Densify vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

Densify and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Densify is ranked #31 with an average rating of 7.0, while Broadcom is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Densify holds a 2.4% mindshare in CM, compared to Broadcom’s 5.5% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Densify users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Densify

Read 10 Densify reviews

4,083 Views
2,491 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Automation

Read 172 VMware Aria Automation reviews

17,011 Views
9,696 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Densify

VMware Aria Automation

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Densify and VMware Aria Automation are direct competitors in cloud management and optimization. While VMware Aria Automation is recognized for its advanced automation capabilities, cost-sensitive customers often prefer Densify due to its favorable pricing and support, impacting the perceived value of each product differently.

Features: Densify is known for precise cloud cost management, offering actionable insights that help optimize resources and achieve cost savings. Additionally, it provides extensive cloud account aggregation and visualization, aiding in comprehensive capacity planning. VMware Aria Automation offers robust automation features, supporting complex workflows and integrations. The platform enables automated deployments, detailed blueprints, and integration with a variety of third-party tools, emphasizing its strength in handling sophisticated environments.

Room for Improvement: Densify could enhance its feature set by offering more extensive automation capabilities and deeper integrations with other cloud services. Its analytics dashboard, while functional, may benefit from more intuitive navigation and customization options. VMware Aria Automation, on the other hand, could reduce the complexity of its initial setup and streamline its user interface. Simplified deployment processes and better documentation could make its features more accessible to a wider range of users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Densify is often favored for its quick deployment times and responsive customer support, which users appreciate for its efficient service. In contrast, VMware Aria Automation may require prolonged setup due to its comprehensive feature set. However, it excels in supporting complex enterprise environments, making it suitable for larger organizations despite potential deployment delays.

Pricing and ROI: Densify generally offers lower initial setup costs with a faster return on investment, particularly valuable for those focusing on direct cost savings. Its emphasis on targeted resource optimization allows for quicker financial returns. VMware Aria Automation, although presenting a higher entry cost, offers substantial long-term benefits through its deeper integration and automation features, which can lead to greater operational efficiency and ROI in complex setups.

To learn more, read our detailed Densify vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Densify vs. VMware Aria Automation

August 2026

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Helped 908,858 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

Densify

Ranking in Cloud Management

31st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (11th), Virtualization Management Tools (8th), Cloud Analytics (6th), Cloud Cost Management (20th)

VMware Aria Automation

Ranking in Cloud Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

172

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (7th), Network Automation (6th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (21st), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of Densify is 2.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 5.5%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware Aria Automation	5.5%
Densify	2.4%
Other	92.1%

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

AbhishekGupta2

Sr PreSales Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Optimized cloud costs and automated right‑sizing have reduced spend while reporting needs improvement

The best features Densify offers are actionable optimization recommendations, which tell you how to reduce costs while maintaining performance; the ML-powered predictive analytics feature, which considers historical patterns to provide recommendations; multi-cloud coverage for optimization across AWS, Azure, and GCP; and a solid balance between performance and cost. Out of those features, I find myself relying on actionable optimization recommendations and predictive analytics features the most because Densify goes one step beyond by providing recommendations considering historical patterns, especially for workloads that only spike during certain times of the month. Densify has positively impacted my organization by providing significant cost savings through right-sizing and eliminating inefficient resources, allowing faster decisions based on data, and reducing manual intervention for cloud operations, thus providing automation of basic cloud routines. I usually see a twenty-five to thirty percent cost saving in my customer's environment, and from a time-saving perspective, it has almost halved the time of the operations team.

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VasilisGiannitsiotis

Senior IT at ITSolutions

Automation has streamlined complex financial workflows but still needs more intuitive orchestration

Something to improve in VMware Aria Automation would be related to VCF 9, as I do not know what it is trying to bring because they exposed it as the solution of everything. So VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware. I have not seen what this brings or what else it includes. Maybe in the area of vRealize Orchestrator, this would be beneficial because VRO can do everything. Perhaps a more user-friendly way to use that tool would be helpful because the possibilities there are endless. I am looking for more user-friendly navigation in VMware Aria Automation.

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

"I usually see a twenty-five to thirty percent cost saving in my customer's environment, and from a time-saving perspective, it has almost halved the time of the operations team."

"One would be the automatic rebalancing of the environment. That was one feature which helped. With that, we could improve our efficiency of our VMware infrastructure."

"The Control Console is an incredible way to give a quick view of current capacity utilization allowing technical people to drill down quickly and allowing business/management people to get a quick overview of the environment."

"Densify's ability to aggregate multiple on-premise vCenters and multiple cloud accounts, gives it a level of visibility not found in many places."

"The solution's tech support is excellent."

"From my perspective, this product is really good, and we are not even using each and every feature."

"The tool will come back and tell us that we can operate with 1,000 minutes as an example, save 90% on the contractual rate and not run into any issues."

"Densify were deemed to be the best for us at the time and they still are, for now."

More Densify pros

"We have been able to reduce the process to around 30 minutes."

"Lifecycle management has improved substantially, with fewer customers holding on to resources because they're no longer difficult to create or destroy, substantial amounts of both builds and retirements, much less human error, and a lot more cleanliness in our infrastructure, along with increased agility, speed of provisioning, and time to market by allowing our IT admins to deploy dozens of systems simultaneously instead of one at a time."

"Big-time cost savings on administrative overhead without having to constantly manage virtual machines, spin them up, spin them down, manually."

"VMware Aria Automation supports integration with ServiceNow, Kubernetes, and other tools. It is cloud-agnostic, making it a stronger platform than Ansible."

"Valuable features include integration with Infoblox, for IP management; and three-tier app deployment as one unified Blueprint."

"Deploying a patch on 200 systems is now just a click."

"It's scalable; as the needs of the university grow, it's growing with us."

"It has saved us a lot of time and work. It helped us to reorganize some of our service lines, so we could be more efficient. For example, on our open system server team, we had 15 people building servers, now we have two."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"Some parts of the interface are rather complex and require a bit of time to navigate, but this has never stopped us as a Densify advisor is readily available to help with our "how to" queries."

"Normalization of CPU utilization is required. At present, the data is available based on entitlement level."

"Service management level integration is probably the biggest area for improvement."

"Unfortunately the tools and mechanisms which really came to maturity in the cloud, and were not mainstream on-premise, are still not implemented."

"It seems that the mechanism for integration is, it goes so far but I think there could be some standard integration to normal remedy service now etc. I think that should be out of the box."

"A closer integration to the service management processes."

"Densify can be improved in a couple of areas: the learning curve for new users, where it feels like an advanced optimization tool that needs time for full leverage; enhancements in reporting and filter options for more detailed custom reports; and improvements in UI performance since some users feel that the UI is a bit slow or outdated, especially with certain interfaces such as the Kubex Console or the Cloud Decks."

"The solution's stability is the primary concern for me."

More Densify cons

"More detailed documentation on implementing feature sets and more examples of real world processes would help."

"With the workflow aspect, which has manual intervention, a policy needs to be approved by somebody. There could be better management of that piece with better templates. It is like a workflow engine, but does not have enough example templates to do certain things. A lot of people waste a lot of time trying to figure out the same thing, and everybody is trying to figure out the same thing, e.g., how to make a MySQL cluster in a Windows environment?"

"I have found 7.4 to be user-friendly but 7.5 is not, in fact, it's a nightmare."

"From that perspective, technical support has not done very well."

"One of the features that's a struggle today is some of the public cloud extensibility. Some of the plugins that are native to vRA and vRO, I'd like to see them come out earlier for vRO. I understand that in vRA, the plugins are a little bit more polished because the VRA is the GUI. But we'd like to see them released earlier in vRO, prior to a GUI being released. Azure, for example, is a public cloud provider but we have some instability issues with the plugin in vRO. It's okay for us if we separate the vRA from vRO plugin releases. So I'd like to see some increased stability in some of those public cloud plugins."

"7.5 is not user-friendly, in fact, it's a nightmare. They changed everything on the graphic user interface, the mode where the user interacts with the product."

"I rate it a seven out of ten because it needs improvement in stability, performance, and quality."

"It is difficult to set up."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Setup cost is negligible, as it scales fairly well."

"Densify has licensing setup so you can collect data without licensing. It gives you the ability to collect on everything, then choose later what you would like to license."

"Cost is always involved, but then I feel that this solution is better than other products that we have."

"There was some sticker shock, as this is not just another software product to spit out graphs."

"It is an expensive product. After VMware's acquisition by Broadcom, there was a rise in the price of VMware Aria Automation."

"I would rate it high because, compared to other solutions, VMware’s pricing is quite expensive. VMware products have become significantly more costly in recent years, leading to higher costs."

"The pricing is very high."

"SaltStack is an open-source product."

"They should provide one license for all the sub-products."

"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."

"It is an open-source product."

"Better pricing is always handy, but I feel it's at the right price point."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	131

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Densify?

Densify can be improved in a couple of areas: the learning curve for new users, where it feels like an advanced optimization tool that needs time for full leverage; enhancements in reporting and fi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Densify?

My main use cases for Densify include cloud cost optimization, predictive resource sizing, assistance in multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, and reducing the manual analysis of the environme...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Densify?

My advice for others looking into using Densify is to focus on setting up governance policy early, integrate optimization results into your usual sprints, and train FinOps and engineering teams tog...

See all answers

What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?

vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...

See all answers

Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?

When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...

See all answers

Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?

I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...

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Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

IBM Service Delivery Manager vs Densify

Compared 3% of the time

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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Densify

August 2026

Download Densify product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

July 2026

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack

Overview

Densify provides advanced cloud resource optimization, driving efficiency and performance for businesses. Leveraging AI and analytics, it ensures precise resource allocation.

Densify caters to the dynamic needs of businesses in optimizing their cloud environments. By integrating sophisticated analytics with AI-driven insights, Densify facilitates efficient resource management. It minimizes waste and enhances operational efficiency through continuous monitoring and real-time recommendations. The platform is tailored for enterprises looking to enhance cloud resource utilization and reduce costs without compromising on performance.

What are the essential features of Densify?

AI-Powered Analytics: Leverages machine learning to provide actionable insights.
Real-Time Monitoring: Continuously tracks resource usage for optimal efficiency.
Automated Recommendations: Suggests improvements to enhance performance and reduce costs.
Cloud-Specific Solutions: Tailored optimizations for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Integration Capabilities: Easily integrates with existing IT management systems.

What benefits can users expect from using Densify?

Cost Reduction: Optimizes resource allocation to decrease unnecessary spending.
Improved Efficiency: Enhances system performance by aligning resources with demand.
Scalability: Supports business growth by adjusting resource management strategies dynamically.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Densify is implemented to manage extensive data workloads efficiently, ensuring resources are aligned with organizational performance goals. It helps IT departments meet compliance requirements and maintain high throughput in data-sensitive sectors.

Densify

VMware Aria Automation is known for its automation capabilities, integrating with VMware and third-party tools to enhance workflow efficiency, save time, and manage resources effectively.

VMware Aria Automation offers a diverse set of features including a self-service portal and a streamlined user-friendly interface, which make it ideal for organizations aiming to automate virtual machine provisioning. The platform supports extensive automation capabilities across multi-cloud environments, featuring flexible blueprint designs and comprehensive integration with platforms like AWS, Azure, and ServiceNow. Though improvements are desired in areas like logging, template management, and vCenter integration, its robust framework facilitates IT infrastructure services, disaster recovery, and development operations. It is specifically beneficial for orchestrating workflows, automating routine tasks, and managing workloads efficiently in private and hybrid cloud environments.

What are the most important features of VMware Aria Automation?

Self-Service Portal: Empowers users with easy access to resources and tools needed for automation.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and usage for both technical and non-technical users.
Extensive Automation Capabilities: Streamlines VM deployment and processes across various platforms.
Integration with VMware and Third-Party Tools: Enhances workflow automation and extends functionality.
Flexible Blueprint Designs: Allows for customized and scalable deployment solutions.

What are the benefits and ROI users should consider?

Efficiency: Reduces manual workload, leading to time and cost savings.
Scalability: Supports dynamic growth and resource management.
Enhanced Workflow Automation: Improves process efficiency with comprehensive integrations.
Customizable Orchestration: Enables tailored solutions that meet specific requirements.
Resource Management: Efficiently utilizes resources, reducing waste and optimizing operations.

VMware Aria Automation is implemented across industries for automating the provisioning of virtual machines and managing cloud environments. It is used in sectors requiring efficient server deployment, network configurations, and seamless integration with tools such as AWS and Azure. It aids in reducing manual efforts, supporting IT infrastructure services, and enhancing disaster recovery protocols.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

AIG, Bank of America, Cigna, Citi

Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual

Buyer's Guide

Densify vs. VMware Aria Automation

August 2026

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