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CloudBolt vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Organizations saw 60% savings and 50% faster deliveries with CloudBolt, benefiting from automation and reduced support costs.
Sentiment score
7.2
VMware Aria Automation improved ROI through cost savings, enhanced productivity, and faster provisioning, reducing manual processes and boosting efficiency.
We have seen over 60 to 70 percent return on investment with CloudBolt.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Nnamdi Azikiwe University
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
CloudBolt offers responsive, efficient customer service with excellent support, fast issue resolution, and highly praised technical assistance.
Sentiment score
6.6
VMware Aria Automation support is generally responsive and knowledgeable, but some delays occur with escalated issues and case handling.
When you open a ticket, in very, very few cases, they solve it. This is around a particular solution, Tanzu.
Senior IT at ITSolutions
We never had major issues to report or request support.
IT Infrastructure Manager at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
CloudBolt is scalable for varied infrastructures but needs blueprint improvements; ratings range from seven to nine out of ten.
Sentiment score
7.5
VMware Aria Automation is highly scalable, adaptable to various setups, and appreciated for integration and ease of expansion.
CloudBolt is very scalable for me.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Nnamdi Azikiwe University
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
CloudBolt is stable and reliable, with effective support, though some face issues due to memory constraints and updates.
Sentiment score
6.8
VMware Aria Automation is generally stable, with improvements noted; issues mainly occur during upgrades or complex deployments.
Until version eight, it was perfect because it was very proven and stable, and it was doing very well what it was promising.
Senior IT at ITSolutions
 

Room For Improvement

CloudBolt needs improvements in cost optimization, UI design, container support, SaaS management, billing, integrations, and feature workflows.
VMware Aria Automation needs improved documentation, integration, UI, and cost-effectiveness, along with enhanced orchestration, training, and error management.
The UI and UX design should be more user-friendly, as new users cannot easily navigate the workflow without prior knowledge.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Nnamdi Azikiwe University
To improve CloudBolt, I believe the user experience needs enhancement as some users find it somewhat dated compared to newer cloud management platforms.
Sr PreSales Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware.
Senior IT at ITSolutions
It operates for both of my products, however, as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.
Cloud Engineer at BIDV - Ngân hàng TMCP Đầu tư & Phát triển Việt Nam
 

Setup Cost

CloudBolt offers scalable pricing per server, with discounts for upfront purchases, appealing to automation-focused teams despite varying costs.
Enterprise users find VMware Aria Automation costly yet appreciate its integration and savings, comparing it to free alternatives like SaltStack.
CloudBolt's pricing is very affordable.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Nnamdi Azikiwe University
 

Valuable Features

CloudBolt excels in governance, deployment, provisioning, multi-cloud management, integration, cost management, efficiency, and supports major cloud providers.
VMware Aria Automation streamlines tasks through extensive integration, scalability, and user-friendly interfaces, enhancing operational agility and hybrid cloud support.
Since using CloudBolt, I have seen a 25 to 30 percent reduction in service delivery time and an improvement in efficiency of almost 20 to 25 percent within a timeframe of approximately 8 to 10 months.
Sr PreSales Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The best features of CloudBolt are the governance enforcement and cloud deployment, which provide better deployed infrastructure to our engineers and have reduced dependencies.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Nnamdi Azikiwe University
We leverage VRO when the going gets tough. When something is not doable with the tools we have with VMware Aria Automation, we use the capabilities of VRO because it has many plugins for many things.
Senior IT at ITSolutions
It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method.
Cloud Engineer at BIDV - Ngân hàng TMCP Đầu tư & Phát triển Việt Nam
We have strong regulations for maintaining compliance and mitigating risks with this product.
IT Infrastructure Manager at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

CloudBolt
Ranking in Cloud Management
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Cost Management (33rd)
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Cloud Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
172
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (8th), Network Automation (6th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (20th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of CloudBolt is 2.0%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 5.8%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Aria Automation5.8%
CloudBolt2.0%
Other92.2%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

AbhishekGupta2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr PreSales Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized self-service has unified hybrid clouds and has improved governance and cost control
The best features CloudBolt offers include governance and policy control, allowing security teams to set up their specific guardrails with governance at scale. Multi or hybrid cloud abstraction provides a single pane of glass for different types of environments, and self-service catalogs enable technical or business users to request services without multiple tickets. CloudBolt also offers strong integration capabilities that work well with existing tools without disrupting the current environment. From an integration standpoint, CloudBolt works well with various public and private cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, and Nutanix, as well as different virtualization software, infrastructure as code templates such as Ansible and Terraform, ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, and CMDB platforms. CloudBolt has positively impacted my organization by managing multiple cloud environments for thousands of users with a complex enterprise workflow that has helped reduce man-hours required for provisioning resources. We have achieved faster delivery through standardized operating procedures and reduced reworks due to automation. The chargeback and showback mechanisms allow us to charge different business units according to their consumption, providing better governance, lower risk, and lower cost, resulting in a good return on investment. Since using CloudBolt, I have seen a 25 to 30 percent reduction in service delivery time and an improvement in efficiency of almost 20 to 25 percent within a timeframe of approximately 8 to 10 months.
VasilisGiannitsiotis - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise130
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CloudBolt?
To improve CloudBolt, I believe the user experience needs enhancement as some users find it somewhat dated compared to newer cloud management platforms. From a telemetry and analytics perspective, ...
What is your primary use case for CloudBolt?
My main use case for CloudBolt includes having a centralized self-service provisioning and orchestration, allowing me to manage hybrid and multi-cloud provisioning across AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, a...
What advice do you have for others considering CloudBolt?
For others looking into using CloudBolt, I advise defining governance policies early, focusing on building modular automation, and planning integrations in advance, such as IAM, CMDB, or security a...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

WM, CyWest, Panic, Camden, University of Maryland, Xerox, Neustar, Medidata, Continu, Aruba Networks, Neuberger Berman, Peak6, EverBank, Ascensus, Hosting Edge
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Find out what your peers are saying about CloudBolt vs. VMware Aria Automation and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.