TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    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

    Remote Desktop Services

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ARemote Desktop Services from Microsoft is virtual desktop and remote user session technology.N/A
    Pricing
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Editions & Modules
    Agents
    $1.00-$6.00
    per month/per agent
    Implementation Fee
    $700
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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 AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Considered Both Products
    ConnectWise
    Chose ConnectWise Automate
    ConnectWise Automate has been the best tool I have used to service client computers. The ease of customization and the cleanliness of the interface, allows our company to successfully help our clients remotely and sometimes even without their input. What can be done silently, …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    73%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of ConnectWise Automate and Remote Desktop Services
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.5
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Remote Desktop Services
    -
    Ratings
    Virtualization monitoring8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of ConnectWise Automate and Remote Desktop Services
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.4
    22 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Remote Desktop Services
    -
    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 Remote Desktop Services
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.8
    22 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Remote Desktop Services
    -
    Ratings
    Patch Management10.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based automation9.022 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote Access
    Comparison of Remote Access features of ConnectWise Automate and Remote Desktop Services
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Remote Desktop Services
    -
    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
    Remote Administration
    Comparison of Remote Administration features of ConnectWise Automate and Remote Desktop Services
    Feature
    ConnectWise Automate
    -
    Ratings
    Remote Desktop Services
    4.6
    5 Ratings
    53% below category average
    Screen sharing00 Ratings8.25 Ratings
    File transfer00 Ratings4.65 Ratings
    Instant message00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
    Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication00 Ratings6.02 Ratings
    Access to sleeping/powered-off computers00 Ratings1.12 Ratings
    Over-the-Internet remote session00 Ratings6.85 Ratings
    Initiate remote control from mobile00 Ratings3.64 Ratings
    Remote management of servers & workstations00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
    Remote Active Directory® management00 Ratings8.64 Ratings
    Centralized management dashboard00 Ratings2.23 Ratings
    Session record00 Ratings2.23 Ratings
    Monitoring and Alerts00 Ratings3.13 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Small Businesses
    Panda Systems Management
    Score7.2 out of 10
    N-able Take Control
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    N-able N-sight RMM
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Remote Desktop Manager
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (59 ratings)
    7.8
    (20 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    Performance
    3.0
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (14 ratings)
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ConnectWise AutomateRemote Desktop Services
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    This is well-suited if you need to log in to a remote machine on occasion to make updates or change configurations. It is also good for a production environment or for environments where people need to log in to use common applications, so you don't need to install the application on each individual client.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • When you connect with RDS, everything looks and feels (and is) exactly like you're sitting at that desktop. This is great for us and for users.
    • You can sign in with RDS and the desktop will be the same as when you left it (if you choose to set it up that way).
    • Although they take some setup, RemoteApps are a very handy way to let users access a program without requiring them to actually connect to a remote desktop on the server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Remote Desktop Services currently does not support multiple monitors on the terminal server. Unlike other applications such as Teamviewer, there's no feature to toggle between multiple screens even if they were connected to the terminal server.
    • Remote Desktop Services should provide an option to scale up or down the screen size after a connection is established. Currently you can only adjust the screen size prior to a connection is established. So you'll have to take a best guess at what display screen resolution will fit best on your screen.
    • Remote Desktop Services should offer some kind of menu to send special key strokes like Ctrl+Alt+Del to the terminal server. Currently the substitute for that particular combination is Ctrl+Alt+End. But I have yet to discover a replacement for other combination keystrokes such as Alt+PrintScrn.
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The initial setup for Remote Desktop Services is complex, and licensing is costly. Each user connects to their virtual desktop hosted by a single server or group of servers, so a change or issue with servers quickly impacts every single user at the same time. Aside from that, users appreciate seeing their same personal desktop from any device or geographical location.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    There are some third party tools available that allow you to manage multiple connections.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We selected Remote Desktop Services based upon price alone. Other solutions on the market are significantly more expensive, but if your company can foot the bill you should seriously consider products that have been on the market for longer. The lack of an ability to easily upgrade farm servers has been a challenge for us - although it is still faster than updating an application on 2000+ machines. The lack of a centralized management console in 2008 R2 is also challenging, but you get by with the tools available to you. If you don't have the money to spend on Citrix or VMWare Horizon, Remote Desktop Services is a decent replacement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Allowed remote users access from home
    • Shared file access for multipolar users from a centralized location
    • Cost to add additional users when maxed out
    • Purchase multiple licenses for programs to run in virtual machines. Or unable to run on a virtual machine
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    ConnectWise Automate Screenshots

    Screenshot of Monitor: Find problemsProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot