The primary use case for TFS is for sharing data.
Senior Manager, Information Technology at a university with 201-500 employees
Scalable, reliable, and simple initial setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of TFS is integration."
- "The solution should have better dashboards."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of TFS is integration.
What needs improvement?
The solution should have better dashboards.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been at TFS for approximately 10 years.
Buyer's Guide
TFS
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about TFS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
861,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
TFS is a stable solution, but it could be more stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of TFS is good.
We have approximately 200 users using this solution in my organization.
How are customer service and support?
I have not needed to contact the support, my team is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial installation is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We use one to two people for the implementation and support of the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate TFS a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Onsite Consultant & Technical Architect at Cybage Software
The best tool for Microsoft enterprises
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is integration, particularly if you have a .NET application."
- "TFS isn't a great tool if you're on the cloud."
What is our primary use case?
TFS is mainly used for day-to-day project management i.e. all the tasks, user stories, and test case management are done on TFS.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is integration, particularly if you have a .NET application because it nicely integrates the CI/CD pipeline where you can automate your build whenever developers check the code. It also has great integration support with Visual Studio.
What needs improvement?
TFS isn't a great tool if you're on the cloud, so the cloud version could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with TFS for over ten years.
How was the initial setup?
TFS is a Microsoft tool, so it's very straightforward to set up.
What other advice do I have?
TFS is nicely suited for enterprises running Microsoft, but if you're using a different technology, I'd advise exploring other tools as well. I would rate TFS eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
TFS
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about TFS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
861,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Program Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Quality version control, good backlog management, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "Some of the valuable features are version control and the ability to create different collections in terms of segregating the authorization for teams who connect to small projects."
- "This solution is quite old and it is already being bundled as Azure DevOps Server."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution mainly for store version control, backlog and product management.
What is most valuable?
Some of the valuable features are version control and the ability to create different collections in terms of segregating the authorization for teams who connect to small projects. The hierarchy they have is nice. The backlog management tool is good, you can manage your product backlog very easily and then assign your comments against it.
What needs improvement?
This solution is quite old and it is already being bundled as Azure DevOps Server.
In an upcoming release, more integration is needed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have found the solution to be scalable. There are approximately ten people using the solution in my organization.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Jira In the past and if you compare Jira with Microsoft, Jira integrates from portfolio to project, to product, to version control management. Everything is linked in Jira. If you have a company portfolio of several programs that someone can see. If your responsibility is at a program level, you can see all the projects under it. You can even go to product backlogs for each program and got the code version control to see the programs being developed.
In terms of Microsoft, they have an organization structure. You can create multiple organizations, but Azure DevOps is only for product management. If you have your project risks and plan, that is outside Azure DevOps. You have to go to a separate tool in Microsoft, which is Microsoft Project. If you want to go to content management, if you stay in Jira you have another tool, which is also integrated into the overall platform, and that is called Confluence Content Management. If you use Microsoft, then either you need to do it on SharePoint or you will be using Teams.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was easy.
What about the implementation team?
We had a team doing the implementation, it was their first time and they did not have any problems. It took less than a week to do the full implementation. The amount of implementation personnel depends on the scope of the operation, but if you just want to get it up and running, then one person is enough.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is cheaper than other competitors and it is a per-user license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I was using TFS in my previous company, which I recently left. Where I am currently employed, I looking to get Azure DevOps, and there will be approximately 20 to 40 users. It is a bigger project, it has more developers involved. This is where we are right now comparing what to go with DevOps or with Jira, or you can say Microsoft or Jira.
We did evaluate other solutions before this one. Since our use case for TFS was mainly version control. We looked at GitHub and Bitbucket, but I think the licensing model for TFS was cheaper than both of them.
What other advice do I have?
If someone is looking for version control software and product management software today, then I would recommend them to go for Azure DevOps. If they do not have any restrictions in terms of keeping their data on-cloud, then they should go with Azure DevOps Cloud Service, because then you will not have to worry about installing anything on the server. If you want to have an on-premise solution, then you can use the Azure DevOps Server version.
I rate TFS an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Test Lead at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reliable, scalable, easy to use queries, and proper traceability
Pros and Cons
- "As far as queries are concerned, creating, grading, or customizing the queries as a primary requirement is very easy to do."
- "The dashboard and the customization of dashboards is an area they have to work on."
What is our primary use case?
We use TFS for test management. Our entire project management is done through TFS.
We have our test cases uploaded, and we use it for user story tracking and progress tracking.
TFS is on our client's VMs.
What is most valuable?
What I like is the backlog management, as it is very easy to track at the feature level and move onto the big level. It offers proper traceability for this and the features.
As far as queries are concerned, creating, grading, or customizing the queries as a primary requirement is very easy to do. It's a user-friendly interface when working with queries.
What needs improvement?
TFS has to be more user-friendly. We could have some friendly dashboards, which I feel is missing here, where I can easily plug in the dashboard and use it.
Part of the test case upload is there, but it's an addon that is not being used at this time.
Creating dashboards is complicated. The dashboard and the customization of dashboards is an area they have to work on. It needs to be improved.
I would like to see improved dashboards with easy plug and play. There should be multiple templates that would be easily and readily available where I can track and create my view.
This is what I feel is missing or needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with TFS for three years.
We are working with an up-to-date version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
TFS is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
TFS is a scalable model. If I have to look into large projects, we have multiple agile teams having different backlogs. Having a view on this is rather scalable.
We have approximately 28 users for this current project, and we are using it on a daily basis.
We plan to keep using TFS.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not had any instances where I needed to contact the technical support team.
It goes back to our install team and they address the issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I was working with Jira and QC.
The change to TFS was because our client moved onto to TFS.
TFS is more stable and more scalable. We handling multiple projects using TFS. Usability is good and it's very easy for me to have traceability with a view on everything.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is done by our customer's IT team.
In our case, it's a matter of plug and play.
What other advice do I have?
In my opinion, I would say that TFS is more supportive of a large enterprise.
There is a lot of information available online.
The suitability of TFS depends on the requirements of the customer. If it is for Test Management, I would say that TFS is a product that they should consider if it's a large organization that has multiple or multi-thread implementations.
Overall, I would say it's fine and I would recommend it.
I would rate TFS and eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software QA Lead at Ajman Municipality
Good testing writing and bug tracking capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are test case writing and bug tracking."
- "The reporting functionality is something that they should work on."
What is our primary use case?
We have a DevOps team and we primarily use TFS for bug tracking.
How has it helped my organization?
The current dashboard has limited report charts, We need more in reporting as charts are not enough to represent project full stat.
Addition to that, configuring reporting service require a SQL report server, which is anextra cost and need allot of effort to build
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are test case writing and bug tracking.
What needs improvement?
The reporting functionality is something that they should work on.
The dashboards can be improved.
Migrating from version to version should be easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with TFS for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good and I would recommend it based on that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product. We have more than 50 users.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with similar solutions, albeit a long time back. Visual SourceSafe was one of them and it is now discontinued. We switched to TFS as part of an upgrade.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We have one or two people who are responsible for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay subscription fees on a yearly basis and the price is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
In summary, this is a good product and I strongly recommend it. If the reporting were enhanced then it would be even better.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Founder and CEO at CreaTech
Simple to use and it has fulfilled our requirements completely
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is simplicity."
- "They should have design patterns in TFS for the development team, and design patterns for the QA."
What is our primary use case?
I am an end-user, using this solution to assign tasks for my development team.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is simplicity. It's very easy.
It's simple to design and it's straightforward. This is an advantage for TFS.
What needs improvement?
They should have design patterns in TFS for the development team, and design patterns for the QA. QA around the world basically does the same thing, and also development. Similar to Scrum, they should have something already built-in.
I would like to see templates for design added, and the option to make it more complicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution. I have plans to increase usage.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I worked with Jira two years ago. As a product, Jira is better but it's much more complex. It is hard to design but after that, it's easy to use.
How was the initial setup?
It was already in place when I arrived. I was not a part of the initial setup or the deployment.
What other advice do I have?
It's a good product and it's fulfilled all that I want it to do.
I recommend this product. If you are looking for something simple, TFS is what you should use. If you are looking for a more complex solution then I would suggest going with Jira.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Solution Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Intuitive and solid, with very good branching and labelling features
Pros and Cons
- "Good branching and labelling features."
- "Integration from Visual Studio could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use TFS for source control and we use code to connect to TFS as well. It's all generated and the normal process for a developer; we take the latest coding, and whenever there is a build required, we get the latest from other developers and carry out the build. We also do branching and leveling. I'm a solution architect and our company has a partnership with Microsoft.
What is most valuable?
The features such as branching and labelling are very good because they actually help you create a master branch which is a running branch. You can then have other branches like staging correction. I also like the user interface, it's intuitive and easy to use and, most importantly, you can access it from the browser.
What needs improvement?
When you are trying to connect from Visual Studio code to TFS the integration isn't so easy and I think that could be improved. There's one feature we'd really like to see. If I want to scan through how many files have checked out by name, there are no extensions or plugins available for us to readily get the information from TFS because it's being managed by someone else. As a development partner, we're dependent on them for the details and our preference would be to have the ability to do that ourselves.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used multiple versions of TFS over the past decade.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is good. There are 20 developers in my specific project who use TFS for storing the code repository. We work on multiple projects so there can be anywhere up to 25 people in the company using the product at any one time. It's a development tool so we use it on a daily basis as a centralized code repository.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite simple. I found information from the Azure DevOps portal and they have a lot of videos.
What other advice do I have?
This is a good tool for core depository, but there are a lot of thing in TFS you can do: You can automate the entire update process. You can run your sprint and everything, it's a good option enterprise wise. Nowadays everything has DevOps so it's a good thing to use.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Good reporting, stable, and priced competitively
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the backlog."
- "The program and portfolio planning facility can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
At my previous company, I was using TFS for managing projects and code.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the backlog.
The reporting has improved over time, with the addition of Power BI reports.
What needs improvement?
There are a lot of places that Microsoft can improve this product, as well as their support.
The program and portfolio planning facility can be improved. As it is now, you can't do portfolio program planning functionality across multiple project Areas (vs. Team areas within a project area) because you cannot link items across projects. Reporting can be done using Power BI, but real time connections are difficult. You can use connectors and external integrations but you cannot do it with the tool. It needs to be better.
It is difficult to customize.
For how long have I used the solution?
I had been using Team Foundation Server for between four and five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is absolutely a stable platform. It is highly available and follows on the environment.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is possible to scale, albeit tricky. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is a challenge. It is a pain to get anything from Microsoft done. For example, working on patches and queries is slow. There was a lot of functionality that we wanted to embed that we had trouble with.
They changed the entire application lifecycle management suite, so it was a challenge to understand and navigate through how things would be done.
It is not a buggy product, but for new functionality, it is really a challenge. Especially in cloud-based deployments, it is even more challenging.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was using TFS at my previous company and my current organization uses JIRA. I would say that TFS is the more scalable of the two. With JIRA, you really need connectors and things like that. You have to have external addons to make it more scalable.
In terms of usability, JIRA might provide a better user experience but from an organizational and stability point of view, TFS wins hands-down.
Price-wise, TFS is better than JIRA.
How was the initial setup?
Out of the box, the initial setup is easy. However, it is difficult to customize, especially if it is on a cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
TFS is more competitively priced than some other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anybody who is implementing this solution is to use as much as possible, out of the box. Customizing it is difficult. It may not necessarily fit everything perfectly and it can be tricky to scale, but not impossible. There are definitely challenges scaling it. That said, the tool from Microsoft does allow you to do things very differently but try to do it in a standard way first.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free TFS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Popular Comparisons
Microsoft Azure DevOps
Jira
OpenText Application Quality Management
Polarion ALM
Codebeamer
Rally Software
Jama Connect
OpenText Software Delivery Management
PTC Integrity
Tricentis qTest
TestRail
Zephyr Enterprise
Helix ALM
Digital.ai Agility
Visual Studio Test Professional
Buyer's Guide
Download our free TFS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
- Comparison Data for MBTech ProveTech?
- Tosca Testsuite Version 10.0
- BDD Testing: Pros and Cons
- Is Panaya Test Dynamix better than Tricentis Tosca?
- When evaluating Test Management Tools, what aspects do you think are the most important to look for?
- Tosca Testsuite with Selenium WebDriver
- What are the commonly leveraged practices or tools for managing regression or performance test cases/scripts?
- What is adhoc testing?
- Why is Test Management Tools important for companies?