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Atera vs ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP [EOL] comparison

 

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

Atera
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (13th), Network Monitoring Software (35th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (35th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (12th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (5th), Patch Management (12th), AIOps (17th), Agentic Automation (7th)
ManageEngine Desktop Centra...
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

AV
Owner at Sytex Ltd.
Quick setup and efficient automation boost IT consulting services
It would be beneficial if Atera implemented telephone support for general questions. When onboarding new clients and creating their portal, it would be helpful if presidents or company owners could see the current configuration progress step-by-step, rather than relying solely on email and ticket systems. The task system for technicians could be improved by adding recurring task capabilities. This would allow technicians to have checkmarks and task lists they can mark off as completed. While scalability meets growing needs, there haven't been many additions in the last two years. They are adding new features gradually, but there is always room for improvement.
Donathon Ong - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Responsive support, a straightforward setup, and great endpoint management
There have been a few bugs. I would hope there would be a direct integration to the various cloud solutions, like Intune. Right now, ManageEngine is a separate solution. It doesn't integrate with Intune, AirWatch, or MobileIron in the cloud. It doesn't have this integration with the respective cloud solutions, and if it could have this kind of integration, it would be better. I wouldn't deploy ManageEngine as a standalone since it works better as a compliment rather than an entire solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of this solution are automatic batch matching and unattended support access."
"Atera saves money. A trip to the customer costs between $20 to $30. Then, you need to charge the customer $20 to $30 for the travel. However, if you are doing this work remotely, then you are not driving. This makes the process easier and saves money for you and the customer. For example, if it is just one machine, then the savings comes out to $50 to $60. If we are talking about a huge client, who has hundreds of machines and is changing their infrastructure, that is a lot of money."
"There are a lot fewer hardware replacements. Once people migrated from old style hard disks over to SSDs, you have things like hard disks filling up faster. So, I run a script to clear out all the waste, e.g., all the temporary files and downloads. A lot of our business runs through a custom web application that we built. This involves people downloading a lot of PDFs and Excel files, and not just having them sitting in folders. With Atera, I can just go through and clean the temporary files out."
"I would say it's the number one tool for all ITMS."
"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."
"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."
"It is reliable, and when it is working, it works without issues."
"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."
"The endpoint management is great."
"The interface is intuitive, easy to use, and has a low learning curve."
"ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has different features and it uses one agent to execute the features of the application. In this case, the remote control, distribution software, deployment, patch management, and configuration in different systems. ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has multi-platforms. They have recently implemented new features, such as endpoint security that incorporates vulnerability management and browser security."
"The most valuable feature was the patching system to apply Windows or other programs and the ability to install operating systems in computers using the network. Additionally, it is easy to use."
"The solution is easy to understand. For example, when you remoting to the user's system, you don't have that option to only log in. On this product, you are connecting to the user's computer, it prompts you for what you want to do. You can select that you want to assist the user. The user on the other side will receive a prompt stating that there is someone trying to connect to your system, they can accept or decline the connection. Overall, the solution is easy to connect to the user's system."
"Easy to manage and it looks good."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the threats and patches element of it. We have done quite a lot of testing compared to other vendors with identifying the vulnerabilities. This means a lot more accuracy in terms of the patches and making sure it's all up to date."
 

Cons

"The chat solutions need improvement because we first need to connect to the customer. This needs to improve so that there is a particular feature that can provide support to customers even if they are not connected to a computer."
"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."
"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."
"The billing module has a standard layout which is too limited for my needs."
"I also use Apple Zoho, which does not require you to download anything. You can get help from Zoho. Atera, on the other hand, requires you to download an applet."
"It should improve its processes."
"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."
"Having more freedom to perform identity access management would be great."
"I have found ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP has many different network issues. Additionally, they need to incorporate more features, they are lacking add-ons."
"Although they say it is an enterprise solution, we don't have 24/seven human support. All we have is only 24/five support available from the vendor."
"Right now, ManageEngine is a separate solution. It doesn't integrate with Intune, AirWatch, or MobileIron in the cloud."
"When there is a new user at a store, for example, you have to create it in the ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP AD but the process could be better. They call us with the user's information but if it was possible for them to populate the information when they log the user on IM, and when clicking on ADManager in the system, the information could populate there. We would then only have to add a little more information which would save time."
"Stability is sometimes negatively affected by updates."
"The partnership models and subscriptions can be improved, as regional master resellers sometimes hog the space."
"Since this is an on-premise solution we had to update it a couple of times, and because we needed to use a command line to the server, it was not very easy, at least at that time to update the solution. The cloud version of this solution does not have this problem, but on the premise version, it was fairly cumbersome to apply to the Desktop Central server. This process could be made easier. This was the only issue I found with my colleague."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As an internal IT, it's gold right there. It is money in the bank."
"It comes with unlimited devices, so the fixed price cost is taken out of my budget. So, I'm all good."
"Atera happened to have the best pricing model."
"The solution cost approximately $200 Canadian per month."
"One of the biggest issues I face is the need to pay per technician. I've dealt with other platforms that you need to have 250-500 devices. Even though the cost declines as the number of devices a person has increases, they still require you to pay for 250 or 500, respectively. With Atera, the number doesn't matter as you always pay the same amount. I approximate that Atera saves me $100 per week."
"The price is reasonable for what we require."
"In terms of cost, it's not very expensive. I’d rate it around three or four out of ten, considering its value for money."
"Pricing is my favorite part of it. It was per user, not per client."
"This product is very cheap compared to others."
"ManageEngine Desktop Central MSP is a less expensive solution than competitors in Latin America."
"When we sold the solution to one customer, we found out the customer found out that one of their requirements was not being solved because the license only applies to five computers. We all thought at the time the current license that the customer bought covers the 600 computers because of this problem, the license model could be explained better and could be further improved."
"This product has an easy setup, good support, and a good price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
11%
Performing Arts
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atera?
The prices have increased over time. After expressing concerns about pricing to account managers, they offered a 30% discount option for annual commitments. The main benefit we see with this produc...
What needs improvement with Atera?
It would be beneficial if Atera implemented telephone support for general questions. When onboarding new clients and creating their portal, it would be helpful if presidents or company owners could...
What is your primary use case for Atera?
We use it for maintenance support, patch management, the ticket system, ticketing, and automation in general. Atera enables us to take control quickly with different options. We can perform registr...
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Comparisons

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Also Known As

No data available
Desktop Central MSP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MSPs, IT consultants, and IT departments worldwide trust and use Atera. 
South Jersey Techies, DCI, Lumen 21, Provendo, Saga, Gyver, AcroTec
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