Fortra's Automate vs Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform comparison

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1,959 views|998 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
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13,713 views|9,436 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortra's Automate and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Microsoft, Automation Anywhere and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
To learn more, read our detailed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Report (Updated: April 2024).
770,428 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation.""I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality.""We have tried other RPA solutions like UiPath or Automation Anywhere. They are fantastic products but complex, and it's hard to understand everything. It would be best if you had a skilled developer or several. Automate is easy to implement, administer, and use. It's appropriate for us because our cases are simple and easy to automate. We don't need complicated tools with many features; We prefer to get a significant ROI quickly.""The most valuable feature is the drag-and-drop interface, which is very Windows-like.""The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever.""Compared to other vendors, it's the scheduling tool because a lot of vendors want to charge you extra for their enterprise-level license to have a scheduling tool built in to give you the ability to set up regular schedules to run and do certain data checks.""This tool has machine learning and voice recognition and computer vision, which are both quite useful aspects. These aren't available in other tools. It's a good addition to this tool and it gives the solution an edge on the market.""This product is quite easy to install, learn, and use, with our new employees being able to start using it in projects for clients after only two weeks of internal training."

More Fortra's Automate Pros →

"The initial setup is easy and takes a few hours to complete.""It increases our company's efficiency, automating all the simple tasks which used to take hours of somebody's time.""I like the inventory management. It's a very nice, simple, concise way to keep all that data together. And the API allows us to use it even for things that are not Ansible.""It is all modular-based. If there is not a module for it today, someone will write it.""We can automate a few host configurations using the product.""There are new modules available, which help to simplify the workflow. That is what we like about it.""The automation manager is very good.""The most valuable feature of Ansible is repeatability because when you're working at the DoD, you want things to be cookie-cutter and replicable."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Pros →

Cons
"The vendor is currently working on a solution that allows us to automatically create a process that is based on a document that we receive via email.""The documentation for errors needs improvement as many of the error messages we receive are very vague.""Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem.""We really need a free development environment for customers. Building and testing automation on production isn't ideal.""While this solution is continually improving, as it is now, the user interface could use improvement when I compare it to a product like UiPath.""It would be an improvement if Automate had better stability tools, whether by recommending a certain amount of memory because it can be a memory hog at times.""The OCR for Hebrew text needs to be improved.""The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

More Fortra's Automate Cons →

"Additional features could be added.""The job workflow needs to be worked on. It's not really clear to how you actually link things together. What they probably could do is provide an example workflow on how to stitch things together. I think that would be very helpful.""When you set up Playbooks, I may have one version of the Playbook, but another member of the team may have a different vision, and we will not know which version is correct. We want to have one central repository for managing the different versions of Playbooks, so we can have better collaboration among team members. This is our use case for using Git version control.""One problem that I'm facing right now is the mismatch between the new version of Python and Ansible. Sometimes it's Python 2, and sometimes it's Python 3. When things get a bit dicey, I wish that Ansible would solve this issue by itself. I don't want to have to specify if it is Python 3 or version 2.""It needs better documentation.""Documentation could be improved. Many times, if I'm looking for something, I have to Google it in a lot of places, then figure out what the best approach will be. There are some best practices documents, but they don't give you the information.""The user interface on the Ansible Tower product could be better, but it is functional.""Performance has been an issue on larger environments, but it has gotten a lot better over the past two years."

More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."
  • "I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."
  • "It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."
  • "While solutions like UiPath and Blue Prism cost around $11,000-$12,000 for each license, this product costs around $7,000 and you can keep it forever."
  • "I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."
  • "The pricing is quite reasonable. We can run the process with one bot. The limitation is at the server level because they have some resources, and sometimes that is enough. It isn't too expensive, so you can get a good return off of one, and you can also have a pack of five bots that is quite competitive."
  • "From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
  • "The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."
  • More Fortra's Automate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Like many Red Hat products, they have a no-cost version of the web application (AWX, formerly Ansible Tower), but you are on your own to install and it is a little more complicated than just installing Ansible."
  • "The cost is high, but it still works well."
  • "We went with product because we have a subscription for Red Hat."
  • "Ansible Tower is free. Until they lower the cost, we are holding off on purchasing the product."
  • "Red Hat's open source approach was a factor when choosing Ansible, since the solution is free as of right now."
  • "You don't need to buy agents on servers or deploy expense management when using the solution, which affected our decision to go with it."
  • "The cost is determined by the number of endpoints."
  • "We're charged between $8 to $13 a month per license."
  • More Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.
    Top Answer:I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost.
    Top Answer:There is room for improvement regarding cloud functionality; there are a few missing features, and the logging could be better, especially air logging. We can go into logging events and create our own… more »
    Top Answer:Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management have been outstanding. If you have a large environment, patching systems is much… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.
    Ranking
    Views
    1,959
    Comparisons
    998
    Reviews
    10
    Average Words per Review
    1,398
    Rating
    8.5
    1st
    Views
    13,713
    Comparisons
    9,436
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    502
    Rating
    8.7
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    HelpSystems Automate, Automate
    Ansible
    Learn More
    Fortra
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    Automate is an easy-to-use RPA software solution that boosts your productivity by transforming virtually any business or IT process. Get scalable automation capabilities whether you need a solution for one department, a small business, or an enterprise-wide Center of Excellence (CoE) initiative—Automate is built and priced right for employee-driven automation for any organization.

    Automate allows you to get up and running fast with no-code automation for both GUI and back-end functionalities. Form-based development lets you quickly build bots and leverage over 600 pre-built automation actions. Powerful out-of-the-box API and native integrations bring together the applications that keep your business running. And with the Automate Recorder, easily build, update, and deploy robust, UI-driven automation. Plus, bots can be deployed as attended or unattended with concurrent execution of tasks—no restrictions.

    A Key Part of Fortra (the new face of HelpSystems) Automate is proud to be part of Fortra’s comprehensive portfolio. Fortra simplifies today’s complex business landscape by bringing complementary products together to solve problems in innovative ways. These integrated, scalable solutions address the many challenges you face in streamlining your operations. With the help of Automate robotic process automation and other solutions, Fortra is your relentless ally, here for you every step of the way on your automation journey.

    Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a powerful network automation solution that allows organizations to handle every aspect of their application launch process within a single product. It enables users to share their automations so that teams within an organization can collaborate on various projects with ease. Ansible Automation Platform is designed to be used by all employees involved in the network automation process.

    Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform include:


    • Maximum benefit for reduced overhead. Ansible Automation Platform is an all-in-one solution that can enable users to do the jobs of multiple products with one. Users do not need to purchase multiple products to handle their network automation and application development needs. It is equipped with prefabricated content from more than one hundred companies that are partnered with it.


    • Scalable. Ansible Automation Platform is a highly scalable solution. It can easily be scaled up so that automations can be extended across the various devices that make up an organization’s network.


    • Flexibility. Ansible Automation Platform is highly flexible. It enables users to tackle any and all automation-related tasks.


    Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Features


    • Automation analytics. Ansible Automation Platform comes equipped with an automation analytics feature. This feature enables organizations to measure the effects of their automations and plan how they are going to implement automations moving forward. It makes it easy for administrators to spot anomalies in their automations and resolve them before they can escalate and become major issues.


    • Integration suite. Ansible Automation Platform gives organizations access to a wide variety of integrations that enable them to connect to Ansible’s partners. Now users can augment their capabilities without needing to purchase additional solutions that will enable them to run features that are not normally a part of Ansible’s array of tools. The Ansible environment is built to handle the wide variety of integrations that their partners offer. In order to accomplish this it includes the APIs that users need in order to fully benefit from the integrations. 


    • Centralized interface. Ansible Automation Platform comes with a centralized GUI interface that enables users to manage all of their network automation and application creation activities from a single location. Businesses can guarantee that their operations are going to be handled efficiently and according to a single standard. The management process is greatly simplified. All of the tools that users need are located in one place.


    Reviews from Real Users

    Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its automation manager and its comprehensive centralized GUI-based management interface.

    MD J., a solution architect at STBL, says, “The automation manager is very good and makes things easier for customers with multi-cloud platforms.”

    Aankit G., a Consultant at Pi DATACENTERS, writes, “We like the GUI-based interface for the tower. Before, we only had a command-line interface to run all the Ansible tasks. Now, the Ansible tower provides the complete GUI functionality to run, manage, and create the templates and the Ansible jobs. This includes the code and YAML file we can create. The GUI interface is the added advantage of this solution, including some integration with the different plugins.”

    Sample Customers
    Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories
    HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Security Firm14%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Insurance Company14%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Healthcare Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Government15%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Healthcare Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization25%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business55%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise20%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise62%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise54%
    Buyer's Guide
    Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Microsoft, Automation Anywhere and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Updated: April 2024.
    770,428 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortra's Automate is ranked 5th in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with 21 reviews while Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is ranked 1st in Configuration Management with 58 reviews. Fortra's Automate is rated 8.2, while Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Fortra's Automate writes "Can automate several processes with only one bot and is easy to implement, administer, and use". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform writes "Capable of broad integrations with easy-to-operate infrastructure and user controls". Fortra's Automate is most compared with Microsoft Power Automate, UiPath, MOVEit, Automation Anywhere (AA) and Blue Prism, whereas Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is most compared with Red Hat Satellite, Microsoft Configuration Manager, VMware Aria Automation, Microsoft Azure DevOps and Microsoft Intune.

    We monitor all Robotic Process Automation (RPA) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.