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ConnectWise Automate vs ManageEngine Endpoint Central comparison

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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

ConnectWise Automate
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (10th)
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (5th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. ConnectWise Automate is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 5.5%, down 7.4% compared to last year.
ManageEngine Endpoint Central, on the other hand, focuses on Client Desktop Management, holds 17.0% mindshare, down 28.6% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ConnectWise Automate5.5%
NinjaOne9.8%
Kaseya VSA9.7%
Other75.0%
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Client Desktop Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ManageEngine Endpoint Central17.0%
Symantec Client Management Suite13.8%
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)12.2%
Other57.0%
Client Desktop Management
 

Featured Reviews

MikeChacker - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Global Service Delivery at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Facilitates valuable patch cycles, but the web client is not very intuitive and needs updating, and the scripting has room for improvement
The fixed client for Automate is slow. The web client is not very intuitive. It could use some updating and some thought around the UX. Also, with the scripting, I would like to see something where it could have third-party scripts already pre-built, and all you have to do is say, "Hey, I need this," and go load it. It's not as automated as I'd like it to be.
reviewer1908987 - PeerSpot reviewer
Ict Manager at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
Centralized endpoint management has improved patching, software deployment, and asset control
ManageEngine Endpoint Central is what I am personally working with and using, along with the Service Desk, which is another tool we use. We have been working with ManageEngine Endpoint Central for four years or more. The customizable packages in software deployment are very positive; you can apply different policies for the package that you are going to deploy. This is something we are still using and working with. ManageEngine has a very large portfolio of products. There is some functionality that is not managed from ManageEngine Endpoint Central, but you can find that functionality in another module of ManageEngine's portfolio.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support is really good; they are helpful and responsive."
"Remote monitoring allows the organization to react more quickly to emergencies, particularly offline devices/locations."
"One of the greatest benefits of LabTech is less client downtime, because LabTech lets you proactively monitor and fix issues before they interrupt your clients’ business, so you can virtually eliminate system outages."
"We use monitors to keep track of our machines. We use a pretty good portion of information from Automate."
"The automated scripts feature means that we can set up for a lot of different things and they have reduced tech input drastically, in the sense that a task only needs to be done once instead of 100 times."
"The database is great. It's a nicely ordered database."
"I was very happy with how they handled me as a client and am quite satisfied with the level of support we get."
"This product saves us a lot of time and increases our efficiency."
"The reporting tool is very good."
"With the implementation of Desktop Central's patch management functionality, it is now a more streamlined and automated process with the use of deployment schedules aligned with Patch Tuesday from Microsoft."
"Desktop Central allows both Microsoft and third-party patching while giving precise reporting and dashboards, enabling us to catch problem computers easily, as well as show the company that we are keeping their IT infrastructure safe."
"One of the benefits of Desktop Central is it made the provisioning process simpler because now we have a provisioning package. We have around 1,500 laptops at the moment and all these PCs were provisioned by a provisioning package. In the provisioning package, we have integrated every aspect of renaming, deploying applications, patching, etc., so we simply execute the provisioning package and as soon as it's executed, it will install the management agent. Once the agent is installed, it will take care of all the tasks, so we don't have to sit in front of the computer to prepare the machine. This really helps us to provision the PC quickly with our agent."
"ManageEngine Endpoint Central has significantly simplified my device management practices."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The most valuable feature to me is the vulnerability management."
"ManageEngine Desktop Central was benchmarked in the comparison of the other three products."
 

Cons

"This is a raw system. Of course, it has some flaws that could be improved. But, it's something that we will have to work with to get to the point where we need this, we request it and they do their best to make it happen."
"I almost would rather have a different tool, but I'm not sure which one yet."
"We would love to get feature updates and cumulative updates fixed. I know they aren't really supposed to be pushed with Patch Manager. We've got recommendations from ConnectWise to use the scripted feature update installs, scripted KB updates, etc. Having these in Patch Manager itself would be great."
"The wait time for a support ticket to be addressed needs to be reduced. They take a couple of days to get back."
"I have a problem with the reports available on the solution. I don't understand how to work with the reporting functionality. For example, when I want to give a report for a specific machine, ConnectWise doesn't seem to have this as an option. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if the reporting functionality is just poorly conceived."
"The project management needs improvement and there's a section of the product called configuration that also needs to be improved."
"There could be better linkages between ConnectWise Automate and Manage from a ticketing perspective. Automate and Manage each has its own ticketing system. We use the one in Manage, but it'd be nice if they were linked directly to the one in Automate."
"In Patch Manager, there should be more reportability so that it is easier to see the updates that I have applied to a machine and when the next update will happen. A lot of times, it seems like all the information is kind of thrown all over the place, and you can't really see it all at the same time. There should be a simplified patch data view that allows us to quickly confirm that our various clients are getting patched as they should be."
"ManageEngine Desktop Central is very limited. When you scan your system, it will only recognize Microsoft Windows Defender and BitLocker."
"The pricing could be a bit better."
"I'd like to see Patch Management for Linux Systems, which it doesn't have right now and which we could really use."
"Tech support is mediocre at best."
"The reporting analytics could improve in ManageEngine Desktop Central. However, there are some third-party add-ins or modules you can purchase to do reporting analytics."
"Often I had issues with user configurations."
"Sometimes it happens that the agent got corrupted on the systems, and we have to manually uninstall and push it to the systems again."
"The team should work on improving the stability, particularly with massive patches deployment, clients are not 100% getting patches and the information provided by the system does not help; more detailed report would be very useful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe Automate is available for around $2."
"From what I've overheard, it is pretty comparable to other solutions in terms of price."
"I pay $85 a month per user for a ConnectWise package that contains multiple solutions."
"Pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"The pricing of the product is not bad compared to the other similar solutions in the market."
"We had perpetual licenses. The cost was around 36,000, and then you'd have the yearly maintenance fee of 2,000 or 3,000."
"The pricing is average."
"The price could be cheaper."
"Choose wisely between the Professional and Enterprise editions, based on your needs."
"I have been using the free version and am in the stage where I have to decide if I will proceed with the paid license, or instead choose another product."
"The price is moderate."
"The initial purchase was around $6,000 or $7,000. We most probably are not on an annual subscription. We bought it, and then we pay for the maintenance. I'm not 100% sure how that's working out."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Construction Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise35
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine Endpoint Central?
I would rate the pricing as seven; it is quite expensive from my point of view for ManageEngine Endpoint Central.
What needs improvement with ManageEngine Endpoint Central?
It would be great to see some additional options within ManageEngine Endpoint Central. A better monitoring tool to analyze network traffic related to patch management would be something good to see...
 

Also Known As

LabTech for IT Service Providers, ConnectWise Automate for Corporate IT Departments, ConnectWise Automate for IT Service Providers
ManageEngine Desktop Central, Desktop Central, ManageEngine Desktop Management MSP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

I-M Technology, Mainstay Technologies, PC Works Plus, Integrity IT, Kerkhoff Technologies Inc., Marathon Consulting, Christenberry Sales Company, EDTS, Secom Technology, Ready to View, ARRC Technology, DaVinci Digital, JNR Networks, Quinn Technology Solutions, PCIT, Liberty Technology, Capital Computers & Networks, Atlanta Technology Force, Doberman Technologies, First Column Enterprises, CisCom Solutions
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Strathallan School, BMI Healthcare, Comercial Kywi, First Priority Federal Credit Union, Gerab National Enterprises
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