5 min read
Also: UiPath RPA, UiPath Studio, UiPath Orchestrator, UiPath robots, UiPath Community Edition, UiPath StudioX
UiPath
Quick answer
UiPath is an enterprise RPA and agentic automation platform: you build automations in UiPath Studio, software robots run them on Windows machines, and Orchestrator schedules and manages those robots. A free Community plan covers individual developers and small teams; for Microsoft's rival, see Power Automate Desktop.
UiPath is an enterprise robotic process automation (RPA) and agentic automation platform, listed on the NYSE as PATH, whose Studio, Robots and Orchestrator let organizations build, run and govern software robots that operate desktop and web applications.
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What people do with UiPath
- Compare UiPath with Power Automate Desktop
Licensing, attended vs unattended runs and Windows requirements.
- Understand hyperautomation
Gartner's term for combining RPA, AI and process mining.
- Compare intelligent automation and RPA
Where AI decisions replace fixed rules.
- Automate apps that have no API
How AI agents work in websites and portals without robots.
- Automate CRM data entry from emails
A classic RPA task done by a browser agent.
- Verify insurance eligibility automatically
Portal lookups that RPA teams often build bots for.
Key facts
| Made by | UiPath, Inc. (NYSE: PATH) |
|---|---|
| Origins | 2005, Bucharest, Romania; renamed UiPath in 2015 |
| Headquarters | New York, USA |
| Core products | Studio (design), Robots (attended and unattended), Orchestrator (management) |
| Agentic layer | Agent Builder and Maestro (launched 2025) |
| Pricing model | Free Community offering; paid and enterprise licenses by user and robot type |
What is UiPath?
UiPath is a software company and the platform it sells for robotic process automation (RPA): software robots that operate applications the way a person does, by clicking, typing, reading screens and moving data between systems. It is one of the largest vendors in the RPA market and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PATH. The company's origins go back to 2005 in Bucharest, Romania; it released its first desktop automation product line in 2013, took the UiPath name in 2015, and is now headquartered in New York. Since 2024-2025 it has repositioned its product as a "platform for agentic automation", combining classic robots with AI agents.
The main UiPath components
How UiPath automates applications
A UiPath robot interacts with software at the user-interface level. It identifies elements on screen through selectors (XML descriptions of a window, control or web element), through the accessibility tree of desktop apps, or through image and OCR matching when nothing else is available. That is why RPA can automate legacy systems such as SAP GUI, Citrix sessions, mainframe terminals and old Windows apps that have no API. For browsers it uses extensions for Chrome, Edge and Firefox to read and act on web pages. Where an API exists, UiPath also has Integration Service connectors to call it directly.
What people use it for
Large organizations use UiPath for high-volume, rules-based back-office work: invoice processing in finance, claims handling in insurance, onboarding in HR, order entry across ERP systems, reconciliation between banks and ledgers, and data migration between old and new systems. Its strength is governance at scale: thousands of robots, credential vaults, audit logs and role-based control in one place.
A typical program starts with a process assessment, picks a handful of high-volume, stable processes, builds them in Studio, tests them against real data, and only then scales out to unattended robots managed from Orchestrator. Teams that skip the assessment often automate processes that change too often to be worth a robot.
Common problems
How it relates to automation
UiPath is the archetype of enterprise RPA and a large part of what analysts call hyperautomation. Compared with Microsoft's Power Automate Desktop, it is generally regarded as the more complete, more expensive enterprise platform. Compared with AI browser agents such as Browser Use or Skyvern, it covers desktop and legacy applications but requires much more explicit design up front. See also intelligent automation.
UiPath and Autonoly
Autonoly is not an RPA platform and cannot drive Windows desktop applications, Citrix or SAP GUI. It works in the web browser and through APIs: its AI agent operates a cloud Chromium browser from a plain-language request, and a session can be converted into a workflow with schedule and webhook triggers. For web portals and SaaS tools, that can replace building a robot from scratch; for desktop and mainframe work, UiPath remains the relevant tool.
Why It Matters
UiPath defines what most enterprises mean by RPA. Knowing how its Studio, Robots and Orchestrator fit together, and where selector-based automation breaks, helps you decide whether a task needs desktop RPA or can be handled in the browser and through APIs.
How Autonoly Solves It
Autonoly is not RPA and does not automate Windows desktop or mainframe apps. For work that lives in websites and SaaS tools, its AI agent operates a cloud Chromium browser from a plain-language request and can turn a successful session into a scheduled or webhook-triggered workflow, without a robot fleet to manage.
Learn moreExamples
A finance team uses unattended UiPath robots to read invoices with Document Understanding and enter them into SAP overnight
An insurance company's attended robot helps call-center staff by copying customer details between a CRM and a legacy claims system
An operations team uses Maestro to route a loan application between an AI agent that checks documents, a robot that updates the core system and a human approver
Frequently Asked Questions
What is UiPath used for?
Automating repetitive, rules-based work across business applications: invoice processing, claims handling, data entry into ERP and CRM systems, reconciliations and employee onboarding. Its robots operate applications through the user interface, so they work even with legacy systems that have no API.
Is UiPath free?
UiPath offers a free Community offering for individual developers and small organizations, which includes Studio and a limited number of robots. Commercial use at scale requires paid licenses, which are priced by user type and robot type and are usually negotiated for enterprises.
What is the difference between attended and unattended robots?
An attended robot runs on an employee's own computer and is triggered by that person, assisting with parts of their work. An unattended robot runs by itself on a server or virtual machine, started by a schedule, queue or API call from Orchestrator, with no person present.
What is UiPath Orchestrator?
Orchestrator is UiPath's central management console. It deploys automation packages to robots, schedules and starts jobs, manages work queues, stores credentials as assets, and keeps logs and audit trails for every run. It is available in the cloud or on premises.
Is UiPath better than Power Automate Desktop?
They target different budgets. Power Automate for desktop is free on Windows for attended use and fits organizations already on Microsoft 365. UiPath is generally considered more capable for large, governed deployments, with richer orchestration and document tooling, at a higher cost and complexity.
Does UiPath use AI agents now?
Yes. UiPath markets itself as an agentic automation platform. Agent Builder creates LLM-based agents, and Maestro, launched in 2025, orchestrates processes that combine agents, traditional robots and human steps.
Further reading
Related terms, automations and guides
Where this concept shows up in practice.
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