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VMware Aria Automation vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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)
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
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Configuration Management
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
172
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (2nd), Network Automation (7th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (29th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (7th)
 

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 vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 3.9%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune4.2%
VMware Aria Automation3.9%
vCenter Configuration Manager2.2%
Other89.7%
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.
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.
VasilisGiannitsiotis - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT at ITSolutions
Automation has streamlined complex financial workflows but still needs more intuitive orchestration
Something to improve in VMware Aria Automation would be related to VCF 9, as I do not know what it is trying to bring because they exposed it as the solution of everything. So VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware. I have not seen what this brings or what else it includes. Maybe in the area of vRealize Orchestrator, this would be beneficial because VRO can do everything. Perhaps a more user-friendly way to use that tool would be helpful because the possibilities there are endless. I am looking for more user-friendly navigation in VMware Aria Automation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The mobile application management, MAM, is the most useful aspect of the solution."
"Microsoft Endpoint Manager is not expensive overall, especially for small environments."
"Based on my experience, I find Intune very flexible for managing Windows devices. We can use scripting, and we can make use of the self-service portal or the company portal to publish some of the applications for Windows."
"The solution has significantly improved managing a diverse range of devices. We have observed enhancements across Android, iOS, and Windows devices."
"The interface is user-friendly, and the reporting tool works in real-time."
"There are so many features, but Windows Autopilot is one of the features that are very valuable for most customers."
"The security compliance capabilities make it widely adopted across organizations."
"What I appreciate about Microsoft Intune is that it is easy for me to deploy software to an environment with 600 laptops."
"It is a stable solution."
"Our clients have better knowledge of how they have to provision hardware and when they will need to provision hardware, making for more predictable environments and preventing future problems."
"vCenter Configuration Manager is a stable solution that is very easy to manage and deploy."
"The technical support of VMware on Dell is excellent."
"All of these features serve different purposes and are very useful."
"The most valuable feature of vCenter Configuration Manager is the automated processes."
"This solution is good for individual storage."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to see which virtual machines need more resources or are over-committed."
"It's increased the efficiency, as there's less manual work through vRA and now Orchestrator is the one doing most of the work and making everything more automated."
"It cuts out a lot of waste, unutilized hardware, and improves performance."
"Before it would take months to deploy a VM, now, with this solution, we can deploy many VMs in one hour. We can do a stack of them with Mediaware."
"We have seen significant ROI, as we used to have physical servers that took 90 days to get a server ordered, bought, and installed, and now with virtualization we have it down to a couple of minutes for customers to have a server."
"The setup is getting better with each version."
"It provides velocity both from management and customer perspectives, from ingesting new catalog items, developing new workflows for additional features, and/or allowing customer access to multiple guest OS instances at scale in a shorter time frame."
"One of the valuable features is controlling VM standards and server sprawl while at the same time providing the ability for end users to self-provision VMs."
"We have it deployed in a highly-available environment and scalability is nice because we just had another ESX host and then we are able to increase the capacity."
 

Cons

"It would be great to see on-premises mailboxes and for the solution to have geofencing capabilities."
"Reporting in Microsoft Intune presents challenges because the built-in reports are often too basic."
"Packages on different identity provider platforms that are not supported present challenges for package installation."
"The platform is incredibly slow and could be more responsive. Specifically, when making changes to security policies, I would like to see those changes take effect more quickly."
"There is room for improvement in Microsoft Intune regarding Linux and Mac compatibility because some limitations exist."
"There could be more features added. For me, as I mentioned, one area is the reporting. If the reporting became better, I think you would not need to use more RMMs."
"However, there are some areas that need improvement, such as the troubleshooting part, which could be simpler."
"The Mac integration has room for improvement."
"This is a good solution but it has too many configurations for what it does. In that sense, it's not particularly user friendly and requires too many clicks."
"There are some complexities within the system center. For example, we use two different applications for updates and the deployment of the machine. We also have another third party solution."
"The technical support is not bad. It is good internally for our organization, and we are not facing any problems now. We have not taken platinum support, so our teams that are operating from the client site will have to wait longer to get their problems fixed."
"The price could be reduced."
"There is room for improvement in operating and managing cluster environments and maintenance. And hardware environment visibility."
"The tool needs to improve its interface."
"The Self Service Interface is not very good and it needs improvement."
"Users need to pay a licensing fee for the solution, which could be cheaper."
"There are a lot of usability issues which I have. Overall, the product feels bloated and cumbersome."
"Something as simple as formatting the catalog in a different way would be helpful because there is no option for doing so. A lot of the contents for the virtual machine, blueprints that you can request, are hidden from view and there's no way to change the view."
"It requires a lot of Windows servers, which we don't like, and the external load balancer configurations, which we also don't like."
"In terms of usability, it has had its challenges. It requires a lot of custom code to integrate into our environment."
"With distributed, installation is a pain. I have always gotten into errors when employing a distributed environment, which provides High Availability."
"It is complex to use for new users. It should have automated tools or drag-and-drop functionality."
"Master/minion connections are subject to hijacking, privilege escalation, and/or information leaks."
"vRO can get out of sync with vRA. We've run into every once in a while."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."
"The price for Intune is fair."
"We are partners, so we receive some discount. However, from the customer's perspective, Microsoft Intune's pricing is competitive with non-Microsoft technology, and the price is good compared to other market competitors."
"The pricing needs improvement."
"I am not that aware of the pricing, but as compared to other MDM solutions, Microsoft is providing a lot of things at the organizational level. So, it is quite reasonable as compared to other MDM solutions."
"Microsoft Intune is included in the E5 license at no additional cost."
"Our Office 365 Business Premium license, including Office 365 and Intune Management, offers excellent value."
"The product is offered as part of a Microsoft standard bundle. The pricing can be competitive to Airwatch, and Maas360."
"There is a free license for the standard version. Their enterprise version is expensive. I would advise starting with one server and working your way up as you go. The enterprise version provides support."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, it is reasonably priced compared to competitors."
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten. The product has increased its cost by at least two to three times its previous cost."
"While the pricing is reasonable for large corporations, it presents a substantial financial challenge for medium-sized businesses."
"It is on a yearly basis."
"It is an expensive product."
"The solution comes with three-year support. We have to renew the support annually after the three years are up."
"We have to pay for the whole bundle and individual pricing is not available. One license costs us almost $200 every year."
"The tool is expensive since it is an enterprise product."
"It made the provisioning of the virtual machines easier and faster. We can react more quickly to customers' demands."
"It is an expensive product. After VMware's acquisition by Broadcom, there was a rise in the price of VMware Aria Automation."
"SaltStack is an open-source product."
"The pricing is very high."
"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."
"We have seen significant ROI. We used to have physical servers, it took 90 days to get a server, order it, buy it, and get it in. We have it down to 10 minutes, building a server with virtualization, and now that's too slow. So, we let the customer do it at their speed. Therefore, it is pretty much up in a couple of minutes and they have a server."
"The solution is free of cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
18%
Construction Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
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 Business27
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise131
 

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 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...
What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?
vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything y...
Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?
When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A fre...
Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?
I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of compa...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
vCM
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Bank Al Bilad, Thomas-Krenn.AG, Pronto!, Unimed Juiz de Fora
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Find out what your peers are saying about VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.