OpenNebula vs Red Hat CloudForms comparison

OpenNebula and Red Hat are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. OpenNebula is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while Red Hat is ranked #31 with an average rating of 6.0. OpenNebula holds a 6.8% mindshare in CM, compared to Red Hat’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of OpenNebula users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

OpenNebula

Read 15 OpenNebula reviews

3,157 Views
1,697 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat CloudForms

Read 10 Red Hat CloudForms reviews

657 Views
307 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

OpenNebula

Red Hat CloudForms

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Red Hat CloudForms and OpenNebula are competing tools in the cloud management platform space. Red Hat CloudForms is favored for its pricing satisfaction and support, while OpenNebula is often preferred for its robust feature set.

Features: Red Hat CloudForms excels in hybrid cloud management, automation capabilities, and offers advanced monitoring and reporting, whereas OpenNebula impresses with integrated multi-cloud orchestration, a focus on scalability, and simplicity.

Room for Improvement: Red Hat CloudForms can improve by simplifying its initial setup processes, enhancing ease of use, and expanding flexibility in integration. OpenNebula could benefit from enhanced support options, expanding its feature documentation, and increased focus on advanced analytics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenNebula is known for straightforward deployment and efficient, tailored customer service. Red Hat CloudForms offers comprehensive support but may require more complex initial setup, which can be beneficial for enterprises needing deep customization.

Pricing and ROI: Red Hat CloudForms generally presents a higher initial setup cost with significant ROI through its extensive feature suite, while OpenNebula offers a cost-effective entry with lower scripting overhead and operational expenses, delivering faster ROI due to streamlined deployment.

To learn more, read our detailed OpenNebula vs. Red Hat CloudForms Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

OpenNebula vs. Red Hat CloudForms

June 2025

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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

OpenNebula

Ranking in Cloud Management

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Red Hat CloudForms

Ranking in Cloud Management

31st

Average Rating

6.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of OpenNebula is 6.8%, up from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat CloudForms is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

FOURES Jean-Philippe

Products Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Reliable, simple to manage, and offers great technical support

The support of VXLAN fits with our network management. Thanks to this we can propose mixed solutions using virtual resources on OpenNebula and bare metal servers hosted in our facilities linked to each other on the sale network. This use case is very useful when some applications need bare metal power (Kubernetes workers, huge databases, AI models computations, et cetera). The cluster management is very useful for splitting our different clusters (mutual vs dedicated). We can manage deployments and capacity planning without pain. The API is also really simple and it helped us to develop the Terraform provider to manage OpenNebula like any other cloud infrastructure.

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Ilhami Arikan

Cloud Services Automation Technologies Manager at Garanti Teknoloji

A stable solution that helps to provision servers

We use the solution to provision servers. I am impressed with the product's ability to create dynamic catalogs. The solution's provisioning engine needs to be improved. I would rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. I would rate the product's scalability a seven out of ten and…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I also like the ability to build custom functions. I can define a function where I have two types of views and configure the dependencies. The virtual data centers concept allows me to define users. If a user wants to join certain kinds of machines, the host and the other user won't see them. It gives me the flexibility to define multiple views and data centers in one place."

"OpenNebula is lightweight, stable, and easy to customize."

"It is quite easy to deploy."

"The most valuable feature of OpenNebula is that it scales very well."

"For the entire data center, as a private cloud, I believe that user management, expert management, and the virtual data center is completely magic for the users."

"It makes maintenance very easy and stress-free for our teams."

"It's easy to integrate OpenNebula with our IT systems."

"With a single click, we could set things up and initiate them."

More OpenNebula pros

"They are a very mature product."

"The stability of the solution is very good. We haven't had any issues with it."

"The optimization of the solution is quite interesting."

"Red Hat CloudForms is stable once it is up and running."

"I am impressed with the product's ability to create dynamic catalogs."

"The multi-tenancy feature has been very helpful for our clients. It has been working fine and seamlessly for them. Its interface is also very simplified, and it is also an open and easy-to-scale solution."

"The most valuable features of Red Hat CloudForms are the benefit of the collective functionality."

"The solution is compatible and integrates with various infrastructures or providers."

More Red Hat CloudForms pros

Cons

"Most of the competitors are offering some sort of billing software to transform their installation to work as a small-sized public cloud, but those offerings from OpenNebula are still missing."

"The web interface could be better. It's not very difficult to use, but there's room for enhancement."

"They should add more features like object storage."

"The protocol for clusterization is rough and doesn't work well."

"There are small things that are hard. For example, making sure that it is going to be installable on public clouds."

"The storage feature that they have is a bit confusing."

"There are no payment gateways in OpenNebula."

"They have been saying for the past two and a half years that they would develop a feature to hot-add RAM and CPU, but it does not work."

More OpenNebula cons

"Because the solution needs to integrate with other products that surround it, there is a lot of configuration required, and this can be quite complex. It's not as easy as it is with, for example, VMware."

"I have issues with the solution's permissions. Unlike VMware, the product doesn't allow folder-type permissions."

"The complexity of the solution is a bit high in comparison to VMware."

"It is difficult to create a complete dashboard that includes all the needed features or catalogs."

"The solution's provisioning engine needs to be improved."

"The problem is that the platform requires it to be maintained and updated. Also, a few cases are still pending with the Red Hat support team since they are not closed yet."

"The solution is still quite immature."

"All of the areas of Red Hat CloudForms could improve. It doesn't do half of the things that it says it can do out of the box. It takes configuration to make any of it work, which is not uncommon for solutions similar to this. However, it is frustrating."

More Red Hat CloudForms cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"OpenNebula gives good value for money."

"VRA is very expensive but OpenNebula is free."

"The licensing for OpenNebula used to be free, but now it's no longer free. A customer contacted me asking to move to another provider because of the changes in the licensing terms for OpenNebula. I have no information on how much the OpenNebula license is because the customer pays for it, and I only do the integration."

"We use the Community Edition, rather than the Enterprise Edition."

"The solution is open source so is free."

"OpenNebuoa has recently come up with a new subscription model that is economical and a lot of new customers are choosing this as it is an easy subscription model."

"Red Hat CloudForms has a subscript-based pricing model. The cost is approximately $20,000 annually which allows you to use as many users as you want."

"The product's licensing is based on the number of servers."

"It is definitely cheaper than VMware. Everything is included. There is no challenge there."

"The price of Red Hat CloudForms was not competitive, it was expensive."

"Red Hat CloudForms is a bit expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

University

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

24%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about OpenNebula?

The live migration feature has been great and is something we use very often.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenNebula?

OpenNebula gives good value for money.

See all answers

What needs improvement with OpenNebula?

The web interface could be better. It's not very difficult to use, but there's room for enhancement. Another area for improvement is the integration with hardware to manage the lower layer of the n...

See all answers

What do you like most about Red Hat CloudForms?

I am impressed with the product's reports.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Red Hat CloudForms?

I have issues with the solution's permissions. Unlike VMware, the product doesn't allow folder-type permissions.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Red Hat CloudForms?

I would rate the product a four out of ten since its implementation is not as good as it sounds.

See all answers

Comparisons

CloudStack vs OpenNebula

Compared 49% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs OpenNebula

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs OpenNebula

Compared 12% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs OpenNebula

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs OpenNebula

Compared 2% of the time

More OpenNebula Competitors

VMware Cloud Director vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 22% of the time

Morpheus vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 19% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 18% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Red Hat CloudForms

Compared 18% of the time

More Red Hat CloudForms Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

OpenNebula

June 2025

Download OpenNebula product report

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat CloudForms

June 2025

Download Red Hat CloudForms product report

Overview

OpenNebula provides the most simple but feature-rich and flexible solution for the comprehensive management of virtualized data centers to enable private, public and hybrid IaaS clouds. OpenNebula interoperability makes cloud an evolution by leveraging existing IT assets, protecting your investments, and avoiding vendor lock-in.

OpenNebula is a turnkey enterprise-ready solution that includes all the features needed to provide an on-premises (private) cloud offering, and to offer public cloud services.

OpenNebula

Manage container, virtual, private, and public cloud infrastructures

Managing a complex, hybrid IT environment can require multiple management tools, redundant policy implementations, and extra staff to handle the operations. Red Hat® CloudForms simplifies IT, providing unified management and operations in a hybrid environment.

As your IT infrastructure progresses from traditional virtualization toward an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, CloudForms evolves, protecting your investments and providing consistent user experience and functionality.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Akamai, BBC, Fermilab, Terradue, Surf Sara, Produban, Netways, ESA, China Mobile, BlackBerry, Deloitte, Fuze, Telefonica, Trivago, Nokia, Encore Tech, Beeks.

Cox Automotive, Penn State, FICO, G-ABLE, Seneca College, ITandTEL, The Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS), MyRepublic, Macquarie, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, CBTS, Network Data Solutions (NDS)

Buyer's Guide

OpenNebula vs. Red Hat CloudForms

June 2025

Free Report: OpenNebula vs. Red Hat CloudForms

Find out what your peers are saying about OpenNebula vs. Red Hat CloudForms and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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