UiPath is the default pick for most teams that want a dedicated RPA platform, with a free Community plan and Basic from $25 per month, while Microsoft Power Automate is the default pick for teams on Microsoft 365, with Premium at $15 per user per month. The billing unit matters more than the headline price: UiPath Basic caps a team at 2 robots and 11 users, Power Automate charges $150 per bot per month for unattended work, and IBM starts at $981 per month. Five of the eight tools publish no price, so expect a sales quote for Automation Anywhere, SS&C Blue Prism, Nintex, Appian, and Pega Platform.
RPA software copies the clicks, copies, and data moves that people repeat in desktop and web apps, then runs those steps on a schedule or on demand. The tools below cover the full range, from a $15 per user Microsoft plan to quote-only enterprise platforms. Pick by counting unattended bots, named users, and document pages first. UiPath Basic is a useful warning: its $25 per month price covers only 2 robots and 11 users, so a real program moves to a quote-only tier fast.
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Best robotic process automation rpa software: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UiPath | Dedicated RPA programs at any scale | $25 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 2 | Microsoft Power Automate | Microsoft 365 teams | $15 per user/month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 3 | Automation Anywhere | Cloud-native RPA with document work | quote only | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | SS&C Blue Prism | Regulated teams that need a clear audit trail | quote only | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 5 | Nintex | No-code RPA inside a wider process platform | quote only | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 6 | Appian | Complex processes that mix RPA with low-code apps | quote only | Free trial | Visit |
| 7 | Pega Platform | Case-based automation with decisioning | quote only | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 8 | IBM Robotic Process Automation | IBM shops that want SaaS or on-premises bots | $981 per month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
The 8 best best robotic process automation rpa software tools, in detail
UiPath
Best for: Dedicated RPA programs at any scale
UiPath Automation Cloud has four options: Community, Basic, Standard, and Enterprise. Community is free and suits learning. Basic starts at $25 per month and allows up to 5 Basic users, 5 Plus users, and 1 Pro user, with 2 robots and Bronze support.
- Cold data retention is 6 months on Basic, against 2 years on Standard and 5 years on Enterprise.
- The trade-off is that $25 is only the entry tier.
- Users and robots may need extra license purchases, and running cost can also come from Platform Units, metered per agent run, per language model call,
- Standard adds agent building and document extraction at scale.
Pros
- Free Community plan
- Basic from $25 per month
- Studio, Orchestrator, document processing, and agents in higher tiers
Cons
- Basic is capped at 2 robots and 11 users and hosted in the European region only
- Standard and Enterprise have no published price
Microsoft Power Automate
Best for: Microsoft 365 teams
Power Automate Premium costs $15 per user per month, billed annually, and covers cloud flows, attended desktop flows, premium and custom connectors, and process mining, with 250 MB of Dataverse capacity and 2 GB of file capacity. Premium allows 40,000 requests per user per 24 hours. The free tier in many Microsoft 365 plans covers standard connectors only, at 6,000 requests per user per 24 hours.
- Unattended work is licensed per bot, not per user.
- Power Automate Process costs $150 per bot per month, billed annually, and covers one unattended bot or one shared cloud flow, with 250,000 requests pe
- Hosted Process costs $215 per bot per month and adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine.
- Process Mining is a separate add-on at $5,000 per tenant per month.
Pros
- Premium at $15 per user per month includes attended desktop flows and premium connectors
- Process at $150 per bot per month covers unattended work
Cons
- Unattended RPA needs a separate Process license at $150 per bot per month
- standard connectors only in Microsoft 365 seeded rights, so premium connectors need Premium
Automation Anywhere
Best for: Cloud-native RPA with document work
Automation Anywhere now calls its platform the Agentic Process Automation System, combining RPA bots, AI agents, APIs, document processing, and orchestration. The free Community Edition suits students, developers, and small businesses, with limits of under 250 machines, under 250 users, and under $5 million in revenue. It is capped at 5 machines and 100 document pages per month.
- The main limit is price transparency.
- The vendor no longer publishes a dedicated pricing page, and commercial access is quote-based through sales.
- An older Cloud Starter Pack figure of $750 per month still appears in third-party guides, but it is not on the current vendor site, so do not budget f
- Choose Automation Anywhere for cloud-native RPA with document automation.
Pros
- Free Community Edition
- cloud-native platform with AI Agent Studio, Automator AI, and document automation
Cons
- No published price for commercial plans
- Community Edition is capped at 5 machines and 100 Document Automation pages per month
SS&C Blue Prism
Best for: Regulated teams that need a clear audit trail
SS&C Blue Prism is the enterprise RPA platform that coined the term robotic process automation, and SS&C Technologies completed its acquisition of Blue Prism in March 2022. The current platform is SS&C Blue Prism WorkHQ, which brings agents, digital workers, and people into one governed environment. Its design separates bot design from runtime execution, giving regulated teams a clear record of every action.
- A 30-day trial is available, with a Learning Edition for 180 days.
- Pricing is quote-based across its Enterprise, Cloud, Desktop, and Chorus products, with no published price on the vendor site.
- Third-party estimates often cite around $15,000 per digital worker per year, but that is not an official Blue Prism price, so do not put it in a budge
- Choose Blue Prism if you work in banking, insurance, healthcare, or the public sector.
Pros
- Central control and a documented audit trail
- WorkHQ orchestration for agents, robots, and people
- Digital Exchange with over 2,000 components
Cons
- No published price on any current product page
- Learning Edition is for learning and runs for 180 days, not for production use
Nintex
Best for: No-code RPA inside a wider process platform
Nintex RPA is part of the Nintex Process Platform, which covers process discovery, mapping, workflow automation, document generation, and e-signatures alongside RPA. Builders use a drag-and-drop Botflow designer with over 300 actions, and bots can run attended or unattended through RPA Central. A 30-day trial is available.
- The current Nintex pricing page lists no figure and points buyers to a contact form, so all pricing is quote-based on deployment model, modules, user
- Older listings cite Nintex RPA Standard from $90 per user per month with a 5-user minimum, but that figure is not on the current vendor page, so do no
- Choose Nintex if you want no-code RPA next to workflow and document generation.
Pros
- No-code Botflow designer with over 300 actions
- attended and unattended bots
- central management through RPA Central
Cons
- No published price on the current pricing page, so every quote is tailored
- RPA and workflow modules can be sold separately, so check what is included
Appian
Best for: Complex processes that mix RPA with low-code apps
Appian is a low-code platform for AI process automation, and RPA is one part of a wider system that also covers application building, process orchestration, data, and document work. Its Data Fabric unifies data from different systems, and its process engine coordinates work across people. That mix suits long processes such as onboarding and procurement, where a bot alone is not enough.
- A free trial is available.
- Appian publishes no price on its own site, so buyers need a quote based on user type and volume.
- Older listings cite Application Edition at $90 per user per month and Enterprise Edition at $180 per user per month, but those figures are not on the
- Choose Appian if your process needs apps, data, and bots.
Pros
- Low-code app building with a Data Fabric
- process orchestration across people, systems, and digital workers
- RPA and document processing in one platform
Cons
- No published price on the vendor site
- price is subject to minimum purchase requirements, so small teams face a high entry point
Pega Platform
Best for: Case-based automation with decisioning
Pega Platform combines low-code application building, case management, workflow orchestration, and rule-based decisioning in one system. Work is organised as cases, such as an address change, a billing inquiry, or a claim, and the platform routes each case through people and bots. Pega Infinity 26, launched on 14 July 2026, bills per resolved case rather than per token used by a model.
- The price for that work is not published on the Pega site in a simple list.
- Vendor listings cite Low-Code Factory Edition at $0.45 per case and Standard Edition at $0.80 per case, with a 350,000-case-per-year minimum and a 500
- Choose Pega if you run high-volume, case-based work.
- Do not choose it for a small RPA pilot.
Pros
- Case management with rule-based decisioning
- low-code App Studio and Dev Studio
- Pega Blueprint for guided app design
Cons
- Enterprise Edition is quote only
- Low-Code Factory Edition limits App Studio, with no child cases, and robotics and advanced automation need add-ons
IBM Robotic Process Automation
Best for: IBM shops that want SaaS or on-premises bots
IBM Robotic Process Automation is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation and the wider watsonx stack, and it suits teams already standardised on IBM. It covers desktop, web, SAP, PDF, email, and terminal-based workflows, with a Studio build environment, bot scheduling, optical character recognition, and dashboards. Both SaaS and on-premises plans start at $981 per month, with a no-cost 30-day trial.
- The $981 figure is a starting point, not a full quote.
- IBM directs buyers to a price estimator that builds a monthly figure from environment count and robot count.
- Choose IBM RPA if your automation must sit inside IBM Cloud Pak.
- Do not choose it if you want a low entry price, because $981 per month is $11,772 per year before any add-ons or services.
Pros
- SaaS and on-premises deployment
- optical character recognition, intelligent virtual agents, and dashboards
- 30-day no-cost trial
Cons
- Starting at $981 per month is high for a small team
- IBM directs buyers to a price estimator for the full figure, so the total depends on configuration
How we chose
We picked tools that ship a real RPA runtime, with attended and unattended bots, a builder, and central control, and we kept process platforms only where RPA is a named part of the product. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pricing pages opened on 2026-11-12. We did not test any tool hands-on. Where a vendor hid the price, we wrote quote only. UiPath Basic shows why the billing unit matters: the $25 per month tier is capped at 2 robots and 11 users. WorkFusion is not a separate pick because UiPath announced in February 2026 that it had acquired WorkFusion.
Which pick fits your team size and budget
| Situation | Pick | Why, with numbers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 users, Microsoft 365 already in place | Microsoft Power Automate | Premium is $15 per user per month, so 5 users cost $75 per month, and attended desktop flows are included |
| 1 to 5 users, no Microsoft stack | UiPath | Community is free, and Basic is $25 per month for up to 11 users and 2 robots |
| 6 to 50 users, unattended bots needed | Microsoft Power Automate | Each unattended bot needs a Process license at $150 per bot per month, so 5 bots cost $750 per month |
| 50 or more users, governed enterprise program | UiPath, Automation Anywhere, or SS&C Blue Prism | All three are quote only at enterprise scale, so compare the quote for your bot count |
| Complex cases with rules and decisions | Pega Platform | Case-based billing suits high-volume case work, but Enterprise is quote only |
| IBM estate with SaaS or on-premises needs | IBM Robotic Process Automation | Starts at $981 per month, with a 30-day trial, and pricing scales with robot counts |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best robotic process automation RPA software for most teams?
UiPath is the best pick for most teams that want a dedicated RPA platform, with a free Community plan, Basic from $25 per month, and Studio, Orchestrator, document, and agent tools in higher tiers. Microsoft Power Automate is better for teams already on Microsoft 365, because Premium is $15 per user per month and includes attended desktop flows.
How much does RPA software cost?
Entry prices run from $15 per user per month for Power Automate Premium, to $25 per month for UiPath Basic, to $981 per month for IBM Robotic Process Automation. Unattended work adds more: Power Automate Process is $150 per bot per month, and Hosted Process is $215 per bot per month. Five tools publish no price, so their cost is a quote based on bots, users, and volume.
Which RPA software is best for a small team?
Microsoft Power Automate is best for a small team already on Microsoft 365, because 5 Premium users cost $75 per month and attended desktop flows are included. UiPath is best for a small team outside Microsoft, because Community is free and Basic is $25 per month for up to 11 users and 2 robots. Avoid IBM at this size, because $981 per month is high for a first pilot.
Which RPA software is best for regulated industries?
SS&C Blue Prism is the best fit for regulated teams, because its design separates bot design from runtime execution and gives a documented audit trail for every unattended action. Its WorkHQ platform adds governed orchestration for agents, robots, and people. It is quote only, so ask for a scoped quote, and use the 30-day trial or the 180-day Learning Edition to check it first.
Do any RPA tools have a free plan?
Yes. UiPath Community is free, and Automation Anywhere Community Edition is free for eligible small businesses, students, and developers, with caps of 5 machines and 100 Document Automation pages per month. Power Automate, Blue Prism, Nintex, Pega, and IBM offer a 30-day trial instead, and Appian offers a free trial.
Is UiPath Basic enough for a real automation program?
No, not for most programs. Basic costs $25 per month, but it allows only 2 robots and 11 users, hosts in the European region only, and keeps cold data for 6 months. It suits personal automations and a first test. A real program needs Standard or Enterprise, which have no published price and no user or robot limits.
Sources
- https://www.uipath.com/pricing/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing
- https://www.automationanywhere.com/
- https://www.blueprism.com/plans-pricing/
- https://www.nintex.com/pricing/
- https://appian.com/products/platform/overview
- https://www.pega.com/products/platform
- https://www.ibm.com/products/robotic-process-automation/pricing?utm_medium=Peerreview&utm_source=TrustRadius&utm_content=RPAWW&utm_term=30A5C&utm_id=RPA-pricing-page-on-TR
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.