# IBM Rational ClearCase Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is IBM Rational ClearCase the right Source Code Management solution for you? Explore 19 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/177256/IBM-Rational-ClearCase/reviews --- IBM Rational ClearCase 3.7 (19) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/177256/IBM-Rational-ClearCase/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated February 15th, 2026 # Reviews of IBM Rational ClearCase Ease of use 3.1 Customer Service 3.1 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-19 of 19 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Damon D. Engineering Manager Consumer Electronics Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good for Complex Branching" May 8, 2020 4.0 ClearCase is one of the best tools for managing large source code repositories with complicated branching and versions. It is a powerful, but complicated tool that may be overkill for most organizations. Pros ClearCase works well in my organization where we have a complicated build and branch system due to the large number of target platforms and versions. ClearCase helps us visualize and reuse source code versions in a way that is both logical and efficient. Cons ClearCase selects a version of source code by configs, which can get complicated depending on the number of sources. The configs layer source code selection rules from bottom up and it can take some work to get the right version. Review Source ZM Zandrich M. CMO/COO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "IBM Rational ClearCase - Manage Software the Rational Way" May 17, 2022 5.0 IBM Rational ClearCase might not be the least expensive management solution available, but from our experience, it's worth every cent. It offers more functionality than we could ever utilise at current capacity, so there's always a new tool being discovered by the team - often with the best of results. Unified version control and the ability to restrict access to code and the project as a whole based on assigned roles makes working together a breeze, all the while negating any errors on behalf of someone working on the wrong systems. Access control is simple enough to open up code when there's an exception or we need extra hands on deck in a pinch. Pros IBM Rational ClearCase gives us the ability to scale up or down depending on our own needs, or that of the client. Originally intended for our larger projects, we have ended up using ClearCase for everything, including small development projects - simply because of how in-depth the version control is. Onboarding new developers to a project has, similarly, been expedited by change logs and notation, making catching up easier than ever. Cons Given the entry price, it would be great to see a more flexible license based on how extensively ClearCase is utilised. Review Source MA Muthu A. Architect Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IBM rational clear case" November 21, 2022 3.0 Overall experience is not bad, but the updated GIT have more features than this. Pros Easy to maintain access control in the team, Easy to monitor the change history and easy to baseline the artifacts Cons Faced difficult in software patch revert, multiple steps needs to be performed, integration process takes longer time. Switched from [Git](https://www.capterra.com/p/177211/Git/) GIT have more features Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Software engineer Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Enterprise CM" October 20, 2022 5.0 Pros I've been using this at work for over 10 years. It supports branching, labels, and is highly configurable. Snapshot views and dynamic views for more speed. Luckily we have CM folks at work who configured this for us. The seam software would not be for small development teams which is fine for me but your mileage may vary. Cons It's easy to mess up your view specifications based on the rule set. This can make it difficult to pull in the correct branches. It is a very power in the amunt of customization that is possible. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Software developer Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Why not go for Git?" November 5, 2019 5.0 Pros I stopped using IBM Rational ClearCase some years ago in favor of Git, which is a much more modern tool. With ClearCase you could manage your source code, so that was very good in itself. Apart from that, I'd say pick up another tool (Git?) Cons Every time we tried to use it we had to involve the maintainers of the tool due to the complexity or the nature of the issue. We were almost always getting in trouble at merge time one way or another. It was for sure not a good time to have a tool like this. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Software Engineer Defense & Space Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Simple and effective version control software" October 31, 2018 5.0 Pros Everything is straight-forward. There are no complicated, unnecessary animations or graphic design to make things look pretty or modern. It is simple version control software and does not try to be anything else. I have not experienced any annoying issues with this software. Cons There is a learning curve to setting the Config Specs on a new branch (instructions for creating the specific view that is desired). However, I imagine some people will like this method since it is flexible. Users cannot hijack files in dynamic views which can be inconvenient. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Web Application Team Lead Computer Networking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "not the greatest version control" October 30, 2018 3.0 Pros While working only with it (my first version control ever), it was good, and the way you can track the changes is also great, there are visiual tools you can display the tree of changes. Cons the process of Delivering the code (similiar to push of git), was veryyyy long and frustrating. comparing to other tools where it takes you few seconds to push the code, with clearcase it took very long minutes. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Programmer Analyst Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Simple Tool With all basic features" October 2, 2019 3.0 We have used Clearcase as a versioning tool integrated with IBM websphere. Over all experience was positive as the team size was small however for a bigger team this tool would not be a good idea. Pros Its a simple tool that has all basic features required for versioning. It gives good visual view of list of all the commits/changes and developers worked on it. Creating branches as well is not very difficult. Easy to checkout files and commit with relevant message. Cons Initial few days the learning curve would be little high for a new developer. It does not give good features for team work. Peer code review is not easy as files have to manually compared with earlier versions. The process of delivering code can be made much easier. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Product Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Archaic software" June 29, 2021 2.0 Go get Jira, I cannot see any reason why someone would get this Pros Security features are ok and its easy to pass any security review form InfoSec, not much beyond that Cons Super old software that hasn't gotten the same love as their competitors. Feature wise is weak, Usability weak as well Review Source Salvatore R. Software Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Clear Case is Obsolete Version System now" November 26, 2019 2.0 Generally is very negative, i don't know why are already used not. Pros More or Less only the automatic merge of feature branches with relative ticket, but the problem is more. Cons I have used Clear Case for many years and i hate it because is very complex, slow and unstable version control system. VCS such as GIT with personal repository is the best way now. Review Source lS lallchand S. Engineering Manager Defense & Space Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IBM ClearCase Review" December 2, 2021 3.0 I was using it and easy to use and view. The issue is the storage area , cant run the tools in the area where the Clearcase has its storage as it is too slow. We switched to Git because it was cheaper and easier to run tools on the source code as can download the configured code anywhere and store them easily. Pros I like the graphical user friendly interrface. Cons Just needed more training on using the features that it provides. Review Source VL Van L. Software Engineer Computer Hardware Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Usage of Clearcase" June 11, 2020 4.0 The tool is very good for multiple developers making changes of the same file or files. If developers really know how to use this tool, this source control can be used to its effectiveness. However, if developers are clueless, then this can create chaos. Especially in the case when many developers try to merge all their changes, many developers can overwrite each other's work and can create a nightmare to resolve. Pros This tool allows complex branching schema for many developers and has useful tools to assist with merging the complex merges. The graphical merge is very helpful. Cons Since the tool is very complex, users have to really know what they are doing to properly use this tool. Review Source Ludovic L. Architecte Logiciel Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good and paying tool, but other free alternatives exist" April 13, 2020 3.0 Pros Version tree and history management is powerful. ClearCase is now replaced by GIT, the defacto (and free) standard tool for source code management. Cons This tool may be sometimes difficult to use if your corporate network is slow. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer IT Program Manager Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Awesome version management tool " January 11, 2019 5.0 Overall experience is positive. Pros \> Enterprise tool > Performance is good > Version control is awesome > Track detailed level changes and users information > Baseline management Cons User needs good training in beginning to understand - how to set up views and what types of views would be needed. Search option could be better from user experience perspective. Review Source UU Uğur U. Chief Researcher Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "User friendly tool for beginners" June 3, 2019 4.0 It is convenient for tracebility. However, it is not working when the network is down. Pros It is a user friendly tool that makes software versioning easy. Cons It is centralized and you mostly have to be online. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Technical Lead Software Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Clearcase" November 9, 2019 4.0 Pros It actually justify it's purpose i.e. source control tool. Cons Wanted to see more features and cloud based products. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Co Founder Internet Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Good CM tool" March 29, 2020 3.0 IBM Rational ClearCase is a good document control system that helps us organize our Change Request processes. Pros Using Rational ClearCase numerous employees can work on a single document or piece of code without any loss of information or overwriting changes. Cons Looks a bit outdated. For bigger projects, it can take too much time to load everything. Uploading documents can be improved. Review Source PJ Puneet J. Application Development Engineer Consumer Goods Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Easy to use" October 8, 2022 4.0 Pros The best thing I about Clearcase is that its is easy to use compared to other version control tools such as, Git. The tool makes version control easy to understand even for a newbie in software development. Cons Although the tool is easy to use, the user interface should be more modern. Clearcase still looks like maintaining old school user interface. Review Source YY Yusuf Y. AI & ML Engineer Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Unfortunately not a product of 2021" December 30, 2021 3.0 Pros It is easy to use once you get used to it. Check out and check in mechanisms are really straightforward. Cons Branching mechanism exists, but very difficult to use. It gets almost impossible to adapt a team to use a branch strategy. 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