Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

Red Hat and VMware are both solutions in the Agile and DevOps Services category. Additionally, 96% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Red Hat OpenShift

Read 60 Red Hat OpenShift reviews

96% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 21 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

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9 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Red Hat OpenShift

VMware Tanzu Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Red Hat OpenShift and VMware Tanzu Platform compete in the container management and application development category. OpenShift appears to have the upper hand with its extensive out-of-the-box functionalities, strong security features, and user-friendly interface, whereas Tanzu requires more customization and has less comprehensive features without additional components.

Features: OpenShift is recognized for its rapid CI/CD integration, robust automated scaling, and strong security features. It offers seamless Kubernetes integration and powerful management tools. Tanzu is valued for its integration capabilities with VMware’s ESX and vSAN, as well as its infrastructure tie-ins, which are appreciated by users seeking a unified solution.

Room for Improvement: OpenShift users point to challenges with its documentation and complex configurations, indicating a need for improved templates and simplified scalability solutions. They also seek enhancements in its security model. Tanzu users experience issues with restrictive third-party integration, network control, and on-premises support, urging improved pricing and flexibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenShift provides effective hybrid and on-premises deployment solutions, though users express concerns about support document consistency and response times. Tanzu offers smoother initial hybrid deployments but presents challenges in lifecycle management. Despite limited on-premises support, its integration within the VMware ecosystem is appreciated.

Pricing and ROI: OpenShift's licensing is considered high but justified by strong integrations and improved resource management. Users report significant ROI from resource efficiencies. Tanzu’s pricing, often bundled with Cloud Foundry, is expensive and less attractive for startups, despite occasional competitive discounts, leading to affordability concerns for smaller enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Red Hat OpenShift vs. VMware Tanzu Platform Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

March 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

Red Hat OpenShift

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Virtualization Software (9th), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (7th)

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (11th), Cloud Management (17th), Development Platforms (2nd), Container Management (3rd), Service Mesh (4th), Agile and DevOps Services (4th)

Featured Reviews

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Seamlessly monitor microservices with streamlined DevOps capabilities

Most benefit from it, however, I work with Kubernetes, and installing Vanilla Kubernetes is easy. That said, it introduces many tools that need to be set up individually. OpenShift comes ready out of the box, with all tools installed and configured. Red Hat certifies and confirms that all the components are compatible with each other. OpenShift's superior dashboard is a notable strength, especially when compared to Kubernetes. The integrated DevOps capabilities, such as pipelines and the container registry, are extremely beneficial. Additionally, its capability to monitor microservices and containers with integrated tools like Prometheus is a major advantage. The horizontal pod scaling exceeds the scalability features I found in Kubernetes.

Read full review

DarshanChaudhari

Solutions Architect Hybrid Cloud Practice US/Europe at Tech Mahindra Limited

Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling

I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

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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 most valuable aspect of this solution is the great customer service and the ability for our team to get assistance when we need it."

"Valuable features include auto-recreate of pod if pod fails; fast rollback, with one click, to previous version."

"Self-provisioning support saves a lot of time and unnecessary work from the system administrator who can use this time to run and monitor the infrastructure. For the developer, this means less time waiting for the provisioning and excellent flexibility for development, testing, and production. Also, in such systems it is easy for developers to monitor applications even after deployment."

"The most valuable feature of OpenShift is the security context constraint (SCC). The solution’s security throughout the stack is good. And security context constraints provide port-level security. It's a granular level of control, where you can give privileges to certain users to work on certain applications."

"It is a stable platform."

"Provides support throughout the whole platform."

"Overall, the solution's security throughout the stack and software supply chain is excellent."

"There is a quick deployment of the application, and we can scale out efficiently."

More Red Hat OpenShift pros

"The solution is integrated very well with a lot of other systems. Also, its GUI is very good."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is the management functionality of the cluster life cycle. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other vendors, such as Velero for backups and Sonobuoy for compliance. Additionally, it works well in multi-cluster environments."

"The multi-tenancy with the VCD is great."

"Tanzu is easy to upgrade and scale, whether we're talking about horizontal or vertical scaling. It is as smooth as possible without any downtime. The platform maintenance, upgrading, and operations part is very smooth."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The valuable feature I have found to be the management of Kubernetes clusters in a private cloud or public clouds, such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform."

"Tanzu Mission Control has quite a set of rich features when compared to OpenShift."

"We never experienced any problems with scalability."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

"They could work on the pricing model, making it more flexible and possibly lower."

"There are challenges related to additional security layers, connectivity compliance for endpoints, and integration."

"Room for improvement is around the offerings that come as a bundle with the container platform. The packaging of the platform should be done such that customers do not have to purchase additional licenses."

"The GUI could have more capabilities, particularly around virtualization. Some features are missing, such as storage migrations, when compared with VMware."

"The GUI could have more capabilities, particularly around virtualization."

"Not a ten because it's not a standard solution and the endpoint protection user has to prepare with documentation or have training from other people. It's not easy to start because it's not like other solutions."

"I had to frequently upgrade my cluster due to OpenShift's rolling updates every six months, which I found to be excessive."

"This is a fairly expensive solution."

More Red Hat OpenShift cons

"The product should support integration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)"

"The disaster recovery feature could be improved to provide better tracking of issues. I would also like to see the introduction of a dashboard view, for even further integration of all the areas that Mission Control looks at."

"The network control and security policies must be improved."

"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"

"The solution could improve by having better integration with other solutions such as HPE."

"LYNX is a managed cluster solution that takes care of specific details within a cluster, such as sequences or services. I haven't seen this feature in Tanzu Mission Control."

"We want to see a new feature that helps build more security architecture like Zero Trust Security or shifting left in Kubernetes."

"Tanzu provides better manageability as compared to OCP, but when it comes to tagging it with other products, it's a bit rigid. If I have to bring in any new product or something out of the box from a different vendor, working with Tanzu becomes a little difficult. For example, if I want to use the F5 services, I have to add one more layer of Avi, but I don't want to do that. If I have a list of the products that I want to use, such as for firewall services, with Tanzu, I will have to go through another layer, which creates complexity."

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's support is expensive. I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The product has reasonable pricing."

"I don't deal with the cost part, but I know that the cost is very high when compared to other products. They charge for CPU and memory, but we don't worry about it."

"The pricing for OpenShift includes support and licensing, which costs approximately $400."

"We use the license-free version of Red Hat Openshift but we pay for the support."

"OpenShift is really good when we need to start, but once we get to a certain scale, it becomes too expensive."

"This solution is fairly expensive but comes at an average cost compared to other solutions in the market."

"The licensing cost for OpenShift is expensive when compared to other products. RedHat also charges you additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees."

More Red Hat OpenShift pricing and cost advice

"The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution"

"Its pricing is very competitive. We get around 70% or 75%, sometimes even 80%, discount on the product. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."

"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."

"The solution is bundled in with Cloud Foundry so the pricing is not independent."

"One of our Spanish customers told us that VMware Tanzu Service Mesh is a very expensive product for their data center."

"Since we were at a large data center, the price might not have been a concern for us."

"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

32%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does OpenShift compare with Amazon AWS?

Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderful dashboard mechanism to alert us in case the application is over-committing or ...

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Which would you recommend - Pivotal Cloud Foundry or OpenShift?

Pivotal Cloud Foundry is a cloud-native application platform to simplify app delivery. It is efficient and effective. The best feature is how easy it is to handle external services such as database...

See all answers

What do you like most about OpenShift?

OpenShift facilitates DevOps practices and improves CI/CD workflows in terms of stability compared to Jenkins.

See all answers

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Application Service?

The solution is integrated very well with a lot of other systems. Also, its GUI is very good.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for VMware Tanzu Application Service?

Since I have a developer team, they use the solution for testing purposes.

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 20% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 10% of the time

VMware vSphere vs Red Hat OpenShift

Compared 3% of the time

More Red Hat OpenShift Competitors

Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 18% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon EKS vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift

March 2025

Download Red Hat OpenShift product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

March 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

Overview

Red Hat OpenShift offers a robust, scalable platform with strong security and automation, suitable for container orchestration, application deployment, and microservices architecture.

Designed to modernize applications by transitioning from legacy systems to cloud-native environments, Red Hat OpenShift provides powerful CI/CD integration and Kubernetes compatibility. Its security features, multi-cloud support, and source-to-image functionality enhance deployment flexibility. While the GUI offers user-friendly navigation, users benefit from its cloud-agnostic nature and efficient lifecycle management. However, improvements are needed in documentation, configuration complexity, and integration with third-party platforms. Pricing and high resource demands can also be challenging for wider adoption.

What are the key features of Red Hat OpenShift?

Security: Comprehensive security features ensure safe deployments and operations.
Scalability: Auto-scaling and monitoring capabilities cater to high-demand environments.
CI/CD Integration: Seamless integration for efficient continuous deployment processes.
Cloud Compatibility: Supports multi-cloud and on-premise solutions with ease.
GUI: Simplifies platform management and enhances usability.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Efficiency: Streamlined operations reduce time and resource investments.
Enhanced Flexibility: Adapt quickly to changing demands and environments.
Quick Deployment: Fast application deployment supports agile project timelines.
Robust Support: Access to dependable customer support services.

Red Hat OpenShift is strategically implemented for diverse industries focusing on container orchestration and application modernization. Organizations leverage it for migrating applications to cloud-native environments and managing CI/CD pipelines. Its functionality facilitates efficient resource management and microservices architecture adoption, supporting enterprise-level DevOps practices. Users employ it across cloud and on-premises platforms to drive performance improvements.

Red Hat

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

VMware

Sample Customers

UPS, Cathay Pacific, Hilton

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

Red Hat OpenShift vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

March 2025

Free Report: Red Hat OpenShift vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

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