VMware Aria Automation vs VMware Aria Suite comparison

The compared VMware Aria Automation and VMware Aria Suite solutions aren't in the same category. VMware Aria Automation is ranked #3 in CM , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 5.5% mindshare in the category. Additionally, 94% of VMware Aria Automation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware Aria Suite users who would recommend it.

VMware Aria Automation

Read 172 VMware Aria Automation reviews

17,011 Views
9,696 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Suite

Read 5 VMware Aria Suite reviews

100% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Automation

VMware Aria Suite

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between VMware Aria Automation and VMware Aria Suite based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Cloud Management

July 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

VMware Aria Automation

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

172

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (3rd), Configuration Management (7th), Network Automation (6th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (21st), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (7th)

VMware Aria Suite

Average Rating

9.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

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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it_user224100

SSIO Infrastructure Engineer at Wyndham Destination Network - RCI Europe

Key benefits include the ability to identify resource usage and hot spots.

I have been using Operations Manager for the last few months since reviewing my licence structure and procuring the Enterprise Plus, management bundle. Having a number of distributed vSphere environments spread across the UK and Europe has presented a number of challenges in terms of centralised alerting and reporting. With my collections all configured I am now able to receive invaluable information quickly - reducing the labour that was previously causing issues. Key benefits:- * Ability to identify resource usage and hot spots * Understand where I can reclaim resources * Trend and forecast my virtual landscape by adding projects

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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

"From the customer perspective, the value was worth it."

"Upgrades have been extremely simple with their Lifecycle Manager product."

"The big benefit is it will spin up VMs quickly so it would take about 13 to 15 minutes to deploy a virtual machine. Whereas, if I were doing it based on an email from users who are requesting VMs, it might take time for me to hear back from them. This could be anywhere from an hour to a day."

"We're automating a lot of OS builds, and the front-end gives us a way for users to go and request those services and the orchestrator part lets us automate a lot of the functions involved in them."

"I think the ability to create blueprints and define our lab environments and vRAs is really easy for anyone to use, with drag and drop VMs and other components into the Blueprint Composer."

"The automation really is priceless."

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

"We can now deploy a new (Linux-based) ERP server in 15 minutes; automated, all using the same template and standard."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

"Thanks guys – you managed to turn around an extremely frustrating experience into something more positive."

"I found the ease of use with Operations Manager Dashboard and providing complete visibility of your infrastructure most valuable."

"With my collections all configured I am now able to receive invaluable information quickly, reducing the labour that was previously causing issues."

"This is our lifeblood, our ability to be pro-active instead of retroactive, and without it, it hurts our bottom line."

Cons

"They should concentrate on navigation and service improvements."

"I would like to see a simpler way of provisioning it. As is, we can automate the provisioning of a VM, however, when it comes to the external IPs, that is outside of VMware. But that has to be automated as well. If there was a way for us to have the virtual machines connect to switches that are external to VMware, that would be great. That way, it would handle the entire workflow from creation and provisioning of a VM to the connectivity to the external IP addresses which allow our customers to have access to the VM. Currently, that IP configuration has to be done manually."

"It is bleeding edge technology, but at times, it is buggy."

"It's a good product. It's very extensible. It is fairly complex to set up, and it's fairly closely tied to VMware's infrastructure, so there's a lack of portability to public clouds and a lack of ability to manage infrastructure as code natively."

"The setup needs coding. It's not easy. It's not straightforward."

"I think they are going to have a tough time with the Enterprise licensing. I personally think the pricing for Enterprise is hard to justify."

"The stability is okay, but could be improved. We sometimes receive strange errors, which can only be solved with specialists."

"The initial setup was complex because we have a high availability cluster. Especially when it comes to upgrades, we have a lot of downtimes and problems. The upgrade experience has been painful."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

"It has color coding to an extent, but it needs more colors to tag more diversely."

"I would like to see the vrealize Suite support the Mcrosoft Azure"

"I would like the reporting function to be made more complete."

"It’s hardly the most streamlined deployment experience is it? It’s ironic that an application designed to orchestrate operations can’t orchestrate its installation a bit better!"

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source product."

"We do plan to see ROI with any new implementation of new technologies being implemented within our environment."

"The solution is free of cost."

"We have seen significant ROI. We used to have physical servers, it took 90 days to get a server, order it, buy it, and get it in. We have it down to 10 minutes, building a server with virtualization, and now that's too slow. So, we let the customer do it at their speed. Therefore, it is pretty much up in a couple of minutes and they have a server."

"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."

"vRealize automation really should be a front door to the whole VMware suite of products."

"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."

"From the customer perspective, the value was worth it."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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 you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...

See all answers

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 free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...

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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 companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...

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Comparisons

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 6% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware Aria Automation Competitors

IBM Turbonomic vs VMware Aria Suite

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco UCS Director vs VMware Aria Suite

Compared 15% of the time

OpenText Cloud Service Automation vs VMware Aria Suite

Compared 14% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Suite

Compared 11% of the time

CloudBolt vs VMware Aria Suite

Compared 11% of the time

More VMware Aria Suite Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

July 2026

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No data available

Also Known As

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

vRealize suite

Overview

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

VMware vRealize Suite is a cloud management platform purpose-built for the hybrid cloud. It provides a comprehensive management stack for IT services on vSphere and other hypervisors, physical infrastructure and external clouds, all with a unified management experience.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

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

Weill Cornell Medical College

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