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BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Remote Access
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
233
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
BeyondTrust Privileged Remo...
Ranking in Remote Access
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (9th)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Remote Access
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

Gaurav Chandola - PeerSpot reviewer
We can manage all aspects of our devices from a single console, easy to scale, and quick to deploy
Intune has many benefits from the Microsoft perspective. This solution can manage Windows 10 devices, app management, and provide security solutions. We don't need to worry about our network connection, and we'll be more secure with regular security patches and compliance. Since everything will be deployed through the internet and users will log in using the internet only, the risks have been mitigated. Security updates, security patching, and the application will be targeted from Intune. The location tracker will be available to track where the device is and the user's location. The user will be restricted from accessing certain applications using compliance policies. Conditional access policies will be based on the reason why the user needs access to the application. Microsoft Intune is one of the best products in the industry for managing Windows devices. The solution has more feature restrictions. The conditional access policies also eliminate the dependency on the on-prem network for the devices. The solution also manages our security settings and a lot of other beneficial features such as Microsoft Purview which gives us the compliance portion. We can manage all aspects of our device from a single console, including M365 services. This allows us to configure data classification types, such as public, private, internal, confidential, and highly confidential.
Sean Rall - PeerSpot reviewer
Our support team can do so much more without having to actively engage our customers, which saves us time and money
In recent days, the most valuable feature would be the Vault. Overall, the most valuable feature would be that ability to do remote support. Vault does a good job of providing visibility for domain accounts, endpoints, and local accounts associated with discovery jobs. The report tools are very robust. I know they have their report tools that you can filter through, which also give you access to the data. So, if you ever want to just do a data dump and your own analytics on it, then you could, which is really nice. We also integrate with the API for reports, which is really nice as well.
Mihai Dinca - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use with good availability and reliability
The availability is very good. It's easy to use. New users especially find it very simple. You just connect and go. The solution is stable and reliable. You can combine the Remote Desktop Services with Citrix in some form, however, not with all of the features of both. It depends on the situation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We work completely in a Microsoft environment. Its interface is similar to other Microsoft solutions that we are using such as Microsoft Defender. So far, for our administrators, it is easy to use."
"The device profiling which uses the official Outlook email enabled us to control the screenshot feature and prevent copying outside of the organization's application."
"The best feature is that we don't need to worry about downtime. We don't need to worry about the network connections of our office or the virtual private network. Everything is being done through the internet. Using Intune Autopilot, we can configure and deploy everything to the devices."
"The solution is stable."
"I like how Microsoft Intune lets me lock down the email profile and make it accessible only on certain devices."
"It is user-friendly, and the performance is also good. It is a convenient product"
"It helps implement conditional access policies to restrict mobile users from accessing potentially dangerous emails."
"The solution has reduced the risk of security breaches by 30%."
"The scalability is excellent."
"We like the integration with Active Directory. It allows us to discover the endpoints and user accounts that need protection. It's a good way of securing our privileged access."
"PRA stands on its own as a full solution. This is important because it reduces the need to maintain a lot of different services. Also, the integration between those services are sometimes not easy to maintain. So, having a solution like BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access reducing our workload gives us enough time to work on our other issues. The system just runs and does what it is supposed to do."
"The privileged remote access platform is able to track and record everything that happens within a session."
"It's a stable product. Based on the demos and interaction with it, it was stable."
"One of the features that I really like about it is the ability to set a start date, time, and end date for the access. For example, you can set the access for a person from tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday and ending on a specific period of the day or a specific date. That's really quite helpful."
"Its initial setup process is straightforward."
"I like all of it. You can access computers that are on a DMZ. You can access computers that are off the network and on the network. You pretty much have access to computers wherever they are. As long as they have the client on them, you can get to them. So, it is convenient, but its main feature is that you can use your smart card to elevate your privileges remotely. That's a great feature."
"The solution is now stable."
"Microsoft is very reasonable in its approach to cost."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The most valuable features are the desktop session and desktop virtualization."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is highly stable."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable and reliable."
"The solution performs well and is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is the ability to remote into a system that is not on-premises."
 

Cons

"Customer service used to be better. In the last couple of years, support has not been very good, even with Premier and Premium support. It's been very hit-or-miss."
"The reporting causes problems because we're trying to gather data to present to the management, but we can't get the data they request. If a user has removed an application from his device, but it won't report it at exactly the right time. It takes time to sync from the device to the portal. Let's say we are preparing a list or deck for the number of compliant devices that meet all of the organization's requirements. In a real-time scenario, that device could be compliant, but it is showing as non-compliant on the portal. It sometimes hampers the overall decisions that we make on our end."
"I would like some integration with the Microsoft reporting platform Power BI."
"A more incisive reporting tool with automated progress updates and graphical representation would be beneficial, as the current manual method lacks efficiency and visual clarity."
"There could be more wizard-driven policy development or creation. Some of the policies can get quite complex. If they have a wizard that assists the administrators in creating the policy, that will be a great job."
"Its configuration is fairly complicated. You have to do quite a bit of discovery to be able to deploy it for a customer. You have to ask them a lot of questions. So, its initial deployment is the biggest challenge. They should make it easier to deploy with the use of Wizards or something else. During the deployment stage, there could be profiles for the customers who are particularly wanting to use certain feature sets of Intune."
"Intune could add more features that are relevant to the core application control functions. For example, it would be helpful if it had more control over the on-prem environment from the cloud platform. Greater Teams availability in the Saudi market would also be helpful."
"We had an APNS certificate set to expire last week. We tried to renew it two days before it expired. We logged in to the APNS portal but could not find that certificate. We didn't know where it went. All the iOS devices stopped working. We contacted the Apple and Microsoft teams, and each blamed the other. This is something that Microsoft should take care of. Last week, we had so many escalations from high-profile users who couldn't access corporate data on their devices."
"I would love to have a web console and the ability to use the smart card with the web console to provide remote support. If you are on a computer that doesn't have the Bomgar console, you should be able to use the web console to provide support. That's the only thing right now. A web console is nice when you're jumping into a computer, but if you need to elevate the privileges, you currently can't do it with the smart card. If they could figure that out, that would be money."
"Multiple areas can be improved. We've seen lots of updates in the past year. They have a portal where we can submit our ideas. BeyondTrust is immediately implementing user suggestions. The UI could be more informative. Initially, there were two or three connectors, and now we have five or six. It would be nice if they added a few more connectors for third-party integration. There are multiple tools, but the clients may require more for their convenience."
"The issue I found with the product revolves around the fact that RDP and SSH sessions take too much time, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The price is pretty expensive."
"When doing protocol panel jumps, the tool does not restrict what is recorded on the user's computer."
"One of our gaps or pain points is having multi-factor authentication at the endpoint and using the PRA password injection from BeyondTrust, which does not work in our environment. We can only have MFA at the login of BeyondTrust to check out the password. Therefore, we can't meet our security requirements of having it on the endpoint."
"I recommend that we improve integration with other products like PasswordSafe, aiming for smoother integration."
"Customer support used to be faster with chat options available. However, support now requires opening a ServiceNow ticket, which can be time-consuming."
"We are searching for a product with better remote access and remote sessions."
"The only issue I experienced was with the initialization of the session, which affected the stability of the solution."
"There could be some improvement in the integration of the solution."
"I would like to see a web-based interface, instead of client installation to refresh the UI through HTML."
"Sometimes the server stops working, and we don’t know why. Occasionally we’ll get a message to the effect of "There is no remote license.""
"The solution isn't as good as the Citrix option."
"There are times I get disconnected from the service and when one or two attempts to establish a remote connection. Microsoft should show where the problem is, I have to find it by myself."
"The training profiles could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Intune is a cost effective choice. It is less expensive than other products on the market."
"Microsoft Intune is expensive."
"If you're subscribing to Premium or E3, there are no additional costs for Intune, it's included."
"There is a license needed to use the solution and we are on an annual license."
"There is a license required to use the solution. If you're core users in Office 365, for example, you have Outlook email and E3 license, this is only email. You have to buy an EMS license to have Microsoft Intune. It is expensive."
"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."
"This cost is approximately $30 USD per user per month."
"Intune is included with our F3 and E5 licenses."
"I wish it was a little bit cheaper, but when a product is as solid as this, I understand what the cost does. It helps them to make sure it stays that way. If you want a reliable, solid product, you're going to pay more."
"I wasn't directly involved in the licensing and pricing, but I can say that PRA is licensed per endpoint added to the Vault. I would advise users to take frequent exports of their license usage package; it's a simple feature that provides a spreadsheet of every machine in the Vault. This helps to cut down on duplicate licenses, which can happen by adding the same endpoint using an IP address and a fully qualified domain name, for instance. The implementation is an additional cost, and they offer several tiers, so the price varies. There are also some optional add-ons, so I would advise people to research the product well and find out precisely what they need regarding features. The Advanced Web Access add-on provides some required functionality when interfacing with websites; that's one to consider."
"I rate the product's pricing a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is high, and ten is low. It is an expensive product."
"PRA's pricing is competitive."
"My client found the solution a bit expensive but considering their use case and requirements, they didn't have any other choice. As far as I know, implementation and licensing are the only costs."
"Though the solution was a bit expensive, the overall pricing was average."
"The price is pretty expensive, but you get what you pay for and this is a great product."
"Don't get into a situation where you are licensing per desktop or per person until you fully understand the licensing."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
"It's not an expensive product."
"The solution is expensive. My company pays toward the monthly licensing costs of the solution...The additional cost, apart from the solution's licensing cost, is related to the technical support a user wants."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows."
"I would say it's expensive as there similar products available for free."
"The cost is fair."
"The pricing could always be improved."
"It's not an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What do you like most about BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access?
The product has improved remote support capabilities since it works fine.
What needs improvement with BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access?
The issue I found with the product revolves around the fact that RDP and SSH sessions take too much time, making it a...
What is your primary use case for BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access?
I use the tool in my lab. I am involved in the product's testing phase in my lab, where I am trying to check out the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
I've never had an issue with it. I've always thought the pricing for RDS was reasonable.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
The current process I have to go through to get a Windows 11 VM up and running is difficult. Windows 10 worked a whol...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Bomgar Privileged Access
Remote Desktop Services, MS Remote Desktop Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Horizon Beverage, Air Liquide, Gateway Bank of Florida
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.