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Atera vs BigFix comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Atera
Ranking in Patch Management
11th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (14th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (3rd)
BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
95
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (5th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (14th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Atera is 4.9%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BigFix is 13.3%, up from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

CB
Pay just one price for unlimited devices and remote features enable easy access to all end points regardless of their location
When it comes to ease of use and the user interface I would give Atera a nine out of 10. The platform responsiveness to everything is solid. The updates Atera has put out have been second to none. Moreover, I find that if it wasn't for Atera, I wouldn't be gaining the number of clients I have and growing my business as I do. Atera provides ease of access to all devices no matter where they're located. It makes no difference if the client is in a work group or if he is on a certain domain. Atera enables me to access our clients' devices with ease and to provide them with feedback across the board. It benefits both me and my clients. When it comes to pushing out anything, such as antivirus features, it's second to none. As I'm more of a hands-on person, I visit many of my clients. Often, while visiting a client site, another client will call. With Atera, I am able to remotely handle whatever needs to be done to his machine, be it installing a printer or helping with a password. When a client calls and needs something handled quickly, Atera is a big help. On a daily basis, it saves me time and approximately seven to 10 hours per week. Were I not always going around to all my clients, it would save me even more time.
Bella Yakoby - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers third-party patching feature, good scalability, and enhance endpoint management capabilities
From the perspective of the team that's handling the environment, it's not so user-friendly compared to other solutions, the competitors. We hire new teams from time to time, and they are complaining, look, although BigFix is very robust and cross-platform, it's not so fun to work with. The user interface for the technical teams is not so advanced. It's not so intuitive compared to SCCM, compared to ManageEngine. And this is the fact that they have, with the teams, because they have the rejection. The look and feel of the system are old-fashioned. For new employees, it's less easy to find someone I don't need to educate on how to work with BigFix. Although it's easy, it's not as intuitive as the other solutions, and the functionality of the other solutions is less advanced. Let's summarize: The user interface has to be changed from the perspective of the teams that are managing the product. It's old school.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Atera's Remote Access feature has been invaluable for our monitoring needs. It allows us to use FlashOps in Azure to control equipment remotely and supervise real-time details like server and computer statuses for our clients. This access is crucial as it enables us to handle network issues and manage server administration efficiently. Regarding automation, Atera's tools have significantly boosted our service efficiency. They streamline tasks like installing tools and provide quick insights into critical issues with our servers. This saves us time and enhances our ability to deliver valuable services, especially for large-scale projects requiring precise and swift actions."
"It's very easy to use, not just for me, but even for people who have claimed, "I'm not very good at IT." Once you have it installed and you have it set up, it pretty much works by itself. It really helps you do what you need to do. It's easy to use for a beginner, compared to some of the other larger RMMs that are a little bit more complicated."
"Atera has saved our organization money. We look at Atera as an extra employee that we only pay about $300 a month. This is incredible savings over having to hire somebody to do all the tasks that Atera performs for us."
"I have better access when I go to look for something regarding either a specific user or software. It is easier to locate. When I am troubleshooting with my clients on the phone, I am not fiddling around looking through a bunch of ticket notes trying to locate something. It makes me a lot more efficient."
"We value the alerts that come with the product which allow me to reach out to my clients. Overall, Atera generates additional revenue streams for work done on their machines."
"All of the features of Atera are valuable because they allow the customers to achieve their goals. It is easy to use, has good collaboration, and has zero maintenance."
"I really like the Shared Script Library and automation tasks which they have implemented... because all the Atera users in the community can share their scripts and their automation tasks knowledge. The same goes for the Shared SNMP Template Library."
"It is reliable, and when it is working, it works without issues."
"The patch management and the BigFix Inventory have been the most valuable features."
"It is a one-stop tool that allows you to do everything. It supports reporting, vulnerability management, patch management, and configuration. All things can be done in one tool."
"All the vendor patches are synchronized automatically."
"Ability to run custom reports and custom relevance."
"It's easy to use, not complicated."
"It's very straightforward."
"Vulnerability scanning and patch automation."
"It's enabled us to have a highly successful endpoint patching program for the past decade. It's been enormously successful there. It's also become a core part of many of our business processes, from compliance monitoring of endpoints, encryption management, key escrow, and local administrator password escrow. It's built into our inventory. It's very much everywhere."
 

Cons

"It should improve its processes."
"Having more freedom to perform identity access management would be great."
"The mobility of Atera is also a feature which needs to be addressed so that it can be used on iPads, iPhones and things of this nature. I would also like to see an agent included on these devices so that I can monitor, maintain and manage them."
"There should be enhancements in network monitoring capabilities beyond just physical devices like computers and servers. It would be beneficial to include better tools for monitoring networking infrastructure such as routers. Additionally, while Atera excels in ticket management, I believe there's room for improvement in user authentication and security features, especially when accessing and managing remote equipment. These updates would contribute to a more robust and secure user experience overall. Atera should include a monitoring tool integrated with Azure or similar cloud platforms. It would be beneficial to have capabilities for monitoring network growth and automatically generating statistics based on system stability and performance metrics. This feature would help us better manage and optimize our equipment and network resources, especially for strategic customer planning and resource allocation."
"They are working on an update, and I would like to see more stuff outside of just computers and servers. Increasingly, we need to be able to monitor and manage network devices. Atera is improving on that already, which is one place that it is currently lacking."
"Atera could be improved by adding more granular control over technician roles. We need more specific controls on what technicians can access, like limiting their ability to view certain sections or access devices and share files. This feature request has already been made. The IP asset management capabilities need improvement to better manage assets beyond just devices."
"It will be interesting if Atera can integrate all kinds of products. In North America, there are a lot of resellers, like Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Arrow Electronics, etc. It would be amazing if Atera could integrate with these products. If they could integrate with these products for MSPs, it would be much easier. Then, if you are buying something, and need to add something, you don't need to jump from place to place because this is a very quick sales instrument for use on a daily basis."
"Customization could be improved."
"BigFix could improve its asset management capabilities to discover assets, including hardware."
"The console interface is not friendly, and requires training before using it in production."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"The stability is generally pretty good. The one thing that we came across is the battle between load on endpoints and load on our servers and relays versus how quickly, effectively and reliably actions can be taken. I'd like to not have to take an action on a system while I'm working with someone and then have to say whether something will happen between five seconds or thirty minutes from that point."
"It could use better integration with Hypervisor products like VMware."
"It can be improved speed-wise. They can make it a little bit light. If you do any query for servers in bulk, it can take some time. Similarly, creating a job can take some time."
"The remote software installation could be better."
"I'd like to see better API integration with BigFix. We have some tremendous API capability inside of CyFIR and the ability to take textual search results, for example, and bring that back into the BigFix dashboard. This would be of extreme interest to us and our customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As an internal IT, it's gold right there. It is money in the bank."
"The solution cost approximately $200 Canadian per month."
"Atera happened to have the best pricing model."
"The price is reasonable for what we require."
"The value of the product is perfect, neither cheap nor expensive. I think it is the right rate. It would be awesome if it continued to be the same price because it is a great solution that I like. I like it because I'm not paying per device. I have some customers on monthly contracts and some of them are on break'n fix. If I have a client who is on break'n fix, and they need to pay per agent, then I am losing money. If they were ever to change structures, going to pay-per-device model, then I would need to think about changing to something else."
"We pay per user. I am the only user. It is $150 per user. If I need to add one, it is not as costly as expanding with other providers."
"Atera's pricing stays fixed and predictable, enabling us to add more customers and unlimited monitored devices. We still have a number of clients who fit a break/fix IT model. This is something where clients are complaining more about having to pay extra month-by-month for technology services. With Atera's model, we don't have to be going out and asking for more from clients each month. Right now, with where we are at in terms of scale, this is very important to us."
"Pricing is my favorite part of it. It was per user, not per client."
"The license is subscription-based."
"When purchasing, buying with other IBM tools provided us with a very good discount in pricing."
"You get what we call the Platform Edition, which you get for free. The patch service is maybe $0.50 per workstation per month. Then there's the basic server cost, which is about $1.50 per server per month. You also get into Lifecycle which does power management, OSD remote control, and those types of things, and that might be about 10 times the price - which works out to about $13 per server and, maybe $5 per workstation per month."
"You are charged per server and per workstation when using BigFix. ManageEngine is a lot cheaper than BigFix. There are some additional costs, such as support."
"The cost is slightly high."
"The tool's price continues to go up. The cost per endpoint can vary, ranging from approximately 30 to 80 dollars per year. Compared to other products, pricing is in the middle. You need to buy an additional database license, but most users already have it."
"So, the pricing is slightly more expensive than the others. I have to keep buying licenses every time I add a new device."
"It might be about $23 a client."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
50%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atera?
Pricing is low. It costs around 149 bucks per month.
What needs improvement with Atera?
It should improve its processes.
What is your primary use case for Atera?
Atera is integral to our daily operations. We use it for RMM, PSA, our ticket system, and contact with people. We also integrate it with different products.
What do you like most about BigFix?
The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is competitive, but not the most competitive.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
BigFix could improve its asset management capabilities to discover assets, including hardware. More improvements could be made in asset management.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Tivoli Endpoint Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MSPs, IT consultants, and IT departments worldwide trust and use Atera. 
US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Atera vs. BigFix and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.