The best Power Automate alternatives for IT teams

Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based service that empowers users to build workflows and automate tasks. IT, HR, and marketing teams leverage this solution to improve efficiency and speed up processes across operations.

It’s a powerful tool for basic automation—however, some IT organizations seek alternatives for various reasons. Microsoft Power Automate has limited functionality and complicated pricing models compared to other options. Some IT teams may want a solution that focuses entirely on IT automation.

This list compiles the best Power Automate alternatives. It also covers the reasons one might choose another option. You can use this information to find the solution that works best for you.

Microsoft Power Automate offers a drag-and-drop builder for creating custom workflows, thus enabling users to automate a variety of tasks. These tasks vary widely, from resetting passwords to routing tickets to synchronizing data between IT management tools.

Power Automate has pre-made templates that make it easy to get started. The tool can integrate with other Microsoft products, such as Excel, Sharepoint, Dataverse, and Teams. 

Why look for a Power Automate alternative?

Not all IT automation solutions are created equal. We researched Power Automate customer reviews and evaluated the product on our own terms. We found the solution’s main drawbacks are its complexity, complicated pricing system, and limited functionality.

Let’s look at those customer reviews to learn more.

1. Complex to use

Many reviewers complain about Power Automate’s steep learning curve. According to one G2 user, the solution requires coding abilities for certain functions and is prone to unexpected complications. 

For instance: If your workflow is complicated, identifying where it fails can be difficult—Power Automate doesn’t provide much troubleshooting information.

2. Complicated pricing system

Microsoft Power Automate customers complain that because additional fees are charged for extra features, the tool’s costs quickly add up and can become prohibitively expensive.

One G2 user shares that while the tool offers premium and standard connectors, the premium ones come at an extra cost. This is a notable drawback for users needing premium connectors to access third-party tools like Salesforce.

A Capterra user notes that Power Automate only works within the MS Office environment—not in the Windows environment. As a result, IT organizations requiring automation across various systems and platforms beyond Microsoft Office will find the solution difficult to work with. 

Last but not least, a Gartner user explains that while the platform offers enough capabilities for their organization, many of the available features contain bugs.

What are Power Automate’s strengths?

Limitations aside, Microsoft Power Automate has a few notable strengths. Those include decent automation capabilities and the ability to integrate with Microsoft products.

Let’s look at some customer reviews to learn more.

1. Automation capabilities

Power Automate can automate various processes on different systems, websites, and desktop apps. A Capterra user mentions that the automation capabilities are easy to use, and include pre-built templates for faster implementation.

2. Integrations with other Microsoft products

Power Automate integrates well with other Microsoft products—a notable advantage for IT teams that rely heavily on the Microsoft ecosystem. According to one Gartner user, the SharePoint and OneDrive integrations are particularly useful.

IT organizations that rely on Windows or other non-Microsoft platforms may find the lack of third-party integrations a deal breaker.

Power Automate pros and cons: Takeaways

In sum, here are Power Automate’s pros and cons:

The pros:

• Good basic automation capabilities
• Integrates well with other Microsoft products

The cons:

• Complex to use and lacks troubleshooting information
• The pricing system is complicated and charges extra for additional features
• The functionality is limited, and some features contain bugs

7 best Power Automate alternatives for IT organizations

Now that we’ve covered the nuts and bolts of Power Automate, we can examine its alternatives. Each reviewed option includes an outline of the key features, pros and cons, customer reviews, and pricing.

According to our research, here are the seven best Power Automate alternatives:

1. Atera
2. Zapier
3. Kissflow
4. Cflow
5. SysAid
6. ConnectWise Automate
7. Nintex

Let’s dive into a detailed breakdown of each one.

1. Atera

Atera vs. Power Automate: Key differences

Atera automates various IT processes including patch management, scripting, network monitoring, alerting, IT ticketing, and reporting. For a deeper look at its capabilities, check out this Atera review. While Power Automate offers broader automation options, it doesn’t provide the same level of support for IT-specific tasks like real-time monitoring and alerting.

Atera offers comprehensive IT management capabilities through features such as RMM, PSA, helpdesk and ticketing, scripting, and remote access. Power Automate is designed purely for automation purposes and doesn’t offer robust IT management capabilities.

Both Atera and Power Automate provide third-party integrations. However, Power Automate customers complain about the lack of integrations outside of Microsoft products.

1. Features and capabilities

Atera’s IT automation capabilities help with various tasks, including:

• Real-time monitoring: Atera monitors your network health and performance in real-time to detect any looming incidents.
• Threshold-based alerting: When Atera detects a potential threat, it automatically notifies technicians via email or SMS.
• Patch management: Atera’s patch management tool automatically installs security patches and third-party application updates across Windows, Linux, and Mac systems.
• Scripting: Scripts can be run manually or scheduled to be run automatically as part of an IT automation profile.
• Ticket management: Atera’s smart ticketing system automatically categorizes tickets to the right technicians.
• Reporting and analytics: Users can create an advanced report and schedule it to be sent automatically to technicians and customers.
• Remote sessions: After completing a remote session, users automatically receive a summary highlighting the main points.

Users seeking enhanced functionality can leverage Atera Copilot—Atera’s AI tool. This solution further automates IT management tasks, including real-time device troubleshooting and responding to end-user support requests.

2. User interface and usability

Atera’s intuitive interface makes navigation a quick and easy process. Users who sign up immediately get access to the admin dashboard, where most tasks can be performed from the left sidebar.

Atera admin dashboard

To use Atera’s automation capabilities, you can set up an IT automation profile. This allows you to perform tasks like patching, Windows version upgrades, disk management, and scripting.

Atera’s IT automation profile

The IT automation profile can be scheduled to run at specific time intervals.

If you need help navigating Atera, 24/7 customer support is available. 
Atera also offers various self-help materials. These include a knowledge base, webinars, blog articles, and an active IT community where IT professionals can troubleshoot problems and share the best IT practices.

3. Pricing and value for money

Atera uses a transparent pay-per-technician pricing model, meaning users are charged based on the number of technicians accessing the platform. The pricing plans for IT departments range from $149 to $219 per month. The pricing plans for MSPs range from $129 to $209 per month.

All plans include access to key IT management tools, such as RMM, PSA, remote access, and IT automation. As an add-on, you can access Atera network discovery and Copilot tools.

Atera’s G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (670+ reviews)

Power Automate G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (400+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on G2:

• One G2 user appreciates Atera’s automatic alerts for incoming tickets. The reviewer also mentions that the ability to convert emails to tickets is a useful and time-saving feature. Atera offers several ticket response templates to help automate and speed up ticket response times.

Atera’s Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (380+ reviews)

Power Automate Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 stars (180+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on Capterra:

• A Capterra user points out that Atera’s platform provides all the required IT management tools, making it a standout solution. Atera’s patch automation, proactive endpoint monitoring, and remote access streamline their organization’s IT operations. The reviewer highlights Atera as a smart investment for organizations wanting robust features with great security.

Atera pricing:

Atera pricing plans for IT departments: 

• Professional: $149 per month, per technician
• Expert: $189 per month, per technician
• Master: $219 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Custom quotation; contact sales to get pricing

Atera pricing plans for MSPs:

• Pro: $129 per month, per technician
• Growth: $179 per month, per technician
• Power: $209 per month, per technician
• Superpower (Enterprise): Custom quotation; contact sales to get pricing

2. Zapier

Zapier is a popular tool for automating workflows. It works by connecting different apps and services. Users can create custom integrations—no coding abilities required. Zapier has over 7,000+ supported apps, including IT ticketing tools, RMM software, CRM systems, project management platforms, and more.

Because Zapier doesn’t cater solely to IT teams—and because it lacks automation tools for network monitoring, remote access, patching, and IT ticketing—it’s often used alongside more comprehensive IT management tools like Atera.

G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (1,300+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars (2,700+ reviews)

Zapier pricing:

• Free: Free for basic usage
• Professional: Starts from $29.99 per month
• Team: Starts from $103.50 per month
• Enterprise: Based on custom quotation

3. Kissflow

Kissflow is a Power Automate alternative for enterprise IT teams. Users can easily create and manage workflows without writing a single line of code. The tool can help automate tasks like ticket management, incident management, user onboarding, issue tracking, and real-time alerting.

Kissflow is mainly appreciated for its multipurpose nature. One Capterra user mentions using the software for progress tracking, task assignment, ticketing, and more. 

G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (500+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 stars (50+ reviews)

Kissflow pricing:

• Basic: Starts at $1500 per month for 50 users
• Enterprise: Based on custom quotation

4. Cflow

Cflow is a workflow automation and project management solution for IT, HR, and marketing teams. One of its core features is automated routing and notifications, which allows users to automatically direct tasks to the right team members and send real-time alerts for approvals, updates, and deadlines.

Cflow also assists with automating asset management, incident management, infrastructure management, and security management. While it can automate basic IT tasks, it lacks the necessary features for automated patch management.

G2 rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (50+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (10+ reviews)

Cflow pricing:

• Happy: Starts at $12 per user, per month
• Joy: Starts at $16 per user, per month
• Bliss: Starts at $22 per user, per month

All of the Cflow pricing plans require a minimum of 10 users.

5. SysAid

SysAid is an IT service management platform for MSPs as well as HR and IT teams. It supports automation of tasks such as IT ticketing, user self-service issue resolution, and incident and problem management. Its ticket automation capabilities allow users to automatically categorize, prioritize, and assign tickets to the right technicians.

SysAid’s ITAM tool monitors a user’s network environment automatically and provides real-time alerts when CPU, network equipment, and memory usage changes. Like Atera, SysAid’s IT ticketing system is powered by AI to increase user efficiency.

G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (600+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (450+ reviews)

SysAid pricing:

• Based on custom quotation. Book a demo call with SysAid to receive pricing.

6. ConnectWise Automate

ConnectWise Automate is an RMM software for IT departments and MSPs. It automatically monitors and maintains client networks for any looming issues. Users can automatically deploy patches to Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. Like Atera, ConnectWise Automate has an AI-powered script generator.

Although ConnectWise Automate has received mostly positive reviews, it gets complaints about its integrations. According to a G2 user, it doesn’t integrate well with ticketing solutions, leading to problems with IT teams’ automation workflows. It also doesn’t offer a mobile app.

G2 rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 (120+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 (125+ reviews)

ConnectWise Automate pricing:

• Custom quotation: To know ConnectWise Automate pricing, you need to request a quote from their team.

7. Nintex

Nintex is a workflow automation tool that helps IT teams automate tasks such as asset discovery, helpdesk management, incident tracking, and document management. Its drag-and-drop builder allows users to create automated workflows. For increased functionality, Nintex offers third-party app integrations.

Nintex isn’t made for IT departments, so its IT-related automation capabilities are broad at best. Alternative solutions designed for IT organizations—such as Atera—offer more comprehensive abilities.

G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (1,000+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 stars (280+ reviews)

Nintex pricing:

• The pricing is based on a custom quotation. To get it, request a demo from Nintex’s website.

The only AI-powered Power Automate alternative

Atera’s IT management platform offers more than advanced automation capabilities. It’s powered by ActionAI™ through Atera Copilot–a solution shown to improve IT technician efficiency tenfold and revolutionize IT management.

Atera’s AI capabilities can create remote session summaries, troubleshoot devices in real-time, generate scripts automatically, write instant ticket summaries, and more.

With the help of Atera’s AI, IT organizations can move from reactive to proactive IT management and gain an invaluable competitive advantage.
Interested in learning more? Take the easy first step of signing up for Atera’s 30-day free trial. Or, you can contact our sales team for a custom demo.