Glossary · Platforms & business
RPA (robotic process automation)
Also called: robotic process automation, desktop automation, UI automation
Robotic process automation (RPA) uses software bots that operate applications through their user interface (clicking, typing and reading screens) the way a person would, typically to automate systems that have no usable API.
RPA and API-based automation solve the same problem from different layers. API automation talks to a system's programmatic interface. RPA drives the screen: open the app, click the menu, type into the field, read the result.
When RPA is the right tool
- Legacy desktop or mainframe applications with no API.
- Vendor portals that only offer a web UI.
- Short-term bridges while a proper integration is built.
Its costs
- Fragile. A moved button or a new pop-up breaks the bot.
- Slow. Screens are slower than API calls, and bots need a machine (or virtual machine) to run on.
- Licensing. Unattended bots are often licensed per bot. Microsoft lists Power Automate's unattended Process licence at $150 per bot per month (paid yearly) on its pricing page.
The rule of thumb
If a system has an API, use the API: it's faster, sturdier and easier to monitor. Use RPA for what's left, and keep those bots few and well documented.
Hybrid setups
Many teams end up with both: an API-based workflow handles the trigger, the logic and the approvals, and hands one narrow job (keying an order into a legacy desktop system, say) to a bot. Keep the bot's job small and give it a clear success signal, so the workflow knows when to retry or alert a person.
In Fluxo Flow
Fluxo Flow doesn't do RPA: it automates through APIs, connectors and webhooks, not by driving screens. If you need to automate Windows desktop apps without an API, a tool with desktop flows such as Microsoft Power Automate is the better fit; see our honest comparison.
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Related terms
- iPaaSiPaaS, or integration platform as a service, is cloud-hosted software that connects applications and data sources and automates processes between them, without the buyer running integration servers.
- Low-codeLow-code describes development tools where most of an application or workflow is built visually, with small amounts of code (expressions, scripts or API calls) added where the visual tools run out.
- No-code automationNo-code automation is building automated workflows with visual tools (drag-and-drop canvases, forms and pickers) instead of writing code, so people who know the process can automate it themselves.
- Scoped API keyA scoped API key is an API credential limited to specific permissions (scopes), often with an expiry date, so that a leaked or misused key can only do what it was explicitly allowed to do.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a technique in which relevant information is looked up from your own data at request time and added to the prompt, so the model answers from those facts rather than from memory alone.