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Clarity CA vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Clarity CA
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (4th)
vCenter Configuration Manager
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Clarity CA is designed for Client Desktop Management and holds a mindshare of 11.1%, up 5.9% compared to last year.
vCenter Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 2.0% mindshare, up 0.9% since last year.
Client Desktop Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Clarity CA11.1%
ManageEngine Endpoint Central19.1%
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)12.5%
Other57.3%
Client Desktop Management
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
vCenter Configuration Manager2.0%
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform11.9%
Microsoft Configuration Manager8.8%
Other77.3%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

TN
Solution center consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Multipurpose and useful for managing projects and resources; easy to integrate with other systems, and has a knowledgeable technical support team
I support Clarity CA, but I'm on the administrator side rather than the end-user side. My company has a partnership with Clarity CA. Clarity CA is deployed on-premises in my company, but I have a customer who deployed the solution on the cloud. Deploying the solution requires two or three resources. For ongoing support, it depends on how many people use Clarity CA. A minimum of three or four resources would be enough to support the solution, particularly two LIFF developers and one administrator. My advice to people looking into implementing Clarity CA is to make sure there's a team who'll support it, otherwise, you have to look into a Broadcom partner that can provide you with a service support deal. This way, you don't have to deal with the many administrative and maintenance responsibilities that go with Clarity CA as that could be a hassle. You have to be ready by having a team who will support the solution. My rating for Clarity CA is nine out of ten. Its interface is getting better. It has everything you need in terms of program or project management. The solution works for any organization. It's stable, flexible, and has been around for a long time. You can do a lot with Clarity CA, and that gives you a little bit of power.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"To me, the most valuable feature of Clarity CA is the timesheet. It's the only feature I use because I just support the tool, and I just enter time on it. Others use Clarity CA for other purposes, such as resource management, project management, scheduling, and financials. The tool also has a fairly simple integration with other systems, so at the moment, it's working fine. I also like that you can write your own code in Clarity CA, and you can make changes to it based on your needs."
"It is also really easy to use; you just schedule a job and create a package of software, and everything just works."
"This solution supports multiple platforms in a single solution."
"The clustering part and the load balancing part are most valuable."
"The product's initial setup process is very simple."
"vCenter Configuration Manager is a very good product, it works well."
"The market share of VMware is huge. It is not even necessary to prove the capabilities attached to the product."
"This product is very stable, it's a very good product."
"vCenter has some good user experience, and the initial setup is straightforward."
"The product's deployment phase was easy."
 

Cons

"What could be improved in Clarity CA is its UI, but I know the Clarity team is working on a new UI, so I'm expecting its UI to get better. The software also has too many functions, so it would be good if the functions or features could be split up, rather than needing to buy the whole Clarity CA package, when you'll only use a few of its functions. This increases the cost of the software, so that's another area for improvement. How Clarity CA is marketed could also be improved."
"Technical support is good, when they get back to you. I usually have to use Google, though, because sometimes we have to meet deadlines and don't have the time to wait for them to get back to us."
"The product's price could be lesser."
"The solution should allow for more customization."
"Not very user friendly, too many configurations."
"The technical support could be faster."
"The reporting could be improved."
"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."
"It is not so user-friendly that you can just start the host and everything works."
"Their licensing needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's fairly expensive to use Clarity CA. There's a yearly license fee for the solution based on the users, and there's a one-time implementation fee as well."
"vCenter's pricing is reasonable, but nowadays, they are drastically increasing their prices, which is pathetic."
"The price of the solution is too expensive for us and we are looking to move to another solution."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, it is reasonably priced compared to competitors."
"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 solution is quite expensive."
"It is an expensive product."
"It is an expensive solution."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about vCenter Configuration Manager?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
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 somewhat good, but you cannot find the full log message; you have to dig deep in order...
 

Also Known As

Client Automation, CA Client Manager, CA Client Automation
vCM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

First Horizon National Corporation, Olympus, Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago LimitedŒ _Petrotrinî, Racing and Wagering Western Australia
Bank Al Bilad, Thomas-Krenn.AG, Pronto!, Unimed Juiz de Fora
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine, Broadcom, Quest Software and others in Client Desktop Management. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.