Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs Temporal comparison

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

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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

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Ranking in Process Automation

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Temporal

Ranking in Process Automation

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Temporal is 7.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Dan Campeanu

Security Engineer at ProVision

Automates tasks and manages multiple servers from a central location

The initial setup was quite complex. It required careful preparation of installation steps, as many tasks were not automated as expected. Special attention was needed to prepare groups, users, and permissions at each step to ensure a smooth setup process. Please do so accurately to avoid having to start over. Challenges encountered during deployment included issues with installation and configuration and difficulties detecting machines and executing tasks as expected. Some solutions were found through trial and error during installation, while others were discovered through recommendations from other users. Despite these challenges, the deployment and rollout of Orchestrator took approximately one and a half months to ensure proper functionality.

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AbhishekDash

Senior Software Engineer at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Orchestrates infrastructure tasks like deployment, deletion, and management

Temporal focus on developers rather than business users. In contrast to older workflow orchestration engines like Camunda, which are more business-oriented and strongly emphasize UI and workflow authoring, Temporal is geared toward developers. It provides extensive capabilities for building complex workflows. A standout feature of Temporal is its handling of long-running workflows, a significant advantage over many other solutions. Temporal excels in managing distributed transactions and application state durability, especially in microservice environments where transactions might fail due to network issues. Temporal simplifies these challenges by managing retries, fail-safes, and circuit breakers. As a result, developers don't need to implement these features manually; Temporal handles them implicitly, though it also allows for tuning based on specific needs.

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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

"Automation is the most valuable feature of the solution."

"It can manage multiple servers and workstations from a single location."

"The most valuable feature is its ability to manage and automate workflows without manual intervention efficiently."

"Temporal focus on developers rather than business users."

"The solution's most valuable features include its ability to simplify the management of complex workflows, improve system resilience and fault tolerance, and reduce the need for extensive boilerplate code."

"What I like best about Temporal is its durable execution, which means you don't need to write many boilerplate code for critical pieces, especially for retries. It also has great observability and a nice dashboard to see issues without digging into logs. The interface for viewing activities is excellent, with good tracing that shows how long activities took and what ran, making it almost perfect for debugging."

"The most valuable thing about Temporal is that we can create multiple and child workflows. We can segregate work as we want, which is good for work organization. It's also easy to maintain. We're trying to generate and fill PDF forms with custom data, including digital signatures. We call AWS and do all activities through Temporal, like calling and saving data in buckets. We do this because we have a lot of load, with multiple users requesting data. We have two types of users: admin and customer. The admin creates forms, and employees or customers fill them out. When admin gets a form, it's stored in Temporal."

"Temporal provides visibility into workflow progress and analytics and supports scheduled tasks with customizable settings, making it very convenient."

"It is very useful for long-running workflows."

"We like the fact that the whole process is durable, which is very useful to us."

More Temporal pros

Cons

"I find the Orchestrator UI to be problematic."

"The product's management aspect needs enhancement."

"One area where I think Temporal could improve is its dashboard, particularly in event tracking. Currently, the dashboard doesn't show a time-based view of events, meaning it doesn't display when an event started or went through the retry process. If this feature could be added in a future release, it would significantly enhance monitoring capabilities. Other than that, Temporal's overall performance is quite impressive, and we're confident we can migrate to the Temporal workflow."

"We previously faced issues with the solution's patch system."

"Temporal doesn't have built-in data storage to store the state of the ongoing execution."

"One area for the product improvement is the learning curve."

"Developers often mention the desire for a more intuitive visualization of workflow states."

"Sometimes it scales kind of badly, but it depends on the process of our products."

"Temporal's debugging is a bit complex."

"There are areas where Temporal could improve. For instance, calling multiple microservices with Temporal introduces latency due to workflow registration and analytics overhead."

More Temporal cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We obtained a license that bundled Windows Server with System Center at no additional cost."

"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."

"Temporal is a free, open-source tool."

"Temporal is open-source and free to use, which is great. We didn't have to pay for any premium features."

"The tool is open source under the MIT license, so there are no hidden fees. You can freely use everything on their GitHub and Docker images."

"The savings weren't as big as we initially expected, but they were pretty great from a developer's perspective."

"It is worth the price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

15%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

It can manage multiple servers and workstations from a single location.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

The platform was almost free of cost for us. We obtained a license that bundled Windows Server with System Center at no additional cost.

What needs improvement with Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

The product's management aspect needs enhancement. It affects the visibility of powerful scripts that were previously accessible. Furthermore, the focus is shifting towards cloud-based features, sp...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Temporal?

In terms of pricing, Camunda is indeed costlier than Temporal. The cloud deployment costs differ, and while Camunda 7 can be cheaper due to its integrated setup, comparing latest versions between T...

What needs improvement with Temporal?

The only area for improvement in Temporal is the UI. I know it is a non-UI first product, but comparing Camunda versus Temporal UI, there is a difference. Moreover, n8n, being a no-code platform, i...

What is your primary use case for Temporal?

The main purposes for using Temporal are automation flows, especially financial automations and supply chain automations. Our company name is SR, we are a digital-first CPG brand making company, ma...

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Comparisons

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Camunda vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 15% of the time

vCenter Orchestrator vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 13% of the time

Rundeck vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 13% of the time

BMC TrueSight Orchestration vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 10% of the time

More Microsoft System Center Orchestrator Competitors

Camunda vs Temporal

Compared 46% of the time

Orkes vs Temporal

Compared 15% of the time

Flowable vs Temporal

Compared 15% of the time

Pega Platform vs Temporal

Compared 5% of the time

Control-M vs Temporal

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Process Automation

Download Microsoft System Center Orchestrator product report

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator report

Temporal

Download Temporal product report

Also Known As

MS System Center Orchestrator

No data available

Overview

As an IT administrator, you probably perform a lot of tasks and procedures to keep your computing environment healthy. You may have automated individual tasks, but typically, not the whole process. With System Center - Orchestrator you tie disparate tasks and procedures together using a graphical user interface Runbook Designer to create reliable, flexible, and efficient end-to-end solutions in your IT environment.

Microsoft

Temporal automates and manages workflows efficiently, offering resilience in distributed systems with features like retry and fault tolerance. Its capabilities in handling complex workflows and integrating with programming languages make it a valuable tool for managing diverse business logic.

Temporal excels in workflow orchestration, automating tasks across multiple platforms, and ensuring durability in asynchronous operations. It supports long-running workflows and simplifies handling distributed transactions, reducing boilerplate code. Temporal is noted for its durable execution and built-in retry policies, enhancing resilience. Despite its complexity and steep learning curve, it is valued for its integration with popular programming languages and relatively easy setup process, though it requires improvements in user-friendly features, documentation, community support, and security.

What are Temporal's key features?

Automation and Efficient Management: Automatically handles workflows without manual intervention.
Resilience and Fault Tolerance: Features built-in retry policies for increased reliability.
Integration: Supports various programming languages, easing development.
Distributed Transactions: Simplifies complex transaction handling with reduced boilerplate code.
Durable Execution: Ensures long-running workflows are reliably managed.

What benefits or ROI should users evaluate?

Scalability and Reliability: Enhances IT environments through robust workflow management.
Ease of Integration: Supports seamless multi-platform automation.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Reduces need for extensive coding, streamlining processes.
Durability and Fault Tolerance: Provides reliable asynchronous operations.

Temporal is implemented in sectors requiring robust workflow orchestration, such as managing data pipelines, API integration, and scheduling tasks. Organizations in a Kubernetes environment leverage it for its scalability and infrastructure management capabilities, securing integrations and enhancing reliability across IT operations.

Temporal Technologies

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal