Octopus Deploy vs. Visual Studio App Center

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Octopus Deploy
Score 8.9 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Australian company Octopus Deploy offers their eponymous automated deployment and release management software that integrates with the user's preferred CI server and adds deployment & ops automation capabilities. Octopus Deploy enables developers, release managers, and operations folks to bring all automation into a single place. The vendor states that by reusing configuration variables, environment definition, API keys, connection strings, permissions, service principals, and automation logic,…
$12
per month
Visual Studio App Center
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Visual Studio App Center, or just App Center available from Microsoft's Azure, is a solution used to build, test, release, and monitor mobile and desktop apps. When creating apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, App Center allows users to automate build, test, and distribution pipelines, as well as continuously monitor real-time performance.
$40
per month per build concurrency
Pricing
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Editions & Modules
Cloud
Free 30 day trial
unlimited targets/users/projects
Server
Free 30 day trial
unlimited targets/users/projects
Enterprise
Starting at $18 per month
Enterprise
Starting at $18 per month
Server
Starting at $12 per month
Cloud
Starting at $12 per month
Builds
$40
per month per build concurrency
Standard Test Plan
$99
per month per build concurrency
Enterprise Test Plan
$499
per month per build concurrency
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsOctopus Server edition is available as a 30 day free trial on our unlimited tier for any scenario, including production, and commercial use. After the trial period ends you can keep your working configuration and upgrade to a paid license and continue deploying uninterrupted. Octopus Cloud is an alternative that is hosted by us, and is also available as a 30 day unlimited trial. No credit card is needed to create a Octopus Cloud trial instance. You can convert the Cloud trial to a paid instance at any time during or after the trial period, and keep all of your instance configuration. Octopus also offers an Enterprise tier which offers advanced features for teams at scale including, advanced high availability, insights & DORA metrics, ServiceNow & Jira Service Management integration, unlimited instances, 24/7 support & service credits, and a Customer Success Manager. Volume discounts are available above 500 targets, and temporary bursting for certain scenarios is supported.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Best Alternatives
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Small Businesses
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
Docker
Docker
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
AWS CodePipeline
AWS CodePipeline
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
AWS CodePipeline
AWS CodePipeline
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(24 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Octopus DeployVisual Studio App Center
Likelihood to Recommend
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy is a well though [the] solution to the deployment orchestration problem. It is a reliable and robust solution that is relatively simple to understand. [Its] UI is friendly and easy to use, The support and documentation [are] excellent and the product seems to fit into any organization’s process very well and with less effort than other products in this space. I actually find it a pleasure to work with [every day] and I am glad to have it as an integral part of our process.
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Microsoft
Honestly, it's an all around solution that needs some enhancements. Need to build an app, check! Need to test that app, check! Need to debug that app, check! Visual Studio App Center is a well rounded platform for multiple types of builds and services.
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Pros
Octopus Deploy
  • Octopus integrates nicely with TeamCity, our build server.
  • Octopus uses the same deployment packages across environments and makes it easy to track their progress across those environments.
  • Octopus makes it easy to handle configuration across environments which is usually a particularly difficult task.
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Microsoft
  • It supplies the right native integration for test cases both IOS and Android
  • Constant device updates means you are working with the right builds to support product use cases
  • Excels in automated test cases that are easy to implement, monitor, and digest results
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Cons
Octopus Deploy
  • UI is very fluffy and padded. It looks pretty but it could benefit from a more compact, information-focused design
  • Deployment process options are not always laid out in an intuitive manner. Choosing which steps to exclude, which environments or targets to deploy to, etc., is not immediately clear
  • Lack of useful reports and metrics for tracking active deployments and historical data
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Microsoft
  • Webview support was lacking
  • User management seems a bit disconnected from the standard Microsoft ecosystem. Almost feels like you are managing local users and sharing access more than an enterprise solution
  • Price could be better
  • Buggy on some of the latest versions of windows
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Likelihood to Renew
Octopus Deploy
Would be a 10 except for the retirement of the free Community Edition.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Usability
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy has greatly helped us to improve our reliability and frequency of our deployments and given us the confidence to deploy much more often, with a direct benefit to customers. Cross-platform support and release to Cloud require more focus on the product side.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy is a software that runs very effectively, is easy to use, does not require such a high learning curve, provides the necessary tools to carry out the functions it offers, making it a very flexible software, it also allows that can be configured according to the needs of the user and provides integrations with other very advantageous tools since they are carried out in a very favorable way.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy support has always been there for us, even when using the free tier, we get responsive hands-on help. We haven't needed to use that level of support since the documentation is clearly written, and help is readily available within the interface itself. Using Octopus Deploy is a truly joyful experience.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Octopus Deploy
There aren't really any competitors in the land of ASP.NET. Deployment is too ad-hoc. Other tools exist that have massive downsides, like Web Deploy. Most aren't even supported anymore. You could argue that containers (Docker) are a competitor, but containers cannot be used for everything and solve a somewhat different problem. Octopus Deploy is even able to help with containers. To us, Octopus Deploy was really the only really polished solution.
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Microsoft
The biggest benefit is in integrations and plug-ins, as well as the fact that it's not open source. I know open source is popular, but we have all been on the downside of open source and waiting for things to be voted up or a contribution to fix an issue. This alone makes VSAC a nice solution! Plus, it comes with a complete IDE integration of services, documentation, and is light weight
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Professional Services
Octopus Deploy
Great support from professional services.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Octopus Deploy
  • While not an inexpensive product, it has proven to be a good value. I don't have firm ROI numbers but our PROD deployment quality has improved, and we now measure deployment times in "person-minutes" rather than "person-hours".
  • Our defect rate due to missed configuration items has been significantly reduced.
  • Octopus has enhanced our ability to enforce SDLC separation-of-duties.
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Microsoft
  • Cut down on time to delivery enhancements and overall builds to users
  • Helps test new proposed releases with ease
  • Cuts down on local build issues as it does do a good job with local development environments as well
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ScreenShots

Octopus Deploy Screenshots

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