrix starts with industry context, which is where most meaningful differentiators actually live.
Industry Recommended Platform Key Factor Important Caveat Banking (traditional, on-premises) Blue Prism Compliance controls, granular audit trails for KYC and AML workflows Less competitive for cloud-based digital banking deployments Banking (cloud-first, digital) Automation Anywhere AI document processing, faster deployment, cloud-native architecture Regulated data sovereignty still requires careful architecture review Healthcare Depends on deployment model On-premises EMR favors Blue Prism; cloud EMR (Epic, Cerner) favors Automation Anywhere HIPAA compliance achievable on both; architecture is the deciding variable Insurance Blue Prism Claims audit trails, regulatory reporting, unattended batch processing at scale Automation Anywhere competitive for AI-driven claims triage and customer-facing workflows Manufacturing Automation Anywhere Pre-built SAP and Oracle connectors, supplier portal integrations Blue Prism viable where legacy ERP and IT-managed environments are the full picture Logistics and Retail Automation Anywhere Attended bot support for customer-facing workflows; broad connector ecosystem Blue Prism’s absence of attended automation is a structural gap for these use cases Government (U.S. Federal) Blue Prism (near-term) On-premises security requirements; Automation Anywhere’s FedRAMP gap Automation Anywhere’s FedRAMP authorization, when complete, changes this meaningfully Pharma and Life Sciences Blue Prism 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, validated system requirements, full audit rigor Automation Anywhere viable for non-GxP processes within the same enterprise
Industry doesn’t determine the platform — but it significantly narrows the options. A pharma company running validated processes and a retailer managing attended customer service workflows have genuinely different automation requirements. The platform that fits one will frustrate the other.
Most enterprises that scale beyond 20 bots in production eventually build a Center of Excellence — a dedicated team responsible for governance, standards, bot reuse, and performance monitoring. Platform choice directly affects CoE complexity, staffing requirements, and ongoing cost.
CoE Dimension SS&C Blue Prism Automation Anywhere A360 Governance Model Centralized IT control Federated — business and IT share ownership Who Can Build Automation Certified RPA developers only Business users via AARI and Co-Pilot; developers for complex flows Reusability Enforcement Enforced architecturally through Object Studio Policy-dependent; requires active governance discipline Performance Monitoring Built-in process analytics Bot Insight dashboard with Control Room analytics Bot Sprawl Risk Low — IT gatekeeping limits unchecked growth Higher — low-code access creates governance gaps without active oversight Change Control Process Formal, IT-managed change cycles Faster iteration; less formal by default CoE Startup Speed Slower — certification and infrastructure requirements add lead time Faster for cloud deployments; shorter training ramp Audit Trail for CoE Operations Granular, built-in Available; requires configuration to match Blue Prism’s depth Scalability of CoE Model Scales predictably under IT control Scales faster but requires stronger governance guardrails at volume
Blue Prism’s centralized model is easier to govern and harder to misuse — but it creates a velocity ceiling. Everything flows through a central IT team, which suits organizations where control outweighs speed. Automation Anywhere’s federated model scales faster but requires active governance investment to prevent bot sprawl and quality drift.
The question isn’t which CoE model is inherently better. It’s which model the organization has the discipline and staffing to run well. Shadow IT risk is particularly acute in federated automation environments — something Automation Anywhere’s governance framework needs to actively counter at scale.
Implementation Timelines: What to Actually Expect Vendor demos show polished workflows. Real implementations look different, and the gap between demo and production is where automation programs absorb unexpected cost and delay.
Blue Prism implementations in regulated enterprise environments typically run three to six months for initial deployment, including infrastructure setup, developer certification, and first-bot development cycles. Complex integrations with legacy ERP systems like SAP or Oracle can extend timelines by a further four to eight weeks per major integration. Effective business process modeling before implementation — not after — compresses these timelines meaningfully.
Automation Anywhere A360 initial deployments are generally faster for net-new implementations: four to eight weeks for first bots in cloud environments using pre-built connectors. But organizations migrating from v11 should plan for four to twelve months depending on bot inventory size. Re-development is the default path, not the exception. Scoping it as an “upgrade” is the most common planning mistake in Automation Anywhere migration programs.
Both platforms require structured pilot phases before scaled rollout. Skipping the pilot is the single most common reason automation programs underdeliver in year two. IT service management integration — particularly for change control and incident response — should be scoped from week one, not retrofitted after the first production outage.
Hidden Costs: What Vendor Proposals Don’t Show Licensing is the visible line item. The costs that actually blow up automation budgets are the ones that never appear in initial proposals. IT staffing overhead is structural in Blue Prism deployments. The platform requires certified developers and ongoing IT involvement for every meaningful change. Organizations running Blue Prism at scale typically need two to four dedicated RPA engineers per 50 bots in production — headcount cost that compounds well beyond annual licensing. Bot re-development costs cut both ways. Switching from Blue Prism to Automation Anywhere requires full bot rebuilds due to architectural differences. Moving from v11 to A360 carries similar disruption internally. Re-development costs typically run 30 to 60% of the original build investment, plus parallel-run overhead during transition. Integration development adds a Blue Prism-specific premium. Without a pre-built connector library, connecting to SAP, Salesforce, or ServiceNow requires custom development work — costs that rarely surface in initial budgets but reliably appear during detailed scoping. Consumption pricing risk is the Automation Anywhere equivalent. The model is attractive at small scale. At 100-plus bots, usage spikes create budget variance that is difficult to predict and hard to renegotiate once volume is established. Vendor lock-in is real on both sides but takes different forms. Blue Prism’s on-premises architecture makes migration expensive and technically demanding. Automation Anywhere’s proprietary scripting doesn’t port cleanly to other platforms either. Neither vendor makes exiting straightforward — because neither has a financial incentive to. Some organizations reading this are not choosing for the first time. They’re evaluating whether to leave a platform they’re already running. The signals below are drawn from real practitioner discussions and enterprise migration assessments.
Use this as a structured way to assess the switching decision before committing resources. Not every signal requires action — but three or more from the same platform is a pattern that warrants a formal evaluation.
Switching platforms is expensive regardless of direction. Organizations that manage the transition successfully treat it as a dedicated program — with a bot inventory audit, a parallel-run period, and a phased migration plan with clear exit criteria. Organizations that treat it as a technology swap managed in a sprint cycle consistently underestimate cost and duration.
Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere vs UiPath: A Three-Way Comparison Most enterprise RPA evaluations involve three names, not two. UiPath consistently appears on shortlists alongside Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere — and for good reasons that a two-vendor comparison can obscure.
UiPath holds the highest Gartner Peer Insights rating among the three (approximately 4.6 out of 5 from over 6,000 reviews) and was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave RPA Q1 2023, positioned above both competitors on the strategy axis. Its Studio IDE is widely considered the most developer-friendly in the enterprise RPA category, and its built-in process mining capabilities are more mature than either competitor currently offers. Microsoft Power Automate is also worth considering for enterprises already running M365 at scale where native ecosystem integration is a priority.
Dimension Blue Prism Automation Anywhere UiPath Forrester Wave 2023 Position Challenger Leader Leader Gartner Peer Insights Rating (approx.) 4.4/5 (~688 reviews) 4.5/5 (~1,373 reviews) 4.6/5 (6,000-plus reviews) Attended Automation Not supported Strong (AARI) Strong Process Mining Capabilities Limited Basic Advanced, built-in Developer Tooling Certified developer model Low-code with Co-Pilot Studio IDE, broadly praised Community and Ecosystem Size Smaller, slowing growth Large, active Largest in enterprise RPA Best Fit For Regulated, on-premises environments Cloud-native AI integration Developer productivity and process discovery Entry-Level Pricing (approx.) $8,600–$18,000-plus per bot/year $750–$5,000-plus per bot Variable; community edition free
A shortlist limited to two vendors may miss the right answer entirely. For organizations where developer productivity, built-in process discovery, and community support are genuine priorities, UiPath belongs in the evaluation.
How to Choose: A Practical Decision Framework Choose SS&C Blue Prism if: The organization operates in a heavily regulated industry with on-premises deployment requirements that cannot be waived. A dedicated, certified IT team is in place with bandwidth to manage ongoing development complexity. Unattended automation covers 90% or more of current and near-term use cases. The organization is already embedded in Blue Prism and switching costs outweigh the innovation gap. Compliance stability is a higher priority than AI integration pace over the next 24 months. Quality management systems or validated computing requirements make audit rigor the primary selection criterion. Choose Automation Anywhere A360 if: Both attended and unattended bots are required in the automation roadmap. Cloud-native or multi-cloud deployment is a strategic infrastructure priority. Generative AI integration into automation workflows is planned within the next 12 to 24 months. Pre-built connectors for SAP, Salesforce, or ServiceNow would meaningfully reduce custom development costs. Customer relationship management workflows requiring attended bot support are part of the automation scope. The organization is starting fresh or scaling an automation program from mid-market to enterprise scope. The most consequential risk in this decision isn’t which platform gets chosen. It’s making the choice without a complete picture of the actual process landscape, IT infrastructure, and long-term automation roadmap.
A vendor’s demo is optimized to show its platform at its best. A process assessment is designed to show where automation creates real value — and where it doesn’t. Starting with process mapping before selecting a platform changes the decision entirely. It shifts the question from “which platform has the best features?” to “which platform fits the work we actually need to automate?”
Kanerika is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data and AI, with hands-on implementation experience across RPA platforms in regulated industries. The firm’s approach starts with process assessment — understanding what an organization actually automates, where friction exists, and what the IT environment can support — before any platform recommendation is made.
In insurance, Kanerika implemented an RPA solution that automated premium calculations, eliminating manual processing errors and significantly reducing processing time for high-volume, rule-intensive workflows. In banking, Kanerika deployed an RPA-based reconciliation solution handling over 10,000 daily transactions, dramatically reducing manual effort and error rates in a compliance-sensitive environment.
Cognitive computing capabilities, named entity recognition for document-heavy workflows, and custom AI agents for orchestration are increasingly part of the automation stack Kanerika builds alongside RPA — because pure RPA rarely handles the full scope of what enterprise automation programs need in 2025. The implementation process — assess, recommend, pilot, scale, monitor — is designed to de-risk the platform commitment before significant resources are deployed.
Partner with Kanerika to Modernize Your Enterprise Operations with High-Impact Data & AI Solutions Call or Text Us Now
RPA is no longer a standalone discipline. It’s becoming the execution layer beneath larger agentic AI and hyperautomation architectures — and platform choice in 2025 needs to account for that trajectory, not just current feature parity.
Automation Anywhere’s generative AI roadmap is clearly articulated and actively shipped. Automation Co-Pilot embeds AI assistance directly into bot development, reducing build time for both developers and business users. AI Fabric enables machine learning model integration within automation workflows without requiring separate infrastructure. The platform’s direction toward generative AI as a native capability — rather than a bolted-on feature — is architecturally significant for organizations planning AI-augmented process automation over the next 24 months.
Blue Prism’s AI trajectory post-SS&C acquisition is less legible from the outside. Decipher IDP handles intelligent document processing competently, but native generative AI integration lags meaningfully behind what Automation Anywhere has already deployed. For organizations planning AI-augmented automation workflows, that gap carries compounding risk.
The platform that handles today’s automation needs but can’t support tomorrow’s agentic workflows creates a forced rebuild problem — the same kind that v11-to-A360 migrations created for users who didn’t account for architectural evolution when making their original platform commitment. Private LLMs for regulated-industry automation and advanced RAG architectures for document-intensive workflows are the kinds of capabilities that belong in a 2025 platform evaluation, even if they’re not immediate requirements.
Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere are both capable enterprise RPA platforms. Neither is universally better. Blue Prism is the defensible choice for organizations that need proven compliance infrastructure, on-premises control, and the IT resources the platform structurally requires. Automation Anywhere is the stronger bet for organizations that need cloud-native flexibility, attended automation support, and a credible path to AI-integrated workflows within a defined planning horizon.
What neither platform provides on its own is the process intelligence to know where automation creates real value — and where it doesn’t. Data literacy across the teams operating and governing these systems matters as much as the platform itself. And supply chain planning teams, finance operations, and compliance-heavy back-office functions all have automation requirements that generalized platform comparisons routinely underserve.
That assessment, completed before platform selection, is what separates automation programs that scale from ones that stall after the initial deployment sprint.
Transform Your Business with AI-Powered Solutions! Partner with Kanerika for Expert AI implementation Services
Book a Meeting
FAQs What is the main difference between Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere? Blue Prism focuses on unattended, IT-managed automation for regulated environments, with compliance controls built into its architecture. Automation Anywhere supports both attended and unattended automation on a cloud-native platform with stronger native AI capabilities — making it accessible to a broader user base, including business-side citizen developers. IBM’s RPA overview provides useful context on how these architectural differences affect long-term platform decisions.
Is Blue Prism still a competitive RPA platform in 2025? Blue Prism remains viable for organizations in heavily regulated industries requiring on-premises deployment and granular audit trail management. Its post-SS&C acquisition trajectory raises valid questions about long-term innovation pace, which makes it a less compelling choice for organizations planning AI-integrated automation roadmaps or adopting cloud-first infrastructure strategies.</p>
How does Blue Prism pricing compare to Automation Anywhere? Blue Prism licensing starts at approximately $8,600 to $18,000 or more per bot annually. Automation Anywhere ranges from $750 to $5,000 or more per bot depending on subscription tier and consumption model. Total cost of ownership — including IT staffing, integration development, and infrastructure overhead — consistently runs significantly higher than the visible licensing figure alone in both cases.
Can non-technical users build automation with Automation Anywhere? Yes. Automation Anywhere’s AARI interface, Automation Co-Pilot, and low-code environment support citizen developers and business users without formal programming backgrounds. Blue Prism requires certified technical developers for all meaningful automation development, making it structurally dependent on dedicated IT resources. Customer analytics and similar business-side use cases benefit disproportionately from citizen developer access — which is why attended automation support matters in functions beyond IT.
What is attended vs. unattended automation, and which platform supports both? Attended automation involves bots that work alongside humans in real time, triggered by user actions during active work sessions. Unattended bots run autonomously on scheduled or event-based triggers without human involvement. Blue Prism supports unattended automation only. Automation Anywhere supports both through AARI and Control Room. Automation Anywhere’s own explainer covers each approach in more detail.
How complex is migrating from Blue Prism to Automation Anywhere? Migration is operationally complex and consistently underestimated. Bot logic doesn’t translate one-to-one between platforms — most migrations require full re-development rather than a direct port. Budget for 30 to 60% of the original build investment in re-development costs, plus four to twelve months of parallel-run time depending on bot inventory volume. The process control documentation maintained during the original build directly affects how smoothly re-development can proceed.
