Microsoft Configuration Manager vs OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management comparison

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management

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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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.7%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 7.3%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune	4.7%
Microsoft Configuration Manager	7.3%
OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management	2.0%
Other	86.0%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

OluwashileAdeniyi

Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees

Centralized endpoint security has improved and supports hybrid work and BYOD policies

Regarding what I dislike about Microsoft Intune and its downsides, I would say that more Mac controls are needed because we have limited Mac and Linux control. When comparing controls and policies between Windows, Mac, and Linux, Windows has almost everything you can think of, while Mac and Linux have limited types of control. You cannot implement certain things on Mac and Linux that you can on Windows. The limited controls are a major issue. Additionally, if Microsoft could find a way to embed servers into Microsoft Intune, that would be beneficial. Microsoft Intune is not really designed for servers or Windows servers. It is more tailored towards Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems. Windows servers are not fully supported. Enterprise organizations usually have both servers and endpoints, which are users' workstations. For servers, most people look for other solutions such as SCCM, which is Configuration Manager. However, SCCM is what Microsoft Intune is trying to replace. Both SCCM and Microsoft Intune belong to Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to transition organizations into Microsoft Intune, the native cloud solution. However, because this update is still in process, servers are not fully compatible with Microsoft Intune and cannot be managed by it. The current policy that has emerged from issues with clients is what they call co-management, which is relatively new, and I do not know if adoption is significant. Many legacy or older customers who have been using these products for decades still have SCCM. When it is time for them to manage their Windows devices, they use what is called cloud attach. Cloud attach is a term whereby your SCCM is connected to your Microsoft Intune. Most people do not know about it, but I have deployed it for several organizations. Cloud attach and co-management work together so that your device is in SCCM, but some policies are pushed from Microsoft Intune. It is like two different solutions working hand in hand. That is what they call co-management. Microsoft Intune does not bring all of your endpoint and security management tools into one place, which is the goal and how it should be. However, as I mentioned, servers are not included. If we talk about end users, Microsoft Intune does bring all your devices together. In a typical enterprise environment, you have end users with workstations, laptops, company-issued phones, and bring your own devices. You can create policies for all of these. However, for the backend, your servers do not have much coverage. Servers are not really covered by Microsoft Intune in that way.

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Narendar S

Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance

In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.

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it_user1272306

Chief Technology Officer at DoITWise

Helpful impact analysis and the discovery capability is quite good

This tool works hand-in-hand with RPA technology. RPA will allow you to control your servers by deploying the server automation agent. You don't have the discovery, but then you can deploy the policies that maintain the authorized versus current state. On top of that, you can use server automation to deploy patches or remediate configuration issues on the operating system. My advice to anybody who is implementing this solution is to ensure that the process is set up properly, first. Once the process is set up, the tool will do the rest for you. Overall, this is a comprehensive tool that works well, and I wouldn't touch it other than to enhance the UI and make containerization work without the CDF. I would rate this solution a nine 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 ease of applying security policies to applications we deploy is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune."

"Intune's integration with Microsoft 365 is exceptional."

"The stability is good."

"I would rate Microsoft Intune a nine out of ten."

"It is absolutely a positive investment."

"Microsoft Intune is cost-effective, providing ROI through the time saved for support teams and people working with computers."

"The ability to switch between Affinity and non-Affinity enrollment is great."

"I like that we can implement conditional access."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"This solution captures all the devices in our infrastructure."

"The solution is the best there is in the market today."

"It's helped us solve problems surrounding patching, installing, and reporting different patches, etc., on the virtual machines."

"The tool's most valuable features are easy patch management and software deployment."

"Out of all the products in the market, the best solution is System Center, especially for Microsoft virtual machines and all services that are related to Microsoft Technologies."

"It has been working for us, and it has never been down so far."

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

"The main key feature that we find the most valuable is the patching."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

"The most valuable feature is the impact analysis."

"Helps me perform changes in connected infrastructure thanks to the discovery features."

"Overall, this is a comprehensive tool that works well, and I wouldn't touch it other than to enhance the UI and make containerization work without the CDF."

"Automatic Spiral Discovery: This feature enables deep and dynamic configuration and change management."

"We use it for managing our desktops; we have 350,000 desktops and it allows us to manage and control them relatively easily."

Cons

"Intune is a good product for UEM, which is helpful for Windows 10 management. However, for MAM, there is lots of improvement needed."

"Better reporting capabilities, stronger Mac OS management, faster policy synchronization, and easier troubleshooting are needed."

"Intune could be improved by expanding its third-party patching capabilities for a more comprehensive solution."

"One thing I would suggest is that servers are not getting managed through Microsoft Intune."

"The reporting is subpar. That's the only issue we have with Intune. We use another solution for that purpose."

"The information we receive at the device level needs improvement."

"Improvements are needed in Microsoft Intune's enterprise app management, including support for more applications in app patching, boot batching, and discovery. I also hope the cost of Remote Help will decrease because it's a much-needed Intune function. Our customers need that capability, or they will buy it from a third party at a premium."

"Cost is the biggest factor for us right now. Microsoft Intune and AD P1 together in a bundle is a good thing to have, but it is very costly compared to other products in the market. Otherwise, Microsoft Intune is the best."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"The solution could improve the functionality for automating, license management. Additionally, more and better-looking reports are needed."

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

"Their compliance reporting is not accurate, and they admitted it on the phone when we had a call with them. We were trying to understand why their numbers didn't match on our compliance reports. It is not accurate and you cannot depend on the compliance reports. The numbers just don't match, and we can't figure out why. We called Microsoft and they said, "Yeah, that's a known issue." But there is no word that they're working on it."

"Sometimes the time it takes to find the fault is a bit too long. The resolution time needs to be shortened quite a bit."

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

"I think SCCM can improve whatever details they shared with the integration partner. There was a lot of junk software and data."

"It has a very sensitive database and it almost always crashes when we use it, especially if you don't take care of it."

"I'd like to see some cosmetic improvements on the user interface."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

"It needs dashboards."

"The infrastructure itself is stable, but the agent has a lot of problems."

"The native UI should be simplified because it is outdated and a little bit over-complicated."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing needs improvement."

"Microsoft Intune has been incorporated into our Microsoft E5 licenses."

"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."

"Most of our clients come to us with licensing already in place. On average, it costs $6 per device per month to add Intune to an Office 365 subscription, but I am not sure."

"It's affordable. It's cheaper if you have an Office 365, E5, or E3 subscription because everything is there."

"Our Office 365 Business Premium license, including Office 365 and Intune Management, offers excellent value."

"We work in the charity sector, so a lot of our clients get Microsoft Premium licenses or Business Premium for free. They get ten licenses free, and a lot of our clients do not have more than ten staff members. They are getting the tool for free, so its cost is not an issue."

"It's a part of Microsoft 365 and E5 licenses. Microsoft's strategy of making every feature in Microsoft Intune paid needs optimization. Remote control is one of the basic features, not a luxury feature, yet we must pay for it. I"

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft provides a steep price for their enterprise products, but they offer very competitive pricing for their legacy customers."

"The price of SCCM depends on the size of the organization. The price is competitive."

"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."

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

"Pricing and licensing are horrible. You have to not look at dollar value to use SCCM. It's super-duper expensive but it works. The acquisition cost is expensive, it's labor-intensive. But it works."

"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."

"SCCM comes with its own version of SQL Server. If you use that SQL Server with SCCM and don't use it for another applications than you get an SQL Server for free."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

"This is a really good tool for the money."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

University

30%

Construction Company

10%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	189
Midsize Enterprise	65
Large Enterprise	185

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	69

No data available

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 ...

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 ...

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. Wh...

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.

IBM MaaS360 vs Microsoft Intune

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Product Reports

Microsoft Intune

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Microsoft Configuration Manager

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Configuration Management

Download OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management product report

OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

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

Micro Focus ZENworks Configuration Management, HPE CMS, HPE Configuration Management, Micro Focus Configuration Management

Overview

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service designed for device management, security, and compliance. It supports automation and facilitates endpoint management for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, ensuring data protection and efficient policy enforcement.

Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration with tools like Windows Autopilot to automate device setup and deployment. Integrated with Azure Active Directory, it enhances policy management while providing robust reporting and analytics tools for compliance tracking. Despite its intuitive interface aimed at simplifying navigation and device security management, there are challenges such as compatibility issues with Linux and Mac, limited policy support for Android, and demands for better third-party integration. It's widely used for both corporate-owned devices and BYOD scenarios in dynamic IT environments.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Windows Autopilot: Automates device setup for rapid deployment.
Azure Active Directory Integration: Enhances user policy management.
Reporting and Analytics: Improves compliance visibility.
Mobile Application Management: Ensures app security without compromising personal data.
Cloud-Based Management: Allows management from any location.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Time Efficiency: Automation reduces time in policy enforcement and configuration updates.
Enhanced Security: Ensures data protection across corporate-owned and BYOD devices.
Improved Compliance: Advanced reporting tools enhance compliance visibility.
Flexible Management: Cloud-based nature supports management from any location.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure data protection and compliance with regulatory standards. Manufacturing sectors utilize Intune for managing a distributed workforce across global locations, while educational institutions employ it to secure and manage devices in learning environments supporting both students and faculty.

Microsoft

Microsoft Configuration Manager streamlines IT management with features such as software deployment, patch management, and automation, centralizing operations for Windows environments. Integration with Microsoft products allows efficient oversight of workstations and servers.

Microsoft Configuration Manager provides comprehensive IT management, offering software deployment, patch management, and application pushing. Automation reduces manual tasks, ensuring consistency across systems. Centralized management enables standardized OS deployments, application updates, and configuration integrity. Integration with Microsoft products facilitates seamless operations, while hardware and software inventory, compliance reporting, and remote control functions enhance IT management. Users seek improvements in application deployment for those without deep scripting knowledge and desire better WSUS control, PowerShell and Intune integration, Linux compatibility, and user interface enhancements. Performance improvements are requested for remote user management and third-party application support.

What features enhance Microsoft Configuration Manager?

Software Deployment: Efficiently distribute software across large networks.
Patch Management: Automate and streamline update processes for security and functionality.
Automation Capabilities: Reduce manual effort and enhance consistency in IT tasks.
Centralized Management: Standardize OS deployments and application updates.
Integration with Microsoft Products: Seamless operation with existing Microsoft infrastructure.
Hardware and Software Inventory: Comprehensive tracking for assets and resources.
Compliance Reporting: Ensure compliance with internal and external standards.
Remote Control Functions: Enhance support and troubleshooting capabilities.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Microsoft Configuration Manager?

Decreased Manual Work: Automation reduces time spent on repetitive tasks.
Enhanced Security: Automated patch management keeps systems secure.
Consistent Configurations: Centralized updates ensure uniformity across systems.
Improved Integration: Seamless operation within Microsoft ecosystems boosts productivity.
Comprehensive Oversight: Detailed inventory and reporting tools aid in strategic planning.
Streamlined Support: Remote capabilities improve IT support and user satisfaction.

Microsoft Configuration Manager is widely implemented in organizations to manage Windows workstations and servers. It is essential for deploying operating systems and applications, managing software updates, and conducting hardware and software inventories. The tool is crucial for endpoint and configuration management, ensuring compliance, and automating processes like patching and vulnerability management. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and education rely on Microsoft Configuration Manager to keep systems secure and operational, adapting it to address their specific needs and challenges in maintaining diversified IT environments.

Microsoft

OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management provides robust IT asset management and configuration capabilities. Designed to manage devices and applications efficiently, it ensures seamless operations across networks while reducing complexity in IT environments.

OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management helps businesses streamline device management by automating routine IT tasks. It's well-suited for managing desktops, laptops, and servers. The software supports centralized administration, which reduces downtime and manpower costs. IT departments value its scalability and secure configuration capabilities, enabling them to manage diverse networks with ease.

What are the key features?

Device Management: Simplifies the management of endpoints with automated updates and patches.
Asset Inventory: Provides comprehensive tracking and management of software and hardware assets.
Remote Control: Allows secure remote access to troubleshoot devices.
Policy Enforcement: Ensures compliance through automated policy deployment.
Reporting: Offers detailed insights and reports on device statuses and usage patterns.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces IT administration costs by automating repetitive tasks.
Improved Security: Enhances security with robust patch management.
Easy Scalability: Supports growing infrastructure without scaling issues.
Time Savings: Minimizes downtime and increases productivity with efficient management.

Industries such as healthcare, education, and finance leverage OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management for its customizable configurations that suit regulatory requirements and data security needs. Its deployment supports diverse network structures, offering flexibility in managing unique IT demands across sectors.

OpenText

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

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

Tech Mahindra, NNIT, ASIC

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. OpenText ZENworks Configuration Management