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Jamf Pro 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

Jamf Pro
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (2nd)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (4th), Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Jamf Pro and Microsoft Configuration Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Jamf Pro is designed for Mobile Device Management (MDM) and holds a mindshare of 29.7%, up 28.0% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 6.6% mindshare, down 8.7% since last year.
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Pete C - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable with a self-service portal and a good security posture
Policies enabled for self-service should have keywords attached, so that multiple search terms can direct to a single preferred result, without having to clutter the description field. The new remote support tool is still lacking features compared to other industry solutions. There is no built-in functionality for tracking changes over time for multiple devices. All patch reporting is only a current snapshot. The password management tools are fairly outdated. The web console (GUI) is slow with maddening UI/UX inconsistencies.
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

"The most valuable features of Jamf Pro for me are the device locator, which helps find missing iPads, and the ability to remotely manage and disable devices."
"The most valuable feature is the self-service, which lets users install their preferred application instead of installing all applications and filling the machine with junk."
"As an administrator, I really love the integration with Apple Business Manager."
"We were able to dramatically enhance our cybersecurity, and better support our users."
"The most valuable features in Jamf Pro are the policies and config profiles, making our life easy to manage many different things in one place."
"One valuable feature of Jamf Pro is Jamf Connect, which helps synchronize passwords from Active Directory to Mac."
"It's a great way to keep track of all of our licenses and the software we use daily."
"The solution has good integration with Google and has high performance for our Mac fleet of devices."
"The technical support is good."
"I like Mircosoft's technical support. Microsoft has a few updates, like some of the critical KBs. They are published within the interval time, and in case of an escalation on the client missions, we will raise a ticket with the Microsoft team. They will create a hotfix or a critical update. They will chat with us, and that is one thing I like about Microsoft. Whenever any issues occur at my organization, they will help you out soon as possible within the SLA."
"The product is useful for patch management."
"The ability to make collections and deploy to them has been great."
"It is a good choice for deployment that performs very well."
"I like the data collection."
"It has the ability to perform mass distribution."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability."
 

Cons

"The response time for support could be significantly improved."
"I would love to see more integration with ASM and ABM."
"I would love to see an integrated ticketing system built-in, better reporting templates to help analyze the data (software usage, etc.), and integration with FREE SSL Cert (letsencrypt.org) with auto-renewal."
"The biggest area for improvement is the price and the structure of Jamf's onboarding process, especially the mandatory JumpStart consultation, which can be costly for small organizations."
"I wish the inventory would have its own pane without having to do it as a search."
"It would be nice if there was a built-in means of renaming computers that worked reliably."
"It would be amazing if they would give Apple TV management its own space in Jamf Pro and not just mix it in with devices."
"The integrated patch feature is good but needs some tweaking."
"The main room for improvement is the on-screen display. I think it would be good if some improvements were made."
"There were misconfigurations by our team rather than issues with the product itself. However, it does seem a bit buggy from time to time, based on what I have heard."
"Management of Linux devices could be improved."
"The operations could be faster and you need some patience with this tool."
"It would be of benefit if Configuration Manager could be connected/integrated with multiple Microsoft Intune subscriptions rather than just one (the current limit)."
"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."
"I would like to see more automation."
"The configuration of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager could be improved, it is a bit complicated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It would be beneficial if it could be reduced slightly."
"We have signed a licensing contract for three years. There is an option to buy an annual license subscription, but we opted for three years as it came with a 25% or 30% discount."
"The only thing that is kicking us a bit is the rand to the dollar exchange rate. It is priced in dollars. Every time the rand goes worse, it just costs more. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing because it is very unpredictable because of the rand to the dollar exchange rate."
"It seems fair. It could be a little bit less, but you have to pay for a product. You can't get something for free. You get what you pay for, so if you put in a little bit of money, you're going to get a good quality product."
"The setup cost is in the training, which is the most important step of your journey."
"The price of a training pass for five people was $18,000 USD."
"Jamf Pro is on the expensive side and could be slightly cheaper."
"The price of this solution is a bit high but it is worth the money for the features. There is an annual license for the use of this solution."
"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."
"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."
"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."
"Pricing and licensing are a downside of SCCM. It's expensive. I'd have to confirm this, but I think they changed the licensing to core-based instead of socket-based. It's not cheap, because you have to buy the software, you have to buy SQL. Another thing we learned from talking to Microsoft is that they provide you a license for SQL if you run it on the same box as the primary server. If you run it outside that box, you have to buy SQL. Microsoft does recommend you running it on the same box because of performance. But then, in order to run SQL, SCCM, and everything on the same box, you better have some resources. It's an expensive solution. There's no doubt about it."
"We have to pay for a license."
"There is not a license needed to use the solution."
"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
University
5%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
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 Jamf Pro?
The most valuable features of Jamf Pro for me are the device locator, which helps find missing iPads, and the ability to remotely manage and disable devices.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jamf Pro?
The pricing structure is one of the cons. However, the licensing model is simple and easy to manage from an MSP perspective. Licenses are annual, and any changes are communicated effectively.
What needs improvement with Jamf Pro?
The biggest area for improvement is the price and the structure of Jamf's onboarding process, especially the mandatory JumpStart consultation, which can be costly for small organizations. The solut...
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

JAMF Software Casper Suite
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Xero, National Geographic, Oxford University, Via, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Fallon, Cabela's
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 JAMF, Microsoft, Cisco and others in Mobile Device Management (MDM). Updated: February 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.