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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ConnectWise Automate

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AConnectWise 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

    Microsoft Defender XDR

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 365 Defender combines SIEM and XDR capabilities for Microsoft 365 environments, encompassing threat detection, post-breach detection, automated investigation, and response for endpoints. Additionally, it protects cloud apps, emails and documents, and employee identities.N/A
    Pricing
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Editions & Modules
    Agents
    $1.00-$6.00
    per month/per agent
    Implementation Fee
    $700
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Considered Both Products
    ConnectWise
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    85 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    85 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    58 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    73%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    66 Answers
    Features
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of ConnectWise Automate and Microsoft Defender XDR
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.5
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    -
    Ratings
    Virtualization monitoring8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of ConnectWise Automate and Microsoft Defender XDR
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.4
    22 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    -
    Ratings
    Remote monitoring10.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Network device monitoring8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Activity Monitoring8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Tasks
    Comparison of Management Tasks features of ConnectWise Automate and Microsoft Defender XDR
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.8
    22 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    -
    Ratings
    Patch Management10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based automation9.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote Access
    Comparison of Remote Access features of ConnectWise Automate and Microsoft Defender XDR
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    -
    Ratings
    Attended device access10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Unattended device access8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile device access5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Virtual device access8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple-display support9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple concurrent sessions8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
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    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
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    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    N-able N-sight RMM
    Score7.4 out of 10
    InsightIDR
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Kaspersky EDR Optimum
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (59 ratings)
    8.7
    (86 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.7
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    7.6
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    3.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ConnectWise AutomateMicrosoft Defender XDR
    Likelihood to Recommend
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    In our experience, Microsoft Defender XDR has been fantastic for phishing and account compromise scenarios, Endpoint Security, Automated threat detection and response and just generally giving a great overview through their dashboard, meaning the IT team doesn't need to switch between multiple tools to understand the full scope of an incident. In mostly remote organization like ours, it really helps to keep on top of any potential threats that we don't have the opportunity to spot in person. While it works great for us in a mostly Microsoft 365 environment, I can see how it would be less appropriate in an organization that is less integrated in the Microsoft ecosystem or uses a large number of third party tools.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    ConnectWise
    • Desktop sharing / view with chat to the operator, file sharing and pass-through for keyboard strokes
    • Computer/server monitoring with thresholds and warning
    • Search - tracking down computers when you have many by name, logged in user, IP
    • End user ticket raising is built into the tray icon which make access really easy
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • One of the greatest strength of Microsoft Defender XDR has the ability to convey alert and signal in the closing point, email, identity and cloud applications in an event. Instead of obtaining isolated alert from each tool, Microsoft Defender XDR consolidates them in a full attack story, which helps the security teams to understand the scope and impact of a danger very fast.
    • If a user clicks on the fishing link, Microsoft Defender XDR automatically can associate malicious emails with lateral movement efforts, suspected sine-in, and endpoint activity-to protect against hours of manual probes.
    • The defender uses AI-powered automation for investigating and treatment of Microsoft Defender XDR events. It can separate the infected closing points, can cancel the compromised tokens, or remove malicious email - without the need for human intervention.
    • When malware is detected on a device, the defender can separate the device, kill malicious processes, and automatically flag the same files throughout the environment, which can spread.
    • Because it is integrated deeply with Microsoft 365 defender, Entra ID (Azure Ad), Intune, and PurView, the defender provides native safety in the XDR Microsoft Stack. It simplifies deployment and maintenance, offering deep visibility in user activity and cloud data.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    ConnectWise
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Enhanced False Positive Mitigation:
    • Improved algorithms to minimize false positives in threat detection, reducing the impact on security teams and preventing unnecessary investigations into non-threatening incidents.
    • Advanced User-Friendly Interface:
    • Streamlined and intuitive user interface for the centralized dashboard, making it more accessible for security professionals with varying levels of expertise.
    • Greater Third-Party Integration:
    • Increased compatibility and integration capabilities with a broader range of third-party security tools
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    We are pleased with the product and have no plans to look for alternatives. We are deeply invested in Microsoft ecosystem and Defender XDR provides seamless integration to other Microsoft products. For academic institution pricing is also quite affordable. In the contrary, we hope to extend the scope of the product for our entire environment.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Once configured, it's very usable for any security team or IT Analyst. It'll give you everything you need to know in a single consolidated dashboard, and while you can certainly dive deeper with a very feature rich platform, generally it's very usable. I gave it an 8 as some of the advanced features do have a very strong learning curve, while routine tasks are quite straightforward, some of the features such as threat hunting, custom detections and automated response workflows do have a bit of a learning curve and will require some research and experience to get to grips with
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    In our experience there has been very little downtime for Microsot Defender XDR. For us there hasn’t been any single incident where we needed the product and it was not available.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Most of the time the product is as responsive as you might expect from cloud product. Occasionly the product is little slugish, this has been at most a slight irritation. Reports generate quickly ennough for our needs. We also not have found that Defender XDR slows down systems that it is integrated with
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Their support throughout our onboarding of the product was fabulous. They not only took the time to carefully explain to teams not as well equipped with the lingo but explained to the tech team how to teach the other teams to be successful. They never once seemed impatient or annoyed with basic questions and didn’t pretend to know something when they needed to research an answer
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Good and hard to find someonme who can explain everything for you beside Microsoft they provide you everything you need.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Provides a good training for the Microsoft 365 Defender and has a good learning paths to learn and take the exams and get your Certifications.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    seemless and almost transparent. can be deployed by script if needed so every endpoint on our system get's it. if you have intune it gets dumped on the the endpoint by policy so nothing escapes it
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    ConnectWise
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Our product in that area, for instance as a security platform and for us it is for the moment really bad point. We started to move in that direction that there is that disconnect from the client management. So if there is some action that needs to be executed detected by security team, there is not an easy way to make that available to the team that is responsible for managing the identities as users, as the devices
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Azure cloud provides techical power to scale the product for whole organization. From organizational point of view scaling Defender XDR for various IT teams needs good collaboration and clear norms that all teams must agree to and follow.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    ConnectWise
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Security incident cannot be measured, once you down you down, hence the security applications like this is just a must have
    • The subscription model will be cheaper and can be a good point if you want to free resources within the IT Team
    • The SaaS model, if measured correctly can and will reduce long term cost in Infrastructure and Man Power
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    ConnectWise Automate Screenshots

    Screenshot of Monitor: Find problemsProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    Microsoft Defender XDR Screenshots

    Screenshot of AH Advanced ModeScreenshot of AH Guided modeScreenshot of CD exampleScreenshot of CD Supported actions