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Endevor vs Gen comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Endevor
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (3rd)
Gen
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Mainframe Application Development category, the mindshare of Endevor is 10.9%, down from 26.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gen is 15.7%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Application Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Gen15.7%
Endevor10.9%
Other73.4%
Mainframe Application Development
 

Featured Reviews

RobertMartin3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Production Supervisor Technical at Ontario Power Generation
Asset dashboards have created slow, rigid workflows and have limited effective life cycle tracking
The single dashboards do not help my team or the company as a whole. I feel the dashboards are not helpful because the search features are not customizable. The software is web-based and the server is extremely slow. To improve Endevor, its cloud or web-based server capabilities should be increased so that the software is faster. The ability to customize reports should be increased.
IR
Consultant
Full packets enable software implementation on the mainframe and client sides
I rate it eight out of 10. It's just very powerful tool, very powerful product to use. Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it. Of course, if you have mainframe and you have do something in the mainframe that’s different.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They provide answers and solutions."
"Having something that is out-of-the-box that you can customize to suit your organization's needs is huge."
"Our automation, our development implementations are all automated, which is a huge amount of time savings."
"I do not think our organization could go without it."
"Consistent, repeatable processes, and the automation that we have built take away much of the human error aspect."
"Endevor is a solid product; it works, does its job, is stable, and I have never heard any complaints for improvements in this product."
"​It was an easy install. Since it was all set up, it pretty much runs itself now."
"We have been able to replicate entire SDLCs for new clients and have them loaded and ready to use Endevor in as little as one week. This was possible with the use of Endevor variables within the processors, so that a single processor was able to function for multiple systems across the entire SDLC."
"Advantage Gen greatly enhanced productivity as well as development of solutions in mainframes, Client, and server applications."
"You can easily manage the code, and you can easily find other changes, other group changes, other models, other components."
"Full packets, enable you to develop software and systems using these packets, and implement software on the mainframe side and the client side. You can use the same packets, so it's very powerful."
"It has lived long beyond what people thought was its life expectancy as a product, largely because it is such a quality tool that people can't replace."
"CA Gen has provided us web development capability."
"If you want to be the first in market and you have a short time to generate, or to develop your application, and if you're looking for a platform that supports multiple frameworks, multiple platforms such as mainframe, Java, and .Net, or the others, you need a modelling tool, rather than a language or technology."
"If you’re writing a simple barebones COBOL program, it may take 20-30 hours, but with a solution like this it can be done in around four hours."
"Coding on CA Gen is easy."
 

Cons

"There should be better integration between CA Endevor Software Change Manager and Zowe."
"The graphical user interface. It would be a big tool to change (but needed), just because as the workforce kind of ages and retires, the younger generation is not as familiar with mainframe and looking at a green screen is not really a huge selling point to them."
"I would like to see it used for Hadoop, which is really huge now."
"The initial setup can be less complex and has room for improvement."
"I would rate it a solid eight out of 10, because it is stable, it serves the need that we have now. However, I don't know if it's serving where we are going with the Agile."
"If I had to comment on an area of ​​improvement or something new in the next or future version, I would like to see AI-assisted coding and impact analysis for mainframes."
"Interfacing with some change control products that are not CA's, it's a little glitchy on the approvals of changes. It requires special needs for the users for approvals."
"For others for whom it's new, implementation may be difficult."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
"The weak side is, I cannot use the DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
"Personally, I think the tool has taken a turn for the worse."
"The world is changing, the technologies are changing - COOL:Gen needs to change as well."
"If I look into the native COBOL language it can be more efficient, and CA Gen adds what seems to be some unnecessary lines of code; it’s not an apples to apples comparison."
"Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is very expensive."
"It's competitively priced and, as far as I know, it's just an enterprise license. We have found it is worth the money."
"The product is expensive."
"Licensing is fairly simple, you don't need multiple licenses."
"Just make sure if you are going to license, ensure you license the right features.​"
"It's worth the value. The pricing is fairly good, justifiable for the return on investment."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Insurance Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Construction Company
20%
Performing Arts
13%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise40
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Endevor?
The single dashboards do not help my team or the company as a whole. I feel the dashboards are not helpful because the search features are not customizable. The software is web-based and the server...
What is your primary use case for Endevor?
My main use case for Endevor is asset management. For asset management, we use Engage software for life cycle management, eHealth, and eStrategy.
What advice do you have for others considering Endevor?
My advice to others looking into using Endevor is that if you are a nuclear electrical utility, the software is likely well-suited, but if you are any other utility, the software is poorly suited f...
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Also Known As

CA Endevor Software Change Manager, Endevor Software Change Manager, CA Software Change Manager for Mainframe, CA Endevor SCM
CA Gen
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.
Global bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Endevor vs. Gen and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.