The Automa alternative for Chrome
RowPlay skips the block canvas: do a task once, paste your rows from Excel, and it replays the task for every row. Each step reads in plain English, and dry run, retries and scheduling are built in. Automa is a free, open-source tool that builds workflows from connected blocks; here’s how they compare.
FREE · NO ACCOUNT · NO BLOCK CANVAS TO LEARN
Short version: Automa is free and open source, with a block canvas, a strong Trigger block for scheduling and a Loop Data block. It’s flexible, and there’s more to learn. RowPlay is the record-it-and-go option: a plain step list, an Excel paste for the data loop, a results sheet that shows which rows worked, and one-click retry for the ones that didn’t.
One macro. Every row of your spreadsheet.
No Loop Data block to wire up. Record the task, paste your rows, run.
Three steps
- 1
Record the task once. Fill in the form the way you normally would. Each click and field becomes a step, shown in plain English.
- 2
Paste your rows from Excel and link each field to a column — or drop in a .xlsx or .csv file. A normal table with headers works.
- 3
Dry run, then Run remaining. Check the first row, then RowPlay does the rest, one row at a time, in your own browser.
Test before you commit
Dry run fills just the first row. If it worked, Run remaining carries on from row 2, so nothing is entered twice.
Retry only what failed
A failed row doesn’t stop the batch. Afterwards, one click re-runs just the rows that failed.
Resume after a crash
Progress is saved after every row. If the browser closes mid-run, pick up from the first row that didn’t run.
A results sheet
Your rows come back with a status column, the reason for any failure and any values you extracted — ready to paste into Excel.
Every kind of field
Text, dropdowns (including custom menus), checkboxes from yes/no columns, and fields that only appear when a box is ticked.
Values that fill themselves
{{today}}, {{row}} and {{random}} add dates, row numbers and unique codes without a column.
Full walkthrough: auto-fill web forms from Excel.
RowPlay vs Automa
| RowPlay | Automa | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Active and free, for Chrome and Firefox | Active, free & open source (AGPL / commercial license), Chrome + Firefox |
| How you build a workflow | Click record, use the page normally, stop | Record, or connect workflow blocks on a canvas |
| Looping over data | Paste rows from Excel, no setup — dry run, retry and a results sheet included | Loop Data block over a variable, table, Google Sheets, or JSON array |
| Extracting values | Add an Extract or Extract Table step | Dedicated scraping/data-extraction blocks feeding into a table |
| Scheduling | Built in — 15 minutes to 24 hours, or custom | Built in — interval, specific date/day, browser startup, or a raw cron expression |
| Sharing/reusing workflows | A macro library with groups; share any macro as a file | A public marketplace for sharing and downloading community workflows |
| Cost | Free, one tier, everything included | Free, open source (a separate commercial license exists only for embedding Automa in a product) |
| Account required | No | No |
If you're coming from Automa
Automa's blocks are genuinely powerful for anything with real branching logic, but a lot of everyday automations don't need that — they just need to repeat the same clicks over a list of rows. Here's what maps to what if that's your case:
When Automa might suit you better
Where each tool fits
- Your workflow has many branching paths. Automa’s block canvas gives you more control there; most fill-a-form-per-row jobs don’t need it.