Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Salesforce Platform comparison

Broadcom and Salesforce are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Broadcom is ranked #13, while Salesforce is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Broadcom holds a 8.9% mindshare in PSP, compared to Salesforce’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Read 15 Pivotal Cloud Foundry reviews

5,441 Views
5,387 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Salesforce Platform

Read 96 Salesforce Platform reviews

5,969 Views
1,671 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Salesforce Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Salesforce Platform and Pivotal Cloud Foundry operate in the enterprise cloud solutions space. Salesforce Platform holds the edge with its quick customization and scalability.

Features: Salesforce Platform offers quick customization, robust integration capabilities, and flexibility for various business processes, making it adaptable for diverse organizational needs. Pivotal Cloud Foundry stands out for its strong Java performance, ease of application deployment, and robust deployment capabilities, especially beneficial in focusing on business services development without the technical hassles.

Room for Improvement: Salesforce Platform could enhance its reporting tools, lower pricing, and improve marketing automation integration. Pivotal Cloud Foundry faces challenges with its technological complexity, higher runtime costs, and could benefit from simplified migration processes and better security features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Platform primarily supports deployment across hybrid cloud environments and is known for overall responsive customer service, though some find it slower with complex issues. Pivotal Cloud Foundry provides versatility in public and private cloud scenarios, with positive customer service, yet there's room for improvement in support during intricate problems.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Platform is seen as pricey but valuable for extensive features and integration, especially appealing to enterprise clients. Its ROI is evident through enhanced efficiency and sales growth. Pivotal Cloud Foundry, priced comparatively high, offers cost advantages due to its open-source nature. Pricing varies with cloud provider agreements but is considered manageable given its market benefits, contributing positively to agility and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs. Salesforce Platform Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs. Salesforce Platform

September 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

Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Salesforce Platform

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Mobile Development Platforms (2nd), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (7th), No-Code Development Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Pivotal Cloud Foundry is 8.9%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Platform is 3.0%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Salesforce Platform	3.0%
Pivotal Cloud Foundry	8.9%
Other	88.1%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Vasundhara Joshi

Senior Software Engineer at Wells Fargo

Seamlessly scalable since applications written in Java and .NET do not create issues for its users

Regarding the setup phase, every step is a hurdle. With Pivotal Cloud Foundry, I won't get any proper resources for that. Even if I Google it, there is no proper solution for Pivotal Cloud Foundry. However, if we go for Azure or some other cloud, we can get a lot of information. I believe there is not much information for Pivotal Cloud Foundry since it may be some license issue. If you go for Azure, the migration process is straightforward. Since we have been given 10 GB of space in the public cloud, we are utilizing it in our company. So, we are trying to deploy our application on the cloud, and for us, it is like a trial process for now. From our total application rate, I can say that only two to three percent is on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. Currently, half of the code is in the shell script, which is causing issues. Also, most people in my organization have worked on Java-related code. For most of the applications, they are using the same, that is, shell script and AUTOsist, and so we haven't migrated yet. So that is the reason that we are planning to opt for a hybrid model so that we don't have to migrate completely to Pivotal Cloud Foundry.

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Sharmila-K

Cloud Transformations and Infrastructure Delivery Manager at a university with 10,001+ employees

Integration processes improve but scripting requires effort

The updates, pricing part, and upgrades to the products are some of the most valuable features with the Salesforce Platform.With the Salesforce Platform, I have minimal experience of approximately one and a half years. I get minimal exposure, once every three or two months, especially during holidays. The Salesforce Platform is connected to the cloud, which is beneficial. When it is integrated with different tools such as Microsoft BI Analytics, it helps us analyze much better. Currently, the integration itself is tricky as we have to use extensive scripting. It should be more of a plug-in and use solution. That is the only issue I see, but otherwise, I appreciate it.

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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

"It is a scalable product...We are not facing any particular issues since most of the applications in our company are written in Java and .NET."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring and the deployment is easier."

"The most valuable features of Pivotal Cloud Foundry are its ease of use and the command line interface has the ability to push instances to the cloud easily."

"It supports CI/CD, and is integrated with the CI/CD very well."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its ability to scale. The services that connect to the database are also very good."

"We find its stability and scalability valuable."

"The most valuable feature of Pivotal Cloud Foundry is auto-healing and the plenty of other features that are provided."

"Pivotal Cloud Foundry is very robust, especially for building Java."

More Pivotal Cloud Foundry pros

"The standard sales and marketing tools that Salesforce provides on the platform are the most valuable."

"Features they are integrating to the other services."

"The most valuable aspect is that all data is stored in one place, making it easy to find what is needed and to report on it."

"It is a platform that allows you to get applications quickly to the end user in a secure way."

"The solution is easy to use."

"Stability of the platform is important, as are security and flexibility."

"It has definitely improved how we function."

"The technical support services are good."

More Salesforce Platform pros

Cons

"Pivotal Cloud Foundry could improve the documentation. They are good, but they could improve more. Additionally, it would be beneficial if there were more use case examples."

"Pivotal Cloud Foundry is not scalable, infinitely, because when you install it on a set of virtual machines it is very hard to scale. It's easy to scale on an application level, but not it is not similar to if you were using Amazon. Amazon you can scale thousands of applications."

"The Pivotal Cloud Foundry's initial setup has a learning curve for my team, but it was easy to use."

"I'd like to see a larger service offering."

"Something that can be done better is canary deployment. So, right now, we're using blue-green deployment. The support for canary deployment would be nice."

"It should offer more security features."

"There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of Pivotal Cloud Foundry."

"In the next release, they should offer additional applications for the databases, and improve the deployment experience."

More Pivotal Cloud Foundry cons

"Easier process to move to Lightning Components."

"Salesforce Platform may be on the expensive side. However, getting value for money depends on how it's used."

"In terms of features, for our business needs, we have more than enough right now. There is nothing that we are missing or would like to add. They can maybe share some best practices so that when you are starting, you can stick to a good process, and you don't have to think so much about the process that you want or your CEO or CMO wants. The process should not be based on one person in the company. Having some best practices will make it easier to get started. These best practices can be based on what has worked for others. Its basic version is pretty simple, and the customizations are up to the companies, which can make startups like ours lose a lot of time in figuring out what all stakeholders want rather than what would work."

"I think the search needs to be improved so as to allow for a broader keyword search."

"Their reporting needs to be improved. It should be easier. I don't know how, but it needs to be easier."

"Salesforce could improve by offering AI features or functionalities to help business decision-makers analyze business history, suggest forward strategies, and participate in events."

"It is quite expensive. It has gotten to that point where it is a lot more pricey. It has kind of got its own proprietary language for development. It is probably never going to change, but if it had a more market language for development, it would be easier to find developers. They come at a premium cost, so it is expensive."

"I would like Salesforce to recommend related opportunities within the organization that have been taken to closure, so we can fast track new opportunities based on past experiences."

More Salesforce Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Pivotal Cloud Foundry could improve. However, in this category of solutions, they are all expensive."

"We do pay for the licensing cost because we have opted for a private cloud setup. So, it is a cloud setup, and we have to make payments based on the cloud size. I do not consider it very costly when comparing it to the market."

"Licensing is on a monthly basis and right now we pay $24/month. There are no other costs over and above that."

"The pricing is on the higher side and there are cheaper options available."

"You're paying for the number of virtual machines you want to install in the installation."

"The price of Pivotal Cloud Foundry is based on the customer's requirements. However, the price is comparable to other similar solutions."

"It is a fair price for what it's offering, in comparison with other solutions that are available on the market."

"It is expensive."

"Pricing and license differ and depend on how much license you are purchasing from them."

"Pricing for the Salesforce Platform is too expensive."

"The price varies depending on the cloud."

"It is very expensive. Its licensing is on a monthly basis."

"It is expensive."

"I haven't had to buy Salesforce, however, I have heard it's $1500 a user."

More Salesforce Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

37%

Manufacturing Company

17%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	38
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	38

Questions from the Community

Which would you recommend - Pivotal Cloud Foundry or OpenShift?

Pivotal Cloud Foundry is a cloud-native application platform to simplify app delivery. It is efficient and effective. The best feature is how easy it is to handle external services such as database...

See all answers

How would you choose between Microsoft PowerApps and Salesforce Platform?

I think it depends on your use case. If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise products, PowerApps will work better in your environment. Similarly, if you have a Salesforce integration in pla...

See all answers

How does Salesforce Platform compare with Azure?

Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is not easy or intuitive to deploy. The difficulty will be impacted by the type of application that you are trying to use the platform to build. Organizations tha...

See all answers

Do you build applications using low-code or pro-code builders on Salesforce Platform?

At my organization, we have only used Salesforce Platform's low-code builder. The reason for this is not because we do not like the pro-code option, but because we do not see the need of using it, ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat OpenShift vs Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Compared 33% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Compared 30% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud vs Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Compared 7% of the time

Heroku vs Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Compared 5% of the time

More Pivotal Cloud Foundry Competitors

Oracle Application Express (APEX) vs Salesforce Platform

Compared 16% of the time

Appian vs Salesforce Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Apps vs Salesforce Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Salesforce Platform

Compared 9% of the time

ServiceNow vs Salesforce Platform

Compared 9% of the time

More Salesforce Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pivotal Cloud Foundry

September 2025

Download Pivotal Cloud Foundry product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Platform

September 2025

Download Salesforce Platform product report

Also Known As

PCF, Pivotal Application Service (PAS), Pivotal Container Service (PKS), Pivotal Function Service (PFS)

Salesforce1, Force.com, Salesforce App Cloud

Overview

Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) is the leading enterprise PaaS, powered by Cloud Foundry. PCF provides a cloud-native application platform that allows you to continuously deliver any app to every major private and public cloud with a single platform. PCF is proven to accelerate feature delivery with higher developer productivity and a 200:1 developer to operator ratio. PCF's built-in security and self-healing capabilities reduce risk in your app portfolio while maintaining high-availability at scale to keep customer facing systems online even in the most challenging circumstances. pivotal.io

Broadcom

Salesforce Platform is a tool that provides application building with open application programming interfaces (APIs), integration tools, back-end services, starter templates, and developer environments. With a low-code interface, users are able to build applications and benefit from automated processes. The product helps customers to increase work productivity and save on IT costs through efficient, easy-to-understand, methods for creating applications.

Salesforce Platform allows companies to build and operate intelligent applications at scale and share them with employees and customers in real time. The tool secures companies' data while connecting and synchronizing it simultaneously across their Customer 360 accounts. The main components of the product are:

Application development: With low code, companies can build applications faster and automate their businesses.
Automation: The product can connect with Salesforce Genie, allowing employees to create seamless processes.
Security: The Shield component allows companies to secure their data and build applications.
Hyperforce: Companies have the option to scale globally and serve customers locally, providing secure, private, and agile solutions.
Einstein Intelligence: Organizations can utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalized experiences for customers, potentially increasing companies’ growth.
Sandboxes: Salesforce Platform offers developers secure development environments where they can test, build, and deploy changes before rolling out final products.

Salesforce Platform Features

Also referred to as a “drag and drop app builder," this solution offers various features for customers to create intelligent applications and build personalized services for clients, partners, and employees within the apps.

Mobile feature: The mobile feature of Salesforce Platform allows users to build applications for mobile as well as turn already-made apps into mobile apps instantly.
AI: Through AI, users are able to personalize their applications, utilizing the smart assistant of the platform (called Einstein). The creation of customized services for clients can drive engagement and scale customer experience.
Vision feature: The Vision feature also utilizes Einstein Platform, where users can take advantage of Einstein Prediction Builder, Bots, Vision, and Language to create AI-powered applications.
Data protection: Salesforce Platform offers a data protection feature called Salesforce Shield. With it, companies can monitor app and data use, automate security policies, run compliance audits, and encrypt sensitive data.
Privacy and identity feature: Salesforce Customer Identity is a feature for privacy that offers user access through a single login. The feature provides a seamless user experience while maintaining a high level of security.
Community feature: The community feature of the product offers a digital experience platform where companies can create secure portals, applications, and websites.
Builder feature: The application building feature of Salesforce Platform offers various ways for users to create apps, including through low-code builders and pro-code tools.

Salesforce Platform Benefits

The benefits of using Salesforce Platform include:

Compared to manual coding products, Salesforce Platform is simpler for beginner users who want to develop a product.
The tool requires a low amount of coding, making it a quick and agile way to develop applications.
The adaptable design of the platform offers multi-layered security which maintains data accessible to users while protecting it from outside sources.
The product can be incorporated with various platforms and coding languages for application development.
The platform can be used to create applications compatible with large database systems like MySQL and Oracle.
Salesforce Platform allows collaboration between users, as it offers simultaneous access to various users at the same time.
Salesforce Platform is compatible with desktop databases such as Microsoft Access.

Reviews from Real Users

A vice president at a healthcare company values Salesforce Platform because it is flexible and user-friendly with helpful pre-built schemas.

Peter G., a senior technical consultant at a tech services company, rates Salesforce Platform highly because it is intuitive, quite easy to learn, and stores all kinds of relevant sales information.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Humana, Citibank, Mercedes Benz, Liberty Mutual, The Home Depot, GE, West Corp, Merrill Corporation, CoreLogic, Orange, Dish Network, Comcast, Bloomberg, Internal Revenue Service, Ford Motor Company, Garmin, Volkswagen, Solera, Allstate, US Air Force, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, ScotiaBank

ADP

Buyer's Guide

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs. Salesforce Platform

September 2025

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