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
Hexnode UEM
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Hexnode is a Unified Endpoint Management solution from Mitsogo Inc. that aims to simplify the way people work with the help of intelligent tools. The management platform streamlines the device lifecycle model to offer its support at every stage, from device onboarding to the end of its life. It also gives a hand-free experience with automatic enrollment using Zero-touch enrollment, Knox Mobile Enrollment, and ABM and endpoint management with the help of dynamic group allocation in…
$1.08
per month
Pricing
ConnectWise Automate
Hexnode UEM
Editions & Modules
Agents
$1.00-$6.00
per month/per agent
Implementation Fee
$700
Express
$1.08
per device, per month
Pro
$1.80
per device, per month
Enterprise
$2.7
per device, per month
Ultimate
$3.6
per device, per month
Ultra
$5.4
per device, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConnectWise Automate
Hexnode UEM
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
No support costs, No maintenance charges. Per device pricing
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.
Hexnode was best suited for us to manage android devices and more specifically for Kiosk Lockdown and restrictions. Hexnode being a UEM offers support for platforms as well. It certainly does open doors for us to increase and take up more devices under the management of Hexnode. As said earlier, Hexnode does not support wearables as of now; would be great if they could start supporting them soon.
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.
We utilize a small number of Windows devices in addition to Android ones, however, Hexnode UEM has very few Windows-specific restrictions compared to those for other platforms.
When we turned on the remote control, the Hexnode for Work app would periodically crash.
We had to get in touch with their tech support to resolve the issue because the Multi app kiosk mode for Windows devices was not correctly pushed.
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.
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.
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.
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 were in the market for a solution that would reduce the workload on our client and the initial choice was Scalefusion; however, on getting a free trial, the UI wasn't that easy to use, and Scalefusion seemed like a smaller company which is new to endpoint management. Whereas Hexnode UEM seemed a little more established and the UI was light years ahead.
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.
