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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    N-able N-central

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AMSPs and IT professionals use N-able™ N-central® to monitor and manage devices and complex networks remotely. N-central provides visibility and efficiency as the user's needs scale. N-central can help users: 1. Proactively monitor everything on a customer network—not just servers and workstations—and troubleshoot. 2. Stay on top of threats with features like MFA, antivirus, integrated endpoint detection and response, data backup, disk encryption, email protection,…N/A

    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ASpiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management.

    $0

    (free for 1-5 Seats)

    Pricing
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Core Plan
    $0
    Premium
    $6
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Considered Both Products
    N-able
    No answer on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    although it does not have all of the features it still is able to perform MOST of the function for these softwares
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    73%
    Would buy again
    11 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    79%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    60%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    77%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    Features
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of N-able N-central and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    N-able N-central
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.1
    56 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.855 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings5.548 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings4.943 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.346 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings10.055 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings10.054 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of N-able N-central and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    N-able N-central
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    9.5
    53 Ratings
    17% above category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of N-able N-central and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    N-able N-central
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.7
    53 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.847 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings4.512 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings10.047 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings10.029 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Small Businesses
    Avast CloudCare
    Score10 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Action1
    Score9.4 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ManageEngine Endpoint Central
    Score9 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (25 ratings)
    10.0
    (84 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (29 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    9.8
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.7
    (26 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    N-able N-centralSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    N-able
    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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    N-able
    • 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.
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
    • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
    • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
    • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    N-able
    • 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.
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
    • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
    • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    N-able
    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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    N-able
    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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    N-able
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    N-able
    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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    N-able
    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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    N-able
    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.
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    N-able
    • 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
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
    • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
    • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
    • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    N-able N-central Screenshots

    Screenshot of N-able N-central DashboardScreenshot of Remote desktop access with Take Control