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BigFix vs vCenter Configuration Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
362
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
BigFix
Ranking in Configuration Management
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (29th), Patch Management (8th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (9th)
vCenter Configuration Manager
Ranking in Configuration Management
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 5.4%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BigFix is 5.2%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of vCenter Configuration Manager is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune5.4%
BigFix5.2%
vCenter Configuration Manager2.0%
Other87.4%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Senior Business Development Executive at Digitaltrack Solutions Pvt Ltd
Centralized device management has automated onboarding and improves remote security compliance
One thing I feel Microsoft Intune could improve is troubleshooting visibility. In many cases, when a policy or application deployment fails, the error messages are a bit generic. So, admins still spend time checking logs manually or testing on devices one by one. Compared to the simplicity of deployment, troubleshooting sometimes feels less mature. I also think reporting and real-time monitoring could be stronger. The dashboard gives useful information, but in large environments, many teams still depend on additional tools or scripts for deeper reporting and analytics. If I had to focus on one area first, I would probably choose troubleshooting and reporting. Deployment through Microsoft Intune is generally straightforward, but when something fails, identifying the exact root cause can still take more time than expected. Error messages are sometimes too generic, and admins often have to dig through logs, sync status, or multiple portals to understand what actually happened. I think user experience and policy management could also improve further. Microsoft Intune has become much better over the years, but sometimes the admin portal still feels fragmented because certain configurations open in different sections or redirect to older interfaces. For new admins, especially, it can take time to understand where everything is located. Another thing is policy conflict handling. In larger organizations, multiple device policies, compliance rules, and configuration profiles can overlap. When conflicts happen, the visibility is not always very clear, so admins spend time figuring out which policy actually won or caused the issue.
Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Long-term partnership improves customer satisfaction and delivers efficient endpoint management
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them. Their software distribution is very efficient because they use a pull mechanism rather than a push mechanism, allowing each machine to download from the closest repository and install themselves. The same assessment mechanism applies for real-time vulnerability remediation, allowing identification, evaluation, and automatic remediation across machines. Compliance metrics typically measure the patch percentages deployed against the number of endpoints, which could be various device types including virtual machines and mobile devices. Measurements are taken against each device type, looking into compliance percentages for browsers such as Chrome and Edge based on their versions.
MI
Principal Consultant Engineer at Estarta Solutions
Migration streamlines processes while real-time monitoring opportunities remain
The migration feature of vCenter Configuration Manager is the most loved feature so far. This particular feature is valuable because it is vendor-oriented and works with VMware, which makes your life easy. Regarding system reliability, it is helpful. When you design it for the process, it will help you minimize the downtime, and it will help the reliability of the system. vCenter Configuration Manager has impacted my organization positively, but it's not fully deployed yet; we only use it for one or two tasks, and our team goes back to using the vCenter itself. However, further on, maybe we'll find a use case that will help us use the configuration manager.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The mobile application management, MAM, is the most useful aspect of the solution."
"A great solution for anyone wanting a modern endpoint device management solution."
"Before having Intune, we didn't have the capability to have computers wiped, couldn't manage the operating system from a central location, and weren't able to deploy policies and verify software updates, and it's helped with software update needs, operating system version update needs, and security policy enforcement."
"The feature that we need occasionally but is really important is the ability to remotely wipe a device, control it, and perform similar functions."
"One valuable feature of Microsoft Intune is the enrollment process, which is user-based, making it easier to manage compared to AirWatch."
"There has been a noticeable increase in productivity for both my organization and clients."
"My favorite feature of Microsoft Intune is the dashboard; the dashboard is very simple and user-friendly, and any person, even without prior knowledge, can understand it easily by seeing the interface dashboard."
"Application deployment and keeping the devices secure no matter where they are, by having this cloud solution — that has been great."
"The solution has many useful features; its main advantage is simplicity—you can do everything from one console, regardless of the task, and it supports many operating systems and is scalable to up to 250,000 clients."
"The most valuable feature is patch management, a must have, even for Linux and iOS."
"It's easy to use, not complicated."
"We found the implementation partner to be very supportive in terms of explaining and training the in-house resources and deploying the solution."
"We've been able to fully automate our TWS installs, to the point where a user requests it and we don't do anything."
"BigFix is incredibly fast and accurate in patching, reporting, and remediation."
"BigFix has drastically reduced the maintenance window period to patch and reboot servers."
"My company provides support services to a lot of customers and companies. We have reduced a huge amount of man-effort. Along with the man-effort, we have reduced the timeline to fix the compliance and security gaps. We have an unbroken record. The documentation clearly says that we have done the patching of newly released patches, including Microsoft and third-party patches, in up to 80% of the computers, within 72 hours of the release of the production. That was a very massive benefit that we have seen. When I talk about the 80% endpoints, it is 100 or 200. I am talking about 25,000 endpoints."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The management of vCenter Configuration Manager can support the UI interface. It helps in monitoring, logging alert and performance, forecasting the system to provide services in the environment."
"The most valuable features that VMware's vCenter Configuration Manager have, when compared with other solutions, are their disaster recovery and business connectivity capabilities."
"There are a lot of useful features, such as DRS, ease of use, and many configuration options."
"The most valuable features of vCenter Configuration Manager are highly mature technology."
"Configuration Manager has allowed us to reduce the number of admins needed from three to one."
"The stability and reliability are great."
"This product is very stable, it's a very good product."
 

Cons

"It should be simplified. I've worked with many different mobile device management solutions, and Intune is one of the more complex ones."
"In Microsoft Intune, error messages are an area that has room for improvement. Regarding error messages, I would like to see more detailed logs added."
"With Microsoft technical support, they only fix Teams and when they are open, they're mostly trying to close again at the quickest time."
"The reporting functionality of Microsoft Intune is limited compared to Microsoft System Center, which offers many more reporting options."
"Reporting in Microsoft solutions is pathetic. With Intune, I'm getting a free inventory tool, but I don't get a reporting tool. When I go to Intune, I can see one machine's entire data in terms of the hardware and the software running on it, but I cannot generate a report for all the machines in the organization. The reporting is the only feature holding back the functionality that is already there."
"Manually syncing devices to enforce policies is cumbersome."
"Technical support is not that great."
"Intune does not provide real-time visibility."
"The reporting and dashboard parts have room for improvement."
"Maybe they could introduce a preview of what is going to happen next, because generally what the project is doing is just asking you to execute some actions."
"Implementing a business solution with BigFix has some issues, primarily concerning the time required for distribution to clients if there are too many."
"I want to see a solution for being able to deploy automated software to a Mac running OS X 10.13, something that's going to deal with kernel exceptions and answering prompts for user permissions for data folders and whatnot."
"A large infrastructure is required to implement BigFix for a medium-sized organization."
"In order to derive maximum benefit from BigFix, it is essential that we configure all of its features and implement them effectively. If the automation could be improved we would be able to mitigate the risks associated with zero-day threats."
"The main shortcoming of BigFix was integration with vulnerability management. If you had a vulnerability in your software and BigFix on the endpoint, you needed integration with Qualys, Tenable, or another vulnerability management solution to fix that. It was like, "Okay, we can identify issues, and get that information back from the endpoint, but what are we doing about it?""
"BigFix should improve its compatibility with other platforms, such as Linux."
"It is not so user-friendly that you can just start the host and everything works."
"Configuration Manager's reporting could be better. I need to use a third-party reporting solution to get the details. They could add reporting features similar to RVTools."
"The technical support is not as responsive as it could be. They are slow to respond to our issues with a resolution. There should be online chat support added."
"I think the logging side should be improved because it's pretty difficult to keep up to date VMware and with vCenter."
"The dashboards in vCenter Configuration Manager are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The tool's performance needs to be improved."
"The functions are not running in HTML 5, this is a problem."
"The solution should allow for more customization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."
"The cost of the license and the features are justified for myself as a technical person."
"Microsoft Intune is expensive."
"With our standard E5 agreement with Microsoft, there have been no pricing concerns. Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs."
"The cost is somewhat on the higher side, particularly when considering certain price points, especially in markets like India."
"Intune is linked with Microsoft. We can deploy the Microsoft E365 license to users by Intune. There are different types of licenses, such as device administrator licenses, E5 licenses for device enrollment manually, and P1 and p2 licenses for device enrollment automatically. These are the licenses required for the administration."
"Microsoft Intune is included in the E5 license at no additional cost."
"It is not a cheap solution. The price for a device when you start using it at a large scale can be improved. It is covered under our enterprise agreement. We pay once a year. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"The price is very fair."
"The price of BigFix is better than the solutions. You are able to pay monthly or annually. There are not any hidden costs with BigFix. There is an additional cost for the SQL database."
"There's not much big cost. We only have to pay the agents' cost for the server, and for the systems."
"So, the pricing is slightly more expensive than the others. I have to keep buying licenses every time I add a new device."
"I would stay with the Managed Virtual Server license model, which is a 1-to-1 license per OS whether it is virtual or physical."
"It is too costly. It is one of the best tools, but because of pricing, not all clients support it. Its licensing is on a yearly basis."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing one out of ten."
"It might be about $23 a client."
"Price-wise, the product is an affordable one. The additional expenses, apart from the licensing costs of the solution, are attached to the support a user wants to receive from vCenter Configuration Manager's end."
"The product is highly-priced."
"It's a large application. It consumes a lot of resources. Sometimes the price is too high for our customers. If they buy it directly from VMware, its hard to convince the customer that we will bring down the total cost of ownership, in the end."
"While the pricing is reasonable for large corporations, it presents a substantial financial challenge for medium-sized businesses."
"The solution comes with three-year support. We have to renew the support annually after the three years are up."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"The price of the solution is expensive. However, it is reasonably priced compared to competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business165
Midsize Enterprise60
Large Enterprise182
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise67
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise20
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to other major software solutions, making it ...
What needs improvement with BigFix?
I have concerns about BigFix's pricing, which I find to be slightly on the higher side. While it may not be the most ...
What is your primary use case for BigFix?
I have been working at Tech Data for the last 12 plus years.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for vCenter Configuration Manager?
Nowadays, it is a bit expensive. It's costly, primarily due to the licensing aspect.
What needs improvement with vCenter Configuration Manager?
My impression on the impact of the real-time monitoring features of vCenter Configuration Manager is that it's somewh...
What is your primary use case for vCenter Configuration Manager?
My usual use cases for vCenter Configuration Manager mainly involve migration, shift and lift mainly, and some type o...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Tivoli Endpoint Manager
vCM
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
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
Bank Al Bilad, Thomas-Krenn.AG, Pronto!, Unimed Juiz de Fora
Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. vCenter Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
895,272 professionals have used our research since 2012.