Codebeamer vs TFS comparison

PTC and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. PTC is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.4, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.9. PTC holds a 7.9% mindshare in ALM, compared to Microsoft’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of PTC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Codebeamer

Read 12 Codebeamer reviews

3,424 Views
2,808 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

TFS

Read 98 TFS reviews

6,610 Views
3,280 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Codebeamer

TFS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

TFS and Codebeamer compete in the software development tool category. Codebeamer seems to have the upper hand due to its strong integration, traceability, and compliance features.

Features: TFS offers scalable version control, agile project management, and seamless integration with Visual Studio, supporting end-to-end application lifecycle management. It enhances development projects with its project management and agile tools. Codebeamer, meanwhile, excels in full traceability, compliance, and collaboration, offering robust reporting tools and covering end-to-end processes.

Room for Improvement: TFS is limited to Windows environments and poses challenges in merging features, viewing history, and admin setups, with difficulties integrating into non-Microsoft environments. Codebeamer presents a steeper learning curve for new users and UI improvements could enhance its integration with Jira while requiring better adaptability to user workflows and network settings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: TFS supports a wide range of deployments from on-premises to hybrid cloud, offering flexibility but challenging integration. Codebeamer’s on-premises, private cloud, and hybrid cloud formats cater to different organizational needs but present setup complexities. Customer service for both products receives mixed reviews, with TFS users either resolving issues independently or facing delays, while Codebeamer needs improved service responsiveness and documentation.

Pricing and ROI: TFS is considered expensive, particularly due to licensing complexity, but offers solid integration with Microsoft products, presenting good ROI when used within Microsoft's ecosystem. Codebeamer, while moderately priced, is valued for its features but may not be economical for all organizations. It is especially beneficial for industries needing high compliance and customization, providing significant productivity improvements.

To learn more, read our detailed Codebeamer vs. TFS Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Codebeamer vs. TFS

January 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

Codebeamer

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

10th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

TFS

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Test Management Tools (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Codebeamer is 7.9%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TFS is 4.5%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Christian Wilmers

Process Method and Tool Developer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

Good complexity, easy to set up, and integrates with everything

There are a lot of bits and pieces that need to be improved. It's like a teenager. It's no longer a startup, yet not mature yet. It's still a fairly new tool that lacks maturity right now. For example, if you compared it to Jira, which is more mature, you can see that some things are done better due to the fact that Jira is older. It needs better integration for office documents, et cetera. There could be more user-friendly integration between office documents and requirements. Users might say the UI is complex, however, the solution covers so many items, you need to accept the complexity. It's an in-depth solution. For some people, it may be better to have special setups to set up the GUI to show only specific items to make it simpler. It would be nice to have some sort of mash-up GUI, which is possible in Jira so that we can customize to roles specific to, for example, problem management, testers, et cetera. They should have their own GUI related to their roles.

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Pmurki@Micron.Com Praveen

VP & GM, Client Storage at Micron Technology

Version control is excellent and good for code review, branching, merging strategies and more

I've worked with TFS for source control and Agile project management. We also used TFS for seamless team collaboration and tracking. I used TFS for a couple of years. Now, we use Azure DevOps. It's a wonderful tool for source control and CI/CD pipelines It's a really valuable tool for…

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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 solution easily replaces IBM DOORS, which no longer offers maintenance in China."

"CodeBeamer provides full traceability, excellent collaboration, regulatory compliance, and instant reporting with its holistic approach from requirement management to testing."

"Codebeamer's API-based integration and many other integration aspects with other solutions are very powerful."

"The platform provided the flexibility to expand our business processes, accommodating or altering them to suit the requirements of a changing environment."

"The traceability is so simple that I don't need to do any additional configurations related to traceability."

"It is a stable solution."

"Codebeamer is user-friendly"

"One of the most valuable features of Codebeamer is its strong performance."

More Codebeamer pros

"I have found almost all of the features valuable because it integrates well with your Microsoft products. If a client is using the entire Microsoft platform, then TFS would be definitely preferable. It integrates with the digital studio development environment as well."

"This solution enables us to link all items usefully, in the way we use Agile."

"From the project management perspective, the tool is efficiently managing teams by giving management information, such as reports, graphs, velocity, capacity, etc."

"For what I need TFS for, I have never run into any limitation."

"The most valuable features of TFS are the test plans. We can reproduce reusable test plans in test automation. We have a lot of queries and this feature is very useful."

"The solution's iteration board is good because you can track all your work with it."

"I feel that the test plan and test tools are more manageable in TFS."

"It's user friendly. We haven't had any issues so far. It's flexible. If we need something, we can always contact the owner in our headquarters to make a configuration."

More TFS pros

Cons

"Usability needs to be improved."

"It would be helpful if Codebeamer's overall processing and integration with software like Jira could be improved."

"Certain areas in Codebeamer could be improved, like addressing small issues, glitches, or bugs."

"During migrations from other platforms to CodeBeamer, there have been instances where we encountered issues that required redoing certain tasks."

"The search and replace feature within the tool itself could be improved."

"The solution has a very small market share in China. It's almost like a startup."

"I would like to see more, easily trackable reports."

"The primary challenge is adapting the standard product to our workflows and specific needs."

More Codebeamer cons

"The manageability and performance of the product are areas of concern where improvements are required."

"There's not automatic access to test case management and execution."

"The overall reports in TFS could improve. Additionally, there should be an easier way to migrate from an older version to a newer one."

"TFS should have capabilities similar to Git, like storing all types of artifacts in the repository."

"This solution is quite old and it is already being bundled as Azure DevOps Server."

"TFS needs to be stable."

"I understand Microsoft is phasing out TFS in favor of Git, so I would steer anyone interested in TFS to look into Git."

"In the next release, I would like them to include integration for various projects, similar to what JIRA has, and they could create this feature on the dashboard."

More TFS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is good when compared to similar ALM solutions."

"It is reasonably priced and in accordance with the industry standards."

"They're not the most expensive product on the market, but they're not the cheapest either — I'd say codeBeamer ALM is moderately priced."

"Codebeamer is not a cheap solution."

"TFS is not cheap."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"Use the Microsoft recommended “seat-based” licensing model. This allows a single developer with multiple machines to consume only one client license."

"There is a yearly licensing fee that needs to be paid."

"Microsoft products are always expensive. Obviously, they are quality products, but it would be helpful if there was a reduction in price. But compared to other vendors, I think the cost is high."

"TFS is expensive, and the licensing costs are yearly. I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"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."

"I am not in a position to comment on the licensing terms, as we are talking about an enterprise arrangement."

More TFS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

31%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Transportation Company

Educational Organization

66%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about codeBeamer ALM?

The platform provided the flexibility to expand our business processes, accommodating or altering them to suit the requirements of a changing environment.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for codeBeamer ALM?

As I am not involved in purchasing the product, it is difficult for me to comment on the product's pricing model.

See all answers

What needs improvement with codeBeamer ALM?

Codebeamer is not completely compatible with our internal network setup, which could be improved.

See all answers

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 improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very fri...

See all answers

What do you like most about TFS?

Microsoft's technical team is supportive.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

PTC Integrity vs Codebeamer

Compared 30% of the time

Polarion ALM vs Codebeamer

Compared 25% of the time

Jira vs Codebeamer

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Codebeamer

Compared 12% of the time

Rally Software vs Codebeamer

Compared 1% of the time

More Codebeamer Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs TFS

Compared 30% of the time

Jira vs TFS

Compared 26% of the time

Rally Software vs TFS

Compared 9% of the time

TestRail vs TFS

Compared 7% of the time

Polarion ALM vs TFS

Compared 4% of the time

More TFS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Codebeamer

February 2025

Download Codebeamer product report

Buyer's Guide

TFS

January 2025

Download TFS product report

Also Known As

codeBeamer ALM

Team Foundation Server

Overview

codeBeamer ALM is a market-leading Application Lifecycle Management platform. It is holistically integrated, and is packed with features that help you develop better products faster. Scale, monitor, control, and report on your entire development lifecycle conveniently, and comply with safety-critical regulations. Cut development time and costs.

PTC

Visual Studio’s Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a powerful application development lifecycle management solution. It aids developers in managing every aspect of their DevOps and application creation. TFS combines many different types of solutions into a single powerful platform.

Visual Studio TFS Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy TFS include:

Build automation. TFS enables users to create definitions that can easily automate any and all tasks that are critical to the development of their applications. Businesses can utilize features that are built into TFS to accomplish preset tasks that can help them create the application of their choice. This can include enabling them to run automated tests when the need arises. Additionally, users can create custom tasks that will run automatically and allow users to focus their attention on the areas that most demand their focus.

Security. TFS is designed with the security of a user’s DevOps in mind. It enables an organization to restrict user permissions so that only developers that are meant to have access to particular parts of the development process can perform tasks related to those sections. It segments the development process to reduce the possibility of sensitive data being stolen.

Enables product rollbacks. TFS keeps copies of past versions of the organization’s application. Users can sift through the different versions that are available and can redeploy the version that best fits their needs should it ever become necessary to do so.

Visual Studio TFS Features

Source code management. TFS comes with all of the tools that developers need to completely manage their source code. They can share their code so that multiple developers can work on the same project. Additionally, TFS enables them to do things like review the history of a particular piece of source code.
Project management. Organizations can leverage the wealth of project management features that TFS offers and ensure that their projects run as smoothly as possible. Project managers are able to use TFS to control every aspect of their project, from the planning stage until the application’s development has reached its conclusion.

Reporting. TFS enables users to generate reports that leverage critical metrics and provide them with important insights into the applications that they are creating. These comprehensive reports can be secured so that only users with the proper level of clearance can access them.

Reviews from Real Users

TFS is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its source code management capabilities and its powerful integration suite.

Carl B., the vice president of engineering at Vertex Downhole Ltd, writes, “The most valuable features are related to source code management. Using TFS for source code management and being able to branch and have multiple developers work on the same projects is valuable. We can also branch and merge code back together.”

Ashish K., the principal consultant at Wipro, says, “I have found almost all of the features valuable because it integrates well with your Microsoft products. If a client is using the entire Microsoft platform, then TFS would be definitely preferable. It integrates with the digital studio development environment as well.”

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Align Technology, Daimler, Samsung, Harman, Dassault

Vendex KBB IT Services, Info Support, Fujitsu Consulting, TCSC, Airways New Zealand, HP

Buyer's Guide

Codebeamer vs. TFS

January 2025

Free Report: Codebeamer vs. TFS

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