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Endevor vs Gen comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Endevor
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (3rd)
Gen
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Mainframe Application Development category, the mindshare of Endevor is 11.2%, down from 28.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gen is 16.2%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Application Development Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Gen16.2%
Endevor11.2%
Other72.6%
Mainframe Application Development
 

Featured Reviews

RobertMartin3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Production Supervisor Technical at Ontario Power Generation
Asset dashboards have created slow, rigid workflows and have limited effective life cycle tracking
The single dashboards do not help my team or the company as a whole. I feel the dashboards are not helpful because the search features are not customizable. The software is web-based and the server is extremely slow. To improve Endevor, its cloud or web-based server capabilities should be increased so that the software is faster. The ability to customize reports should be increased.
IR
Consultant
Full packets enable software implementation on the mainframe and client sides
I rate it eight out of 10. It's just very powerful tool, very powerful product to use. Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it. Of course, if you have mainframe and you have do something in the mainframe that’s different.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The automation that we were able to build in; we were doing essentially some aspects of agile development before it was even a concept, because we were doing integrated builds every hour, on the hour, with no problems."
"We can make it do pretty much whatever we want, depending on just how complicated we want it to be, as it is pretty flexible."
"Endevor is a solid product; it works, does its job, is stable, and I have never heard any complaints for improvements in this product."
"They've got plug-ins now to run it through Eclipse, they've got a lot of APIs, they handle UNIX files. I can't really think of any serious lack that they haven't addressed."
"Overall, I think that Endeavor is a good product and I recommend it."
"The approach of writing a single set of Endevor processors to work across multiple instances of the application (separate systems) made the processors fairly complex, but once you understand them, they are so powerful."
"Our organization now has standardized change management processes for implementation into production."
"Consistent, repeatable processes, and the automation that we have built take away much of the human error aspect."
"Advantage Gen greatly enhanced productivity as well as development of solutions in mainframes, Client, and server applications."
"You can easily manage the code, and you can easily find other changes, other group changes, other models, other components."
"Full packets, enable you to develop software and systems using these packets, and implement software on the mainframe side and the client side. You can use the same packets, so it's very powerful."
"It has lived long beyond what people thought was its life expectancy as a product, largely because it is such a quality tool that people can't replace."
"Coding on CA Gen is easy."
"If you want to be the first in market and you have a short time to generate, or to develop your application, and if you're looking for a platform that supports multiple frameworks, multiple platforms such as mainframe, Java, and .Net, or the others, you need a modelling tool, rather than a language or technology."
"CA Gen has provided us web development capability."
"If you’re writing a simple barebones COBOL program, it may take 20-30 hours, but with a solution like this it can be done in around four hours."
 

Cons

"They need to ditch the Eclipse plugin and just make the development environment for Z the standard Eclipse interface.​"
"If they deploy it correctly, then it provides a tremendous benefit, but if you lay it out wrong, it can be a nightmare to work with."
"The main challenges are its limited interface and the complexity of the customization."
"It is still kind of behind the times. It needs to catch up with all the millennials that want a distributed look and feel.​"
"Endevor has not impacted my organization positively, if at all."
"Needs more audit capability when it comes to changes to settings that are made by administrators, as many of these are done through the panels and are therefore not logged as an action against a configuration item."
"Currently the only solution is to continue creating environments for use with agile development which is a maintenance nightmare, or ask the application teams to redesign their software so it is contained within their own applications."
"I think the main focus should be the continuous delivery aspects."
"The world is changing, the technologies are changing - COOL:Gen needs to change as well."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
"Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it."
"Personally, I think the tool has taken a turn for the worse."
"If I look into the native COBOL language it can be more efficient, and CA Gen adds what seems to be some unnecessary lines of code; it’s not an apples to apples comparison."
"The weak side is, I cannot use the DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is very expensive."
"Just make sure if you are going to license, ensure you license the right features.​"
"It's competitively priced and, as far as I know, it's just an enterprise license. We have found it is worth the money."
"It's worth the value. The pricing is fairly good, justifiable for the return on investment."
"The product is expensive."
"Licensing is fairly simple, you don't need multiple licenses."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Insurance Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Construction Company
19%
Performing Arts
19%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise40
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Endevor?
The single dashboards do not help my team or the company as a whole. I feel the dashboards are not helpful because the search features are not customizable. The software is web-based and the server...
What is your primary use case for Endevor?
My main use case for Endevor is asset management. For asset management, we use Engage software for life cycle management, eHealth, and eStrategy.
What advice do you have for others considering Endevor?
My advice to others looking into using Endevor is that if you are a nuclear electrical utility, the software is likely well-suited, but if you are any other utility, the software is poorly suited f...
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Also Known As

CA Endevor Software Change Manager, Endevor Software Change Manager, CA Software Change Manager for Mainframe, CA Endevor SCM
CA Gen
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blue Hill Data Services Inc.
Global bank
Find out what your peers are saying about Endevor vs. Gen and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.