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BMC AMI DevX vs InterTest comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 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

BMC AMI DevX
Ranking in Mainframe Testing Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (2nd), Database Development and Management (11th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (4th), Data Masking (3rd), AI Software Development (30th)
InterTest
Ranking in Mainframe Testing Tools
2nd
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Mainframe Testing Tools category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 20.0%, down from 30.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of InterTest is 11.8%, down from 14.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Testing Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC AMI DevX20.0%
InterTest11.8%
Other68.2%
Mainframe Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Wisdom Mbiza - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Engineer at Absa Group
Modern tools have boosted mainframe file extraction speed and simplified everyday workflows
I definitely think BMC AMI DevX could be improved or enhanced in terms of the logging in features. BMC AMI DevX's logging in feature is not so great. Whenever you try to log in, it always prompts you for passwords. Then when you have to switch sessions, because we usually have to switch between production and UAT, there's no quick way of switching between the two. Every time you try to switch, it prompts you to log in. Additionally, there's a pop-up that I always receive. When you click X on it, it doesn't disappear. Eventually, I just end up minimizing it. Furthermore, the startup of BMC AMI DevX takes a long time to start up before it loads. It doesn't just immediately start up and it's ready. It takes a good solid two to three minutes before it's ready so that you can work on it. BMC AMI DevX's logins and the other ones I can understand because security has to be there, but I do feel that once I've logged in, I shouldn't need to log in again. The startup problem is the annoying one because if I want to do something, I need to open it two or three minutes earlier to give it time to load up. The startup problem is the one that definitely needs to be addressed.
it_user860787 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Programmer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Helps programmers verify changes, identify any kind of logic mistakes, more quickly
The line by line debugger of program logic for COBOL programs. It allows you to do as much testing as you're required to do, to pretty much guarantee that when a program goes into production it's as error-free as possible. None of them are completely ever free, but as error free as possible.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The plugin ISPW integrated into Eclipse is a really valuable functionality for developers who already use it."
"Our intention is to use Topaz for the next generation of mainframe developers to maintain mainframe applications."
"From a user perspective, the GUIs make it easier for people to see and interact with files on the mainframe."
"The smart editor helps because it will code-complete for me. I can see code working a lot faster and I'm able to get things coded in less time."
"The visual ability to see potential downstream impacts to changes being made assists our developers in understanding the impact associated with their change."
"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."
"I have worked with DB2's great features in the last five years. The IDAA feature transformed the vision of warehousing, business analytics, and big data at my bank. Besides the mainframe, I saw that this solution was evolutionary. It gives real-time information."
"I think the most valuable features are code management, code deployment, and code generation. The fact that those three features are included makes BMC Compuware ISPW a robust product. If one of those features was missing, it would be less robust and less interesting. But because it has those three features, it is a very good solution for code development and management."
"The line by line debugger of program logic for COBOL programs allows you to do as much testing as you're required to do, to pretty much guarantee that when a program goes into production it's as error-free as possible."
"InterTest is also bundled with SymDump. We see this as a bundle. They are always together for us. So InterTest is used for debugging process, walking through the code, checking data conditions and code flow. SymDump is used for the fact, after a problem occurs. SymDump catches what point in time the problem occurred, all the other connecting data, and points us to the code to indicate what caused the situation."
"Programmers can verify their changes more quickly, identify any kind of logic mistakes in the program more quickly."
"CA has done a fantastic job with this product, all the time."
 

Cons

"Initial setup can be tricky in some cases."
"Topaz Workbench often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."
"It's not as intuitive as it should be. In terms of navigation, there is a large training curve for using it. For a millennial it might be better, if they're used to Eclipse. But coming from a non-Eclipse environment and using Eclipse, though I have experience with Eclipse, it might be cumbersome."
"We plan to replace BMC Compuware File-AID due to its price. Two years back, we paid 11,000 dollars. However, the current price is 27,900 dollars. The price has increased to at least eight times its initial cost. We would need to pay around 60,000 dollars to have all three products together. We also encountered issues during version updates."
"There are some features that are not well documented, so documentation could use a little help, on things like setting up deployment and which structures in the database correspond to which tables."
"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it. It's not easy to see how it works."
"Their technical support could be better."
"Still, it's not a quick and easy product. You have to follow several steps to get through the installation."
"You can have as many users as you like using it. However, sometimes they'll "step on each other" if there are two applications that are testing in one particular region, one could cause some type of a storage overlay and that will hamper another customer trying to do something in the same region."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price point is great."
"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."
"In terms of pricing, there isn't an extra charge for the parts of it we use. It comes with the licenses we purchased for other products, so no complaints there. The licensing is built in with the other products that you purchase from Compuware."
"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"The only thing I would mention related to the licensing and/or the pricing, is that they have some visualization features in there that are licensed by concurrent users. We're starting to trip up on that. We're looking to probably increase the number of concurrent licenses that we have. But those types of licensing strategies, where they license by concurrent users or the number of seats is confusing for some people. They don't understand why it works sometimes and doesn't work other times."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
31%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Insurance Company
22%
Healthcare Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise19
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC AMI DevX?
I definitely think BMC AMI DevX could be improved or enhanced in terms of the logging in features. BMC AMI DevX's logging in feature is not so great. Whenever you try to log in, it always prompts y...
What is your primary use case for BMC AMI DevX?
I work on mainframe, and some of the developers prefer to code on BMC AMI DevX because it looks more modern. For me, my basic use of it is just to extract information. Most of the time we end up ha...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
CA InterTest, CA InterTest for CICS, CA InterTest for Batch
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NRB, Iberdrola, Consorzio Servizi Bancari 
Blue Hill Data Services
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. InterTest and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.