Automox is an endpoint management solution used to keep desktops, laptops, and servers updated and ready for users anywhere in the world. Using automation, IT can fix critical vulnerabilities and boost user productivity.
$1
per month per endpoint
ConnectWise Automate
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
ConnectWise Automate, formerly LabTech, is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. It provides powerful automation to discover and manage devices, monitor for problems, and scripts repetitive action.
$700
Pricing
Automox
ConnectWise Automate
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Agents
$1.00-$6.00
per month/per agent
Implementation Fee
$700
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Automox
ConnectWise Automate
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Automox can patch macOS, Windows, and Linux endpoints with PatchOS, an offering at $1 per endpoint/ month with an annual commitment.
The Automate Essentials or Automate Enterprise packages are for scaling IT automation, endpoint configuration, and software updates.
Modules are available with Automox Assist, a one-on-one remote endpoint control and assistance for helpdesk technicians.
Automox is by far the easiest to use and does a better job patching. The built in AI tool is a real time saver making writing Powershell scripts quick and easy.
The reason I would score it a nine is because of the inability to “run as.” Since it only runs as a system, this makes some tasks impossible. It would be beneficial to have an encrypted set of credentials in the UI that we can use to “run as,” and also the ability to run as the current user with elevated permissions would be nice. In terms of patching, Automox does a good job, and being able to use Automox to run PowerShell on a computer without needing to open up ports for WinRM is a great feature.
I recommend it to all IT colleagues; regardless of the size of the PCs with which you work most of the time, the application allows connection stability between computers that make it possible to continue working or taking care of the infrastructure from afar.
I would like to see more detailed error messages when a patch fails. Perhaps at which step it failed at, downloading, installing, etc.
It would be helpful if we could see what stage of installing or downloading a patch is at through a percentage or status bar instead of a vague "Installing..." message
It would also be helpful to have a way to kill or end scripts that are stuck instead of waiting 24 hours for them to automatically end. Something like an "End all actions" button for endpoints on our side would be extremely helpful when testing a script that had a bad line or action in it.
They have conflicting scheduling paradigms. When scheduling patching for clients, the 1st Friday is interpreted as the very first Friday of the month, even if this is the 1st of the month. For scripting, the 1st Friday of the month is interpreted as the 1st Friday of the 1st FULL WEEK of the month. This makes no sense to have two different interpretations, and makes it unreliable to schedule recurring scripts to fall when recurring maintenance does. The scripts need to be done manually because of this.
There is no way to dictate reboot orders for patch policies. This tied directly in with my first point. We have some clients that require reboot orders. This is not possible without having different patch policies for each server and specifying a time this way. But, there aren't small enough increments of time to make this reliable, plus patching duration might vary. Excluding reboots with patching and scheduling reboot scripts fixes this. However, this can't be done once on a recurring schedule due to the different scheduling paradigms already discussed. We have to schedule these manually each month.
The primary reason for this rating is that ConnectWise Automate is currently so integral to our operations that moving away would involve more man hours than we would realistically have to invest. However, ConnectWise Automate is also completely capable of meeting all of our business needs and customizable to the point where if something is not meeting those needs out of the box, it can be modified to do what we want. From only installing software on machines if a different software package exists, to push a new version of that software is available, to check if credentials for user/machine have been updated to our new standards and then updating them if they have not, ConnectWise Automate is capable of doing everything we ask of it.
Automox has excellent dashboards that help to identify key performance indicators of where your patching program stands, what to prioritize, and what issues you have. Where Automox struggles is easily identifying what issues are preventing successful patching, seeing what manual patches are successfully installing/not installing, and easily remediating issues with installation issues.
Basic use of the product is fairly easy. Information about the machines you manage can be found in customizable dashboards, which can be unique for each user, and, therefore, properly suited to the users' needs/job function. This is not a 10 because some of the interfaces are very clunky (Patch Management), and some features are not intuitive and not well documented (reporting). Scripting and Patch Management have a fairly steep learning curve (For structure in patch management and syntax in scripting), but once learned, they work well.
It used to be great, but then they broke reporting, speed and responsiveness with version 11 and the new Patch Manager. It's really bad and their support people are way behind on fixing so many bugs. They have really gone downhill. If they don't get it together soon, we'll start looking around.
In my experience, they were responsive but the fixes were more like bandaids than a fix for the underlying problems which they admitted were on their end.
ConnectWise Automate lets you manage more endpoints, with enhanced productivity and improved service, all without increasing expenses. It can manage patches and updates across thousands of computers. We also use it for customized monitoring and alerting on workstations and servers. Monitoring is really robust and granular. It does a great job of gathering a TON of data about the network, and that data is searchable. There are a bunch of different reports built in. Integrates with Manage, Control, and other applications. It does a ton of stuff out of the box, and has endless customization options.
The Online training has been re-done and needs a lot more work. When you look at training in different roles, it shows a lot of the same topics but no explanation to what is different about them. Several times that topics are the exact same, but they make you re-take the same information for a different topic, instead of marking that you have already completed that portion of training.
Start small and learn the in's and out's before making policies and rolling things out company wide. Ask the questions of why if you don't agree with something or your company does things a different way. Usually they are done a certain way for a reason. Start simple with roll out and slowly enable or add on the functionality that is needed.
Automox is able to scale better than PDQ Deploy. We were happier with the 3rd party software patching since we have a lot of different software we use across departments. PDQ deploy required a lot more manual intervention to stay on top of deployments. Automox just ended up being a timesaver for us in the end.
I believe the monitoring and alerts in Continuum command is better, but [ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)] does have stronger scripting, and perhaps a better interface. N-Central is inferior on all fronts to both. I did not make the purchasing decision. I would myself likely pick Continuum if I had to make a on the spot choice.
We used to use a different patching solution and since switching to Automox, I have been able to cut the amount of time I spend on vulnerability management by 50% or more. I love how "set it and forget it" some of the policies can be. I love how simple it is to keep an eye on things.
We found we were able to provide good monitoring of our customers sites which was an objective. However, that came at a significant time investment that never seemed to be finished.
We were able to negotiate a price that worked for us for an up-front purchase which was nice.
We found the pricing to be very competitive.
Bottom line for us was despite the pros of the product, we found other RMM solutions to be a better overall "value" due to not having to dedicate technicians to maintaining the product.
