Early 1900s sci-fi authors imagined a streamlined future workplace where menial tasks were completely automated.
Anyone who works in an office today knows this is still far from the case. The average office worker in 2023 spent 50% of their working hours on repetitive tasks and 10% of their time on manual data entry.
The weird thing is the technology to automate a lot of that work already exists — and it’s become increasingly available, even to small businesses. Use our hand-picked list of the best task automation software to start streamlining how your team works.
What are the different types of task automation software?
When talking about task automation software, three main different categories are serving different purposes:
- Single task automation — RPA (robotic process automation)
- Workflow streamlining — BPA (business process automation)
- Real-time assistance with tasks — RDA (robotized desktop automation)
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RPA (robotic process automation) software
RPA software takes an actual task, like creating a report in a spreadsheet, and automates it. Common examples from this category include AI-powered report generators and automatic finance auditing software.
BPA (business process automation) software
BPA software automates individual steps within an overarching task or process. The goal of software like this is to automate mundane tasks that exist between essential tasks like creating or reviewing a new design. So, BPA software often handles things like moving data from one tool to another, notifying an employee, or sending follow-up emails to a lead.
By stacking these tools, you can create an automated workflow where your employees can focus their time and energy on high-impact tasks like sales calls or creative work.
RDA (robotized desktop automation) software
RDA software helps automate individual parts of a specific task in real time. Essentially, it refers to an AI assistant that helps your employees be more effective. The classic example is macros (programs that record and repeat complex patterns of key or mouse actions or create desktop workflows based on rules).
RDAs have drastically changed with the advent of AI. A more modern example is an AI-powered chatbot that looks up helpful information in real time as a support agent deals with an inquiry. That makes it easier for the customer support team to deliver high-quality service quickly and with less stress.
Key considerations for choosing task automation software
Before diving in and spending your budget on different tools, you need to lay the groundwork. First, figure out which tasks to focus on, what integrations are necessary, and if certain tools are worth it.
Your existing processes and tasks
There’s no one-size-fits-all platform for task automation — regardless of what a company’s landing page might tell you. You need a robust understanding of your processes to pick the right task automation tools.
A good place to start is with process mapping — outlining all the individual tasks and steps in your most crucial business processes. Make sure you note the typical time spent for each task and stage. From there, you can identify likely high-impact candidates for automation.
Integrations with current tech stack (or potential to replace it)
You either need tools that integrate with your existing tech stack or a platform that can help you replace multiple ineffective tools you use (that lead to repetitive tasks like data entry).
With increasingly large tech stacks, switching costs have also grown exponentially. Having to retrain the entire team in multiple tools isn’t exactly tempting for managers — 82% of B2B buyers in 2023 said they preferred to buy software that integrates with their existing tools.
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Scope of automation features
The last consideration is the scope of the features of the automation software you’re considering:
- How much time do the automations aim to save?
- Will the features make the current task completely redundant, or will the task still need a human touch?
If you don’t expect significant time savings or making your employees’ lives much easier, investing in the tool is probably not worth it.
Top 10 task automation software in 2024 to make your team more productive
This list covers ten of our favorite automation software tools, hand-picked to help you and your team become more productive.
Motion
Motion is an AI-powered platform that automates and streamlines task management, delegation, and scheduling. It helps your team focus on tasks that matter rather than on figuring out what they should be working on or trying to agree on who should tackle what.
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With Motion, everyone can say goodbye to all the small daily task management tedium and get more meaningful work done.
Key features
- Automated scheduling for individual or team schedules — our algorithm considers task priority, deadlines (soft and hard), assignments, dependencies, and more
- Automated re-scheduling when urgent tasks displace less-urgent ones
- Project management tools with Kanban view for managing complex projects
Integrations
Motion integrates natively with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Zoom and has 100s of other integrations available through Zapier.
Pricing
The team plan with all features included (and unlimited automation) costs $12 per user per month (billed annually). You can also try it out with a 21-day free trial.
IFTTT — If This Then That
IFTTT is a simple automation platform that helps you streamline certain processes with logic-based no-code automation. If this, then that is a logic structure used in many programming languages and is very easy to understand and work with.
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Key features
- No-code automation between different tools
- An AI-powered content generator that plugs into hundreds of platforms
Integrations
IFTTT natively integrates with over 900 different apps and platforms, making it a powerful BPA tool for most teams.
Pricing
IFTTT offers a free plan with up to two “applets” — custom automations — and the pro plan starts at $2.50 monthly.
Zapier
Zapier is another automation platform focusing on cross-platform automation, with thousands of ready-made automation recipes available.
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Key features
- Cross-platform automation (with 1,000s of pre-made templates available)
- Powerful conditional logic to automate complex workflows
Integrations
Zapier integrates with 6,000+ apps and platforms and offers a powerful API for integration with internal tools.
Pricing
Zapier offers a free plan with only single-step automation. The professional plan with conditional logic starts at $49 per month (billed annually).
Airtable
Airtable is a low-code platform that lets you create apps that automate and streamline tasks and workflows. It also includes workspace templates for product, marketing, HR, and other teams.
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Key features
- A low-code platform for building custom automation apps
- Workspace templates for product or project teams
Integrations
Airtable has native integrations with 30+ platforms and apps, including Salesforce, Asana, Slack, and Zendesk.
Pricing
Airtable offers a limited free plan for teams with up to five users. Paid plans with more advanced features start at $20 per user per month (billed annually).
Tallyfy
Tallyfy is a platform that helps you automate communication-heavy manual tasks like employee or client onboarding. It can help eliminate repetitive tasks like walk-throughs of specific features when set up right.
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Key features
- Smart rule-based workflows for onboarding
- Wikis, SOP catalogs, and other training documentation
Integrations
Tallyfy integrates natively with Slack, Gmail, and Outlook. It also offers other integrations through Zapier.
Pricing
Premium pricing plans that include automation features start at $25 per user per month (billed annually).
Zoho Flow
Zoho Flow is another workflow automation tool that helps you automate tasks across multiple platforms. Its powerful tools mean you can automate simple tasks and long workflows across platforms driven by complex logic.
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Key features
- Smart logic and powerful tools for automating multi-step workflows
- Deluge, Zoho Flow’s simple scripting language, makes it easy to solve integration complications
Integrations
Zoho Flow integrates with Google Drive, Google Sheets, Mailchimp, Dropbox, and 200+ more apps and tools.
Pricing
Zoho Flow starts at $25 per month (billed annually).
HubSpot
HubSpot is a sales and marketing platform with various automation features for email campaigns, sales processes, and more. It’s a good option for marketing and sales teams that want to upgrade their CRM and include more workflow automation in their processes.
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Key features
- Email marketing automation tools
- Automatic cross-platform marketing performance report generation
- CRM with lead scoring and automation for collaboration with your sales team
Integrations
HubSpot integrates natively with 100+ apps and tools, including Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Google Analytics.
Pricing
HubSpot Marketing Hub starts at $800 per month (billed annually) — luckily, not per-user pricing, but it is still fairly steep for many smaller companies.
RoboTask
RoboTask is a macro and task automation software for Windows. It can help your users automate completely repetitive tasks in various software they work with — like data transfer or filling out forms.
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Key features
- Windows-compatible macro recorder
- Desktop automation for all software used on a Windows computer
Integrations
Rather than platforms, RoboTask integrates with popular programming languages like JavaScript, Python, and PowerShell.
Pricing
The business license costs $250 for a single license. But the price scales down with volume to $28 per license for 1,000+ licenses.
Alfred
Alfred is a macro and desktop automation tool for macOS, which can help you automate a wide range of everyday tasks.
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Key features
- Workflow builder that integrates with macOS applications
- Hotkeys and text expansion that help speed up your coding or copywriting
Integrations
Alfred integrates with standard macOS applications and tools, including Search, Pages, and Safari.
Pricing
The basic software is free, but you need the Alfred Powerpack for advanced workflow features, where a single license costs £34 (around $43 in the November 2023 exchange rate).
Microsoft Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is a business process automation platform with advanced features like custom variables. It can help you automate complex tasks throughout the sales process or other crucial business processes.
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Key features
- Desktop workflows for legacy systems that don’t have web apps or APIs
- Task and process mining through flowchart mapping, templates, and smart opportunity identification
Integrations
Naturally, MPA integrates with Microsoft’s suite of tools, but it also includes 1,000+ pre-built connectors for other tools and apps.
Pricing
The premium plan starts at $15 per month, with a 30-day free trial available.
Automate and streamline your task management with Motion
What does your day-to-day task management process look like?
Chances are, you (and lower-level managers) do things like task delegation, prioritizing, and scheduling manually. Motion can help you automate and streamline this entire process.
As one of our clients put it, “Motion allowed me to automate organization.” Motion takes care of most of the minor daily tasks and decisions that go into managing your team.
If you’re ready to automate the menial aspects of task management, sign up for a free trial today.
