Top 2 Alternatives to RPA Tools (UiPath) for RPA and Desktop UI

Introduction and Context

RPA Tools (UiPath) emerged during the rapid rise of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) when organizations sought reliable ways to automate repetitive, rules-based tasks across desktop and web applications. As RPA matured from simple screen-scraping to enterprise-grade orchestration, UiPath became one of the most recognized platforms thanks to its visual designer, strong activity libraries, and an ecosystem that aligned well with IT and business teams.

UiPath is built around a visual automation paradigm with a .NET foundation, allowing users to compose workflows from prebuilt activities and custom code. Its core components typically include:

• Studio and StudioX for building automations

• Robots (attended and unattended) for execution

• Orchestrator for deployment, scheduling, and governance

• Libraries and marketplaces for reusable components

While primarily an RPA platform, teams also harness UiPath for regression UI automation—especially when automating end-to-end flows that span multiple desktop applications and browsers. With support for Windows and macOS, commercial licensing, and integrations into modern CI/CD pipelines, UiPath continues to be broadly adopted.

So why are some teams exploring alternatives? As RPA programs mature, organizations reassess platform fit based on scalability, cost, team skills, governance, and specific feature needs. Even when a tool is strong, there may be cases where an alternative aligns better with the team’s existing infrastructure or long-term strategy.

This guide explores the top two alternatives to UiPath for RPA and Desktop UI automation, helping you decide which platform best matches your current and future requirements.

Overview: The Top 2 Alternatives to UiPath

Here are the top 2 alternatives for RPA Tools (UiPath):

• Automation Anywhere

• Blue Prism

Each of these tools offers robust RPA capabilities, enterprise-grade workflows, and the flexibility to automate repeatable desktop UI tasks. Below, we explain when and why they might be a better fit than UiPath.

Why Look for UiPath Alternatives?

UiPath is a capable platform, but no single tool fits every context. Teams often evaluate alternatives due to a combination of technical, operational, and strategic considerations:

• Setup and ongoing maintenance overhead

• Test flakiness when automations are not structured for resilience

• Cost and licensing alignment

• Skills and team composition

• Platform choices and ecosystem fit

None of these are deal-breakers for every team, but they are common reasons organizations reassess their RPA stack.

Automation Anywhere

What It Is and Who Built It

Automation Anywhere is a commercial RPA platform designed for Windows environments with a strong emphasis on end-to-end process automation. Built by Automation Anywhere, Inc., the platform takes a visual-first approach to process design and orchestration, offering a comprehensive suite that spans bot development, centralized control, and analytics. It overlaps with testing needs by enabling teams to automate desktop UI workflows and browser interactions in ways that support regression checks and end-to-end validation.

What sets Automation Anywhere apart is its focus on streamlined, enterprise-ready automation with visual development, robust governance, and integrations designed for modern deployment pipelines.

Core Strengths

• Visual-first development: Build and manage automations with a designer that emphasizes clarity and reuse.

• Broad automation capabilities: Suitable for both attended and unattended scenarios across desktop and web.

• CI/CD integration: Plays well with common pipelines to enable versioned, testable automation deployments.

• Centralized control and governance: Provides administrative controls and visibility to manage bot lifecycles.

• Enterprise scalability: Designed for large-scale rollouts, role-based access, and multi-environment orchestration.

Weaknesses and Trade-offs

• Setup and maintenance: Like other enterprise RPA tools, it requires careful environment setup, provisioning, and governance to scale effectively.

• Potential flakiness in brittle designs: Poorly structured UI selectors or timing logic can lead to instability, similar to other UI-driven automation platforms.

How It Compares to RPA Tools (UiPath)

• Visual development approach: Both UiPath and Automation Anywhere use visual designers. Teams with experience in one typically find it straightforward to adopt the other.

• Overlap in capabilities: Both support modern workflows, governance, and CI/CD integration with comparable enterprise credentials.

• Technology and ecosystem: UiPath leans heavily on Visual + .NET. Automation Anywhere also takes a visual approach. Teams entrenched in .NET may find UiPath’s extensibility more familiar, while others may prefer Automation Anywhere’s design metaphors and operational tooling.

• Testing overlap: Both can be leveraged for regression UI automation, especially on Windows-based desktop applications and web flows. Success with either platform requires disciplined selector strategies and robust error handling.

• Best-fit scenarios: Automation Anywhere is well-suited for teams automating end-to-end flows across browsers and platforms, particularly when Windows is the standard and the organization values a visual, centrally governed experience.

When to Favor Automation Anywhere

• You want enterprise-grade RPA with a strong centralized control plane and straightforward CI/CD integration.

• Your team prefers a visual development model and plans to scale unattended automations.

• You need a platform optimized for Windows environments with a mature governance model and clear role-based access control.

Blue Prism

What It Is and Who Built It

Blue Prism is a commercial RPA platform built by Blue Prism Group, designed primarily for Windows environments. It focuses on enterprise-grade automation with a structured, model-driven approach that emphasizes reusable objects and robust governance. While Blue Prism is known for operational automation at scale, teams also use it to orchestrate repeatable desktop UI workflows, enabling consistent regression checks and end-to-end validation across business applications.

Blue Prism’s philosophy centers on building a digital workforce with strong control, compliance, and lifecycle management—an approach many large organizations find appealing.

Core Strengths

• Structured, reusable design: Encourages object-centric development to promote maintainability and scale.

• Enterprise governance: Advanced control-room capabilities for auditing, role-based access, and change management.

• CI/CD and pipeline alignment: Supports integration into modern delivery workflows for controlled releases.

• Broad automation capabilities: Suitable for both attended and unattended use cases across various desktop applications.

• Operational resilience: Designed for stable, predictable execution when processes are modeled with good design practices.

Weaknesses and Trade-offs

• Setup and maintenance: As with other enterprise RPA platforms, initial setup and ongoing administration can be significant without clear operating models.

• Potential flakiness in brittle designs: UI-driven steps can be sensitive to application changes unless selectors and retry strategies are carefully implemented.

How It Compares to RPA Tools (UiPath)

• Development experience: UiPath’s Visual + .NET approach can be appealing for teams that want rich activity libraries and .NET extensibility. Blue Prism’s structured methodology may better suit teams that value object reuse and formalized design patterns.

• Governance posture: Both offer strong governance. Blue Prism is often selected by organizations that prioritize rigorous control-room operations and change management.

• Testing overlap: Like UiPath, Blue Prism can drive regression UI automation. Success depends on resilient element targeting, synchronization, and test data management.

• Platform focus: Blue Prism is centered on Windows. If your desktop automation footprint is Windows-first and you want a methodical, reusable object model, Blue Prism is a strong candidate.

• Best-fit scenarios: Teams automating end-to-end flows across browsers and platforms, with a premium on process standardization, documentation, and compliance, often gravitate to Blue Prism.

When to Favor Blue Prism

• You operate in a highly regulated environment where governance, auditability, and change control are paramount.

• Your automation program emphasizes reusability and a formal object-oriented approach to desktop UI tasks.

• You want a platform with strong operational tooling for large-scale, unattended bot management.

Things to Consider Before Choosing a UiPath Alternative

Selecting an RPA platform is as much about organizational fit as it is about features. Before making a decision, align your choice with how your team builds, deploys, and maintains software and automations.

• Project scope and complexity

• Language support and extensibility

• Ease of setup and environment management

• Execution speed and stability

• CI/CD and versioning

• Debugging and troubleshooting

• Community, ecosystem, and support

• Scalability and orchestration

• Cost and licensing

• Security and compliance

A practical tip: Pilot your top two choices on the same process. Measure time-to-first-bot, mean time to fix, and maintenance over a few release cycles. This will reveal hidden costs and the real day-to-day experience.

Making the Comparison Concrete: Where Each Tool Shines

• UiPath

• Automation Anywhere

• Blue Prism

Practical Advice for Reducing Flakiness in Desktop UI Automation

Regardless of the platform you choose, the following practices significantly improve stability and reduce maintenance:

• Use robust selectors: Prefer stable identifiers and hierarchical anchors over transient attributes like indexes or dynamic class names.

• Synchronization and waits: Implement explicit waits for UI readiness rather than fixed delays. Use retry strategies for transient failures.

• Modular design: Break processes into reusable components. Encapsulate app-specific interactions so UI changes in one system do not ripple through the entire bot.

• Test data management: Separate test data from logic. Use configuration files or secure stores to adjust inputs without changing workflows.

• Idempotency and recovery: Design steps so they can rerun safely, with checkpoints and clear recovery paths for failed states.

• Logging and screenshots: Capture meaningful logs and visual evidence to speed debugging and root-cause analysis.

• CI/CD discipline: Version everything, run automated smoke checks, and promote bots through environments using standardized gates.

These best practices apply equally to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism.

Conclusion

RPA Tools (UiPath) remains a leading choice for RPA and desktop UI automation, with broad capabilities, Visual + .NET extensibility, and mature orchestration that integrates with CI/CD pipelines. Many teams successfully use UiPath not only for process automation but also for regression UI checks across complex desktop and web workflows.

Still, alternatives can be a better fit depending on organizational needs:

• Choose Automation Anywhere if you want a visual-first, enterprise-grade platform with strong centralized control and CI/CD integration, optimized for Windows and designed for scalable unattended execution.

• Choose Blue Prism if your organization emphasizes governance, reusability, and formal change control, and you want a structured approach to building stable, maintainable desktop UI automations.

Before deciding, pilot both alternatives on a representative process, evaluate setup effort, debugging experience, CI/CD fit, and stability over time. Consider your team’s skills, the complexity of your workflows, and your governance requirements. With the right match and disciplined design, any of these platforms—UiPath, Automation Anywhere, or Blue Prism—can deliver reliable, scalable automation that supports both RPA and regression UI testing goals.