Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs Temporal comparison

Microsoft and Temporal Technologies are both solutions in the Process Automation category. Microsoft is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0, while Temporal Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. Microsoft holds a 0.9% mindshare in PA, compared to Temporal Technologies’s 7.0% mindshare. Additionally, 33% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Temporal Technologies users who would recommend it.

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Read 2 Microsoft System Center Orchestrator reviews

1,072 Views
219 Comparison Views

33% willing to recommend

Temporal

Read 17 Temporal reviews

1,735 Views
590 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Temporal

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator and Temporal are competing solutions in the workflow automation and management space. While Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is favorable in comprehensive enterprise environments due to its integration within the Microsoft ecosystem, Temporal has an edge in microservices applications with its modern architecture and scalability.

Features: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is known for its integration within Microsoft products, providing enhanced automation for Windows environments, and offering robust monitoring tools. Temporal focuses on building durable, asynchronous workflows suitable for complex use cases through microservices. Its architecture delivers high scalability and fault tolerance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator features streamlined deployment through integration with Microsoft services, easing setup for existing Microsoft infrastructure, and benefits from Microsoft's global customer support. Temporal offers flexible deployment for cloud environments but may require more configuration expertise with active community support yet lacks the widespread infrastructure of Microsoft.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator generally incurs higher initial setup costs due to Microsoft licensing but presents predictable ROI in Microsoft-centric businesses. Temporal, often open-source, reduces initial costs and offers potential ROI for organizations seeking cost-effective workflow management with modern cloud-based agility, contrasting with Microsoft's traditional pricing against Temporal's flexibility in cost management.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

June 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

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

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Temporal is 7.0%, up from 0.1% 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

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

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

"The initial setup is easy."

"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 solution's most valuable feature is its ability to fix things quickly."

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

"When some jobs take a lot of time and fail midway, the solution’s retry feature automatically causes them to retry."

"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 feature is its ability to retry from an interrupted state."

More Temporal pros

Cons

"The product's management aspect needs enhancement."

"I find the Orchestrator UI to be problematic."

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

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

"While the tool can be a bit daunting initially, especially if you're not used to async programming models, it's generally a pleasure. There's always room for improvement, though. I've noticed some limitations with the .NET SDK regarding dynamic workflows, but this might have been improved in recent versions. Overall, I think Temporal could be more open about implementing features in a more—.NET-friendly way, especially in how you add workers and clients."

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

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

"Temporal images aren’t FIPS compliant, and we have to be FIPS compliant."

"Temporal could be improved by making it more user-friendly for beginners and non-technical staff, ensuring easier integration and usability across different use cases."

"Configuring workflows can be improved —the solution could offer more options, but it's not a must-have."

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

"It is worth the price."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

28%

Computer Software Company

16%

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Temporal?

Temporal OSS is expensive in infrastructure, but it brings back the reliability that companies need.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Temporal?

The actual user interface is still in its early stages. It’s very basic. Users don’t really have a complex permission model yet. Users don’t really have ways to automate things like, for example, p...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Temporal?

We [my company] use it to run a large workload. We have a set of security scans we want to perform, and we distribute them over a full day, that’s over 24 hours. We use it to orchestrate all the st...

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow Orchestration vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 19% of the time

Camunda vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 15% of the time

vCenter Orchestrator vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 13% of the time

BizTalk Server vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 13% of the time

Rundeck vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 12% of the time

More Microsoft System Center Orchestrator Competitors

Camunda vs Temporal

Compared 48% of the time

Flowable vs Temporal

Compared 16% of the time

Orkes vs Temporal

Compared 15% of the time

Pega Platform vs Temporal

Compared 5% of the time

Rundeck vs Temporal

Compared 4% of the time

More Temporal Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Process Automation

June 2025

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator report

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Buyer's Guide

Temporal

May 2025

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

June 2025

Free Report: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

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