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Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

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Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#11

Post by offtop5 »

troymc wrote: post #9

Does axiom.ai respect robots.txt restrictions or something similar (i.e. something specific to axiom.ai)? The reason I ask is that Joe Arbitrage could sign up for one paid premium account with a SaaS provider, then use that account and axiom.ai bots to provide the SaaS's services to a bunch of Joe Arbitrage customers at a higher price, i.e. customers who don't know about the original SaaS. Some SaaS providers wouldn'…

Why couldn't this guy, or girl just program that directly in JavaScript instead of using this product. I don't see making browser automation easier as something which would enable bad people

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#12

Post by yaseer »

offtop5 wrote: post #11
troymc wrote: post #9

Does axiom.ai respect robots.txt restrictions or something similar (i.e. something specific to axiom.ai)? The reason I ask is that Joe Arbitrage could sign up for one paid premium account with a SaaS provider, then use that account and axiom.ai bots to provide the SaaS's services to a bunch of Joe Arbitrage customers at a higher price, i.e. customers who don't know about the original SaaS. Some SaaS providers wouldn'…

Why couldn't this guy, or girl just program that directly in JavaScript instead of using this product. I don't see making browser automation easier as something which would enable bad people

Certainly - we don't enable something to be done that couldn't be done before.

We just make bot-building accessible to more people. Ideally, that means more helpful bots, but it could result in a more bad bots too, if we're not mindful.

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#14

Post by brettfarrow »

Does Axiom support the ability to use network request data as a condition? I often test analytics integrations, and it's pretty repetitive to look at the query parameters or browser extensions for each one. It'd be helpful to automate tests based on whether a pageview generates a request to domain.com with param x=0, etc.

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#15

Post by yaseer »

ccozan wrote: post #13

Hi, how do you compare your solution with UIPath? Thanks!

Great question!

We built axiom after running a software consultancy trying to integrate UiPath for customers.

We realised, those solutions are great for $1 million consulting projects with a big development team. But most bots people need are small, and they need to be updated regularly. Paying for developers to do this is expensive.

So, axiom is self-serve - it's designed to be built and maintained by non-coders on the ground (we provide support). Also, it's designed for the 0-$100 p/m small use-cases. There's lots of these in business.

Some customers think we're expensive, but we're really not compared to most RPA, like UiPath :)

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#16

Post by yaseer »

brettfarrow wrote: post #14

Does Axiom support the ability to use network request data as a condition? I often test analytics integrations, and it's pretty repetitive to look at the query parameters or browser extensions for each one. It'd be helpful to automate tests based on whether a pageview generates a request to domain.com with param x=0, etc.

We actually do look at network requests, but we only do this to assess page-load. Assessing this is a surprisingly hard-problem.

I don't think our UI Testing tools monitor network traffic though. I can see how that might recur - if you email a test scenario to (my HN name) AT axiom.ai, we may be able to whip up some JS, that could be turned into a no-code block, for you and others to use.

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#17

Post by ordinaryradical »

I used this product a while back to do some scraping of a very annoying (and slow!) to navigate website and it was a life-saver. Still using the google sheets it helped me generate. I saw the value of this tool straight away and the UI was pretty reasonable, just a few quirks.

I would definitely use Axiom again if I ran into a similar need. Best of luck to your team.

My one suggestion: Let people touch the UI and get a handle for building in a sandbox page on your site--a web app that simulates the app over your own site's dom, for example? I was hesitant to start my trial because 1) risk of hostile chrome extensions 2) wasn't confident I could learn the tool quickly enough. I think if you had a sandbox demonstrator on your site that let people experience the tool, you could learn a lot about where early users stall out and also build confidence toward sign-ups.

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#19

Post by yaseer »

ordinaryradical wrote: post #17

I used this product a while back to do some scraping of a very annoying (and slow!) to navigate website and it was a life-saver. Still using the google sheets it helped me generate. I saw the value of this tool straight away and the UI was pretty reasonable, just a few quirks. I would definitely use Axiom again if I ran into a similar need. Best of luck to your team. My one suggestion: Let people touch the UI and get…

Wow, that's awesome!

What you've described is literally our cloud product - we give people a sandbox with a virtual browser to use and get started (like browserstack). We're working out a way to scale it cheaply, so anyone can get started. Right now, it's a paid feature.

I'm very glad the feature we have planned is something customers would appreciate though, at least we won't have built something nobody wants. We made that mistake in the past...

Re: Launch HN: Axiom (YC W21) – No-code browser automation a.k.a. RPA for everyone

#20

Post by yaseer »

reubano wrote: post #18

Who are your top competitors and how do you differentiate yourselves? Esp re recent HN submission https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26239975

Here's a list of competitors and how I think we compare with each -

UiPath - Designed for heavyweight Enterprise. We're really not competing for the same market, but their tech is a similar approach. They go for fortunate 500, we go for everyone else.

Zapier - Axiom competes with zapier in some ways. We're different because we automate the Ui, not just APIs, and we integrate with Zapier.

Automatio.co - They seem to emphasise cloud running, and their tool looks a bit more complicated. Most of our bots are actually used locally, where the user processes their own data. We support running in the cloud too. It looks like they're charging for distribution, where we're freemium.

Phantombuster - They focus on templates, rather than 'build your own bot'. Also, nearly all social automations like LinkedIn.

There will be more.

Ultimately, I think browser automation will be similar to API automation, where Zapier, Tray.io et al, all compete with different approaches for different segments of the market.

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