How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- Enterprise RPA platforms (UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism) are built for governed bot fleets and start at $25/month for entry tiers or run into custom enterprise contracts.
- Microsoft Power Automate is the value pick for Microsoft shops: Premium at $15 per user per month with attended desktop RPA included.
- Lightweight automation (Zapier, Make, n8n) handles cloud app workflows, not desktop bots. Make at $9/month and n8n's free self-hosted tier are the cheapest ways in.
- The billing unit decides the real cost: per-bot licenses for unattended RPA, per-task or per-operation metering for cloud automation.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 UiPath | Enterprise RPA with agentic automation | $25 per month (Automation Cloud Basic) | Yes (Community) |
 Automation Anywhere | Cloud-native RPA for teams | $750 per month (Cloud Starter Pack) | Yes (Community Edition) |
 SS&C Blue Prism | Governed enterprise bot fleets | See website | No |
 Microsoft Power Automate | RPA inside the Microsoft stack | $15 per user/month (Premium) | Yes (Free tier) |
 Nintex RPA | No-code RPA with process platform | $90 per user/month (Standard) | Free trial |
 Zapier | No-code cloud app automation | $19.99 per month (Professional, annual) | Yes (free plan) |
 Make | Visual automation at low cost | $9 per month (Core) | Yes (free plan) |
 n8n | Self-hosted workflow automation | €20 per month (Starter, annual) | Yes (free self-hosted Community) |
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We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best RPA software
Starting price$25 per month (Automation Cloud Basic)
Free planYes (Community)
UiPath is the RPA market leader, and its 2026 platform combines traditional bot automation with agentic AI, document understanding, process mining and orchestration. The pricing page lists Community (free), Automation Cloud Basic from $25 per month for personal automations at limited scale, and quote-only Standard and Enterprise tiers. The free Community edition includes attended automation and development tools.
The platform's breadth is its moat. Studio for building, Orchestrator for managing bot fleets, Document Understanding for extraction, and a marketplace of prebuilt components cover almost any enterprise use case. AI agents now sit alongside deterministic bots in one governed layer.
The honest catch is that the $25 entry point is not the enterprise product. Real unattended automation, orchestration at scale and agentic features live in quote-only tiers, and enterprise deployments commonly run into six figures annually. It is also complex: reviewers consistently flag the learning curve and debugging friction. Buy UiPath when you have a funded automation program; smaller teams should look at Power Automate or the cloud tools below.
What we like- Market-leading RPA with agentic capabilities
- Free Community edition
- Huge template and integration ecosystem
Watch out for- Real enterprise deployments run into custom quotes
- Steep learning curve for complex logic
- Basic tier is limited
Starting price$750 per month (Cloud Starter Pack)
Free planYes (Community Edition)
Automation Anywhere's Automation 360 is a cloud-native RPA platform with AI built in. The Community Edition is free for students, developers and small businesses (with usage limits), and the paid entry point is the Cloud Starter Pack at $750 per month, which includes one Bot Creator, one Control Room and one unattended Bot Runner, with additional runners added a la carte.
The cloud-first architecture is the differentiator against older on-premise RPA. Document automation uses generative AI for extraction, and the newer Prompt-to-Automate features let users describe automations in natural language. Deployment and scaling avoid the infrastructure overhead of traditional RPA.
The honest caveats: $750 a month is a steep floor for a small team, and beyond the Starter Pack everything is quote-based. The marketplace and community are smaller than UiPath's, and some advanced features still need training to use well. It suits teams that want enterprise-grade RPA without managing servers.
What we like- Cloud-native from the ground up
- Free Community Edition with AI features
- Strong document automation with GenAI
Watch out for- Entry paid tier is $750/month
- Enterprise pricing opaque
- Smaller ecosystem than UiPath
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Blue Prism, now part of SS&C, is the veteran enterprise RPA platform, strongest in banking, insurance and other regulated industries where auditability and governance matter most. Pricing is fully custom and quote-based, with no published plans and no self-serve trial; evaluation runs through sales demos.
The platform's design philosophy is control. Every bot action is logged and auditable, role-based access is granular, and the architecture was built for IT-governed digital workforces rather than citizen developers. For organizations with compliance teams that need to approve everything, that heritage is the point.
The honest trade-offs are modernity and transparency. The interface feels older than UiPath's or Power Automate's, pricing requires a sales cycle, and there is no free edition to experiment with. Blue Prism is for large, regulated enterprises that already budget for enterprise software procurement. Everyone else should start elsewhere.
What we like- Deep governance and audit for regulated industries
- Mature enterprise track record
- Strong on-premise heritage
Watch out for- Pricing is fully quote-based
- No self-serve trial
- Older interface feel than newer rivals
Starting price$15 per user/month (Premium)
Free planYes (Free tier)
Power Automate is the automation layer of the Microsoft Power Platform, spanning cloud flows and desktop RPA. Premium costs $15 per user per month on annual billing and includes premium connectors, attended desktop flows, AI Builder credits and process mining. Unattended automation uses the Process license at $150 per bot per month (or $215 hosted on Microsoft VMs). A free tier with standard connectors is included for work accounts, plus a 30-day trial.
For Microsoft 365 shops, the value is unmatched. Attended RPA ships inside the per-user license, flows connect natively to SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and Dynamics, and the free tier lets individuals automate immediately. Desktop flows handle legacy applications that lack APIs.
The honest catch is licensing complexity. Per-user, per-bot and hosted-process licenses interact in ways that genuinely confuse buyers, and unattended bots at $150 each add up fast. Action limits and Dataverse storage caps can force upgrades. It is still the cheapest credible RPA for Microsoft environments, but read the licensing guide before you budget.
What we like- Attended desktop RPA included in Premium
- Free tier seeded with M365
- Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration
Watch out for- Licensing is genuinely complex
- Unattended bots cost $150 each
- Dataverse storage limits bite at scale
Starting price$90 per user/month (Standard)
Free planFree trial
Nintex RPA (part of the Nintex Process Platform) targets business users with no-code bot building: drag-and-drop Botflow designers, 300+ actions, attended and unattended bots, and central management through RPA Central. Nintex RPA Standard is priced from $90 per user per month with a 5-user minimum, and Enterprise runs $140 per workflow per month with a 10-workflow minimum. A free trial is available, and the platform also offers a 30-day trial of the wider automation cloud.
The appeal is accessibility. Non-technical employees can automate repetitive desktop tasks without developers, and because RPA sits inside a process platform, bots connect to workflows, forms, document generation and e-signature in one system. SAP and terminal emulator support covers legacy enterprise apps.
The honest caveats: the entry cost is high for small teams given the minimums, and eSignature and RPA are sometimes priced as separate modules, so confirm what is included in writing. The community and template ecosystem are smaller than UiPath's or Zapier's. It fits mid-market and enterprise teams standardizing on Nintex for process automation.
What we like- No-code bot building for business users
- Part of a broader process platform
- Free trial available
Watch out for- $90 per user with a 5-user minimum
- RPA sometimes priced as a separate module
- Smaller community
Starting price$19.99 per month (Professional, annual)
Free planYes (free plan)
Zapier is the best-known automation tool in the world, and for simple cloud app workflows it is the fastest to set up: pick a trigger, pick actions, done. The free plan covers 100 tasks per month with two-step Zaps, and Professional starts at $19.99 per month on annual billing ($29.99 monthly) with 750 tasks. The app catalog exceeds 9,000 integrations, the largest anywhere.
The usability advantage is real. Non-technical users can connect apps in minutes with no training, and features like Paths, filters and AI steps handle moderately complex logic. For marketing, sales and ops teams automating between SaaS apps, nothing is quicker.
The honest catch is the billing unit. Every action step counts as a task, so a 5-step Zap running 1,000 times burns 5,000 tasks, and costs climb steeply with volume. Zapier is also not RPA: it automates cloud apps via APIs, not desktop applications. Use it for app-to-app workflows; for desktop bots, you need a real RPA tool.
What we like- Largest app catalog (9,000+)
- Zero learning curve
- Free plan for simple two-step Zaps
Watch out for- Per-task pricing gets expensive fast
- Free plan limited to two-step Zaps
- No desktop RPA capability
Starting price$9 per month (Core)
Free planYes (free plan)
Make (formerly Integromat, now owned by Celonis) is the visual automation platform for people who outgrow Zapier's simplicity but not its price. The free plan includes 1,000 credits per month, and Core costs $9 per month on annual billing for 10,000 credits. Billing is per operation: each module that runs in a scenario costs a credit.
The scenario canvas is the star: routers, iterators, aggregators and error handlers enable genuinely complex logic, and data transformation tools are stronger than Zapier's. At $0.0009 per credit versus Zapier's roughly $0.027 per task, it is dramatically cheaper at volume.
The honest caveats: every module action counts, so long scenarios burn credits fast, and there is a real 1 to 2 day learning curve. The app catalog (3,000+) is smaller than Zapier's, and like Zapier it is cloud automation, not desktop RPA. For ops teams and agencies building serious automations on a budget, it is the sweet spot.
What we like- Very cheap per operation
- Powerful visual scenario builder
- Free plan with 1,000 credits
Watch out for- Per-operation billing punishes multi-step scenarios
- Learning curve steeper than Zapier
- Smaller app catalog
#8
n8n
Best for: Self-hosted workflow automation
Visit n8n.io
Starting price€20 per month (Starter, annual)
Free planYes (free self-hosted Community)
n8n is the developer's automation platform: fair-code licensed, self-hostable, with a free Community edition that has unlimited executions and workflows (you pay only for your server, often $4 to $7 a month on a small VPS). Cloud plans start at €20 per month billed annually (€24 monthly) for 2,500 executions on Starter, rising to €50 for Pro. Billing is per workflow execution, so a 30-step workflow counts as one execution.
The economics are the story. Because it bills per run rather than per step, complex multi-step automations cost a fraction of Zapier or Make equivalents, and self-hosting removes the meter entirely. Native AI nodes, LangChain support and full JavaScript/Python control make it the choice for AI pipelines and data-sensitive work that must stay on your own servers.
The honest trade-offs: self-hosting costs engineering time for updates, backups and monitoring, and the interface assumes technical comfort. Cloud plans are priced in euros. n8n is for technical teams that want to own their automation stack, not for business users who want a Zap running in 15 minutes.
What we like- Free self-hosted Community edition with unlimited executions
- Per-execution billing is cheap for complex workflows
- Full code and AI control
Watch out for- Self-hosting needs technical upkeep
- Cloud Starter is in euros
- Learning curve is the steepest here
What to compare before you buy
First, decide whether you need RPA or workflow automation. True RPA (UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Power Automate desktop flows, Nintex) drives desktop applications and handles attended and unattended bots. Cloud automation (Zapier, Make, n8n) connects SaaS apps through APIs. They solve different problems, and many organizations end up with one of each.
Attended vs unattended bots
Attended bots run alongside a human and are cheap (included in Power Automate Premium, available in UiPath Community). Unattended bots run on their own on servers or VMs and are the expensive part: $150 per bot per month in Power Automate, a la carte runners in Automation Anywhere, quote-based everywhere else. Budget by counting unattended bots, not users.
The billing unit trap
RPA vendors license bots and users; cloud automation vendors meter usage. Zapier counts tasks (steps), Make counts operations (modules), n8n counts executions (runs). A long multi-step workflow that costs one execution on n8n costs dozens of tasks on Zapier. Model your real workflow shapes before comparing sticker prices.
How we chose
We built this list from each vendor's pricing page and product documentation, cross-checked against October 2026 pricing research from independent sources. A tool had to be a real automation platform live today, covering either desktop RPA, cloud workflow automation or both. Prices are stated exactly as documented on vendor pages; where pricing is unpublished or quote-only, we wrote "See website". We did not run hands-on trials; this guide reflects documented plans and features as each vendor presents them.
Frequently asked questions
How much does RPA software cost?
It ranges widely. Entry cloud tiers start at $25/month (UiPath Basic) or $15/user/month (Power Automate Premium). Serious unattended automation costs $150 per bot per month in Power Automate or $750 per month for Automation Anywhere's Starter Pack. Enterprise deployments at UiPath, Blue Prism or Nintex run on custom quotes. Cloud automation is cheaper: Make from $9/month, Zapier from $19.99/month, n8n free self-hosted.
What is the difference between RPA and workflow automation?
RPA drives software the way a human does: clicking, typing and reading screens in desktop applications, with attended and unattended bots. Workflow automation connects cloud apps through APIs and webhooks. UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Power Automate and Nintex are RPA; Zapier, Make and n8n are workflow automation.
Is there free RPA software?
Yes. UiPath Community and Automation Anywhere Community Edition are free for personal use, small businesses and learning. Microsoft includes a free Power Automate tier with M365 accounts. n8n's self-hosted Community edition is free with unlimited executions. Zapier and Make have free plans for light cloud automation.
Do I need technical skills to use RPA software?
It depends on the tool. Zapier and Nintex RPA are built for non-technical users. Make takes a day or two to learn. UiPath, Automation Anywhere and n8n reward technical users, though low-code designers exist. Complex enterprise automations with error handling and governance need developers on any platform.
Can RPA work with applications that have no API?
Yes, that is exactly what desktop RPA is for. Attended and unattended bots interact with applications through the user interface: clicking buttons, entering data and reading screens. This is how Power Automate desktop flows, UiPath and Nintex automate legacy ERPs, terminal emulators and old desktop software that exposes no API.
What does per-bot pricing mean?
Unattended RPA bots are licensed individually because each bot is a worker running on a machine. Power Automate charges $150 per bot per month, Automation Anywhere sells additional Bot Runners a la carte on top of its $750 Starter Pack, and enterprise vendors quote per-bot fleets. Attended bots that assist a logged-in human are usually bundled into per-user licenses instead.
Sources we checked (10)
- https://www.uipath.com/pricing/
- https://www.automationanywhere.com/products/pricing
- https://www.blueprism.com/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing
- https://www.nintex.com/pricing/
- https://zapier.com/pricing
- https://www.make.com/en/pricing
- https://n8n.io/pricing/
- https://costbench.com/software/rpa/power-automate/
- https://costbench.com/software/rpa/uipath/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.