Robot Framework vs Autify

Free and open source

Quote on request

Free and open source. You pay in engineering time and CI minutes.

Quote-based annual contracts sized by test runs.

Everything, self-hosted

Two-week free trial.

Widely used

Robot Framework Foundation · since 2008

Emerging

Autify, Inc. · since 2016

• Non-developers can read and often write the tests, which matters in QA-led organisations.
• Extends far beyond browsers: databases, SSH, serial, network equipment.
• Extremely stable and well-supported in regulated and telecom environments.

• Very low barrier to a first working suite — recording plus a managed browser cloud.
• Maintenance burden is genuinely reduced by the self-healing model.
• Covers web and native mobile from one vendor.

• The keyword abstraction fights you once logic gets complex; you end up writing Python behind the keywords anyway.
• Verbose syntax and whitespace-sensitive files that are awkward to review in a diff.
• Feels dated next to modern JavaScript tooling, and hiring is harder.

• No self-hosted option.
• Limited support for complex data-driven scenarios.
• Smaller international presence and support footprint than the US vendors.

QA-led and regulated organisations where readability by non-programmers is a requirement.

Small QA teams that need automation without an engineering hire.