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CircleCI vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CircleCI
Ranking in Build Automation
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
AI Software Development (18th)
VMware Tanzu Platform
Ranking in Build Automation
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (13th), Cloud Management (33rd), Development Platforms (5th), Container Management (9th), Service Mesh (8th), Agile and DevOps Services (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 4.0%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Tanzu Platform is 2.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CircleCI4.0%
VMware Tanzu Platform2.7%
Other93.3%
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Arka Sarkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Support Development Engineer at Ericsson Global
Automated pipelines have accelerated microservice delivery and improve release consistency
Debugging is an important point for improvement because when pipelines fail, debugging can sometimes be difficult, especially for the complex workflows which we have already faced in our organization in different projects. Logs are available, but root cause analysis can take time, so that can be improved. Also, configuration management challenges exist. Although YAML configuration is flexible, it can become complex and hard to maintain as pipelines grow in size and include multiple workflow conditions. The limited visibility for large pipelines is also a concern. For very large enterprise pipelines, the UI can feel less intuitive in terms of tracking dependencies and understanding the full workflow at a glance. Cost optimization is one important point for improvement. In cloud-based usage, costs can increase due to long-running jobs and inefficient pipelines. Proper optimization through caching and parallelism is required, otherwise it can become expensive, which we faced in one of our telecom projects last year. One thing CircleCI can improve is related to cloud runners, where any network or platform issues can impact pipeline execution. This can be a concern for critical telecom deployments.
ErmiasGirma - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
Has supported container-based deployments and improved infrastructure visibility through monitoring tools
Aria Operations, formerly known as VMware vRealize Operations, has been renamed to vROps. We are currently using this for monitoring purposes. For orchestration, we are using VCD to automate Telco Cloud. VCD is an automation tool, and we are also using VMware Tanzu Platform for the Kubernetes environment, alongside TKG, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. These are also other solutions for the Tanzu Kubernetes environment. For Telco Cloud, we are using it to automate our company's operations, which is for a telecom company. We are familiar with these products, especially vCenter, ESXi, VCD, vCF, and vROps. It is very easy to integrate applications when we deploy vCenter and ESXi since we can enable vSphere with Tanzu feature. We can build namespaces and provide application developers the platform to deploy their applications on pods within containerization. We can easily manage, pull results, and create containers efficiently, making it a simple way to handle applications. We provide namespace labels for application developers, and we can manage their resources along with other aspects easily. Regarding security, we use many tools such as CDX and LDAP, AD for integrating our Kubernetes cluster with the developer teams. We can manage roles and permissions simply. It is very straightforward to integrate with EDX and other third-party tools, Active Directory, to the Kubernetes cluster, allowing easy access and management.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"CircleCI has positively impacted my organization significantly, as it generates a lot of code very fast, saving a lot of time in what was otherwise a long process of understanding requirements and manually writing the code and unit tests."
"Running parallel jobs where dev gets automatically updated every time has helped our team significantly."
"CircleCI has positively impacted my organization with faster time to market, improved software quality, cost efficiency, and increased developer productivity."
"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."
"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."
"We have seen a clear return on investment from using CircleCI at Ericsson, both in terms of efficiency and quality."
"CircleCI has impacted my organization positively by removing most of our manual effort and human effort, increasing speed, and removing human error, which has improved our workflow, speed, and efficiency."
"It's a stable product."
"A feature we find valuable is that other products can also be integrated with Mission Control. This means that we can see the status of specific clusters, as well as view the monitoring application logs all from one point."
"The support from VMware is very good."
"The multi-tenancy with the VCD is great."
"The most popular feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is its graphical user interface for describing network policies on the Service Mesh, which is highly integrable with other tools commonly used in supply chains such as security."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is the management functionality of the cluster life cycle. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other vendors, such as Velero for backups and Sonobuoy for compliance. Additionally, it works well in multi-cluster environments."
"VMware Tanzu Mission Control has many valuable features, such as ease of use and customization."
"There are a lot of services available in VMware Tanzu Application Service, such as databases and application servers. You have everything you need in one application and you do not need to search outside of the solution."
"The Day 2 operations support is the most vital feature"
 

Cons

"Sometimes the documentation is too in-depth."
"In my experience, CircleCI is stable, but it can be improved."
"CircleCI can be improved by making it less costly, as it is very expensive."
"The pricing could be improved as it is pretty complex."
"Regarding flexibility, Azure pipelines has the ability to pass variables with greater flexibility than CircleCI offers."
"I rated CircleCI six out of ten because I think they need more transparency in pricing, as there are instances of unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces."
"For half year we have used circleCI, then we go back to jenkins."
"CircleCI could be improved by enhancing the AI-generated pipeline, possibly with a self-optimizing CI/CD feature since it currently requires a lot of manual configuration."
"The price is very high compared to other Kubernetes environments because Kubernetes is open source."
"Tanzu is not yet a mature product, and it's not present in large environments."
"This product doesn't have a GUI. In order to use it properly, I need to connect it to a new GUI or build a GUI to manage it — it's pretty difficult."
"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The solution could benefit from improved customization and visibility for its users."
"We want to see a new feature that helps build more security architecture like Zero Trust Security or shifting left in Kubernetes."
"Customers have noticed a considerable price increase after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom."
"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"
"Cost is always a concern. Smaller companies might find the price a bigger issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."
"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."
"Since we were at a large data center, the price might not have been a concern for us."
"There are different licenses available. You have to upgrade your license if you want to scale the solution more."
"The licensing cost is expensive."
"Its pricing is very competitive. We get around 70% or 75%, sometimes even 80%, discount on the product. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."
"The license for VMware Tanzu Application Service is expensive. The license should be cheaper."
"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."
"The solution is bundled in with Cloud Foundry so the pricing is not independent."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Construction Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CircleCI?
Debugging is an important point for improvement because when pipelines fail, debugging can sometimes be difficult, especially for the complex workflows which we have already faced in our organizati...
What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?
I would advise organizations or individual developers who are trying to use CircleCI to begin with basic pipelines and gradually move to advanced workflows such as deployment automation, parallel j...
Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?
Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Concourse for VMware Tanzu?
The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core. Pricing varies based on commitment and volumetric, with discounts provided for long-term commitments. VMware sells directly or...
What needs improvement with Concourse for VMware Tanzu?
The price is very high compared to other Kubernetes environments because Kubernetes is open source. We can easily work with Docker, and when we compare it with OpenShift, the price is very high. We...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent
Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq
Find out what your peers are saying about CircleCI vs. VMware Tanzu Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.