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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 1, 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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
384
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (3rd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Ranking in Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (4th), Network Automation (1st)
vCenter Configuration Manager
Ranking in Configuration Management
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.2%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is 10.6%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform10.6%
Microsoft Intune4.2%
vCenter Configuration Manager2.2%
Other83.0%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Senior Business Development Executive at Digitaltrack
Centralized device management has automated onboarding and improves remote security compliance
One thing I feel Microsoft Intune could improve is troubleshooting visibility. In many cases, when a policy or application deployment fails, the error messages are a bit generic. So, admins still spend time checking logs manually or testing on devices one by one. Compared to the simplicity of deployment, troubleshooting sometimes feels less mature. I also think reporting and real-time monitoring could be stronger. The dashboard gives useful information, but in large environments, many teams still depend on additional tools or scripts for deeper reporting and analytics. If I had to focus on one area first, I would probably choose troubleshooting and reporting. Deployment through Microsoft Intune is generally straightforward, but when something fails, identifying the exact root cause can still take more time than expected. Error messages are sometimes too generic, and admins often have to dig through logs, sync status, or multiple portals to understand what actually happened. I think user experience and policy management could also improve further. Microsoft Intune has become much better over the years, but sometimes the admin portal still feels fragmented because certain configurations open in different sections or redirect to older interfaces. For new admins, especially, it can take time to understand where everything is located. Another thing is policy conflict handling. In larger organizations, multiple device policies, compliance rules, and configuration profiles can overlap. When conflicts happen, the visibility is not always very clear, so admins spend time figuring out which policy actually won or caused the issue.
Manas Kashyap - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Dev Ops Engineer at 11 East Capital
Automation has transformed server patching and has reduced months of work to minutes
The best features that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers is that it does not require any additional resources inside the servers. Python is the only requirement, and since Python is already present inside the servers, we can run it from our location and it automatically deploys things and does the work for us. The minimal requirements and easy deployment have definitely impacted my daily work and my team's efficiency. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is one of the best features that we depend on. We have evaluated other options, but Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was the best choice because it has saved us a tremendous amount of time. We do not need to manually intervene in the servers or install third-party software to maintain these things. It is very easy to write playbooks for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Ansible Galaxy contains many playbooks that are readily available and ready to be used. It is highly configurable with Jinja templating, making it easy to maintain. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has positively impacted my organization. Previously, we needed to go into the servers and maintain them manually, which used to take a lot of time. For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task. We write a playbook, maintain an inventory, and roll out the updates and it starts working for us. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses conditional clauses and has rollback options, functioning like a standard coding language that is simple to use. There is definitely a reduction in errors with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform because we have playbooks written with all the necessary clauses and rollback options. Manual work automatically creates more errors, whereas in automation, we have written sets that we do not forget every time we run it. We have protected written sets that we execute consistently.
Nikhil Nikhil - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Operations Lead at TT Systems LLC
Compliance management has improved efficiency but licensing changes pose challenges
I am not using any advanced features or AI. I am employing a basic VMware vCenter setup for my infrastructure. Scalability has no major limitations, and the solution is efficient. Overall, it's satisfactory. I would rate the vCenter experience as seven out of ten due to concerns regarding license, pricing, and AI features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Autopilot is a great feature. Most users are looking for a zero-touch deployment."
"We have one MDM that works with Windows, iOS, and Android."
"It supports end-users who tend to lock their devices quite frequently. Its conditional access policy helps us keep the users logged into their devices."
"Microsoft Intune is very stable due to its cloud-based infrastructure and its reliability in performance."
"For the price, the features included with Microsoft are appealing."
"For our clients, the conditional access feature along with different compliance policies that they can set is valuable."
"The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types, we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager(MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company detail on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."
"Microsoft Intune saves eight hours per day, and during my work hours, I use my time to study and run tests on configurations I'm curious about and try them out in my environment."
"One of the most valuable features is automation. We are doing automation infrastructure, which allows us to automate regular tasks. This solution provides us with a service catalog, like building new services and automating daily tasks."
"It has made our infrastructure more testable, as we are able to build our infrastructure in CI and are more confident that what we are deploying will work without breaking everything."
"It is all modular-based. If there is not a module for it today, someone will write it."
"The playbooks and the code the solution uses are quite useful."
"The solution is very simple to use."
"Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very helpful due to passwordless integration and the ability to interact with multiple servers at once, which is especially advantageous when dealing with thousands of servers."
"I like Ansible's ease of use. If you have Linux skills, you can create a reusable template for the dependencies and other configurations. I can store the templates in a repository and share them with my customers or other developers. It's a popular solution, so there is a large user base that can share templates."
"For my client, it has improved a lot of the problems that we had."
"The stability and reliability are great."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the ability to manage all of our environments allowing us to have better functionality and high availability."
"The platform is straightforward and user friendly."
"We can scale the solution as needed."
"What I like is the ability to spin up a virtual machine from an image, which makes my backup policy much easier."
"It's a very nice solution for our needs."
"There are a lot of features, but I've found vMotion and VRS most valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to see which virtual machines need more resources or are over-committed."
 

Cons

"Intune is a good product for UEM, which is helpful for Windows 10 management. However, for MAM, there is lots of improvement needed."
"No option to do end-to-en macOS management. Slow implementation of policies."
"A detailed device diagnostic feature is missing. Also, operating system deployment and imaging are missing."
"I'm still playing around with it and haven't had any issues with the product yet, but support can definitely be improved."
"I have realized that while it provides a lot of granular control on Windows devices, it has comparatively less functionality for Mac."
"A feature I would want to see added in Microsoft Intune is the ability to manage other non-Microsoft devices."
"The reporting and troubleshooting experience with Microsoft Intune could be improved because clearer and more detailed error reporting for failed policies or applications installed would make administration much easier, especially when diagnosing policy sync or device compliance issues across large environments."
"Intune's server management could be better. If it could incorporate more features from System Center into Intune's Configuration Manager, it would be beneficial."
"In my opinion, one thing that needs improvement is mass updates: How I can parallelize that process a little bit better?"
"The documentation for the installation step of deployment, OpenStack, etc., and these things have to be a bit more detailed."
"Improvements should be made in terms of execution speed, which is, I believe, the most lacking feature. Aside from that, re-triggering a failed task is another useful feature."
"It needs better documentation."
"Ansible has just been upgraded, and the only issue that we are seeing at the moment is that the user interface can be slow. We're currently investigating the refresh period with Red Hat when you click a job and run a job. It seems that the buffer no longer runs in real-time. We haven't discovered whether that's partially an issue with our environment, but Red Hat has come back and said that they're working on a couple of bugs in the background. We've upgraded to that version in the last six months, and that's the only issue that we've seen."
"It would be good to make the solution more user-friendly,"
"In modern infrastructure, there are more than just servers. The initial server-centric approach in Ansible is a bit strange."
"There is always room for improvement in features or customer support."
"If the solution could manage on-premises and cloud resources with the help of one tool, it would be an extra agent."
"The interface itself is not very user-friendly."
"vCenter Configuration Manager could improve by having more integration."
"The price could be reduced."
"The cost of this solution should be improved."
"It lacks the capability to manage the other systems."
"The ease of setup and installations could be improved."
"The tool's performance needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While Microsoft charges for actual usage, it lacks discount options."
"Microsoft licenses are costly."
"Microsoft Intune is expensive."
"Our Office 365 Business Premium license, including Office 365 and Intune Management, offers excellent value."
"It is not expensive."
"It's affordable. In comparison to the competitors, the price depends on what features you need from Intune, but it's affordable. There are no hidden costs, but there are some features that go for a premium price. Those are the add-ons for which you have to pay extra."
"Microsoft Intune's pricing is reasonable."
"There is a license needed to use the solution and we are on an annual license."
"Users have to pay a per-node cost of around $ 100 per node."
"It’s an open-source tool."
"The pricing for us is huge because we use twenty thousand nodes, so that is a huge infrastructure, but if someone is using a small infrastructure, then the pricing is not so much."
"I am using the community edition of the solution which is free."
"It is a little pricey but it is affordable. It is not that bad."
"Customers need to pay yearly for the license."
"The pricing is pretty standard."
"Ansible Tower is free. Until they lower the cost, we are holding off on purchasing the product."
"It is on a yearly basis."
"Their licensing costs are high. But I think for the scale that we are using, it's suitable. If you use it on a larger scale with many servers, you have to pay a lot of money for them. I think it's suitable for organizations that don't need expert people that want more money each year or each month because it's a straightforward solution. We prefer to pay for these products that are integrated and straightforward."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, it is reasonably priced compared to competitors."
"While the pricing is reasonable for large corporations, it presents a substantial financial challenge for medium-sized businesses."
"The solution comes with three-year support. We have to renew the support annually after the three years are up."
"I have a license to cover four hosts."
"It is an expensive product."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
6%
Outsourcing Company
18%
Construction Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business195
Midsize Enterprise64
Large Enterprise190
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise52
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?
Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management h...
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was very simple. There ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vCenter Configuration Manager?
Nowadays, it is a bit expensive. It's costly, primarily due to the licensing aspect.
What needs improvement with vCenter Configuration Manager?
My impression on the impact of the real-time monitoring features of vCenter Configuration Manager is that it's somewh...
What is your primary use case for vCenter Configuration Manager?
My usual use cases for vCenter Configuration Manager mainly involve migration, shift and lift mainly, and some type o...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Subscription on AWS
vCM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Bank Al Bilad, Thomas-Krenn.AG, Pronto!, Unimed Juiz de Fora
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs. vCenter Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.