CloudStack vs Firefly comparison

Apache and Firefly are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Apache is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.2, while Firefly is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0. Apache holds a 2.8% mindshare in CM, compared to Firefly’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Firefly users who would recommend it.

CloudStack

Read 34 CloudStack reviews

2,000 Views
1,820 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Firefly

Read 2 Firefly reviews

135 Views
135 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

CloudStack

Firefly

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between CloudStack and Firefly based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix, Broadcom, IBM and others in Cloud Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Management Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Management

January 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 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

CloudStack

Ranking in Cloud Management

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Firefly

Ranking in Cloud Management

37th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of CloudStack is 2.8%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Firefly is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
CloudStack	2.8%
Firefly	0.3%
Other	96.9%

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

Tharun Kumar Reddy Thamatam

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at Infosys

Achieving seamless infrastructure management with optimized network and user access controls

I believe enhancements could be made in CloudStack, particularly in the management servers. I had the opportunity to collaborate with one of the Apache CloudStack developers, leading to the installation of additional agents for better information retrieval from hypervisors. We implemented configurations, ensuring consistency across hosts and VMs. We also utilized Ansible or YAML files to automate password upgrades during patching activities and database management, showcasing our customization efforts for improvement. For future releases, it would be beneficial if Apache enhanced CloudStack by integrating alerting systems directly. We've had instances where hypervisors experienced overloads without prior alerts, so proactive alerts within the tool would better prepare us for addressing issues swiftly, preventing disruption in business operations. A portal summarizing system metrics alongside alert capabilities would greatly enhance our operational efficiency.

Read full review

MohammadRashid

Senior Software Consultant at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

Design workflows have been transformed and now enable rapid ad visuals and campaign launches

Firefly offers several best features in my opinion. We have the TTS feature and TTV feature. Additionally, suppose I have a single image from the creative designer and I want to generate different variations or different sizes of that image that will get adapted mostly on Google Ads. For example, I want to generate different renditions of that same image in different resolutions. I can quickly go to Firefly and from a single image generate different multiple images in different renditions. Firefly also helps us expand images. For example, I have a small image that is a portrait and I want to convert that as a full image or a hero image, which fits on a wide screen. Firefly helps us generate the images. It will not be stretching or squeezing your image. Instead, Firefly takes the context from your image and generates the next object which could appear. For example, if I am standing on a beach, it will generate the beach. It will generate a few people, it will generate some pictures of the sea, maybe some coconut trees. Firefly has positively impacted my organization a lot. I can say it is helping us reduce the effort and cost, saving the cost. For example, I have to create one image for our social media post. For that, we have to request our creative team, and then a creative designer will work on that idea and take one day or two days to get the design complete. After that, it comes to the review. With the help of Firefly, we can quickly generate the images and get them reviewed. Our go-to-market becomes easy. Within two hours or three hours, we can complete this whole process: generation, review, and all, and go to the market instantly. Additionally, if we have one image available and I want to quickly launch a Google Ad campaign that requires different renditions of the image, I can quickly use Firefly and generate different renditions of the image using the single image. So, it also reduces the dependency which we had earlier with the creative designers and the creative team.

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

"Key features include stability, centralized management design that scales well, and transparent interoperability with different hypervisors and manufacturers.."

"It is very easy to install and manage. It has the all modules in one node, unlike other software (OpenStack). The product allows a customized look and feel, and the ability to add custom workflows."

"You can use a single API to get things done, rather than multiple APIs on multiple modules."

"CloudStack is simple to stand up and get off the ground in a hurry. Its centralized design allows for easier troubleshooting when compared to OpenStack. Out of the box, it’s very well suited for white labeling and IaaS."

"CloudStack’s private gateway networking feature is what enables us to offer utmost security and confidentially to our customers and partners, by enabling them to connect to their virtual data centers via dedicated, encrypted, private fiber lines that never touch the public internet space. Ease of setup and management are certainly important additional benefits for us on the engineering team."

"The most valuable feature from my point of view is access to environment via console through separate browser window."

"Everything in CloudStack works effectively."

"CloudStack, by default, gives us a zone-based setup which makes it easier to manage datacenters located in different geographical areas."

More CloudStack pros

"Firefly saves one employee, it saves 5 million annually, and we are currently improving 40% of our go-to-market time while reducing cost by 30% and increasing revenue by approximately 20%."

"Firefly simply acts as a single source of truth for my cloud inventory and governance, and it complements my existing cloud and FinOps processes rather than replacing them."

Cons

"The installation of CloudStack can be quite challenging because you need a good understanding of the product before starting."

"My teammates have complained about the upgrade. The source code had massive files that had to be merged with our own development to upgrade to the latest version of CloudStack. It was quite painful for them. CloudStack could add some cost management tools to give me some control over the costs associated with the number of users of my services."

"It would be a good to have more specific error messages within administration processes (e.g. problem with creating new instance)."

"The absence of the feature, deploy an instance from a snapshot, is the weak point of the platform. It is a feature that everyone needs nowadays."

"It is not widely used so Google does not help very much when you are troubleshooting, and the CloudStack forum is not very active."

"I encountered some stability issues. When I tried to remove high-capacity virtual machines it took a long time to update, and sometimes the VM status failed to update properly in the cloud database. This occurred multiple times, even though I had sufficient resources."

"The product could improve by embracing newer technologies like GPU virtualization."

"The area of Apache CloudStack that could stand the most improvement is the functionality/features around the virtual routers. They can be somewhat cumbersome to deal with at times and are the least stable piece of the product."

More CloudStack cons

"However, I still see a lot of improvement scope in their service."

"If I talk about the cost, the cost is a little high."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As far as I know, CS is still free of charge. If you want to pay some money, Citrix Cloud Platform is based on CS, I think. As for hypervisors – everything as usual, you need to pay for VMware and vCenter. As for XenServer, recently they changed the free feature list, so you may need to pay some money to get useful features like XenMotion."

"CloudStack is an open source solution, so you don't need to pay anything for it. When our company develops something specially for CloudStack, it is donated to the Apache Software Foundation and provided to anyone that wants to use it."

"The solution is open-source and free."

"The Apache CloudStack is open source, so you do not have licenses to purchase."

"CloudStack is an open-source product."

"Give an effort to planning. If possible, contract a specialized consultant company for the initial setup and knowledge transfer."

"It is a 100% open-source solution needing just an Apache license. Also, there are no hidden fees to be paid."

"There is no license, so the product is free unless you are buying professional technical support services."

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	12

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CloudStack?

CloudStack is open-source, so there is no cost apart from learning. Billing solutions, if outsourced, come at a moderate cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CloudStack?

Enhancements for CloudStack can focus on integrating more hypervisors, as mentioned regarding current features. We're working on a new feature that will allow for certain limited functions, but ove...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CloudStack?

My usual use cases for CloudStack involve an AWS style private cloud or public cloud. I can deploy an AWS style cloud using the open source tool that is CloudStack. The use case depends on the cust...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Firefly?

At times the image quality from Firefly is inconsistent. That is something that could be improved. There is limited creative visibility that could be worked on. Firefly is already a pretty good too...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Firefly?

I have been using Firefly for creator purposes, specifically for creating images, videos, vectors, and design elements. I have been working on a few projects that require documentation, and those p...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Firefly?

I can tell you about time savings, but the exact metrics are beyond the scope of my work, so I do not have them. Personally speaking, I have been spending less time on creating visuals for presenta...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenNebula vs CloudStack

Compared 45% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs CloudStack

Compared 8% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs CloudStack

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs CloudStack

Compared 5% of the time

HPE OneSphere vs CloudStack

Compared 5% of the time

More CloudStack Competitors

env zero vs Firefly

Compared 100% of the time

More Firefly Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CloudStack

January 2026

Download CloudStack product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Management

January 2026

Download Firefly product report

Also Known As

Vmops, Cloud.com

No data available

Overview

Apache CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.

Apache

Firefly offers a comprehensive set of tools designed to enhance productivity and streamline business processes. It delivers valuable features but may require tweaks in some areas to fully optimize its performance for all sectors.

Firefly stands out by providing functionalities that cater to a tech-savvy audience, assisting in managing tasks efficiently. Its flexible integrations and user-oriented features enable it to adapt to specific industry demands, enhancing efficiency and cross-platform collaboration. Feedback highlights areas such as scalability where Firefly could improve, yet it remains a robust resource for professionals seeking reliable technological solutions.

What features define Firefly?

Task Automation: Reduces manual workload by automating repetitive tasks.
Flexible Integrations: Seamlessly connects with other platforms for streamlined operations.
Data Analytics: Provides insightful data tracking for informed decision-making.

What benefits should you seek in Firefly reviews?

Increased Efficiency: Enhances workflow by minimizing tasks.
Scalability Opportunity: Offers a platform that can grow with organizational needs.
Cost-effectiveness: Provides a balance of functionality and affordability.

In industries like technology and finance, Firefly is often implemented to optimize operational efficiency and facilitate data management. Adaptations in workflow automation have proven beneficial, creating a versatile environment that supports innovation and adaptability in fast-paced sectors.

Firefly

Sample Customers

GreenQloud, Exoscale, TomTom, ASG, PC Extreme, ISWest, Grid'5000

Information Not Available

Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix, Broadcom, IBM and others in Cloud Management. Updated: January 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best Cloud Management vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Management 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.