How Selenium IDE is different from RPA

Question

Can anyone suggest how Selenium is different from RPA?

Answer 1

Hey Farhan, Selenium is different from RPA in following aspects:

1. Automation Target: Selenium automates only web applications, while RPA can automate different kind of applications like desktop apps, web apps,  and mainly the business processes like maintaining reports, queries, records etc.
2. Licencing: Selenium is an Open-source tool so it doesn't need any licencing. On the other hand, there are many RPA tools are present in market which are mostly Licensed Products, which means they comes only in Enterprise version. Only UiPath is the tool which comes with a Community (free) Edition.
3. Major Components: Selenium Webdriver plays a very important role in automating the test cases because it overcomes all the disadvantages of Selenium RC and makes the testing process simple and clear. While, RPA makes use of bots that help in rendering possible outcome by imitating human activities.
4. Skills Required: Selenium requires basic knowledge of Java and Testing practices. But in RPA, very less coding knowdlege is required. If you use RPA tools like UiPath you don't need any programming knowledge.