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Endevor vs Gen 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

Endevor
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (3rd)
Gen
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Mainframe Application Development category, the mindshare of Endevor is 14.1%, down from 33.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gen is 11.5%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Application Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Endevor14.1%
Gen11.5%
Other74.4%
Mainframe Application Development
 

Featured Reviews

HB
R&D Team Leader at First International Bank of Israel
A highly stable tool for managing mainframe software development projects that require significant expertise
We use the basic feature set of Endevor to control and track all of the sales operations within our company.  It is a very good product that allows safe management of the individual components. The tools are specifically designed for mainframe environments, providing features tailored to the…
IR
Consultant
Full packets enable software implementation on the mainframe and client sides
I rate it eight out of 10. It's just very powerful tool, very powerful product to use. Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it. Of course, if you have mainframe and you have do something in the mainframe that’s different.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The developers can very easily see what has changed on a particular piece of source code or a program, and others can look at that as well so they can coordinate their changes. It makes it much easier to promote a piece of code up to production."
"Any question that an auditor has about our processes and approvals is all stored in Endevor."
"The management and information CA Endevor Software Change Manager provides is very useful"
"It performs pretty well."
"Endevor is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of Endevor is the software controller."
"We cut implementation errors by around 99%."
"Obviously we love the product; it does everything we want it to do."
"The so-called full packets, so you can develop software and systems using these packets, and implement software on the mainframe side and the client side."
"CA Gen has provided us web development capability."
"If you want to be the first in market and you have a short time to generate, or to develop your application, and if you're looking for a platform that supports multiple frameworks, multiple platforms such as mainframe, Java, and .Net, or the others, you need a modelling tool, rather than a language or technology."
"You can easily manage the code, and you can easily find other changes, other group changes, other models, other components."
"Full packets, enable you to develop software and systems using these packets, and implement software on the mainframe side and the client side. You can use the same packets, so it's very powerful."
"If you’re writing a simple barebones COBOL program, it may take 20-30 hours, but with a solution like this it can be done in around four hours."
"Coding on CA Gen is easy."
"Advantage Gen greatly enhanced productivity as well as development of solutions in mainframes, Client, and server applications."
 

Cons

"I would like to see it used for Hadoop, which is really huge now."
"It is still kind of behind the times. It needs to catch up with all the millennials that want a distributed look and feel."
"Sometimes finding errors and output can be difficult because it spits out so many messages that it is hard to figure out which ones are the ones you need to look at and what flow did it actually take through the processor."
"There are a lot of screens in it. The process for moving out my other solutions could be more convenient."
"Interfacing with some change control products that are not CA's, it's a little glitchy on the approvals of changes. It requires special needs for the users for approvals."
"Sometimes finding errors and output can be difficult because it spits out so many messages that it is hard to figure out which ones are the ones you need to look at and what flow did it actually take through the processor is what they call them."
"They need to ditch the Eclipse plugin and just make the development environment for Z the standard Eclipse interface.​"
"For others for whom it's new, implementation may be difficult."
"The world is changing, the technologies are changing - COOL:Gen needs to change as well."
"Personally, I think the tool has taken a turn for the worse."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
"If I look into the native COBOL language it can be more efficient, and CA Gen adds what seems to be some unnecessary lines of code; it’s not an apples to apples comparison."
"The weak side is, I cannot use the DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
"Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it."
"I cannot use DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Just make sure if you are going to license, ensure you license the right features.​"
"Licensing is fairly simple, you don't need multiple licenses."
"It's competitively priced and, as far as I know, it's just an enterprise license. We have found it is worth the money."
"The solution is very expensive."
"It's worth the value. The pricing is fairly good, justifiable for the return on investment."
"The product is expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
6%
Performing Arts
5%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise39
No data available
 

Also Known As

CA Endevor Software Change Manager, Endevor Software Change Manager, CA Software Change Manager for Mainframe, CA Endevor SCM
CA Gen
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.
Global bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Endevor vs. Gen and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.