Apple Remote Desktop (ARD), from Apple, is a remote administration tool for managing Apple computers running OS X across a network.
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NinjaOne
Score 9.1 out of 10
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NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM) is a security-oriented remote monitoring and management platform. It allows for manual customization as well as scripting and automation.
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Pricing
Apple Remote Desktop
NinjaOne
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apple Remote Desktop
NinjaOne
Free Trial
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Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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NinjaOne is a subscription service with a charge rate per month. For more detailed pricing information, contact NinjaOne directly to request a demo or to start 14-days free trial.
For a small deployment of macOS, I can see where Apple Remote Desktop could suffice. I can see where a company that is strapped for cash could benefit from a knowledgeable employee using it to automate some tasks. I am not comfortable giving an estimate number-wise. For a large deployment of macOS or iOS, this would be a very inappropriate tool. There are far too many obstacles for an app like Apple Remote Desktop to successfully manage a large fleet of macOS computers or really any number of iOS devices. You simply need an MDM solution in this day and age. This will become increasingly necessary, even in small numbers, but MDM providers have started to provide solutions for customers in these situations.
NinjaOne is a great solution for an all-in-one software suite that will accomplish many goals in a single pain of glass. It is very beneficial for small IT teams that need to automate and jobs as much as possible.
Patch management solution may not be the best if you have a large 3rd party software library.
With Ninja, we are able to have all of our IT tools and management under one umbrella making it extremely easy to keep an eye on all of our servers and workstations.
Their support team is OUTSTANDING and gives quick and helpful answers to our questions. Our account manager calls us personally to review any issues and ensure we are running smoothly.
Ninja gives us automated patch management of our important devices, and has a nice security log to see what's been done.
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.
Ninja's interface is clean and simple. Overall usability from an interface perspective is good. Some items, policies and scripting for instance, are a bit cumbersome and it's really not clear how to implement with a best practice mind-site. Ninja RMM got the job done for us but as we pushed our needs more into automation and efficiency we felt it wasn't keeping up with our speed of growth. There is definitely usability in the product, and it will get the job done, but there are other RMM's out there that fit better in our business.
Support has been very responsive and my account rep Brian K. has communicated with me continuously making sure we had everything we need. Not like other MDMs where they sign you up and that's the last you hear from them. NinjaOne makes sure you use the product to its best application and you are successful and continue as the product features grow.
I use TeamViewer with users who are having trouble connecting to the VPN. I think TeamViewer is a good alternative when ARD isn't working. However supporting the number of users we support, TeamViewer can come with a pretty hefty price tag.
Ninja is much easier to use that anything I've worked with in the past. We selected Ninja because we felt the learning curve for the team would be the fastest, and the roadmap for the product shows its evolving quickly. Can't say that for many of the other platforms I've worked with in the past. Great account management. Great Product overall.
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.
