VMware Aria Automation vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

vCenter Configuration Manager and VMware Aria Automation are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. vCenter Configuration Manager is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.8, while VMware Aria Automation is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.2. vCenter Configuration Manager holds a 2.1% mindshare in CM, compared to VMware Aria Automation’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of vCenter Configuration Manager users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of VMware Aria Automation users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

vCenter Configuration Manager and VMware Aria Automation compete in the IT automation and management category. Users are happier with VMware Aria Automation due to its robust feature set despite the higher price.

Features: vCenter Configuration Manager provides strong compliance management, automated audits, and comprehensive reporting. VMware Aria Automation offers scalability, flexibility in automating IT tasks, and excellent integration capabilities. Users rate VMware Aria Automation higher for these advanced features.

Room for Improvement: vCenter Configuration Manager could improve user experience and system integration. VMware Aria Automation needs to reduce complexity and improve documentation. Users are more vocal about needed improvements in vCenter Configuration Manager.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vCenter Configuration Manager is straightforward to deploy but has mixed reviews on customer service. VMware Aria Automation has a complex deployment but excellent customer service. Users prefer VMware Aria Automation’s customer service despite deployment challenges.

Pricing and ROI: vCenter Configuration Manager is cost-effective and gives a good return on investment. VMware Aria Automation, while more expensive, offers superior features and a higher ROI. Users find VMware Aria Automation worth the extra expense due to its premium feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

June 2026

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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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.9%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 4.1%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune	4.9%
VMware Aria Automation	4.1%
vCenter Configuration Manager	2.1%
Other	88.9%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

OluwashileAdeniyi

Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Centralized endpoint security has improved and supports hybrid work and BYOD policies

Regarding what I dislike about Microsoft Intune and its downsides, I would say that more Mac controls are needed because we have limited Mac and Linux control. When comparing controls and policies between Windows, Mac, and Linux, Windows has almost everything you can think of, while Mac and Linux have limited types of control. You cannot implement certain things on Mac and Linux that you can on Windows. The limited controls are a major issue. Additionally, if Microsoft could find a way to embed servers into Microsoft Intune, that would be beneficial. Microsoft Intune is not really designed for servers or Windows servers. It is more tailored towards Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems. Windows servers are not fully supported. Enterprise organizations usually have both servers and endpoints, which are users' workstations. For servers, most people look for other solutions such as SCCM, which is Configuration Manager. However, SCCM is what Microsoft Intune is trying to replace. Both SCCM and Microsoft Intune belong to Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to transition organizations into Microsoft Intune, the native cloud solution. However, because this update is still in process, servers are not fully compatible with Microsoft Intune and cannot be managed by it. The current policy that has emerged from issues with clients is what they call co-management, which is relatively new, and I do not know if adoption is significant. Many legacy or older customers who have been using these products for decades still have SCCM. When it is time for them to manage their Windows devices, they use what is called cloud attach. Cloud attach is a term whereby your SCCM is connected to your Microsoft Intune. Most people do not know about it, but I have deployed it for several organizations. Cloud attach and co-management work together so that your device is in SCCM, but some policies are pushed from Microsoft Intune. It is like two different solutions working hand in hand. That is what they call co-management. Microsoft Intune does not bring all of your endpoint and security management tools into one place, which is the goal and how it should be. However, as I mentioned, servers are not included. If we talk about end users, Microsoft Intune does bring all your devices together. In a typical enterprise environment, you have end users with workstations, laptops, company-issued phones, and bring your own devices. You can create policies for all of these. However, for the backend, your servers do not have much coverage. Servers are not really covered by Microsoft Intune in that way.

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Mohamad Irshidat

Principal Consultant Engineer at Estarta Solutions

Migration streamlines processes while real-time monitoring opportunities remain

The migration feature of vCenter Configuration Manager is the most loved feature so far. This particular feature is valuable because it is vendor-oriented and works with VMware, which makes your life easy. Regarding system reliability, it is helpful. When you design it for the process, it will help you minimize the downtime, and it will help the reliability of the system. vCenter Configuration Manager has impacted my organization positively, but it's not fully deployed yet; we only use it for one or two tasks, and our team goes back to using the vCenter itself. However, further on, maybe we'll find a use case that will help us use the configuration manager.

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VasilisGiannitsiotis

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.

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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

"Implementing Microsoft Intune is easy."

"The reporting and analytics features in Microsoft Intune have been a lifesaver."

"We were able to deploy about 65 computers in under two weeks to a completely remote user base without touching any of the machines."

"The feature of remotely wiping devices in Microsoft Intune is what I prefer the most."

"Using Azure and Intune has helped us resolve most of these issues, as we no longer need a physical infrastructure to manage systems and can push policies remotely while maintaining control over the devices."

"It helps us manage user certificates."

"I particularly appreciate the administration and security features, which can be deployed easily."

"I would rate the stability of Microsoft Intune nine out of ten."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"People will purchase this solution because it is cost-effective and it suits ERP or CRM for the virtual environment solution."

"vCenter Configuration Manager is pretty simple."

"vCenter has some good user experience, and the initial setup is straightforward."

"The solution is easily scalable, stable, and user-friendly, with very good technical support and documentation that makes the initial setup quite easy."

"vCenter Configuration Manager is a stable solution that is very easy to manage and deploy."

"The market share of VMware is huge. It is not even necessary to prove the capabilities attached to the product."

"We can scale the solution as needed."

"The platform is straightforward and user friendly."

More vCenter Configuration Manager pros

"Official documentation and community support are top notch."

"The most valuable features are the metrics and reporting aspects. The historical data and extraction enable us to tell where the trends are and where contentions may exist in the future."

"Scalability is probably the best part about it, because you can take things that you've already defined, that you've already built once, and build them again multiple times, without significant effort."

"We have scaled from two servers to about 140 servers in a very short period of time, which would have been a nightmare had it not been for the SaltStack configurations."

"It improves the work, making it better."

"We did the POC and we managed to cut those six or seven hours to around half an hour a day or so."

"Overall, it has performed phenomenally and the support behind it has made it absolutely useful."

"Our time to deliver a fully unified three-tier app, at the right version, is one-twentieth what it was before. There is no manual intervention. No IP management. It just dramatically simplifies all of our processes."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"Reporting and troubleshooting for the application deployment could be better. It's very difficult to understand."

"Intune has some limitations when it comes to application updates for third-party applications. You can schedule an update, but when it's a package setup, you need to supercede and replace it each time."

"The solution needs to improve reporting. Sometimes, it shows double or triple entries of the same thing, which affects the count's accuracy. Also, some applications onboarded in Microsoft Intune do not get updated. When we look for solutions online, there is often no clear answer."

"However, I dislike how it lags sometimes. I cannot work on multiple processes at the same time."

"The support is not very good. It's very poor."

"The documentation about the custom image setup could be better. Although Microsoft provides the steps to configure Intune or set up or deploy Intune, it doesn't have much information related to custom images. If you ask, "how can we deploy the custom image?" There is no information. The steps they mention ask you to connect to your on-premises environment or create your own image on the cloud itself once there is connectivity. But I needed to go to multiple websites to get all this information. I had to figure out how to upload the custom image if you want to use the on-premise custom image for Cloud PC. If you have the proper subscription, you must have the right access, like global admin or owner. Then you can add your custom image to that. There are no steps mentioned over there. Microsoft Intune doesn't have Chrome browser support. I would like to have that support because they will want it if we pitch the product to clients."

"In terms of the admin experience, it is straightforward, but the Windows enrollment experience could be improved. Sometimes, for enrollment, we have to reset devices and re-enroll them. Just configuring Windows, Azure, or Active Directory doesn't enroll the devices. We need easy enrollment for Windows."

"Installing software in Microsoft Intune can be challenging if it is not already prepackaged."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"It lacks the capability to manage the other systems."

"The Self Service Interface is not very good and it needs improvement."

"This product is not cheap. I have a yearly license for vCenter and the license is not cheap."

"There could be an option for clients to manage the tool as well."

"It is not so user-friendly that you can just start the host and everything works."

"The technical support could be faster."

"The ease of setup and installations could be improved."

"Their licensing needs to be improved."

More vCenter Configuration Manager cons

"It's not a smooth upgrade process. For a DTA environment, which is very simple, it is a smooth process, but for our production environment, which is quite enhanced and has a lot of dependencies, it's not easy at all, and it results in a lot of errors... It takes a lot of retries to upgrade which ends up being costly."

"One pain point we have seen is users are able to set their lease expirations to zero, which means the lifecycle management gets disabled."

"Better training, or training modules, wouldn't hurt."

"There is some performance lag, but that could be on our end."

"They should concentrate on navigation and service improvements."

"It is complex to use for new users. It should have automated tools or drag-and-drop functionality."

"The initial setup was not straightforward. It was not simple, and we had a PoC. We had VMware help us deploy it, and it took them an exorbitant amount of time."

"There is an area of improvement. For example, you are migrating from a customer's existing data center to a new target data center. To facilitate this transition, you'll initially need to evaluate the customer's aging hardware hosting VMware, which is nearing the end of its operational life. The customer expresses the intention to upgrade to a newer version, necessitating an overhaul of everything in the new data center. As a Systems Integrator (SI), consultant, or architect, your recommendation would be to acquire the latest hardware with a specified configuration and then install VMware on top of it. However, there's a crucial aspect related to the infrastructure requirements for VMware to run seamlessly on that hardware. If there's an opportunity to potentially reduce these infrastructure prerequisites, it would be highly beneficial."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for Microsoft Intune is reasonable. Our clients are satisfied."

"Microsoft Intune is not cost-effective as a standalone product."

"The Intune license model is costly."

"Intune is inexpensive. It also comes bundled in some Office 365 licenses, so you can choose to purchase it separately or as a package."

"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."

"With our standard E5 agreement with Microsoft, there have been no pricing concerns. Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs."

"The cost of the license and the features are justified for myself as a technical person."

"No one can compete with Microsoft when it comes to price, and the features it is offering."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"While the pricing is reasonable for large corporations, it presents a substantial financial challenge for medium-sized businesses."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"Price-wise, the product is an affordable one. The additional expenses, apart from the licensing costs of the solution, are attached to the support a user wants to receive from vCenter Configuration Manager's end."

"Users need to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive."

"The product is highly-priced."

"I am not knowledgeable with the pricing of the product."

"It's a large application. It consumes a lot of resources. Sometimes the price is too high for our customers. If they buy it directly from VMware, its hard to convince the customer that we will bring down the total cost of ownership, in the end."

"It is an expensive solution."

More vCenter Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

"Customers say this solution is costlier compared to its competitors."

"I would rate it high because, compared to other solutions, VMware’s pricing is quite expensive. VMware products have become significantly more costly in recent years, leading to higher costs."

"The tool is expensive since it is an enterprise product."

"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."

"vRealize automation really should be a front door to the whole VMware suite of products."

"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."

"The solution is free of cost."

"I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with ten being very expensive."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Construction Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	192
Midsize Enterprise	62
Large Enterprise	185

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	131

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 ...

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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...

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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 ...

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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.

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

IBM MaaS360 vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 4% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 4% of the time

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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 15% of the time

Perforce Puppet vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 10% of the time

BigFix vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 9% of the time

Clarity CA vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 6% of the time

BMC TrueSight Automation for Networks vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 5% of the time

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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

June 2026

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Buyer's Guide

vCenter Configuration Manager

May 2026

Download vCenter Configuration Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

May 2026

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

vCM

VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack

Overview

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.

Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Windows Autopilot: Automates device setup for rapid deployment.
Azure Active Directory Integration: Enhances user policy management.
Reporting and Analytics: Improves compliance visibility.
Mobile Application Management: Ensures app security without compromising personal data.
Cloud-Based Management: Allows management from any location.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Time Efficiency: Automation reduces time in policy enforcement and configuration updates.
Enhanced Security: Ensures data protection across corporate-owned and BYOD devices.
Improved Compliance: Advanced reporting tools enhance compliance visibility.
Flexible Management: Cloud-based nature supports management from any location.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.

Microsoft

vCenter Configuration Manager offers a robust platform for managing virtual environments and optimizing IT infrastructure. It supports multiple platforms while facilitating virtualization, migration, and compliance processes.

vCenter Configuration Manager efficiently manages virtual machines, data centers, and servers. It enhances system performance through automation and centralized management of ESXi clusters. Known for its reliability, it also simplifies patch management and supports hyper-converged infrastructure. Challenges include improving integration, user interaction, and support for cloud and hybrid environments. Licensing transitions and compatibility issues with operating systems are areas of focus. Its strong presence in India enhances VMware environments.

What are vCenter Configuration Manager's key features?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation tasks.
VM Management: Efficient management of virtual machines.
Migration Capabilities: Streamlines the migration process.
High Availability: Ensures continuous operation without downtime.
Automation: Facilitates automated processes to improve efficiency.
Support for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: Enhances the IT environment's scalability.
vMotion and DRS: Critical for disaster recovery and business continuity.

What benefits and ROI should reviews highlight?

Resource Management: Optimizes resource allocation and utilization.
Ease of Provisioning: Simplifies deploying IT assets across the organization.
Compliance Management: Ensures regulatory compliance and governance.
Reliable Stability: Provides a stable and robust IT environment.

vCenter Configuration Manager is implemented across sectors like healthcare and industry. It manages virtualization, server oversight, and host monitoring. Its automation and patch management streamline IT processes, making it a valuable tool for managing diverse IT infrastructures effectively.

Broadcom

VMware Aria Automation is known for its automation capabilities, integrating with VMware and third-party tools to enhance workflow efficiency, save time, and manage resources effectively.

VMware Aria Automation offers a diverse set of features including a self-service portal and a streamlined user-friendly interface, which make it ideal for organizations aiming to automate virtual machine provisioning. The platform supports extensive automation capabilities across multi-cloud environments, featuring flexible blueprint designs and comprehensive integration with platforms like AWS, Azure, and ServiceNow. Though improvements are desired in areas like logging, template management, and vCenter integration, its robust framework facilitates IT infrastructure services, disaster recovery, and development operations. It is specifically beneficial for orchestrating workflows, automating routine tasks, and managing workloads efficiently in private and hybrid cloud environments.

What are the most important features of VMware Aria Automation?

Self-Service Portal: Empowers users with easy access to resources and tools needed for automation.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and usage for both technical and non-technical users.
Extensive Automation Capabilities: Streamlines VM deployment and processes across various platforms.
Integration with VMware and Third-Party Tools: Enhances workflow automation and extends functionality.
Flexible Blueprint Designs: Allows for customized and scalable deployment solutions.

What are the benefits and ROI users should consider?

Efficiency: Reduces manual workload, leading to time and cost savings.
Scalability: Supports dynamic growth and resource management.
Enhanced Workflow Automation: Improves process efficiency with comprehensive integrations.
Customizable Orchestration: Enables tailored solutions that meet specific requirements.
Resource Management: Efficiently utilizes resources, reducing waste and optimizing operations.

VMware Aria Automation is implemented across industries for automating the provisioning of virtual machines and managing cloud environments. It is used in sectors requiring efficient server deployment, network configurations, and seamless integration with tools such as AWS and Azure. It aids in reducing manual efforts, supporting IT infrastructure services, and enhancing disaster recovery protocols.

Broadcom

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

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

June 2026

Free Report: VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

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