IBM Rational Build Forge vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

IBM and Broadcom are both solutions in the Build Automation category. IBM is ranked #23, while Broadcom is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.7. IBM holds a 1.6% mindshare in BA, compared to Broadcom’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

IBM Rational Build Forge

Read 2 IBM Rational Build Forge reviews

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465 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 23 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

6,615 Views
463 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Rational Build Forge

VMware Tanzu Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

IBM Rational Build Forge and VMware Tanzu Platform compete in continuous integration and application management. VMware Tanzu Platform has the upper hand due to its superior features aligned with modern DevOps practices.

Features: IBM Rational Build Forge offers automation for build and release processes, robust scheduling, and scripting capabilities. VMware Tanzu Platform provides comprehensive cloud-native application development, scalability, and microservices architecture, which are better aligned with modern DevOps.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Rational Build Forge has a straightforward deployment model and favorable support for traditional environments. VMware Tanzu Platform offers cloud-native deployment with Kubernetes and greater flexibility for scalable solutions, although it presents a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Rational Build Forge provides a cost-effective setup with quick ROI for traditional build management. VMware Tanzu Platform, while having a higher initial cost, delivers substantial ROI through its advanced capabilities and cloud-native focus.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Rational Build Forge vs. VMware Tanzu Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

December 2025

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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

IBM Rational Build Forge

Ranking in Build Automation

23rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in Build Automation

14th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (11th), Cloud Management (25th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (5th), Service Mesh (7th), Agile and DevOps Services (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of IBM Rational Build Forge is 1.6%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Tanzu Platform is 1.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware Tanzu Platform	1.9%
IBM Rational Build Forge	1.6%
Other	96.5%

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

it_user1330545

CRM Program Release Manager at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

Great reporting features and very functional

The solution could be more user friendly. Trying to train somebody on it can be difficult. If you're in this field, you kind of learn the tools, but trying to show a PM how to find report sheets to pull data was difficult. I had to show them how to write the queries and pull the data that they needed. It's not a layman's solution. If you're working with a programmer or with an architect, you won't have issues trying to relay how to utilize the tool. It was for those who cut the checks where there were problems enabling them to pull the data they required. I guess the answer is DevOps, but it depends on your environment. Just being able to sign into dashboards and get accurate results was my biggest thing with my PMs on my projects. They like charts and pie graphs, the ability to see things at a glance data where they could make decisions on the fly.

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ErmiasGirma

Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc

Has supported container-based deployments and improved infrastructure visibility through monitoring tools

Aria Operations, formerly known as VMware vRealize Operations, has been renamed to vROps. We are currently using this for monitoring purposes. For orchestration, we are using VCD to automate Telco Cloud. VCD is an automation tool, and we are also using VMware Tanzu Platform for the Kubernetes environment, alongside TKG, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. These are also other solutions for the Tanzu Kubernetes environment. For Telco Cloud, we are using it to automate our company's operations, which is for a telecom company. We are familiar with these products, especially vCenter, ESXi, VCD, vCF, and vROps. It is very easy to integrate applications when we deploy vCenter and ESXi since we can enable vSphere with Tanzu feature. We can build namespaces and provide application developers the platform to deploy their applications on pods within containerization. We can easily manage, pull results, and create containers efficiently, making it a simple way to handle applications. We provide namespace labels for application developers, and we can manage their resources along with other aspects easily. Regarding security, we use many tools such as CDX and LDAP, AD for integrating our Kubernetes cluster with the developer teams. We can manage roles and permissions simply. It is very straightforward to integrate with EDX and other third-party tools, Active Directory, to the Kubernetes cluster, allowing easy access and management.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"All features are useful. Our customer doesn't have any complaints about the tool. It works pretty well for what they want and what they need to do."

"Very good reporting features."

"The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible."

"The observability platform and end-to-end service portal provided by Tanzu are the most valuable features."

"We feel very good about these features."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The Day 2 operations support is the most vital feature"

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control has many valuable features, such as ease of use and customization."

"I have multiple Kubernetes environments within my environment. TMC gives me a single pane view, which is good for managing everything."

"The most popular feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is its graphical user interface for describing network policies on the Service Mesh, which is highly integrable with other tools commonly used in supply chains such as security."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

"Not user friendly for the layman."

"Its logging can be improved. When something goes wrong, it is not always very easy to find the problem. It is hard to identify whether the problem is because of low memory in the server or some configuration in Rational Build Forge. The error logs are not very detailed, and they should provide more information. It should also have more integration with third-party tools. It would be great to have more integration with third-party tools."

"LYNX is a managed cluster solution that takes care of specific details within a cluster, such as sequences or services. I haven't seen this feature in Tanzu Mission Control."

"We want to see a new feature that helps build more security architecture like Zero Trust Security or shifting left in Kubernetes."

"Cost is always a concern. Smaller companies might find the price a bigger issue."

"Tanzu provides better manageability as compared to OCP, but when it comes to tagging it with other products, it's a bit rigid. If I have to bring in any new product or something out of the box from a different vendor, working with Tanzu becomes a little difficult. For example, if I want to use the F5 services, I have to add one more layer of Avi, but I don't want to do that. If I have a list of the products that I want to use, such as for firewall services, with Tanzu, I will have to go through another layer, which creates complexity."

"Customers have noticed a considerable price increase after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom."

"The infrastructure is quite challenging."

"The implementation is not easy, it is very complex and can take a day or two to complete."

"The disaster recovery feature could be improved to provide better tracking of issues. I would also like to see the introduction of a dashboard view, for even further integration of all the areas that Mission Control looks at."

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The licensing cost is expensive."

"The solution is only for large or medium size enterprises because it is expensive."

"The license for VMware Tanzu Application Service is expensive. The license should be cheaper."

"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."

"The solution is bundled in with Cloud Foundry so the pricing is not independent."

"One of our Spanish customers told us that VMware Tanzu Service Mesh is a very expensive product for their data center."

"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

"There are different licenses available. You have to upgrade your license if you want to scale the solution more."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

It definitely gives the end customer a good overview and perspective of running applications in terms of overall workload footprint. TMC provides a very detailed description of your cloud-native ap...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution. I would rate the pricing of VMware Tanzu Mission Control as four out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 27% of the time

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Compared 17% of the time

JFrog Pipeline vs IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 14% of the time

AWS CodeBuild vs IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 12% of the time

Harness vs IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 11% of the time

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Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Docker vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

January 2026

Download IBM Rational Build Forge product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

January 2026

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

Rational Build Forge

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

Overview

IBM Rational Build Forge is an adaptive execution framework that helps automate and standardize the software assembly process. Rational Build Forge helps teams standardize repetitive tasks, improve software quality and manage compliance mandates. This software scales to 25 seats. Rational Build Forge delivers:
Flexibility - gives developers self-service access to preconfigured build processes from within their integrated development environment (IDE). You can add IBM Rational software products to further enhance automation, reporting and integration.
Productivity - accelerates build and release cycles through iterative development, parallel processes and efficient use of hardware.
Compliance - simplifies compliance management with self-documenting audit trails and role-based security.
Compatibility - increases team efficiency with centralized build and release management using the tools you have today.

IBM

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Cars.com

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational Build Forge vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

December 2025

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