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Datto Remote Monitoring and Management vs Microsoft Configuration Manager 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

Datto Remote Monitoring and...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (7th)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Datto Remote Monitoring and Management is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 7.5%, up 7.4% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 6.0% mindshare, down 8.6% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Dario Caraponale - PeerSpot reviewer
It's very easy to implement and create policies
Implementation for our first customer took about a week. The console is cloud-based, while we install agents on customer desktops and laptops, both on-premises and remote. Maintenance seems quite easy so far. I can set up alerts for anything happening in the tool, so my technical staff don't need to monitor the console constantly.
MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements
While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Even when the connection to the server is lost, the monitoring continues without interruption."
"The project management and task management features work well. It's a decent product in that regard."
"AEM support is great for Macs."
"The remote tool is nice. If a user needs assistance, I don't have to tell the user to do anything. I just ask the user if I can remote in, and 30 seconds later, I have remoted in. It has been really handy."
"We support nine different nonprofits, and the billing took the manager three or four days working on spreadsheets. When I finished automating everything with Datto, we cut everything down to a couple of hours. That's a substantial cost savings on the billing side."
"The alerting system helps us determine what are high level alerts, and what are alerts which can wait for a day or two. We catch RAID failures, hot servers, bad drives (or predicted failures on drives), etc."
"I also like how Datto integrates seamlessly with the Autotask ticketing system."
"It has a single pane of glass, and it integrates well with other software."
"We're a Microsoft-centric organization, so we are happy with the integration between products."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability."
"Microsoft has done a good job with authentication solutions, such as single sign-on, or open authentication."
"We are happy with the collaboration of SCCM with Patch My PC, which allows us to do patch work."
"Microsoft Configuration Manager helps with patch management."
"Provides great insight into the functionalities of the data scope."
"I like the data collection."
"The solution has a very good set of features."
 

Cons

"We would like to see a little more functionality when monitoring network devices, such as switches and routers."
"They have a tab to provide information about the type of hardware the computers have. One thing they don't specify is what model of hard drive the computers have. Identification of storage models would be nice."
"The actual setup and the automation of their product are horrific. When you buy it, there is nothing out of the box. You have to custom design it for everything you want it to do. You pay for implementation, but they don't really do a whole lot to help you get it going. I know it does a lot more than what ours is set up to do, which is frustrating. When I've demoed other systems, their setup is so much better. When you pay for their setup, there is so much more, whereas I just feel like we didn't get a very good setup."
"The only area where I see room for improvement is the ability to delay the application of patches for a set number of days."
"The main challenge was implementing patch management for software that was not in the tool's standard library or catalog."
"I would like the ability to remotely manage configuration and settings on individual units. Some organizations have a certain device configuration that needs to be consistent across all computers. For example, if we have computers that cannot go to sleep or hibernate because they're being accessed remotely, we need to be able to quickly configure those computers to not hibernate. With Datto, there is no easy and/or direct way to accomplish this. I can't create a group called No Hibernate and drag all those computers to that group so that they do not go into hibernation. There is no easy way to put in a policy or a procedure like that. It's still back to going to each computer and doing it by hand, which is what I'm trying to get away from. I want to automate and simplify as much as possible. I write code and scripts to do most of my work anyways. The intention is to get away from me having to be so hands-on."
"My most significant criticism is Datto is a complex product that takes a while to understand, but that could be said of almost any solution at the same level. It depends on where you're starting from. You have to rework all your workflows, and it's some heavy lifting if you want to get it right."
"The CRM capabilities are not very good. It's clunky and could work a lot better than it does. There are no marketing add-ins, for example."
"The solution should incorporate AI. It should also incorporate real-time capabilities. If we could get real-time information about challenges or issues, it would allow us to take immediate action. For example, with the recent outage caused by the Windows issue, having a real-time warning system could have helped us avoid or reduce the downtime we experienced."
"Troubleshooting in general needs improvement. There's just a ton of logs to go through, and so finding the error log that corresponds with that you're doing can sometimes be difficult."
"The ability to integrate MDM would be great."
"Built in PowerShell cmdlets would be a nice feature because managing clients remotely can be a pain without knowing the WMI calls to run."
"There's no way to say, "I want this maintenance window to be on the second Tuesday of the month." It's strict. This window is this and that's it. You can't fluctuate."
"SCCM should strive to enhance the accuracy of its reporting functions in order to avoid any issues with incorrect or inaccurate data."
"I would like to see more automation."
"I'm looking for a single solution for all discovery needs. It fulfills about 40% of the requirements, and I'd like to see the other 60% so that I don't have to keep doing this."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AEM is a lot more scalable as you just pay per agent instead of having to purchase expensive licenses."
"Regarding pricing, Kaseya sells it as part of a bundle called Kaseya 360. This package includes several tools, such as EDR, ransomware protection, and more. Considering the bundle, the price is reasonable. However, where I am in Brazil, the high dollar rate and taxes make it not cheap for mid-sized companies. Still, it's competitively priced compared to similar tools."
"We had to pay out some overtime for a few problematic sites. Sites on domain networks are incredibly easy to install. We learned a few tricks that streamlined the process, but in the beginning, it was a bit tedious."
"It goes by how many endpoints you have. It is about $3,000 a month for us. If we can't figure it out ourselves and need additional help to set it up, we would have to pay for that."
"It fluctuates on the number of computers you have. Depending on the number of computers you have, it can fluctuate anywhere between $5 to $10 per computer per month, which is not too bad. I am not aware of any additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee. It was one flat rate per device."
"The license typically depends on the number of endpoints. On the RMM side, I think we're paying around $2,250 per endpoint. Then there is also a license per user and tech, so that comes out to about a hundred bucks per tech, give or take."
"The price model is different for every client."
"Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."
"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."
"Pricing and licensing are horrible. You have to not look at dollar value to use SCCM. It's super-duper expensive but it works. The acquisition cost is expensive, it's labor-intensive. But it works."
"The price is competitive and reasonable."
"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
"Overall, I think it's fine. It's pretty much in-line because there are ways to offset it with the Office 365 licensing."
"The solution is expensive. Microsoft Configuration Manager would likely be considered high-priced for small businesses because they may not fully utilize all of its features and capabilities."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Retailer
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
Even when the connection to the server is lost, the monitoring continues without interruption.
What needs improvement with Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
We are still on the learning curve with the solution, so I can't point out many specific areas for improvement yet.
What advice do you have for others considering Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
The main challenge was implementing patch management for software that was not in the tool's standard library or catalog. We overcame this by working with their technical support; now, we know how ...
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
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 do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
 

Also Known As

Autotask EM, Autotask Endpoint Management, Datto RMM
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Wessex Networks, Base2, Valiant Technology, Technology Services Group, TechGuru
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Find out what your peers are saying about NinjaOne, Kaseya, TeamViewer and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM). Updated: April 2025.
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