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Automation Integration · head to head

Automation Anywhere vs Meltano

Automation Anywhere logo

Automation Anywhere

Automation Integration

Enterprise automation software

From
$200/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Meltano logo

Meltano

Automation Integration

Open source ELT built on the Singer tap and target ecosystem, configured as code

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Meltano has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Automation Anywhere no enterprise pricing tiers published; contact sales required for commercial deployment pricing; Meltano the company behind Meltano wound down in December 2025 and the project was transferred to Matatika, a much smaller organisation, so roadmap velocity and the size of the maintenance team are now materially lower than the tool's reputation suggests.
  • They diverge on capability: Automation Anywhere covers Desktop RPA, Meltano covers Singer plugin management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Automation Anywhere and Meltano actually diverge.

Attributes where Automation Anywhere and Meltano differ
AttributeAutomation AnywhereMeltano
Starting price$200/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsDesktop, WebLinux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL)
Founded2003Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Automation Integration).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Automation Anywhere

  • Desktop RPA
  • Cloud RPA
  • No-code automation
  • Intelligent process automation
  • Analytics
  • Monitoring
  • Scalability
  • 500+ connectors

Only in Meltano

  • Singer plugin management
  • Project as code
  • Environments
  • Incremental state
  • dbt integration
  • Custom taps
  • Orchestrator hooks
  • Container deployment

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Automation Anywhere

  • Workflow Automationnot Meltano
  • Data Integrationnot Meltano
  • Process Automationnot Meltano
  • App Integrationnot Meltano
  • API Connectivitynot Meltano

Meltano

  • A data team that wants to stop paying per-row connector fees on high-volume sources they can extract themselvesnot Automation Anywhere
  • Loading from an API that no commercial ELT vendor supports, by writing a tap with the Meltano SDKnot Automation Anywhere
  • Keeping pipeline configuration in the same Git repository and review process as the rest of the platform codenot Automation Anywhere
  • A regulated environment where extraction must run inside your own network with no data passing through a vendornot Automation Anywhere

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Automation Anywhere

  • No enterprise pricing tiers published; contact sales required for commercial deployment pricing
  • Cloud Community Edition is free but limited compared to enterprise offerings

Meltano

  • The company behind Meltano wound down in December 2025 and the project was transferred to Matatika, a much smaller organisation, so roadmap velocity and the size of the maintenance team are now materially lower than the tool's reputation suggests.
  • Singer connector quality varies enormously; a tap may be maintained, abandoned, or maintained only for the subset of endpoints its original author needed, and you will not know which until a schema change breaks a load at 3am.
  • There is no managed hosting from the project itself, so someone on your team owns scheduling, secrets, retries, alerting and upgrades, which is real headcount that a per-row SaaS bill was buying for you.
  • It is command-line and YAML first with no meaningful web interface, so analysts who are not comfortable in Git and a terminal cannot maintain pipelines themselves.
  • Debugging spans three layers, the tap, Meltano itself and the target, and each has its own logging conventions, so failures often require reading Python source in a third-party connector.

Pricing, plan by plan

Automation Anywhere

$200/month
  • CommunityFree
    • Community version
    • Limited use
  • Enterprise$200/month
    • Full RPA capabilities
  • Premium$500/month
    • Advanced features
    • Priority support

Meltano

Free
  • MeltanoFree
    • MIT licensed, self-hosted
    • No paid Meltano Cloud tier; it was retired before the company wound down
    • Community support via Slack and GitHub

Which should you pick?

Choose Automation Anywhere if

  • You need desktop rpa.
  • You work on Desktop, Web.
  • You also want cloud rpa.
Automation Anywhere review

Choose Meltano if

  • You need singer plugin management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL).
  • You also want project as code.
Meltano review

Questions people ask

Is Automation Anywhere or Meltano better?
Neither clearly leads. Automation Anywhere starts at $200/month and Meltano at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Automation Anywhere or Meltano?
Meltano has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $200/month for Automation Anywhere and Free for Meltano.
Does Automation Anywhere or Meltano run on more platforms?
Automation Anywhere runs on Desktop, Web. Meltano runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Windows (via WSL).
Can I use Meltano for free?
Yes. Meltano has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Automation Anywhere starts at $200/month.
What is Automation Anywhere best used for?
Automation Anywhere is most often used for workflow automation, data integration, process automation, app integration. Of those, workflow automation and data integration are not what Meltano is typically brought in for.
What can Automation Anywhere do that Meltano cannot?
Automation Anywhere covers Desktop RPA, Cloud RPA, No-code automation, Intelligent process automation. Meltano covers Singer plugin management, Project as code, Environments, Incremental state.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Automation Anywhere: How much does Automation Anywhere cost?

Automation Anywhere provides a Cloud Community Edition available free with full-featured automation access. Enterprise and commercial deployment pricing is not publicly disclosed and requires contact with the sales team for a custom quote.

Source
Meltano: Is Meltano still maintained after the company shut down?

Yes. Arch, formerly Meltano, was acquired by Matatika in December 2025 and the open source project continues under their stewardship, with releases through 2026.

Automation Anywhere: Does Automation Anywhere offer a free version?

Yes, Automation Anywhere offers the Cloud Community Edition as a free option with full-featured automation access for learning and development purposes. Commercial and enterprise use requires different licensing arrangements.

Source
Meltano: Is there a hosted Meltano?

Not from the project. Meltano Cloud was retired, and hosting now comes from Matatika or from running the container yourself.

Meltano: How does it compare on cost with Fivetran?

Meltano has no licence fee, so the comparison is your engineering time versus Fivetran's per-monthly-active-row billing. High-volume, low-complexity sources favour Meltano; long tails of fiddly SaaS APIs favour Fivetran.

Meltano: Can I use Airbyte connectors with it?

Yes, Meltano can run Airbyte source connectors through a bridge, which widens the connector pool beyond Singer taps.

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