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
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Desktop Central from ManageEngine is a client desktop management with patching, remote control, and configuration.
$795
per year per user
Pricing
ConnectWise Automate
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Editions & Modules
Agents
$1.00-$6.00
per month/per agent
Implementation Fee
$700
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConnectWise Automate
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
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
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ConnectWise Automate
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Considered Both Products
ConnectWise Automate
No answer on this topic
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
Verified User
Manager
Chose ManageEngine Endpoint Central
We had 3 key points in mind on our market research when selected the MDM solution. This where: Best integration across multiple OS vendors; Ease of use of the management console; Licensing model per endpoint and agents. If we were to have a Windows only environment, then …
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.
The tool excels at managing a large number of devices across multiple locations, providing a single pane of glass for IT administrators. This is particularly beneficial for organizations like us with branch offices or remote employees. And it offers hardware and software inventory, remote access, and configuration management, making it suitable for organizations that need to maintain detailed oversight of their IT assets.
product support - the technicians at ManageEngine Endpoint Central are very knowledgeable when it comes to the system- I have never had an issue not fixed promptly by them
The OS deployment tool saves us a significant amount of time and man hours in deploying machines- from manual setups taking 1-2 hours to complete per device, to 6 minutes each, is all the proof you need
Being able to remotely and silently install packages of software e.g Foxit PDF viewer, means we can instantly give hundreds or even thousands of machines a piece of software that before using EC, would have taken weeks to do, even with multiple technicians
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.
More granular access level controls for technicians (restrictions for juniors) on the Mobile Device Management add-on
Monitoring mobile data usage on mobile devices, this has been in the product pipeline for 5 years, but not yet implemented
Ability to remotely support company-owned mobile devices with no end-user permission. End-user needs to allow the remote session, when sometimes that's what we don't want since we're doing an investigation.
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.
ManageEngine is considered an excellent product due to its comprehensive suite of solutions for IT management, with ManageEngine Endpoint Central specifically excelling in endpoint management. The platform stands out for its user-friendly interface, robust features, and versatility in addressing diverse IT needs. It offers organizations a centralized solution for endpoint security, patch management, software deployment, and asset management
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.
This is a big piece of software and it does take some time to work out how to use it, but there are things like 'software templates' which is software that is ready to deploy to clients. You can use it to find out almost any information from a client, if you get stuck the support team are happy to help.
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 local distributor of the product is always available, however most support is received within an hour from India. We've had complex requirements and the support team went so far as to customize their mobile application to suit our unique needs. We honestly can't complain about any support we've received and it's always been very quick.
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.
In my organization I used Atera previously, which is similar to ManageEngine Endpoint Central but Atera is a cloud-based IT management tool ideal for small IT teams where ManageEngine Endpoint Central can provide more users control and has better features. Mainly ManageEngine Endpoint Central is better for enterprise level.
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.
Our security posture is easy to see and act upon as you have a single place to look at all machines vulnerabilities. This helps us when it comes to security audits as we are able to demonstrate the value of the application.
Remote support is inbuilt and easy to use as you can just hop onto any agented machine and control it directly without asking for codes or getting people to visit a specific website.
We were able to mass install various applications to client machines over the years and the time and cost saved by not having to visit remote machines in different countries has proved invaluable.
