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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
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
356
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
vCenter Configuration Manager
Ranking in Configuration Management
15th
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
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
172
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (3rd), Network Automation (6th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (20th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 5.4%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 4.1%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune5.4%
VMware Aria Automation4.1%
vCenter Configuration Manager2.0%
Other88.5%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

Varun Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
Collaboration Support Engineer at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Centralized device management has transformed security and streamlined remote provisioning
One area where Microsoft Intune can improve is the user interface. Sometimes the portal feels a bit complex and not very intuitive, especially for new users, and it can take time to find specific settings. Another point is troubleshooting. While logs are available, the diagnostic policies and sync issues can still be time-consuming and not very straightforward. I also feel that reporting could be more detailed and customizable. The built-in reports are helpful, but for deeper insights, I often need to rely on additional tools. Overall, it is a strong solution, but improving usability and troubleshooting experience would make it even better. While Microsoft Intune works very well within the Microsoft ecosystem, the integration of some third-party tools could be smoother and require less customization. Support is another area that could improve, as sometimes response times can be slow, and resolving complex issues may take longer than expected. In terms of features, I think more advanced automation and built-in remediation options would be helpful since common issues can be fixed automatically without manual intervention.
MI
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.
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 most valuable feature is Intune's ability to push out updates for the security and antivirus. I also like Intune's copilot and the ability to automate processes. For example, if you have 5,000 employees who are issued new PCs and you need to set them up with everything they need."
"Microsoft Intune has improved endpoint visibility, simplified remote device management, and helped standardize security policies across both corporate and remote devices."
"Microsoft Intune is a core product, and it's very stable"
"I would rate the stability of Microsoft Intune nine out of ten."
"Microsoft Intune is a tool designed for enterprise customers to protect enterprise data from leakage or sharing."
"Intune's most valuable features are the device, compliance, and configuration policies."
"Maturity makes it a stable product."
"I find Microsoft Intune valuable primarily for its Windows management capabilities, along with its Android Enterprise and Apple device management for mobile devices."
"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."
"The tool's scalability is good and easy, especially when compared to Microsoft Hyper-V."
"Reliable, stable and scalable."
"There are a lot of useful features, such as DRS, ease of use, and many configuration options."
"The technical support services are good."
"I like vMotion because it manages fault tolerance."
"The most valuable features of vCenter Configuration Manager are highly mature technology."
"The online configuration, especially in the latest version, is very good."
"I recommend the product due to its effectiveness in automation and integration."
"Before, it took us two days to provision new machines, and today the whole process is done in about two hours."
"The setup was complex in many ways. The first reason is that we have many teams who work on it so it gets complicated gathering all of the people. The second reason is that it can be complicated to install it quickly, within a reasonable amount of time."
"We are able to provide self-service to all of our IT/development teams to expand and decrease their environments at will."
"We have been able to reduce the process to around 30 minutes."
"SaltStack gave us very useful automation tools that allowed us to standardize our environment, move at a much faster pace through repeatable deployments, and self-documentation of our infrastructure."
"usability; Ease of use, the GUI, is probably the best feature, so that really anybody can use it. You don't have to be technical to be able to deploy a VM. I find it to be intuitive and user-friendly. Regarding some of the files that you feed it, you don't have to do a ton of development. You can feed it pretty standard configuration files. You don't have to be a developer, you don't have to know C# or Java or the like to get it going."
"Aria Automation gives you the flexibility to deploy tenants with customized blueprints for permissions and policies."
 

Cons

"It can improve for new users; in the starting phase, we found that the logs are too complex or scattered."
"Intune should be much more granular in terms of supporting more Android cellular devices."
"Support is another area that could improve, as sometimes response times can be slow, and resolving complex issues may take longer than expected."
"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."
"They can improve their MAM policies a little bit more and make them more granular. They should include more granular group policies. They are there, but they need to be more granular. Its stability should also be improved. It is not very stable. Sometimes, it shows some inconsistencies across tenants."
"Intune should improve the management of non-Microsoft devices. It would be better to manage Mac, Android, and other non-Microsoft operating system devices within the same Intune interface."
"It doesn't economize when you scale up. We have over 14,000 employees, and we have between 7,500 and 8,000 city-owned or personal devices being used to conduct city business."
"My assessment of the user experience of Microsoft Intune is that it is sometimes good and sometimes poor, depending on Microsoft's infrastructure."
"The VxRail configuration is very complicated and a little bit too difficult to guess what the final product is going to be."
"There could be an option for clients to manage the tool as well."
"The Self Service Interface is not very good and it needs improvement."
"The price of the solution is too expensive for us and we are looking to move to another solution."
"If the solution could manage on-premises and cloud resources with the help of one tool, it would be an extra agent."
"Configuration Manager's reporting could be better. I need to use a third-party reporting solution to get the details."
"Some of the migrations are difficult to manage since the solution is not compatible with a few of the operating systems, which poses a challenge during the physical to virtual migration process."
"My impression on the impact of the real-time monitoring features of vCenter Configuration Manager is that it's somewhat good, but you cannot find the full log message; you have to dig deep in order to get it."
"They could extend the ability to use vRealize Orchestrator Automation for organizations with multiple tenants. It should be easier to operate and extend different capabilities from vRealize Orchestrator. Currently, it's difficult to build advanced services in Aria Automation because you need to use the vRealize Orchestrator."
"We have seen couple of bugs."
"I would like them to improve the product training."
"Now, it's pretty stable, as long as you do not touch it. However, upgrades are always a pain."
"The initial setup is very complex because we have a bunch of customization workflows. They were built-in features that we had to program as code with Orchestration."
"There are a number of bugs and regression errors that can make it frustrating at times, but given the flexibility so far I have found adequate workarounds."
"I don't find the solution to be intuitive and user- friendly. The GUI is really complicated."
"VMware needs to make it to where it is not as custom. Right now, you spend a lot of time making the services work."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune is linked with Microsoft. We can deploy the Microsoft E365 license to users by Intune. There are different types of licenses, such as device administrator licenses, E5 licenses for device enrollment manually, and P1 and p2 licenses for device enrollment automatically. These are the licenses required for the administration."
"It comes as a bundle, so you do not really know what the prices are. Microsoft does not break it down to the user cost for us. It is just bundled with our E5 license."
"The pricing is inherently reasonable, as Microsoft leverages market insights to maintain the total cost of ownership at around ninety to ninety-five percent of what would be incurred in an on-premise scenario."
"Microsoft Intune is reasonably priced for large organizations that already have Microsoft Enterprise licenses, but it is less affordable for smaller businesses."
"Its price is quite okay. I wish they provide certain additional features with the same license."
"If you're subscribing to Premium or E3, there are no additional costs for Intune, it's included."
"Microsoft Intune is more expensive than other solutions, but it offers a wider range of features and control."
"With one user base license, we can use Intune for up to five devices. However, with Soti MobiControl, each license is tied to a single device, meaning one license is dedicated to one device only."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, it is reasonably priced compared to competitors."
"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."
"While the pricing is reasonable for large corporations, it presents a substantial financial challenge for medium-sized businesses."
"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."
"The pricing is mid-range so I rate it a six out of ten."
"The product price and licensing fees are reasonable, especially when compared to other products in the market."
"We have to pay for the whole bundle and individual pricing is not available. One license costs us almost $200 every year."
"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."
"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."
"This is an expensive product and the high price is starting to become an issue for us."
"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"It is an open-source product."
"So much can be done with the Open Source side, and especially for smaller shops. I personally think the pricing for Enterprise is hard to justify."
"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."
"It is an expensive product. After VMware's acquisition by Broadcom, there was a rise in the price of VMware Aria Automation."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business152
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise178
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise130
 

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: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.