Robotic process automation (RPA) is transforming how organizations operate, yet high costs have muted mainstream adoption. This is changing fast as free trials and freemium models catalyze RPA‘s growth by lowering barriers to entry.
Surging Interest in RPA
RPA software revenue is projected to reach $13.74 billion by 2028 as more companies awaken to its potential. McKinsey estimates RPA could automate up to 45% of activities across sectors, freeing up human efforts for judgment-intensive work.
However, steep upfront investments often deter small and medium businesses (SMBs). This is where free trials and freemium models are crucial to democratize access.
The Upsides of Offering Free RPA
For RPA vendors, providing free versions brings tangible commercial benefits:
Market Discovery: Free tools attract SMBs to trial RPA and experience its value before committing budget. Vendors gain insights into customer needs while seeding the market.
Developer Mindshare: Freemium editions with full capabilities draw legions of developers to build expertise in the platform. Their skills and solutions attract future enterprise customers.
Sales Conversions: After successful pilots, SMBs frequently upgrade to paid versions for scaling. Smooth upgrade paths facilitate this transition.
Product Feedback: Extensive real-world usage provides a treasure trove of customer input to refine products. AI needs data, and free users generate lots of it.
On the other side, free RPA unlocks automation for cash-strapped teams with promising use cases but limited scale. Startups, university researchers, non-profits, and citizen developers leverage free tools to prove concepts and build prototypes.
RPA education also gains a vital boost. Academic institutes depend on free software to train students, enriching the talent pipeline. Budding developers hone marketable skills using freely available cloud-based environments.
The Rise of UiPath on the Back of Freemium
No RPA vendor illustrates the commercial impact of free offerings better than UiPath. UiPath Community Edition, launched in 2016, exposed legions of citizen developers to the technology. Enterprise conversions and viral adoption followed.
Four years since the free version’s debut, UiPath cemented its position as the RPA market leader, crossing $600M in ARR by 2021. The astounding growth stems from UiPath‘s early mover advantage in freemium RPA.
Figure 1: UiPath‘s rise coincides with launching its widely popular free RPA version in 2016. Source: [Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2015-01-01%202023-02-05&q=%2Fm%2F0h55k0v,%2Fm%2F0h55k0v,Automation%20Anywhere,Blue%20Prism)*
UiPath’s runaway success pressured rivals to introduce free versions for parity:
- Automation Anywhere Community Edition (2019)
- Blue Prism Learning Edition (2019)
- Microsoft Power Automate Free (2018)
However, UiPath’s first-mover advantage with developers was hard to replicate. Nevertheless, free RPA is now table-stakes for major platforms seeing record user sign-ups.
Evaluating Top Free RPA Solutions
With free RPA options multiplying, how do you pick the right solution for your needs?
Here is a feature comparison of leading vendors:
1. UiPath Community Edition
Despite limitations, UiPath CE remains the most powerful free RPA tool. Key highlights:
- Full-fledged Studio for building bots
- Unattended + attended automations
- Built-in computer vision
- 1 production orchestrator
- Active community support
Drawbacks include lack of enterprise controls like audit logs, jobs dashboard, version control, etc. But it‘s an unbeatable free offering for SMBs.
2. Automation Anywhere Community Edition
The cloud-based Automation Anywhere CE matches UiPath CE‘s capabilities while adding remote execution and centralized admin.
Key strengths:
- Browser-based RPA authoring
- Centralized bot deployment
- Asset sharing between makers
- Voice command bot invocation
Downsides are significant cloud dependence and exclusion of IQ Bot from the free version.
3. Microsoft Power Automate
Integrated with Office 365 and Teams, Microsoft Power Automate enables quick no-code automations leveraging hundreds of connectors.
Standout features:
- Tight Microsoft apps integration
- Salesforce, Oracle, Workday connectors
- SharePoint and OneDrive automation
- Decent community support
However, core RPA functionality is limited, and cloud costs add up fast. It complements rather than replaces full-blown RPA tools.
4. WorkFusion RPA Express
WorkFusion offers extensive capabilities like AI augmentation free for life. For SMBs, it hits a sweet spot between ease of use and advanced functionality.
Why it stands out:
- Intuitive, visual programming
- AI to automate unstructured data
- Built-in computer vision
- Integrates with Citrix, SAP, legacy Java apps
- Forum access to community experts
Migration complexity to commercial editions detracts from the free offering somewhat.
Avoiding Pitfalls of Free RPA Software
Despite the benefits, free RPA solutions aren‘t without downsides. Some risks to weigh:
Feature Limitations: Core workflow and scheduling capabilities may still require commercial versions or add-ons. Review excluded functionality.
Vendor Lock-in: Tight platform integration could produce migration headaches when upgrading to paid plans, especially for cloud-hosted tools.
Compliance Gaps: Free versions often lack enterprise-grade security, access controls, and auditing foreign large-scale production usage.
Limited Support: Community forums supplement but don‘t replace official vendor technical support and SLAs. Factor this while adopting free RPA.
Proof-of-Concept Only: Technical or budget constraints around free RPA tools may curtail scope, providing proof-points but not full solutions.
Finding the Right Free RPA Fit
With an abundance of choices, filter options aligned to your needs:
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Individually Maintained Bots: UiPath CE for unlocking RPA capabilities minus enterprise controls
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Centralized Governance: Automation Anywhere CE for admin and standards at the department or SMB level
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Low-Code Simplicity: Microsoft Power Automate and WorkFusion for business teams with easy cloud access but limited coding skills
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Niche Task Automation: Kryon Free for focused needs like test case management and web automation
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Integrating Off-the-Shelf Bots: EdgeVerve AssistEdge for modular bot capabilities combining AI and task automation
And don’t forget exploring open-source RPA projects on GitHub accessible to all at zero license cost. Options keep expanding as RPA penetration increases globally.
The Road Ahead
Freely downloadable RPA solutions are fueling market growth by overcoming cost barriers and talent bottlenecks. We foresee even more activity on this front.
Cloud majors AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure will baking RPA natively into platforms, blurring lines between business process automation and RPA. Sophistication of open-source Bot Runners will also rise.
Citizen developer capabilities will grow more robust fueling democratized process improvement. Expect smarter assistance from AI-infused virtual agents.
As intelligent automation pervades digital systems, licensing constraints won‘t fetter innovations or business outcomes. The future unfettered by fees is already here for RPA.
