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OpenText Silk Central vs TFS vs Zephyr Enterprise 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of OpenText Silk Central is 2.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TFS is 4.7%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zephyr Enterprise is 5.7%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
TFS4.7%
Zephyr Enterprise5.7%
OpenText Silk Central2.7%
Other86.9%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ChrisWilliams1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Test Analyst at Kainga Ora
Reporting efficacy and collaboration improve despite outdated features
I do this for my own benefit, and it has nothing to do with any company views. I work as a permanent employee for a government department. OpenText Silk Central is coming to the end of its support, so we will have to move to something else, but I do not know what the other solution will be. Automation is quite immature at our place. It has only really started, so there is no integration with OpenText Silk Central. I would give it a rating of 7 out of 10; it could be 7.5. It just lacks certain features that would make it a higher grade if it had more modern features.
PS
Service delivery manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Ensures team collaboration with strong version control but could improve testing capabilities
Version control is the most basic feature in TFS. It has been there since the beginning. We use it primarily for that purpose. Basically ensuring that the code is not overwritten by other team members and maintaining the sanctity of the code. Bringing order to a disparate team which is virtual at different locations is very important, and TFS provides that control. Once you update a code, nobody can modify it until you are done working on it and check in. It is a great product that revolutionized the way teams work together on Microsoft pieces of code. The versioning part has unique features and capabilities which are unmatched with other products out there.
JM
Director - Quality Engineering at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Integration with tool streamlines test management but needs better exporting options
I use it for test management within Jira This tool boasts an incredibly user-friendly interface that integrates seamlessly with other Jira tools. I particularly appreciate its intuitive features for designing test plans, creating test cases, and executing test cycles. Some areas for improvement,…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The reporting is probably the most valuable feature."
"The stability of this solution is very good. In our experience it is approximately ninety-nine percent."
"TFS’s test management capability without the expensive licensing has large gaps. Users will be unable to access performance testing and coded UI testing capabilities."
"The interface is easy to navigate."
"It's is a very stable solution."
"Complete integration with VS IDE and Office tools: This give us a possibility of high-level automation, thus minimizing human error."
"TFS is very user-friendly."
"TFS allows me to handle automated builds and release management quite easily."
"User alerts are very helpful for knowing when work is required."
"The initial setup was straightforward: creating a new project, importing code, and setting up branches."
"It has a very intuitive user experience."
"It has many features, but the main things that we need are the test cycles and integration with automation because we have automation for the web and mobile applications. We use it for test case management to run the test cases and get the results. At this moment, it is fulfilling our requirements. We are able to get the test execution report and the test pass and fail report. This summary is delivered to our management."
"The solution does its job well."
"It has 90% of the basic features you need without having to pay a lot of extra money."
"If anyone is looking for a good, lightweight, flexible and agile test management product, I think they would do very well with Zephyr Enterprise."
"It has a very intuitive user experience."
"We use the solution for test case management."
"Zephyr Enterprise is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"It can be a bit slow sometimes, and it has not got some of the modern features many of the other competitors have."
"We would also like to manage the integration testing end-to-end."
"The project management side should be addressed and the project and release planning should be somewhat extended."
"The execution of test cases could stand improvement."
"More options could be provided from the perspective of requirements management, which would help product owners to use the tool effectively."
"TFS isn't a great tool if you're on the cloud."
"I would like to see TFS improve its web interface as there are some limitations with IDs and the integration behind it and with open-source tools like VS Code."
"TFS is scalable with different Microsoft tools for test management but it is not scalable with other third-party tools."
"They have room for improvement in merging the source code changes for multiple developers across files. It is very good at highlighting the changes that the source code automatically does not know how to handle, but it's not very good at reporting the ones that it did automatically. There are times when we have source code that gets merged, and we lose the changes that we expected to happen. It can get a little confusing at times. They can just do a little bit better on the merging of changes for multiple developers."
"The price could be cheaper."
"The solution is not really stable. Sometimes in the past, some pages wouldn't load due to issues."
"We faced some errors while uploading the test cases."
"Security needs improvement to protect customer information better."
"Zephyr Enterprise needs to redesign the reporting."
"The reporting, and the ability to reorganize the test repository, which are a little stifling. There is definitely room for improvement there."
"Creating better default varieties of reporting would make the product much better and more popular."
"We would like support for the agile and behavior-driven development (BDD) approaches."
"It's difficult to export the test cases in Zephyr, especially with screenshots or attachments, making sharing test cases not very easy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of this tool, in terms of licensing, is not large."
"TFS is not cheap."
"It's just as expensive as HPE ALM, without many of the features, best used for development tool only to avoid higher costs."
"We pay for the license yearly."
"There are different prices depending on the configurations. There is a free version available. There is no extra cost for the solution. However, the hardware could be something that needs to be considered."
"The solution is expensive."
"I am not in a position to comment on the licensing terms, as we are talking about an enterprise arrangement."
"The overall price of TFS is good."
"TFS is on the higher side, but if you intend to use the tool as a complete ALM tool, it will reduce your costs in the long run."
"It costs a couple of thousand dollars for a little more than 125 users, per month."
"DFS is more expensive than Zephyr. DFS is around $32 per person, whereas Zephyr is $10 per person. There is a major difference in the price, which is the main reason why we are trying to shift to Zephyr."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise64
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with OpenText Silk Central?
It can be a bit slow sometimes, and it has not got some of the modern features many of the other competitors have. I ...
What is your primary use case for OpenText Silk Central?
I could leave my opinion on some ALM that I have been working with lately. Recently, I have been working with Silk, A...
What advice do you have for others considering OpenText Silk Central?
I do this for my own benefit, and it has nothing to do with any company views. I work as a permanent employee for a g...
Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvement...
What do you like most about TFS?
Microsoft's technical team is supportive.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TFS?
While I do not know the exact pricing, TFS is likely more expensive than GitLab.
What needs improvement with Zephyr Enterprise?
Some areas for improvement, include its export capabilities. Exporting test cases, especially those with screenshots ...
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus Silk Central, Borland Silk Central, Silk Central
Team Foundation Server
SmartBear Zephyr
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AmBank Group, Krung Thai Computer Services, Deakin University
Vendex KBB IT Services, Info Support, Fujitsu Consulting, TCSC, Airways New Zealand, HP
Hyundai, Fujitsu, Google, David Jones, Burger King, Ingenico, Websense, Dow Jones, Harris, Saab
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText, IDERA, Tricentis and others in Test Management Tools. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.