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ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Configuration Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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

ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (4th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (3rd)
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. ManageEngine Endpoint Central is designed for Client Desktop Management and holds a mindshare of 42.4%, up 38.9% 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.
Client Desktop Management
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Gabriel Clement - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for patch server management
For Endpoint Central, as an end-user system, we set automatic deployment from Friday. If, for any reason, there are instances that are missed, we check every day from 07:00 AM to 05:00 PM. We don't need to submit automatic deployment, so it's still part of my deployment process. We set up a test server. Once we are okay with the patch that they need to test, they approve it, and then it applies to production. We used Microsoft. So, for asset processing reports and things like that, we had to move to ManageEngine. They changed the name to Endpoint Central. So, it's like that in terms of being much better and having more functionality as a product.
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

"ManageEngine Endpoint Central has significantly simplified my device management practices."
"The most valuable in Desktop Central is the way it is tightly coupled with the rest of the modules and the entire gamut of ManageEngine."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The most important feature we found to be useful in the COVID situation is the secure connection, which gives the IT support staff the ability to seamlessly connect with the users remotely and in a secure way."
"The most valuable feature to me is the vulnerability management."
"What I like best about this product is that I can log on to every PC, very easily, and chat with the user via the chat feature."
"The stability is very good."
"It's a complete product that allows you to remote troubleshoot, has an inventory of systems."
"SCCM does everything from A to Z for a Windows operating system."
"This solution helps us by automating the patching of our system."
"It's helped us solve problems surrounding patching, installing, and reporting different patches, etc., on the virtual machines."
"What's valuable is the basic management of the systems, being able to control who can access the systems."
"Automation of operating system, application, and update deployments massively reduces IT operations effort."
"We are happy with the collaboration of SCCM with Patch My PC, which allows us to do patch work."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ability to deploy patches to nearly all applications."
 

Cons

"Sometimes computers fail to receive patches, and we need to investigate why."
"Tech support is mediocre at best."
"Even when it shows Java as up-to-date, it might not be. So, to make it better, they should improve the accuracy of Java patch reporting."
"The solution isn't fully stable, and, when it goes down, it's hard to get it up and running."
"In relation to ManageEngine Endpoint Central, ManageEngine NGAV seems to be completely useless right now."
"There are times when we have a particular software installed in our system, but we do not receive patches for it from Endpoint Central."
"I would like to see them come out with a SaaS version of the product in the future."
"We would like to see options for deploying Microsoft 365 accounts into Outlook. For now we only can use it to deploy exchange accounts. Also we would like to see an option do decline Windows 7 ESU patches in a bulk."
"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 setup was complex and I faced a lot of problems initially because I was new to the solution."
"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."
"With Microsoft Premier Support, you get what you pay for. There's Third Tier Support that you pay for. If you pay for that, you get excellent support, and if you don't pay for that, then you get the less experienced staff."
"Could do with some cosmetic improvements on the user interface."
"The deployment process is lengthy and should be quicker to complete."
"The solution can be improved with the addition of a mobile device manager."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Affordable for any customer."
"The price is moderate."
"The product is not expensive."
"Compared to other products, ManageEngine Endpoint Central is a very cheap solution."
"The price could be cheaper."
"The product is not costly. The product is properly priced, especially for SMBs."
"The solution is very affordable."
"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."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"The solution operates on a licensing model that can be expensive."
"There is not a license needed to use the solution."
"Microsoft provides a steep price for their enterprise products, but they offer very competitive pricing for their legacy customers."
"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."
"The price could be better."
"The price model is different for every client."
"Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."
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Answers from the Community

NC
Dec 1, 2021
Dec 1, 2021
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 and use the chat feature to speak with any user. In addition, using this product has helped me identify outdated PCs and has been very useful when I have needed to assist with remote control and softwa...
2 out of 5 answers
SD
Nov 23, 2021
My recommendation is to use MS Intune as a solution and you can drop both SCCM and ManageEngine Desktop Central.  Intune is the best solution for managing mobile devices and endpoints. You can also manage your servers but there will be some difficulty in managing on-premises servers. 
MW
Nov 24, 2021
Quest's Unified Endpoint Management - please have a look at this solution: easy to manage, best for mass task deployment, comprehensive and customized reporting.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
42%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
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

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 ManageEngine Endpoint Central?
Well, what we like is that it catch actually a lot of features constantly upgrading. So all the three maybe there there were some features as the tenant on the earliest version. Now it's it's almos...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCCM?
The setup cost is considered sufficient. It is not significant enough for us to consider a change at the moment.
 

Also Known As

ManageEngine Desktop Central, Desktop Central, ManageEngine Desktop Management MSP
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Strathallan School, BMI Healthcare, Comercial Kywi, First Priority Federal Credit Union, Gerab National Enterprises
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 ManageEngine, Broadcom, Quest Software and others in Client Desktop Management. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.