VMware Aria Automation vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

vCenter Configuration Manager and VMware Aria Automation are both solutions in the Configuration Management category. vCenter Configuration Manager is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.8, while VMware Aria Automation is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.2. vCenter Configuration Manager holds a 2.1% mindshare in CM, compared to VMware Aria Automation’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of vCenter Configuration Manager users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of VMware Aria Automation users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

vCenter Configuration Manager and VMware Aria Automation compete in the IT automation and management category. Users are happier with VMware Aria Automation due to its robust feature set despite the higher price.

Features: vCenter Configuration Manager provides strong compliance management, automated audits, and comprehensive reporting. VMware Aria Automation offers scalability, flexibility in automating IT tasks, and excellent integration capabilities. Users rate VMware Aria Automation higher for these advanced features.

Room for Improvement: vCenter Configuration Manager could improve user experience and system integration. VMware Aria Automation needs to reduce complexity and improve documentation. Users are more vocal about needed improvements in vCenter Configuration Manager.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vCenter Configuration Manager is straightforward to deploy but has mixed reviews on customer service. VMware Aria Automation has a complex deployment but excellent customer service. Users prefer VMware Aria Automation’s customer service despite deployment challenges.

Pricing and ROI: vCenter Configuration Manager is cost-effective and gives a good return on investment. VMware Aria Automation, while more expensive, offers superior features and a higher ROI. Users find VMware Aria Automation worth the extra expense due to its premium feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

June 2026

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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 Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.9%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 4.1%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune	4.9%
VMware Aria Automation	4.1%
vCenter Configuration Manager	2.1%
Other	88.9%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

OluwashileAdeniyi

Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Centralized endpoint security has improved and supports hybrid work and BYOD policies

Regarding what I dislike about Microsoft Intune and its downsides, I would say that more Mac controls are needed because we have limited Mac and Linux control. When comparing controls and policies between Windows, Mac, and Linux, Windows has almost everything you can think of, while Mac and Linux have limited types of control. You cannot implement certain things on Mac and Linux that you can on Windows. The limited controls are a major issue. Additionally, if Microsoft could find a way to embed servers into Microsoft Intune, that would be beneficial. Microsoft Intune is not really designed for servers or Windows servers. It is more tailored towards Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems. Windows servers are not fully supported. Enterprise organizations usually have both servers and endpoints, which are users' workstations. For servers, most people look for other solutions such as SCCM, which is Configuration Manager. However, SCCM is what Microsoft Intune is trying to replace. Both SCCM and Microsoft Intune belong to Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to transition organizations into Microsoft Intune, the native cloud solution. However, because this update is still in process, servers are not fully compatible with Microsoft Intune and cannot be managed by it. The current policy that has emerged from issues with clients is what they call co-management, which is relatively new, and I do not know if adoption is significant. Many legacy or older customers who have been using these products for decades still have SCCM. When it is time for them to manage their Windows devices, they use what is called cloud attach. Cloud attach is a term whereby your SCCM is connected to your Microsoft Intune. Most people do not know about it, but I have deployed it for several organizations. Cloud attach and co-management work together so that your device is in SCCM, but some policies are pushed from Microsoft Intune. It is like two different solutions working hand in hand. That is what they call co-management. Microsoft Intune does not bring all of your endpoint and security management tools into one place, which is the goal and how it should be. However, as I mentioned, servers are not included. If we talk about end users, Microsoft Intune does bring all your devices together. In a typical enterprise environment, you have end users with workstations, laptops, company-issued phones, and bring your own devices. You can create policies for all of these. However, for the backend, your servers do not have much coverage. Servers are not really covered by Microsoft Intune in that way.

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Mohamad Irshidat

Principal Consultant Engineer at Estarta Solutions

Migration streamlines processes while real-time monitoring opportunities remain

The migration feature of vCenter Configuration Manager is the most loved feature so far. This particular feature is valuable because it is vendor-oriented and works with VMware, which makes your life easy. Regarding system reliability, it is helpful. When you design it for the process, it will help you minimize the downtime, and it will help the reliability of the system. vCenter Configuration Manager has impacted my organization positively, but it's not fully deployed yet; we only use it for one or two tasks, and our team goes back to using the vCenter itself. However, further on, maybe we'll find a use case that will help us use the configuration manager.

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VasilisGiannitsiotis

Senior IT at ITSolutions

Automation has streamlined complex financial workflows but still needs more intuitive orchestration

Something to improve in VMware Aria Automation would be related to VCF 9, as I do not know what it is trying to bring because they exposed it as the solution of everything. So VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware. I have not seen what this brings or what else it includes. Maybe in the area of vRealize Orchestrator, this would be beneficial because VRO can do everything. Perhaps a more user-friendly way to use that tool would be helpful because the possibilities there are endless. I am looking for more user-friendly navigation in VMware Aria Automation.

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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

"The best features in Microsoft Intune that I appreciate the most are the strong security, encryption, and operating system version."

"The best thing about Intune for the customers is simply that it's included in the different plans of Microsoft 365."

"If you want to manage your mobile devices as well as your Windows 10 devices, Intune is the best option."

"We have not had any issues with the scalability."

"I would recommend Microsoft Intune to others; it is a very good and scalable solution."

"Microsoft Intune is easy to use, and it is able to enforce policies towards multiple devices. It is able to bring multiple classes of devices into the same security posture. I found that very useful."

"Intune is flexible. If you want to move a device that was previously on-prem, we can bring it to the cloud and apply all the policies. This is helpful for even those organizations that were on-prem and not on the cloud. They can also come and use these features, which are pretty cool and would be handy to protect the data and manage the devices as well."

"We have definitely seen a good return on investment, as it has saved a good amount of time in device setup and support, reducing manual effort by around forty to fifty percent and also fewer on-site interventions since most issues are handled remotely."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"We prefer to pay for these products that are integrated and straightforward."

"vCenter Configuration Manager is pretty simple."

"The migration feature of vCenter Configuration Manager is the most loved feature so far."

"I would recommend this solution to others, it has worked very well for me."

"What I like is the ability to spin up a virtual machine from an image, which makes my backup policy much easier."

"The most valuable features that VMware's vCenter Configuration Manager have, when compared with other solutions, are their disaster recovery and business connectivity capabilities."

"Configuration Manager simplifies management. Cloning via live migration is a useful feature."

"vCenter has some good user experience, and the initial setup is straightforward."

More vCenter Configuration Manager pros

"From experience working with other service provider cloud products, VMware vRealize Automation Center is the best out-of-the-box solution to quickly build out your cloud portal and fully integrate it into your orchestration layers, as well as your compute and storage infrastructures."

"One of the most valuable features is lifecycle management. It allows my teams to create, manage, and retire all of our infrastructure objects in the data center."

"Compared to alternative solutions in this space, the feature set of this solution is unrivaled."

"He liked the way SaltStack (on the entire cluster) was up and running in a few minutes, and also gave him flexibility to generate traffic, make config changes, etc. on the fly."

"It is probably 90 percent quicker to get something out the door than it was before."

"Fast provisioning and integration with public cloud."

"Scalability is perfect. We haven't had any issues."

"This is one of VMware's best products for automation."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"Certificate management within Microsoft Intune's Suite is still under development. It's not very reliable compared to other certificate tools, though it has made good progress within a couple of years."

"The reports aren't complete, and it's not easy to build custom reports."

"I have one remark about the application management for the Android version. Often, the Play Store opens and leaves the possibility to download to the user, which is not good."

"There is no catalog for mobile access management (MAM) security."

"It would be great to see on-premises mailboxes and for the solution to have geofencing capabilities."

"The most important thing is reporting. They should improve their reporting. They should give a free hand to users. In SCCM, I can create my own reports. For example, in SCCM, I can create an inventory report for my PC or for all PCs, but in Intune, we don't have an option to create any report. Microsoft claims that Intune is a successor of SCCM, but SCCM is more powerful than Intune. So, they should develop Intune more and make it equivalent to SCCM. Then, their product will be great in the market."

"The reporting dashboard is really limited."

"What I dislike about Microsoft Intune is the time it takes Microsoft to develop a feature."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"The functions are not running in HTML 5, this is a problem."

"The solution should allow for more customization."

"The reporting could be improved."

"The platform's certificate management functionality can be challenging, along with troubleshooting when issues arise."

"This product is not cheap. I have a yearly license for vCenter and the license is not cheap."

"The technical support is not as responsive as it could be. They are slow to respond to our issues with a resolution. There should be online chat support added."

"The solution could be more integrated with the Microsoft environment."

"It would be better to integrate this infrastructure with native cloud environments, but we can't do it. We are trying to improve our experience by converting our infrastructure through virtualization on native cloud environments and workloads."

More vCenter Configuration Manager cons

"More detailed documentation on implementing feature sets and more examples of real world processes would help."

"There are a lot of improvements required with regards to vRealize Automation."

"We had a lot of issues at first. Especially with doing any kind of upgrades, it was a complete tear-down and a complete rebuild of all the Blueprints. The upgrade process was not easy or intuitive at all. But it seems to be getting better."

"If you are using Aria Automation by itself, you won't get the features you want, and the license cost is high."

"It is not super-intuitive. It does require some skills to understand how to use it. I had no problem, but I had spent a lot of time already learning this product ahead of moving it to an operational status. But as we did so, we had a hard time bringing some people from other groups into the fold, to script and work against this environment. So, the ability to build workflows within that automation needs to be streamlined."

"Stability has gotten a lot better. However, the vRO aspect, when you have a multi vRA head, is a little bit finicky still. vRO still needs to stay on one appliance and be one application, because, when you have two, you can't see runs on the other one that are happening when you're not logged into that one."

"Upgrades are always a pain."

"The initial setup was not straightforward. It was not simple, and we had a PoC. We had VMware help us deploy it, and it took them an exorbitant amount of time."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune is linked with Microsoft. We can deploy the Microsoft E365 license to users by Intune. There are different types of licenses, such as device administrator licenses, E5 licenses for device enrollment manually, and P1 and p2 licenses for device enrollment automatically. These are the licenses required for the administration."

"There is a license needed for this solution and it is either included in one of the enterprise license agreements. Microsoft licensing is a mathematical institute, it could be quite complex. We tend to ask specialized organizations to research what the most profitable way it would be for us to use licenses in the organizations."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"Intune is available as an individual product, but it also comes with Office 365 Premium or an Enterprise license, and the price varies for each version."

"Intune is moderately expensive. You can get the license bundled with Office 365 E3 or E5 licenses. The E5s are a bit expensive, but you get some cheaper solutions with Intune."

"We don't pay for Intune because it is bundled with the premium subscription to Office 365. It includes Intune and Defender. I don't have to buy two extra products to manage my enterprise."

"The overall pricing of Microsoft Intune is good for companies that have big IT budgets, 3,000 or more users and devices."

"As a partner, we always look for how we can generate more revenue from a consulting point of view, but I do not see any complaints from the customer side regarding pricing, so they are satisfied with it."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"The product price and licensing fees are reasonable, especially when compared to other products in the market."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"We have to pay for the whole bundle and individual pricing is not available. One license costs us almost $200 every year."

"I have a license to cover four hosts."

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten. The product has increased its cost by at least two to three times its previous cost."

"It is an expensive product."

"Users need to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive."

"The price of the solution is too expensive for us and we are looking to move to another solution."

More vCenter Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

"SaltStack is an open-source product."

"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."

"There is confusion between licensing levels. There are three different licensed versions of vRealize Automation, and there are different things which can happen in each of them."

"It is pricey for what you get."

"I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with ten being very expensive."

"The solution is free of cost."

"I'm very interested in the integration with Puppet. However, my organization doesn't have the funding for something like Puppet right now. If VMware would integrate that feature set (Puppet) into vRA. That would be very awesome."

"They should provide one license for all the sub-products."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Construction Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	190
Midsize Enterprise	65
Large Enterprise	185

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	131

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

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What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

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How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vCenter Configuration Manager?

Nowadays, it is a bit expensive. It's costly, primarily due to the licensing aspect.

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What needs improvement with vCenter Configuration Manager?

My impression on the impact of the real-time monitoring features of vCenter Configuration Manager is that it's somewh...

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What is your primary use case for vCenter Configuration Manager?

My usual use cases for vCenter Configuration Manager mainly involve migration, shift and lift mainly, and some type o...

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What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?

vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything y...

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Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?

When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A fre...

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Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?

I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of compa...

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Comparisons

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

IBM MaaS360 vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 10% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 4% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 4% of the time

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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 15% of the time

Perforce Puppet vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 10% of the time

BigFix vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 9% of the time

Clarity CA vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 6% of the time

BMC TrueSight Automation for Networks vs vCenter Configuration Manager

Compared 5% of the time

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Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware Aria Automation Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

June 2026

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

vCenter Configuration Manager

May 2026

Download vCenter Configuration Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

May 2026

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

vCM

VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack

Overview

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.

Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Windows Autopilot: Automates device setup for rapid deployment.
Azure Active Directory Integration: Enhances user policy management.
Reporting and Analytics: Improves compliance visibility.
Mobile Application Management: Ensures app security without compromising personal data.
Cloud-Based Management: Allows management from any location.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Time Efficiency: Automation reduces time in policy enforcement and configuration updates.
Enhanced Security: Ensures data protection across corporate-owned and BYOD devices.
Improved Compliance: Advanced reporting tools enhance compliance visibility.
Flexible Management: Cloud-based nature supports management from any location.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.

Microsoft

vCenter Configuration Manager offers a robust platform for managing virtual environments and optimizing IT infrastructure. It supports multiple platforms while facilitating virtualization, migration, and compliance processes.

vCenter Configuration Manager efficiently manages virtual machines, data centers, and servers. It enhances system performance through automation and centralized management of ESXi clusters. Known for its reliability, it also simplifies patch management and supports hyper-converged infrastructure. Challenges include improving integration, user interaction, and support for cloud and hybrid environments. Licensing transitions and compatibility issues with operating systems are areas of focus. Its strong presence in India enhances VMware environments.

What are vCenter Configuration Manager's key features?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and operation tasks.
VM Management: Efficient management of virtual machines.
Migration Capabilities: Streamlines the migration process.
High Availability: Ensures continuous operation without downtime.
Automation: Facilitates automated processes to improve efficiency.
Support for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: Enhances the IT environment's scalability.
vMotion and DRS: Critical for disaster recovery and business continuity.

What benefits and ROI should reviews highlight?

Resource Management: Optimizes resource allocation and utilization.
Ease of Provisioning: Simplifies deploying IT assets across the organization.
Compliance Management: Ensures regulatory compliance and governance.
Reliable Stability: Provides a stable and robust IT environment.

vCenter Configuration Manager is implemented across sectors like healthcare and industry. It manages virtualization, server oversight, and host monitoring. Its automation and patch management streamline IT processes, making it a valuable tool for managing diverse IT infrastructures effectively.

Broadcom

VMware Aria Automation is known for its automation capabilities, integrating with VMware and third-party tools to enhance workflow efficiency, save time, and manage resources effectively.

VMware Aria Automation offers a diverse set of features including a self-service portal and a streamlined user-friendly interface, which make it ideal for organizations aiming to automate virtual machine provisioning. The platform supports extensive automation capabilities across multi-cloud environments, featuring flexible blueprint designs and comprehensive integration with platforms like AWS, Azure, and ServiceNow. Though improvements are desired in areas like logging, template management, and vCenter integration, its robust framework facilitates IT infrastructure services, disaster recovery, and development operations. It is specifically beneficial for orchestrating workflows, automating routine tasks, and managing workloads efficiently in private and hybrid cloud environments.

What are the most important features of VMware Aria Automation?

Self-Service Portal: Empowers users with easy access to resources and tools needed for automation.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and usage for both technical and non-technical users.
Extensive Automation Capabilities: Streamlines VM deployment and processes across various platforms.
Integration with VMware and Third-Party Tools: Enhances workflow automation and extends functionality.
Flexible Blueprint Designs: Allows for customized and scalable deployment solutions.

What are the benefits and ROI users should consider?

Efficiency: Reduces manual workload, leading to time and cost savings.
Scalability: Supports dynamic growth and resource management.
Enhanced Workflow Automation: Improves process efficiency with comprehensive integrations.
Customizable Orchestration: Enables tailored solutions that meet specific requirements.
Resource Management: Efficiently utilizes resources, reducing waste and optimizing operations.

VMware Aria Automation is implemented across industries for automating the provisioning of virtual machines and managing cloud environments. It is used in sectors requiring efficient server deployment, network configurations, and seamless integration with tools such as AWS and Azure. It aids in reducing manual efforts, supporting IT infrastructure services, and enhancing disaster recovery protocols.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Bank Al Bilad, Thomas-Krenn.AG, Pronto!, Unimed Juiz de Fora

Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

June 2026

Free Report: VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about VMware Aria Automation vs. vCenter Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

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