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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Apple Remote Desktop

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/AApple Remote Desktop (ARD), from Apple, is a remote administration tool for managing Apple computers running OS X across a network.

    $79.99

    one-time fee

    Malwarebytes

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AMalwarebytes is a antimalware application for home and small businesses, which blocks viruses, malware, hackers, viruses, and malicious websites.

    $119.99

    per year 3 devices

    Pricing
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Teams - Sole proprietor
    $119.99
    per year 3 devices
    Teams - Boutique business
    $399.99
    per year 10 devices
    Teams - Small office
    $799.99
    per year 20 devices
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—All plans include a 60-day money back guarantee. 1st year discount available for the Small office plan.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Considered Both Products
    Apple
    No answer on this topic
    Malwarebytes
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    82%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    90%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    64%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    18 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Remote Administration
    Comparison of Remote Administration features of Apple Remote Desktop and Malwarebytes
    Feature
    Apple Remote Desktop
    7.0
    28 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Malwarebytes
    -
    Ratings
    Screen sharing7.828 Ratings00 Ratings
    File transfer7.827 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant message7.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication5.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access to sleeping/powered-off computers8.921 Ratings00 Ratings
    Over-the-Internet remote session7.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Initiate remote control from mobile4.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote management of servers & workstations8.623 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote Active Directory® management7.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Centralized management dashboard6.818 Ratings00 Ratings
    Session record7.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Annotations3.67 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring and Alerts6.814 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-platform remote control9.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Small Businesses
    N-able Take Control
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Norton 360
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Remote Desktop Manager
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Norton Small Business
    Score6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access
    Score9.1 out of 10
    AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.0
    (28 ratings)
    8.3
    (54 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    7.6
    (7 ratings)
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.9
    (9 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Apple Remote DesktopMalwarebytes
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Apple
    I would rate this higher if I was confident that Apple is continuing to develop this utility. It has only received minor updates for quite a long time, and is not featured much in any of Apple's online material. It really is a useful utility, but it is starting to show its age and is fraying a bit around the edges in some respects. It could be very useful when integrated with the various MDM solutions (in our case, Jamf Pro) especially when an engineer needs to force something immediately and can't wait for a check-in, and also can't depend on the end user being able to (for instance) do a sudo jamf policy or sudo jamf recon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Malwarebytes
    Now, I gave it that rating because it's a handy tool for diagnosing issues. Quarantining them, and most of the time, it does fix the problem. Though with rootkits, it's been hit or miss, and sometimes perfectly valid software gets flagged erroneously. However, once you've run it, it tends to run continuously, consuming far too many resources and being a real pain to uninstall, sometimes even causing issues.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Apple
    • Automator Actions: This is a very cool feature and cost saving as it reduces human effort by automating the workflow of tasks.
    • Curtain Mode: This lets you block your local user's view of the desktop while performing administrative tasks.
    • Spotlight Search: It can perform lightning fast searches on machines using the spotlight search feature of OS X and thus saves a lot of time.
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    • Low system resources, it does not slow down the whole computer when scanning or when real-time protection is enabled
    • Quick and frequent updates, usually people hate updating, but for malware/viruses, you want to be updated as possible. It takes less than 15 seconds and usually does it automatically. They usually send a few updates a day as they find more.
    • Protection features actually work when visiting known bad websites. The page will be blocked and nothing will be downloaded. It may not be what the user wants, but it's what the user needs (as the user can't know every bad website)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Apple
    • I would like to see more included Unix scrips that can be pushed to clients.
    • Inclusion of a way to remote control or screen share with Windows machines would be useful, as I manage a handful of Windows machines. While this would be possible using VNC on the Windows machines, including the ability to connect using Windows terminal connections would be awesome, for me.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Malwarebytes
    • One of the main things that malwarebytes is missing as a company, is phone support for its clients. All support questions has to go thru email only. This is not acceptable for issues that needs to be resolved quickly.
    • There is an issue when installing the client on a machine, it has a set amount of time where the software can register with the management server. The issue with this is, with machines that are over a wide area network, slow connection speeds can cause the software not to register. When that happens, it never re attempts to register in the future.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Apple
    It is a fairly unique tool in the level of integration it has with Apple Desktop products. It definitely needs some engineering attention, and it should be expanded to the iOS arena. It is not perfect, but it is very useful and fills an otherwise fairly empty niche in the support toolkit realm. The built-in screen sharing app in macOS handles the direct screen control or viewing function fairly well, but it does not have all of the other mass control features that Apple Remote Desktop supplies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Malwarebytes
    The last time we renewed Malwarebytes, we renewed for a 3 year renewal. That should describe the confidence we have in the product. Plus the cost savings impact year after year.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Apple
    It can be more usable, and if you are not in the Apple ecosystem, most likely you haven't even heard of it. Does it need improvements? Absolutely. Will it get improved? Most likely not. I believe this app is just part of the system app, which is nice to have, but any user will most likely choose some other option from the available apps.
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    Usability-wise, it's pretty good, and it gets the job done. But once that's finished, the nags, the pop-ups, and the fact that it slows older systems down recklessly really cost it rating points. It becomes a clutter, and one of the first things we check when we receive reports that a PC is slow is whether it's running malware. Once we uninstall it, the PC is usually easily 40-50% faster. That's too much in the way of resources for something that wants to always run in the background.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Apple
    When i have needed support it was for Hardware not the software itself
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    The Malwarebytes customer support team is awesome! They really go above and beyond to help you with whatever issue you may experience. It is not that we need to contact their support team often, but the few times we did, we would speak to someone who knew what they were talking about and able to solve our problem. It is a comfort knowing that aside from a great product, you are getting a reliable support structure.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Apple
    Very quick and easy install with no real issues
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Apple
    I would feel much more comfortable having one of these alternative solutions as our Remote Desktop management tools. Each has their drawbacks and expenses associated with them, but we simply have too large of a deployment to not be considering alternatives. If it is the only solution you can afford, it is OK to start here. I could see where this would have a return on investment, but it is really only suitable for a very small and localized scale. If employees are at all mobile, the duct taping of products necessary (VPN, distribution points, script repositories) would be very cumbersome.
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    Avast and Norton's products were part of the testing for us but the cost was very high for them and the products were not light on the machine. They took up a lot of memory and slowed the computers down. Malwarebytes although may lack some feature, is a very light software.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Apple
    • Apple Remote Desktop has a positive return on investment because for the expense to the school, the value it brings to teachers is important. The return on improved student performance is very difficult to measure financially, but there is a definite return.
    • The overall objective of education is to increase student learning, ARD does that phenomenally. Parents see the tool used and are impressed at what the capabilities of the tool can do and how it impacts how active their students are as well as how well they can learn.
    • One negative impact is that teachers rely too much on this tool rather than on actually teaching sometimes.
    Incentivized
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    Malwarebytes
    • Positive Impact: Have not had to remediate malware/virus infections since installed.
    • Positive impact: As far as browsing goes, we can boldly go where no man has gone before. No, really, I am confident when I am clicking on search engine results that if something get past my trained eye, Malwarebytes will pick of the slack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots