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Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 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 Remote Access
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
234
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Devolutions Remote Desktop ...
Ranking in Remote Access
15th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 3.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager is 1.5%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 15.7%, down from 19.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
StephenWatson - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy with great security and responsive support
The security on offer is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It offers, for example, two-factor authentification. The remote connection across platforms is great. You can deploy it on anything, including Windows, Mac, iOS, your iPhone, et cetera. It offers multi-platform utility. This makes it great for enterprise. Users can use it for PAM access as well. The feature of Devolutions that has improved our customer's efficiency the most is probably the security side. It's gotten a lot tighter. Authentication and secure connections are helpful. They use encryption between them, which is just standard for them. The company has so many regulatory controls that they must ensure their security is very tight. There's a lot of potential cybercrime around casinos, and this solution ensures they are well-protected. Devolutions is a great product that can be safely used between China, Australia, or the Philippines, and it remains a good, safe product.
BHARAT B  SHARMA - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up and reliable, but needs an additional control panel
We've had issues with security breaches. The main problem is that if we are using this with the individual computer and using a remote desktop, there are some loopholes there. When I implemented this on an individual computer within two or three days it got captured. There is a problem with the printing and sharing of this program. There is a lot of customized software leaving the market due to this. If somebody wants to run a specific program with the specific settings, they don't want full access to the computer. Then there are some problems that have to be resolved. We'd like to have an additional control panel available in order o more easily give resources to the computers. There are a lot of restrictions and having a program panel would make things easier. It would help us set up the right access and permissions.

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 are the ones that make sure that the deployment is of a standard operating system and the Zero Touch deployment, which is very useful. This allows users to have an out of box experience."
"The biggest asset is the range of device management options available with Intune, whether it is a Windows device, a Linux device, a Mac device, or mobile devices."
"The mobile device management is very useful."
"I can reach devices or computers over the internet. I don't need to worry about the network connectivity between the offices. I can manage any device. That is the most important part."
"The security features are most definitely valuable. If I have to give an example, the lockdown features that prevent employees from configuring anything or downloading company data are valuable. We get high-quality device protection, malware protection, and information protection at the same time."
"The features I found most valuable in Intune are its user visibility and troubleshooting options."
"I like that we can implement conditional access."
"Users can make screenshots, and devices only need the minimal version of iOS."
"RDM has enabled me to do most of my work in one place. This helps me be able to have an RDP session open to a server in one tab and an SSH session open to a VMware host in another."
"The remote connection across platforms is great."
"Allows us to configure limited access to resources with the security-based role feature (which we use for trainees and new employees)."
"The interface is great to work with as it allows multiple connections in a tabbed interface. It also has the option to automatically start a VPN or an SSH tunnel, if required."
"It saves a lot of time for all of our IT staff from having to just use the RDP Windows client and reenter each server every time we access a different system."
"The ability to have all the connection information in one location saves so much time from trying to manage the same information across different applications."
"By integrating all our connections previously spread across multiple locations, a lot of time has been saved."
"It really helps to have all the data already pre-entered and all I have to do is enter the password."
"It's almost an out of the box function once you have installed the other components."
"The product is stable."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is scalable."
"The solution works well as a remote desktop."
"The initial setup is not that difficult. I have gone through the RDS initialization steps, which only seem easy."
"The most valuable features are the desktop session and desktop virtualization."
"The installation is straightforward."
"It's part of the Microsoft Operating system and is free."
 

Cons

"In terms of what can be improved, I am looking for better enhancements regarding Apple management, not only on the mobile device, but also on the laptop."
"The biggest problem we ever have is when something goes out of date after 30 days when nobody has logged into it. We do have a problem trying to get those back online. We've been working with Microsoft to resolve that problem, but that's been the only issue that we've had in the last few years."
"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."
"Microsoft Intune lacks the ability to provide seamless remote assistance or remote control."
"The product needs to upgrade itself when the server is overloaded."
"Applying security recommendations can be difficult in Microsoft Intune. Sometimes, they give you recommendations, but you need a different server to manage the pieces, or you have to go to each device individually. However, it has been improving. Before, there were certain policies you could not implement directly in Intune, but now I see progress. I would like to see more improvement in policy management, similar to how we used group policies on-premises."
"I know that their AI pieces are at the infancy stage, but allowing users to do more tagging for information would be an interesting thing because Intune also directly integrates with Azure. Because a lot of the devices are hosted with that, you also get a lot of tagging of user data and other things like that."
"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."
"Security roles could be improved, especially by enabling renaming of a role."
"If there was a way to streamline the process, it would make it nice."
"Maybe some clipboard functions could be added along with integration of different software."
"The RDM client (.NET issue, actually) can stall or lock up while it clears communication threads to the server."
"Sometimes the manual inventory of some entries hangs, and RDM must be closed via task manager."
"There are always bugs to squash, beyond that, it is really kind of difficult for new users to discover and use many of the features due to the bewildering array of choices and ways to do things."
"The filing system of connections is a little clunky, but is completely functional."
"The only complaint I have heard is there are too many updates. Each time there is an update (the app prompts to upgrade), it can be time consuming, especially when sometimes there are multiple updates per week."
"The performance of Remote Desktop Services could be better."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having graphical acceleration."
"The stability could be improved."
"The reliability of the solution could improve."
"There have been some network issues in the solution. So, when we used to connect it, the solution suddenly got disconnected. So the network part needs to be improved."
"Remote Desktop Services doesn't scale well."
"The solution should introduce a chat feature for end users."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by allowing the sharing of the office application. For example, the ability to replace a PC when something is wrong."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is handled through our Office 365 license, so I have yet to be able to compare it directly with other tools in its class."
"If you're ever going to buy an Office 365 environment, then pricing is reasonable given all that it does, but if you're not, then you might find the pricing expensive."
"While I can't provide insights from a business perspective, it's worth noting that the pricing may differ significantly, and the discount we received might not be reflective of standard business rates."
"There is a license needed to use the solution and we are on an annual license."
"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."
"Intune comes with the licensing that is common for large organizations. However, Microsoft has recently released many add-ons that are very expensive, especially for large organizations or corporations."
"Cost is not my department, but the product is included in the E5 license that we already pay for every user, so no additional cost is incurred."
"Consider the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite rather than choosing specific sub-components, e.g. only Microsoft Intune."
"Setup costs for most people is negligible."
"The Free Edition is completely free. You can try also the Enterprise Edition for 30 days for free."
"If you are a Microsoft MVP, VMware vExpert, Cisco Champion, etc., Devolutions offers a free Enterprise License."
"It will probably cost about $500 USD to get the resources set up in the cloud."
"We do not have to pay for the product."
"The solution has a pretty comparable pricing."
"The solution is expensive. Since things are made to be a bit easier in the solution, the solution's cost is a bit on the higher side."
"The tool must be cheaper."
"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 pricing could always be improved."
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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
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
With the security factors built into it, the price point is quite good. They have entry-level and enterprise-level li...
What needs improvement with Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
The console is a little bit clunky. It could be modernized. A tech developer might think it is fine, however, from a ...
What is your primary use case for Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
We use the solution for a customer that needs pretty high security. They are in the poker machine manufacturing world...
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
No data available
Remote Desktop Services, MS Remote Desktop Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Financial Services, Healthcare Provider Network, Government Agency,Technology and Software Development,Telecommunications, Retail Chain Management, MSPs, Manufacturing, Global Logistics and Shipping, Education, IT teams.
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.