This blog post is comparing the current features set of Microsoft’s hosted Release Management solution – Release Management Online (RMO) and the on premises Release Management product.
Feature Comparison (as of February 2015)
|
On Premises
|
RMO
|
azure
|

|

|
Desired state configuration
|

|

|
PowerShell
|

|

|
Custom tools
|
Agent based only
|
|
Agent based
|

|
|
Trigger release from build
|

|

|
Web approval
|

|
|
on premises
|

|
|
Users
|

|

|
Groups
|

|
|
Change Summary
|
vNext only
|
|
Pickup from drop share
|

|
|
pickup from VSo
|
|

|
There are a few other points to consider when deciding between on premises and RMO. First is the effort needed to trigger a release from a build. Granted both options support it but RMO supports this with no need for a custom build template or making REST API calls. It just works. There is also no server to install with RMO. RMO is a SaaS application hosted for you in the cloud by Microsoft. You simply install the WPF Client and connect to your RMO server.