Here we look into web automation platforms like iMacros, Kantu, AutoHotKey, UBot, and BrowserAutomationStudio.

• iMacros
  • Stats
    • 12M+ downloads
    • 440K+ active users
    • 6K+ paying customers
  • ability to automate almost anything on the web
  • very hard to use, unintuitive, and automations are flaky
• Kantu
  • makers of iMacros left and created a visual based web automation tool
  • uses CV and can automate tasks on maps for example that other tools are not able to
• AutoHotKey
  • lightweight automations that are essentially macros (scripting language not visual editor)
• UBot
  • ability to create not only web automation but also mini applications that can be exported as executables and sent to other people
    • this has spun up an interesting consulting opportunity for consultants to create custom software for their clients
    • example: a consultant sends their client a UBot that is able to automatically message everyone who matches a search on Fiverr
• BrowserAutomationStudio
  • similar to UBot in where you can record an automation and then export the automation as an executable that someone else is able to use

We have compiled a little over 80 use cases for web automation and RPA to figure out the different modes of automations that people currently use - available here. The main modes that we have found are:

1. Element Select (read/write): classic selection of elements and ingesting their content
2. Conditional Execution: if ... then ...
3. Loop Execution: both loop over steps/pages and over similar elements in a page
4. Similar elements: pick all similar elements of a chosen one from page (13)
5. Custom code: ability to specify custom code for execution. Ex: data post processing
6. Store Data: Ability to temporarily store data through flow execution process (9)
7. Placeholder/parametrization: ability for user to input content. Also for conditional exec
8. Wait/Terminate/Resume: ability to suspend and resume flows
9. Parallel Execution: one flow contains concurrent processes over multiple tabs
10. Headless Execution: run remotely that allows headless workflow and scheduling