Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs Temporal comparison

Microsoft and Temporal Technologies are both solutions in the Process Automation category. Microsoft is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0, while Temporal Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.6. Additionally, 33% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Temporal Technologies users who would recommend it.

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Read 2 Microsoft System Center Orchestrator reviews

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314 Comparison Views

33% willing to recommend

Temporal

Read 17 Temporal reviews

1,417 Views
1,108 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Temporal

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator and Temporal are competing solutions in the workflow automation and management space. While Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is favorable in comprehensive enterprise environments due to its integration within the Microsoft ecosystem, Temporal has an edge in microservices applications with its modern architecture and scalability.

Features: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator is known for its integration within Microsoft products, providing enhanced automation for Windows environments, and offering robust monitoring tools. Temporal focuses on building durable, asynchronous workflows suitable for complex use cases through microservices. Its architecture delivers high scalability and fault tolerance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator features streamlined deployment through integration with Microsoft services, easing setup for existing Microsoft infrastructure, and benefits from Microsoft's global customer support. Temporal offers flexible deployment for cloud environments but may require more configuration expertise with active community support yet lacks the widespread infrastructure of Microsoft.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator generally incurs higher initial setup costs due to Microsoft licensing but presents predictable ROI in Microsoft-centric businesses. Temporal, often open-source, reduces initial costs and offers potential ROI for organizations seeking cost-effective workflow management with modern cloud-based agility, contrasting with Microsoft's traditional pricing against Temporal's flexibility in cost management.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

April 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

Microsoft System Center Orc...

Ranking in Process Automation

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Temporal

Ranking in Process Automation

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Dan Campeanu

Security Engineer at ProVision

Automates tasks and manages multiple servers from a central location

The initial setup was quite complex. It required careful preparation of installation steps, as many tasks were not automated as expected. Special attention was needed to prepare groups, users, and permissions at each step to ensure a smooth setup process. Please do so accurately to avoid having to start over. Challenges encountered during deployment included issues with installation and configuration and difficulties detecting machines and executing tasks as expected. Some solutions were found through trial and error during installation, while others were discovered through recommendations from other users. Despite these challenges, the deployment and rollout of Orchestrator took approximately one and a half months to ensure proper functionality.

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AbhishekDash

Senior Software Engineer at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Orchestrates infrastructure tasks like deployment, deletion, and management

Temporal focus on developers rather than business users. In contrast to older workflow orchestration engines like Camunda, which are more business-oriented and strongly emphasize UI and workflow authoring, Temporal is geared toward developers. It provides extensive capabilities for building complex workflows. A standout feature of Temporal is its handling of long-running workflows, a significant advantage over many other solutions. Temporal excels in managing distributed transactions and application state durability, especially in microservice environments where transactions might fail due to network issues. Temporal simplifies these challenges by managing retries, fail-safes, and circuit breakers. As a result, developers don't need to implement these features manually; Temporal handles them implicitly, though it also allows for tuning based on specific needs.

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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

"It can manage multiple servers and workstations from a single location."

"Automation is the most valuable feature of the solution."

"Temporal focus on developers rather than business users."

"What I like best about Temporal is its durable execution, which means you don't need to write many boilerplate code for critical pieces, especially for retries. It also has great observability and a nice dashboard to see issues without digging into logs. The interface for viewing activities is excellent, with good tracing that shows how long activities took and what ran, making it almost perfect for debugging."

"We like the fact that the whole process is durable, which is very useful to us."

"It's easy to get started and user-friendly."

"Temporal allows retryability for different workflows whenever they fail. It helps ensure idempotence and that things get done."

"The most valuable feature is its ability to manage and automate workflows without manual intervention efficiently."

"It is very useful for long-running workflows."

"When some jobs take a lot of time and fail midway, the solution’s retry feature automatically causes them to retry."

More Temporal pros

Cons

"The product's management aspect needs enhancement."

"I find the Orchestrator UI to be problematic."

"Temporal doesn't have built-in data storage to store the state of the ongoing execution."

"We previously faced issues with the solution's patch system."

"Temporal lacks many resources, like YouTube videos, which users can use to learn or refer to if they get stuck with the solution."

"One area where I think Temporal could improve is its dashboard, particularly in event tracking. Currently, the dashboard doesn't show a time-based view of events, meaning it doesn't display when an event started or went through the retry process. If this feature could be added in a future release, it would significantly enhance monitoring capabilities. Other than that, Temporal's overall performance is quite impressive, and we're confident we can migrate to the Temporal workflow."

"One area for the product improvement is the learning curve."

"Retro compatibility needs improvement. Sometimes, when we make new changes to a workflow, it fails if it is not configured properly due to compatibility issues."

"While the tool can be a bit daunting initially, especially if you're not used to async programming models, it's generally a pleasure. There's always room for improvement, though. I've noticed some limitations with the .NET SDK regarding dynamic workflows, but this might have been improved in recent versions. Overall, I think Temporal could be more open about implementing features in a more—.NET-friendly way, especially in how you add workers and clients."

"Temporal's debugging is a bit complex."

More Temporal cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."

"We obtained a license that bundled Windows Server with System Center at no additional cost."

"Temporal is a free, open-source tool."

"The savings weren't as big as we initially expected, but they were pretty great from a developer's perspective."

"It is worth the price."

"Temporal is open-source and free to use, which is great. We didn't have to pay for any premium features."

"The tool is open source under the MIT license, so there are no hidden fees. You can freely use everything on their GitHub and Docker images."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

18%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

It can manage multiple servers and workstations from a single location.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

The platform was almost free of cost for us. We obtained a license that bundled Windows Server with System Center at no additional cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft System Center Orchestrator?

The product's management aspect needs enhancement. It affects the visibility of powerful scripts that were previously accessible. Furthermore, the focus is shifting towards cloud-based features, sp...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Temporal?

Temporal OSS is expensive in infrastructure, but it brings back the reliability that companies need.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Temporal?

The actual user interface is still in its early stages. It’s very basic. Users don’t really have a complex permission model yet. Users don’t really have ways to automate things like, for example, p...

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What is your primary use case for Temporal?

We [my company] use it to run a large workload. We have a set of security scans we want to perform, and we distribute them over a full day, that’s over 24 hours. We use it to orchestrate all the st...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 25% of the time

BizTalk Server vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 20% of the time

Camunda vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 19% of the time

vCenter Orchestrator vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 14% of the time

OpenText Operations Orchestration vs Microsoft System Center Orchestrator

Compared 11% of the time

More Microsoft System Center Orchestrator Competitors

Camunda vs Temporal

Compared 50% of the time

Flowable vs Temporal

Compared 16% of the time

Orkes vs Temporal

Compared 13% of the time

Pega Platform vs Temporal

Compared 5% of the time

Rundeck vs Temporal

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Process Automation

April 2025

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator report

Download Microsoft System Center Orchestrator product report

Buyer's Guide

Temporal

March 2025

Download Temporal product report

Also Known As

MS System Center Orchestrator

No data available

Overview

As an IT administrator, you probably perform a lot of tasks and procedures to keep your computing environment healthy. You may have automated individual tasks, but typically, not the whole process. With System Center - Orchestrator you tie disparate tasks and procedures together using a graphical user interface Runbook Designer to create reliable, flexible, and efficient end-to-end solutions in your IT environment.

Microsoft

Temporal automates and manages workflows efficiently, offering resilience in distributed systems with features like retry and fault tolerance. Its capabilities in handling complex workflows and integrating with programming languages make it a valuable tool for managing diverse business logic.

Temporal excels in workflow orchestration, automating tasks across multiple platforms, and ensuring durability in asynchronous operations. It supports long-running workflows and simplifies handling distributed transactions, reducing boilerplate code. Temporal is noted for its durable execution and built-in retry policies, enhancing resilience. Despite its complexity and steep learning curve, it is valued for its integration with popular programming languages and relatively easy setup process, though it requires improvements in user-friendly features, documentation, community support, and security.

What are Temporal's key features?

Automation and Efficient Management: Automatically handles workflows without manual intervention.
Resilience and Fault Tolerance: Features built-in retry policies for increased reliability.
Integration: Supports various programming languages, easing development.
Distributed Transactions: Simplifies complex transaction handling with reduced boilerplate code.
Durable Execution: Ensures long-running workflows are reliably managed.

What benefits or ROI should users evaluate?

Scalability and Reliability: Enhances IT environments through robust workflow management.
Ease of Integration: Supports seamless multi-platform automation.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Reduces need for extensive coding, streamlining processes.
Durability and Fault Tolerance: Provides reliable asynchronous operations.

Temporal is implemented in sectors requiring robust workflow orchestration, such as managing data pipelines, API integration, and scheduling tasks. Organizations in a Kubernetes environment leverage it for its scalability and infrastructure management capabilities, securing integrations and enhancing reliability across IT operations.

Temporal Technologies

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

April 2025

Free Report: Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs. Temporal

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