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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
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st)
Gen
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Mainframe Application Development category, the mindshare of Endevor is 5.3%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gen is 6.4%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Application Development
 

Featured Reviews

Efrén Yanez - PeerSpot reviewer
Good analysis and integrations with helpful automation
If I had to comment on an area of ​​improvement or something new in the next or future version, I would like to see AI-assisted coding and impact analysis for mainframes. It is actually a fairly complete product. It is robust with a solid history and is always growing in functionality. It has a high level of maturity, which benefits the users and the administrators. This tool, with its group of options, facilitates the integration with other business processes, which allows you to take advantage of other solutions by incorporating automatic functions.
it_user558015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Rapid development software tool. Mature solution to make changes and put them in production.
The dilemma is with people that are stuck in this old technology, and it really is kind of stuck. They don't really understand the new technology, and so it's a gap issue. Those people that would use the tool for more benefit don't really know enough about how to integrate it with the other technologies. The people in the other technologies don't care about your tool. You need that gap filled with CA expertise. CA is supposed to fill that gap and they don’t really do so. They don't really know how to do it, and we don't really know how to take it, to be honest with you. It needs to be figured out. The product is solid, and has been for years and years, and they dabble in new technology. Nobody knows what will be out there tomorrow. Yes, we'd like to address whatever comes out tomorrow and work with that. They need to re-envision themselves not as a seller of new tool sets, but as a tool set enhancer. To enhance the usage of the tool sets they have. They get big maintenance money from this stuff, so it's not like they're not making any money. You don't need to sell new tool sets to make money. They need to enhance it in terms of connecting, or leveraging, with other technologies. As an example, I work on the State of Texas Medicaid system. A huge part of that's written in COOL:Gen/CA Gen. Using those assets in the portal world, in the Windows world, is really important to be able to leverage all the work you did over here and some of the new stuff you do, and we do, but we do it based on what somebody thinks might work, not on somebody sitting down and saying, "Okay, we understand the .NET, WinGen for .NET, and here's how you do .NET, and here's how WinGen does it, and here's how we expect you to use it. Here's how you can make it better, and work harder.”

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can make it do pretty much whatever we want, depending on just how complicated we want it to be, as it is pretty flexible."
"The source management is excellent."
"It's the audit-level tracking. If something has gone wrong I can go back and figure out what happened, who did it."
"It offers security and audit of changes in information assets (software)."
"Endevor is easy to use."
"In the last year or so, we had a need to start using a CICS web services, and mesh them in with some distributed functions on an enterprise service bus. We put the web services into Endevor and we manage that way now."
"The most valuable feature of Endevor is the software controller."
"Any question that an auditor has about our processes and approvals is all stored in Endevor."
"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."
"CA Gen has provided us web development capability."
 

Cons

"They need to ditch the Eclipse plugin and just make the development environment for Z the standard Eclipse interface.​"
"There are a lot of screens in it. The process for moving out my other solutions, it could be more convenient. There are a lot of steps to go through and a lot of screens to go through to get it accomplished."
"It is difficult to find file programs and use a different tool for the setup as the compilation process is all locked up."
"One feature of Endevor is its Backout feature. If there is a problem, it can back out the executables. The only problem with that is that it will not back out the source in Endevor. For example, you can do a back out and it will back out the executable to the previous version, but it doesn't back out the source version in Endevor. It would make it much better if when you did a back out of Endevor, it would back out both the source and the executable and keep them in sync."
"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."
"If I had to comment on an area of ​​improvement or something new in the next or future version, I would like to see AI-assisted coding and impact analysis for mainframes."
"The solution is very expensive."
"Endevor can improve parallel development."
"I cannot use DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's worth the value. The pricing is fairly good, justifiable for the return on investment."
"The solution is very expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"It's competitively priced and, as far as I know, it's just an enterprise license. We have found it is worth the money."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
35%
Computer Software Company
19%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Endevor?
The product’s implementation process is complicated and restrictive. It is difficult to find file programs and use a different tool for the setup as the compilation process is all locked up, at lea...
What is your primary use case for Endevor?
We use the product as a source manager and program manager. It helps in controlling the mainframe code and performing data migrations.
Ask a question
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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 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.