Cloud Foundry vs IBM Public Cloud comparison

Cloud Foundry and IBM are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. Cloud Foundry is ranked #20, while IBM is ranked #15 with an average rating of 6.7. Cloud Foundry holds a 2.1% mindshare in PSP, compared to IBM’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 33% of Cloud Foundry users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Cloud Foundry

Read 2 Cloud Foundry reviews

777 Views
754 Comparison Views

33% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

Read 18 IBM Public Cloud reviews

2,196 Views
2,020 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Cloud Foundry

IBM Public Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

IBM Public Cloud and Cloud Foundry compete in the cloud services sector. IBM Public Cloud often has the advantage due to its broad range of services and competitive pricing, while Cloud Foundry shines in developer-focused features.

Features: IBM Public Cloud offers a comprehensive infrastructure suite, AI capabilities, and integrated solutions that appeal to businesses needing seamless operations. Cloud Foundry facilitates developer agility with its platform-as-a-service model, supports multiple programming languages, and enables custom development environments, ideal for agile teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Public Cloud ensures a streamlined deployment process with robust customer support and detailed documentation, making it accessible for all users. On the other hand, Cloud Foundry emphasizes a developer-centric deployment strategy that enables rapid iteration but involves a learning curve for beginners. IBM's customer service stands out for ease, while Cloud Foundry prioritizes deep customization for experienced developers.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Public Cloud provides scalable pricing options, offering businesses a cost-effective solution with generally favorable ROI for integrated projects. Cloud Foundry's pricing might be higher upfront but empowers developers with customizable development, potentially leading to better ROI for innovation-focused ventures. IBM's affordability contrasts with Cloud Foundry's pricing reflecting its specialized capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,566 peers since 2012

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

Cloud Foundry

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

20th

Average Rating

5.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Public Cloud

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IoT Platforms (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of Cloud Foundry is 2.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Public Cloud	3.1%
Cloud Foundry	2.1%
Other	94.8%

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Carlos Bittrich

Technology Advisor at Fabrik

Quick to deploy but being deprecated by IBM and should be merged with Kubernetes

We enjoy the fast deployment. Cloud Foundry builds the runtime environment directly without requiring dependency management from the developer or administrator. The autoscaling is great. It is just a switch that needs to be turned on, and autoscaling starts working. At this moment, you begin to see different meters about usage that helps you in updating the scaling limits, which help you tune the running instances. Besides this, autoscaling can be scheduled, so in times of low activity, you can have lower limits or increase in advance for special dates. It has good logging. CF has logging events that help identify when a transaction runs and its response time which helps in monitoring execution.

Read full review

Premnath Jaganathan

Product Manager at Uop Ipl

Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems

I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cloud Foundry builds the runtime environment directly without requiring dependency management from the user."

"My favorite component of IBM's solution is Node-RED, which greatly shortens the amount of time required to develop, test, and deploy new applications."

"IBM is the only vendor to offer integration with blockchain for smart contract development."

"It's straightforward, has a good environment and is cost-effective."

"An advantage of IBM Public Cloud is the bare metal server. We can take the bare metal server. It's not shared with anyone. We can deploy our applications without sharing them with anyone. That is an advantage of IBM Public Cloud."

"The beauty of cloud service providers, especially public cloud service providers, is that they are scalable every time when you need them because their payment model is pay-as-you-go."

"The price of IBM Cloud is most valuable for us. The service is personable and gives us a good rapport. I can't say it's the best, but it was enough for our needs."

"There is no installation for this product because it is a cloud product."

"This is a predictable and dependable service."

"It is easy to deploy what you need for the initial setup"

"The availability is second to none. Customer support is very good."

More IBM Public Cloud pros

Cons

"After the initial excitement period with Node-RED is over, you crave the need of additional integrations to third-party services."

"In IBM Cloud, the product has been deprecated in favor of Kubernetes, which is a more complicated infrastructure to manage."

"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."

"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."

"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."

"It could be more secure."

"The deployment can be a bit of a pain. There are a lot of packages and a lot of options and it can require complex configuration to get it right."

"The solution needs to be more autonomous. It should let the DL go to allow for more jobs on the cloud. It could have a better interface as well."

"Normally, for any cloud, we get a lot of information on the web, but that is missing in the case of IBM Public Cloud. We need some technical support documents. That is the only thing missing in IBM Public Cloud."

"An area for improvement in IBM Public Cloud is getting up-to-date information on how to set up everything. It's hard to find new documentation."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing models should be reworked to the needs of a wider range of companies. Some customers will not be able to afford it until quite a few years into production, even after good PoC results and a successful launch."

"You are allocated a minimum amount of resources in the free tier. This seems fair and highly scalable, as you pay per usage as per cloud pricing schemes."

"IBM has a free tier and payment option depending on the products selected."

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."

"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."

"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."

"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."

"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."

"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which PaaS Clouds solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Energy/Utilities Company

University

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud?

The front end is not pervasive, so it is very difficult get the status of your current services or account from a mobile device.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Public Cloud?

The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon AWS vs Cloud Foundry

Compared 40% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Cloud Foundry

Compared 16% of the time

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Cloud Foundry

Compared 14% of the time

SAP Cloud Platform vs Cloud Foundry

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Cloud Foundry

Compared 9% of the time

More Cloud Foundry Competitors

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 31% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 29% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 21% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

PaaS Clouds

September 2025

Download Cloud Foundry product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

IBM Bluemix

Overview

Cloud Foundry, home of the open source application development technologies CF Application Runtime and CF Container Runtime, is more than a platform. It’s a flexible way of embracing digital transformation that helps businesses evolve in the face of constant change. To put it another way, with Cloud Foundry, companies can rest assured they will have the right tool for the right job.

Cloud Foundry

IBM Cloud is a full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments. Build with a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and draw on deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud.

IBM

Sample Customers

Grape Up, c-Com, KONE, TITAN, CSAA, Bosch, Allstate, Verizon, West Corp., Telstra

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud

September 2025

Free Report: Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cloud Foundry vs. IBM Public Cloud report.

See our list of best PaaS Clouds vendors.

We monitor all PaaS Clouds reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.