ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs Microsoft Configuration Manager comparison

ManageEngine and Microsoft are both solutions in the Patch Management category. ManageEngine is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1. ManageEngine holds a 8.2% mindshare in PM, compared to Microsoft’s 15.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ManageEngine users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

ManageEngine Patch Manager ...

Read 15 ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus reviews

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1,549 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Read 81 Microsoft Configuration Manager reviews

4,318 Views
3,334 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

ManageEngine Patch Manager ...

Microsoft Configuration Man...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Microsoft Configuration Manager and ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus compete in the system management and patch deployment market. ManageEngine appears to have an upper hand due to its simplicity, ease of use, and cost-effective pricing, while Microsoft Configuration Manager is known for its extensive features and integration.

Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager provides comprehensive system management with software deployment, patch management, and hardware inventory. It offers centralized operation and integration with Microsoft products, enabling efficient control over configurations, compliance, and security. ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus excels in lightweight structure and effective vulnerability management, alongside automation features for simplified patch deployment across diverse environments. Both systems provide robust management options, yet ManageEngine is highlighted for its straightforward usability.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager users experience high resource consumption and complex configurations, seeking better PowerShell integration and non-Microsoft product updates. ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus requires an enhanced reporting interface and improved client segregation customization. Users desire more intuitive use and better cross-platform integration, especially for Apple products. In contrast, SCCM users seek better compliance reporting and mobile device management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager primarily offers on-premises deployment with some cloud integration, backed by extensive documentation, though technical support quality varies. ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus shares similar deployment flexibility but is known for faster implementation. Both products provide varied user experiences in customer service, with ManageEngine's support noted as more consistently reliable.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager is considered expensive, with potentially high licensing costs that may include extra fees for SQL server integration. It can deliver a strong ROI in large settings due to its extensive features, though setup may be costly. ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus offers a cost-effective alternative with straightforward annual subscriptions, providing a reasonable ROI for patch management. Its simpler pricing and lower entry costs make it appealing to small businesses and budget-conscious teams.

To learn more, read our detailed ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus 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

ManageEngine Patch Manager ...

Ranking in Patch Management

6th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

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 (4th), Configuration Management (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is 8.2%, up from 7.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 15.5%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Patch Management

Featured Reviews

AdeolaEkunola

Director at NIGERCUBES LTD

A quite straightforward solution that works easily with different operating systems

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. When the use of the solution for customers grows, there is a need for more endpoints, and it may grow up to 500 endpoints, and the solution's use may even be scaled up further. It is possible to do what is needed to scale up the solution for the IT environments of any of our company's customers. Before scaling up, one needs to buy the license and consider the IT architecture to see if there are any modifications required in the solution. Around three of my company's customers who manage enterprise-sized businesses with a minimum requirement of 700 endpoints at least use the solution.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The automated patch deployment feature is really helpful. I can schedule it anytime, even on weekends, without needing to restart systems. The centralized management and unified console are great. It shows me which PCs are out of date or which users are breaching our policies. I can test patches before deploying them."

"The solution's technical support is top-notch. Whenever I have a question, they get back to me immediately, which is probably one of the best features of the solution's technical support."

"It does not restart unexpectedly, allowing automation anytime, even during weekends."

"The fetch repository is a good feature."

"I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is lightweight and has a remote push feature that helps me manage several main sites and subsites."

"It is a highly stable solution."

More ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus pros

"The most valuable feature of SCCM is the application distribution."

"The solution has a very good set of features."

"The most valuable features are Remote Connect, SUP, Cloud functionality, Report, Query, and third-party patching."

"I like its ease of use. It does what you need it to do, and it's a one-stop-shop for the company and for all your deployments. If you incorporate Intune into it, you can have both. You can bring your own devices and corporate devices, and everything runs out of SCCM and Intune."

"Microsoft Configuration Manager gives different tools in one solution."

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

"This solution helps us by automating the patching of our system."

"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."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

Cons

"ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus needs to improve speed."

"Patching over the Internet should be improved."

"The cloud version should have option to add all the endpoints using the agent. Not only for Windows, but also the Linux version. There are some versions which are not compatible with SaaS Manager. So some customers do not want to use the latest version of Linux latest version of CentOS. Actually, CentOS is not available. But some are using and patch manager is compatible for some versions only, not older older versions. So there are some pros and cons that are referred to patch management."

"They should add better features for managing hardware."

"I think ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus could improve its testing capabilities. If they could test different SQL versions and server versions in their sandbox, it would be better. For example, it didn't work well with Server 2012, but it works fine with 2016 and up."

"The only area for improvement in ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, which I noticed, is the reporting."

"Patching over the Internet should be improved. If I am traveling, I should have an Internet patching option for control, visibility, and vulnerability management for roaming users."

"The user interface of ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus needs to be made more user-friendly, simplified, and less complicated."

More ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus cons

"The tool's deployment is complex and depends on the architecture you want to implement."

"Built in PowerShell cmdlets would be a nice feature because managing clients remotely can be a pain without knowing the WMI calls to run."

"Management of Linux devices could be improved."

"I want the system to provide some dependency relations. I would also like to see the relationship between different machines."

"In spite of us being a premier customer we find the support unsatisfactory."

"The solution can be improved by speeding up the synchronizing of the policies on the devices."

"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."

"The operations could be faster and you need some patience with this tool."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is a little bit cheaper."

"Its price needs improvement."

"The solution cost is around $5,000 per year."

"I rate the product price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The price of this product is reasonable."

"I rate the price of the product a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"Patch Manager is cost-effective."

"The pricing for ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is on the moderate side."

More ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus pricing and cost advice

"We have a support license from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and the overall price of the solution is reasonable."

"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."

"The price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is expensive."

"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."

"The price model is different for every client."

"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."

"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."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing 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 ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus?

The fetch repository is a good feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus?

ManageEngine's licensing model recently changed from being endpoint-based to server-based, which might affect costs during the next renewal. I cannot disclose specific pricing details.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus?

Patching over the Internet should be improved. If I am traveling, I should have an Internet patching option for control, visibility, and vulnerability management for roaming users. Additionally, in...

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

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

Compared 17% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

Compared 16% of the time

BigFix vs ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

Compared 16% of the time

GFI LanGuard vs ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

Compared 10% of the time

Qualys Patch Management vs ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

Compared 4% of the time

More ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus Competitors

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 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

Red Hat Satellite vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Configuration Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

February 2025

Download ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Configuration Manager

February 2025

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Overview

Patch Manager Plus is a simple patch management tool that makes it easy to keep your network patched and secure. It is an endpoint patch management software that provides enterprises a single interface for automating all patch management tasks - from detecting missing patches to deploying patches - for Windows, Mac, Linux and 250+ third-party applications. Whether you have one computer or hundred, they can all be patched at the same time from a single point of console.

ManageEngine

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

IKEA Honda UNICEF The University of Georgia Evander

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

Buyer's Guide

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

January 2025

Free Report: ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs. Microsoft Configuration Manager

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

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