Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Pandora FMS comparison

Microsoft Configuration Man...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024

Microsoft Configuration Manager and Pandora FMS compete in the IT management category. Microsoft Configuration Manager holds the upper hand in comprehensive management capabilities and integration, while Pandora FMS stands out for its versatile monitoring features.

Features: Microsoft Configuration Manager provides robust capabilities for operating system deployment, application management, compliance, and patch management. It offers centralized control, automation, and integration with other Microsoft solutions. Users value its application deployment, patching, and the ability to centrally manage resources. Pandora FMS excels in comprehensive monitoring, including network and server monitoring, with agent and agentless options. It is valued for its adaptability, simplicity, and efficient problem identification.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Configuration Manager users suggest improvements in resource consumption, better PowerShell integration, and support for non-Microsoft products. It lacks Linux support and its features, such as Intune, could be streamlined. Pandora FMS could benefit from enhanced automation for network discovery and server management, improved third-party integrations, and a more streamlined user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Configuration Manager offers flexible deployment options including Hybrid Cloud, On-premises, and Public Cloud but has a complex setup process. Its customer service varies in quality and can be costly. Pandora FMS offers easier hybrid deployment and competitive licensing. It has good customer service though community support lags compared to Microsoft.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Configuration Manager is known for its high cost but provides significant returns via integration and management capabilities. Its pricing often requires negotiation for enterprise levels. Pandora FMS offers competitive pricing with a straightforward licensing model, presenting a cost-effective alternative for monitoring solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. Pandora FMS Report (Updated: December 2024).

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. Pandora FMS

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Helped 824,053 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Configuration Man...

Ranking in Server Monitoring

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (1st)

Pandora FMS

Ranking in Server Monitoring

16th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (46th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (38th), Log Management (43rd), Cloud Monitoring Software (30th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 9.7%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pandora FMS is 1.6%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Abul Fazal

Service Delivery Manager at Almoayyed Computers

Seamless system updates, useful integration, and reliable

The initial setup for Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is simple. However, the configuration and management are not simple. Most of my clients are using the on-premise configuration. Cloud deployment is cumbersome because It requires lots of system communication to open from the cloud, and every client has to communicate with the cloud. We follow the Microsoft best practices procedure and white papers for implementation. Which includes single and multiple server deployments. The time it takes for deployment depends on the client's environment, such as the configuration and customization needed. However, the process can typically take two to three weeks to complete.

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Gabriel Glusgold

Asociado/ at Infraestructura Informática

Personalized metrics; simplicity of data

My primary use case for Pandora is monitoring This solution has helped us improve our organization by allowing us to create a lot of metrics on several platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Unix. We then use these Pandora metrics to create an interface. We then pass the interface off to the…

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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

"Technical support was helpful and responsive."

"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."

"What's valuable is the basic management of the systems, being able to control who can access the systems."

"The most valuable features are application deployment and task-sequenced imaging."

"SCCM is a stable solution."

"With the SCCM inventory, we found a lot of rogue applications. We were able to identify them, find out who was running them, and either put them on our application list or remove them."

"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."

"Technical support is very helpful and very responsive."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pros

"Pandora's architecture is interesting. It's open so you can easily extend and enhance it. It's simpler to customize Pandora compared to other solutions. It's also scalable enough to support large environments."

"The monitoring system within this solution is very good. It is easy to use and navigate, and makes issue alarms easily viewable."

"The administration of the console is very easy. I like that Pandora FMS is interactive and easy to manage."

"You can configure several types of architecture for high availability or load balancing."

"Thanks to this software and to the work of the support team, we have everything under control."

"The solution is so lightweight that with only 4GB of ram, it allows keeping track of up to two hundred agents from a single console."

"I like this solution a lot because it has a very large Hispanic community and the platform looks very friendly."

"This product has allowed us to identify and correct certain issues that were affecting our solution."

More Pandora FMS pros

Cons

"Some of the capabilities aren't fully developed yet. It's an ongoing work in progress. I think they are making some steps in the right direction as far as managing workstations centrally, like Intune."

"It should provide the ability to remotely connect to mobile devices. There are some solutions that are doing that, but with Microsoft Intune, the only way to remotely connect to devices outside the organization and mobile devices is by using TeamViewer. It is pretty strange for a big company like Microsoft to not have something for that."

"The analysis is something that can be integrated. Their report analysis can be improved a little bit due to the fact that most of the time complaints policies are saved by the admins. It's something that we need to look into and search for."

"We'd like the solution to make it easier to manage remote users."

"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."

"The ability to integrate MDM would be great."

"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."

"There's no way to say, "I want this maintenance window to be on the second Tuesday of the month." It's strict. This window is this and that's it. You can't fluctuate."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager cons

"A nice feature in the next release would be an automation module to run workflow actions."

"Pandora FMS is relatively new, and the interface with the older version crashes at times. We have several different operating systems, such as Linux and Windows, and Pandora does not run as well in these."

"Pandora could deliver better analytics out of the box. You can work around these limitations with the help of other tools like Grafana. The shortcomings are mostly on the graphical side. The built-in report generators are a bit limited in some areas."

"In the future, we may have double the number of devices, and we do not want to have any issues with performance in the data display."

"When it comes to the definition of local Software Agents for the first time in the open-source version, it can become very tedious."

"The product lacks APIs for integration with other systems."

"I sincerely believe that Pandora needs new ideas for functionality closer to advanced device security monitoring."

"Third-party integration should be improved for some commonly used products."

More Pandora FMS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price model is different for every client."

"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."

"There is an annual license needed to use the solution."

"There is not a license needed to use the solution."

"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."

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

"Presently, I am using a free trial version."

More Microsoft Configuration Manager pricing and cost advice

"In terms of money, the Enterprise version is the cheapest that I have found after a market study."

"You get the license and it includes updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of modules."

"The Open Source Community Edition is great to just explore the software, or use it on medium-sized infrastructures."

"Growing the solution or migrating to the Enterprise version is easy, and various plans are available."

"They are very competitive on the pricing side. That's one reason why my manager keeps using it."

"You have to pay for the number of agents and models that you are monitoring. I would rate the cost at three with one being the most expensive and five being the cheapest."

"Only one payment and it includes support, updates, new versions, and access to the complete library of plugins except for SAP and z/OS."

"The open-source version offers 100% functionality and the hardware requirements for a solution like this one are very modest."

More Pandora FMS pricing and cost advice

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824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 ...

What do you like most about Pandora FMS?

Features I have found most valuable with Pandora are the personalized metrics and the simplicity of data.

What needs improvement with Pandora FMS?

I would like for the solution to be faster and have a better tolerance between parallel servers for Pandora and Pest Control. In the next release, I'd like to see, when it comes to monitoring, the ...

What is your primary use case for Pandora FMS?

My primary use case for Pandora is monitoring.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Configuration Manager

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Product Reports

Microsoft Configuration Manager

Download Microsoft Configuration Manager product report

Download Pandora FMS product report

Also Known As

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

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Microsoft

Overview

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.

Pandora FMS is a monitoring as a service (MaaS) solution that is ideal for companies with at least 100 or more devices. Instead of multiple, difficult-to-integrate monitoring systems, Pandora FMS is an all-in-one solution that is easy to use. The software is able to untangle complicated technology infrastructures to easily identify the root cause of issues in order to find the most efficient solution. It does so by analyzing everything in your system, from databases and applications to services and desktops, as well as communications.

Pandora FMS Features

Pandora FMS has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Application Monitoring (APM)
IoT monitoring
Log collection
Inventory
Issue management / ITSM
Mainframe monitoring
Network monitoring
Remote control
Synthetic monitoring
Service oriented monitoring
Server monitoring
User experience monitoring
Virtualization & cloud

Pandora FMS Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Pandora FMS. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Comprehensive overview: Pandora FMS provides a comprehensive overview of your system to make troubleshooting easy. It also provides all the tools to monitor and analyze an extensive range of data, from traffic to connectivity.

Easy forecasting: With Pandora FMS, you can use your network diagram for forecasting solutions, which gives you the necessary info you need to perform maintenance.

Proactive solutions: Issues are proactively addressed. Pandora FMS provides alerts 24/7 so you can deal with problems before they grow even bigger. This also helps your organization eliminate any down time.

Solve future problems: Another benefit of implementing Pandora FMS is that it enables you to optimize your services to ensure that future issues are minimized. In addition, they offer around-the-clock monitoring and automated solutions. As a result, the solution enables you to operate your organization with maximum efficiency all the time, saving you money and time.

Personalized service maps: Pandora FMS allows you to create detailed, personalized service maps that can help you identify any shortcomings in your system and address them as soon as possible.

SLA and availability reports: With Pandora FMS, you receive critical alerts when SLA levels aren’t met, which also helps you understand when your applications and systems are not meeting your business goals.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Pandora FMS solution.

PeerSpot user Marc C., Systems Analyst at a university, says, "It is easy to create your own custom modules if you just know a little bit of scripting. If you have unique requirements, you can just make your own modules. You can even grab checks from other vendors. There are open-source checks for various things such as SMTP, etc. It is really flexible. It is reliable. It does the job, and it alerts. It is also surprisingly feature-rich. It is very mature for a not-so-known product."

Another reviewer, Alexandre J., comments, “What I value most about Pandora FMS is the simplicity of working with it. The speed of locating problems and to be able to solve them quickly, so that it affects our client's network infrastructure as little as possible, is very valuable.

Thanks to Pandora FMS we have everything unified in the same point and it is highly efficient.”

Sample Customers

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

Rakuten, Prosegur, Repsol, Teléfonica, Allianz, Ottawa Hospital, Hughes

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. Pandora FMS