GFI LanGuard vs Microsoft Configuration Manager comparison

GFI and Microsoft are both solutions in the Patch Management category. GFI is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. GFI holds a 4.0% mindshare in PM, compared to Microsoft’s 19.6% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of GFI users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

GFI LanGuard

Read 10 GFI LanGuard reviews

1,392 Views
669 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Read 81 Microsoft Configuration Manager reviews

4,851 Views
3,736 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

GFI LanGuard

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Microsoft Configuration Manager and GFI LanGuard are competing in the IT management software category. Microsoft Configuration Manager seems to have the upper hand, particularly for large enterprises due to its comprehensive feature set and integration capabilities.

Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager offers application deployment, patch management, and comprehensive compliance reporting, making it suitable for managing devices and configurations in corporate networks. It also provides deployment automation, remote control functionality, and centralized console management. GFI LanGuard excels in vulnerability assessment and asset tracking, focusing on security insights across endpoints and offering robust patch management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager could improve by simplifying its setup, reducing high resource consumption, and expanding PowerShell support. Further integration with Microsoft Intune is also needed. GFI LanGuard could enhance scalability and integration with cloud services, improve multi-user access, and simplify software rollback features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager supports on-premises and hybrid deployments, offering flexibility but potentially requiring skilled IT personnel. Customer support, while sometimes slow, becomes proficient at higher support tiers. GFI LanGuard is straightforward for on-premises deployment, though it faces challenges in hybrid environments. It is praised for good customer service with adequate online resources.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager is seen as expensive due to licensing requirements, including SQL and additional cloud services, but offers significant ROI by reducing operational costs, especially for enterprises using the Microsoft ecosystem. GFI LanGuard's competitive pricing appeals to small and medium-sized businesses, with bundled services providing good value through effective patch management and security analysis. Both products optimize IT management tasks, though ROI varies based on organizational size and complexity.

To learn more, read our detailed GFI LanGuard vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GFI LanGuard vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

January 2025

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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

GFI LanGuard

Ranking in Patch Management

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Ranking in Patch Management

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (3rd), Configuration Management (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of GFI LanGuard is 4.0%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 19.6%, up from 18.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Patch Management

Featured Reviews

Ted Mbugua

Security Manager at CRAG

Scalable, light on resources, and useful visibility

The most valuable features of GFI LanGuard are the vulnerability assessment, it provides us with substantial insight into what applications are running on the endpoint systems and what vulnerabilities are there in the running applications. The second would be the assets tracking. I'm able to see in the network whether my endpoint server is operating and if all the other IT equipment is running in the environment. Additionally, GFI LanGuard is not heavy on system resources. It gives a competitive advantage over others.

Read full review

MikeNelson2

IT Infrastructure Coordinator at NSW Government

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like that the solution can block users from unnecessarily putting devices on the network."

"It is helpful to patch and scan vulnerabilities."

"This product is a great solution at a great price as long as it is only going to be used for a local area network."

"The initial setup was easy."

"The most useful features of GFI LanGuard are vulnerability assessment and patching solutions."

"The most valuable features in GFI LanGuard are patch management and vulnerability assessment."

"The most valuable features of GFI LanGuard are the vulnerability assessment, it provides us with substantial insight into what applications are running on the endpoint systems and what vulnerabilities are there in the running applications. The second would be the assets tracking. I'm able to see in the network whether my endpoint server is operating and if all the other IT equipment is running in the environment. Additionally, GFI LanGuard is not heavy on system resources. It gives a competitive advantage over others."

"The most valuable feature of GFI LanGuard is its email spam feature."

More GFI LanGuard pros

"It gives us the ability to set up schedules, according to what our security requirements are, to automate the patching of our servers and desktops."

"The ability to make collections and deploy to them has been great."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is patch management."

"Endpoint Manager is valuable to our organization because it allows us to connect to our enterprise from remote locations securely. The most useful feature is its robustness and scalability. It is highly scalable and flexible, allowing us to use it in various environments. Additionally, we can specialize the policies related to each device group. This ensures that each group has access to the applications they need for their work and non-work hours."

"I like a lot of the reporting capabilities and baseline configurations."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ability to deploy patches to nearly all applications."

"The solution doesn't require any maintenance from our end because it is a cloud-based solution and Microsoft takes care of everything."

"It does the job and meets our needs. With everybody working remotely these days, we are using this solution to deploy everything. The deployment of PCs is easy."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

Cons

"The documentation on how to use this solution in a Linux environment is not clear, which is something that should be improved because it is complicated."

"GFI LanGuard has some technical limitations with machines."

"If GFI LanGuard had a cloud version it would be better for people that are working from home."

"This solution is limited to the local area network only and cannot manage remote devices."

"GFI LanGuard can improve by adding more modules, such as asset control or asset inventory."

"The only drawback with GFI LanGuard is that you cannot directly integrate it from the Outlook email; instead, you have to first log in to the site to make changes."

"The version we are using only allows one person to use it at a time and does not allow multi-users."

"GFI LanGuard could improve the rollback feature. If we have installed the wrong we have had some issues with the rollback function. Additionally, more input from GFI LanGuard for the custom software push install."

More GFI LanGuard cons

"The setup was complex and I faced a lot of problems initially because I was new to the solution."

"In terms of scalability, I believe there's room for improvement. While SCCM is capable of handling our current needs effectively, scalability could be enhanced to accommodate future growth and larger deployments."

"The product needs to improve scalability."

"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."

"Could do with some cosmetic improvements on the user interface."

"The solution is on-premises. The cloud version of the product, if a person needs to be on the cloud, would be InTune, which already exists as an option. SCCM doesn't need to offer cloud features for this reason."

"One area of improvement is regarding the patching of Office 365 products. We have some difficulties on this side, and it can be improved."

"In terms of the monitoring, the timeframe it takes to actually report back on the compliance of a device after it has been patched is a bit too long."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GFI LanGuard cost approximately $1,000 annually to use the solution."

"GFI LanGuard has very fair pricing compared to other similar solutions out there."

"GFI LanGuard isn't expensive."

"On a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being competitive, I would rate the price as a four."

"We are a gold partner and we receive favorable discounts. The price of GFI LanGuard is competitive. When you evaluate other solutions, such as ManageEngine."

"I rate the pricing of GFI LanGuard a four out of five."

"I would rate the cost as eight out of ten."

"Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."

"Along with buying a license for MECM, we also have to buy a service called CMG (Cloud Management Gateway) which is a virtual machine in the cloud with which you can link your MECM to the Azure tenant so as to manage teleworkers."

"We have to pay for a license."

"As far as I know, it is an annual operating expense license."

"The license price could be reduced for Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager They should make the price more affordable for smaller companies, most companies would be able to use the solution if it was priced better. There are more people on this cloud because you don't have to have either a server room or an on-premise server. You can have one IT person handle this without any local infrastructure."

"For enterprises, there is an annual license required to use this solution. The price of the solution could be cheaper. However, this is mostly because of the exchange rate from the dollar to the Nigerian currency."

"Its licensing is quite complicated because we are getting the license not only for SCCM but for the full Microsoft package. We don't need to pay for a separate license. We need to have one license that includes everything we need, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, SCCM, encryption, and so on. So, we don't have a specific price for it. Perhaps, it is good that it includes the full suite of licensing of Microsoft. It is expensive, but we are getting a lot of features."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Photography Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GFI LanGuard?

The most valuable feature of GFI LanGuard is its email spam feature.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GFI LanGuard?

The only drawback with GFI LanGuard is that you cannot directly integrate it from the Outlook email; instead, you have to first log in to the site to make changes. Instead of directly white listing...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for GFI LanGuard?

Internally, as a user, I use GFI LanGuard for email and web monitoring.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 38% of the time

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 21% of the time

Ivanti Patch for Endpoint Manager vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 17% of the time

NinjaOne vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 7% of the time

More GFI LanGuard Competitors

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 13% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Tanium vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 8% of the time

BigFix vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 6% of the time

AWS Systems Manager vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Configuration Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GFI LanGuard

January 2025

Download GFI LanGuard product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager

January 2025

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Also Known As

LanGuard

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )

Overview

GFI LanGuard enables complete patch management of security and non-security patches to Microsoft operating systems, Mac OS X, major Linux distributions and third-party applications. It can also automate patching for all major web browsers too.

GFI

Microsoft Configuration Manager helps IT manage PCs and servers, keeping software up-to-date, setting configuration and security policies, and monitoring system status while giving employees access to corporate applications on the devices that they choose. When Configuration Manager is integrated with Microsoft Intune, you can manage corporate-connected PCs and Macs along with cloud-based mobile devices running Windows, iOS, and Android, all from a single management console.

New features of Configuration Manager, such as the support of Windows 10 in-place upgrade, co-management with Microsoft Intune, Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise Servicing Dashboard, integration with Windows Update for Business, and more make deploying and managing Windows easier than ever before.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

BayView Medical Clinic, FrugalBrothers Software, Zaw, National Theatre, American Red Cross

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad

Buyer's Guide

GFI LanGuard vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

January 2025

Free Report: GFI LanGuard vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about GFI LanGuard vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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