Barracuda RMM vs. N-able N-central

With a lot of fine-tuning, it works very well to keep the Tier 2 team aware of almost any variable of interest of notification from your servers. You can automate scripts to deploy based on these events. It's cut down the amount of time spent digging around for answers or sifting through logs. Software deployment could use a lot of work for simplicity. We opted for other apps to accomplish this. The helpdesk function may work for those needing something basic, but again, we opted for a full ITSM based on ITIL. It works well for Remote Desktop Support, even for support on the fly for those who don't have the Premium Desktop app installed.

Incentivized

N-Able is perfect for an MSP environment. It gives all the standard functionality an IT professional needs out of the box and can be configured to show almost anything required. For example, we have configured a dashboard to show when our backups need attention for each customer. This is achieved by running a small script on repeat via N-Central everyday/evening, and the result gives us information on the dashboard to help us identify exactly what is working and what needs looking into.

Incentivized

• Very good reporting. We provide monthly reports to our customers on remote access, patching, etc.
• Multiple methods of remote access. This is helpful because different scenarios require different remote access methods.
• The site is easy to navigate/manage. There is not a big learning curve for new employees.

Incentivized

• Remote tasks - entry-level techs can run basic tasks without physically touching a piece of equipment.
• Remote support - remote controlling user devices is easy and saves a lot of time with having to initiate a remote session.
• Management of devices, particularly patch management and anti-virus management - you can automatically approve and deploy patches and schedule automatic AV scans.

• Sometimes when using Premium Remote it says that the wrong password was entered but the password is auto-filled by the program, not the user.

Incentivized

• Customer support just points to online guides and I feel they aren't helpful.
• During the trial they turn on a lot of features. In my experience, if you play around with the features, they charge you for them. Keep this in mind if you move forward with N-Able - they will charge for "trialed" services.
• In my experience, some services that you're being charged for can't be disabled or monitored by you or your team. You only see them on the monthly invoice.
• In my opinion, the "Scripting Automation" doesn't provide value. You're either going to be writing your own batch or Powershell to make scripting work.
• In my opinion, monitoring software deployments is painful.
• The default monitoring template can't be duplicated, edited, or referenced. You'll find that the default monitors in an unusual way and will throw needless recurring alerts into your ticketing system. To avoid this, you need to create a template from scratch which takes many hours to set up.
• In my opinion, they're more concerned about a quick buck than customer service. "Buyer beware" company.

Overall we have liked our solar winds experience, however, as our company has grown to support larger enterprises, this product does not have the functionality that our teams need in order to fully support them. The lack of granularity with backups and lack of ability to support nutanix environments is slowly drawing us into the use of other tools.

Incentivized

The user interface is fairly straight forward, with logic groupings for objects. I did not deploy this software, but am one of the daily administrators. Once you get the correct agent package (Which can be a challenge) the integration into AD is not bad. The UI could be more customized, but that may have been a design choice.

Incentivized

We've tried many times to work with support to accomplish various tasks in the system with minimal responsiveness and success. Most of what we have accomplished has been without support and through trial/error.

Incentivized

Every time we have reached out to SolarWinds they are quick to respond, even offering support chat 24/7. Their support team is great and works with you to find solutions to issues. They have taken items we had issues with before and used those to create updates so that the issue is handled better in the future.

Incentivized

Make sure if you your using a vm you follow the instructions for provisioning to the letter or it will be starting from square one

Incentivized

AVG Managed Workplace has more tools and features. The pre-existing templates and alerts are working properly while Continuum does not even provide service like that. There are some specific tools to work with and they are super easy to complete the task, for example, you can show what was replaced for your client. You can do it with others and even with Excel, but with table grid view mode of AVG will help you to do it more easily.

Incentivized

Our version of SolarWinds was old and running on old hardware, but it was way easier to setup and do things with. It did not do everything N-able does such as patch management, or at least we didn't have a module to do so if one existed. However it definitely seemed easier to use and possibly more stable.

• Saves time for employees which saves money for the company.
• Easy to sell something that gives peace of mind to a customer knowing someone is watching their stuff 24/7.

Incentivized

• We have lost hundreds of hours on the phone/emailing support with no resolution for any of our issues
• We had to move all of our services away which was very painful
• Staff satisfaction was low having to deal with this company