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Fleetsmith is a powerful tool that has proven to be invaluable for companies and organizations looking to efficiently manage their Mac …
Starting at $8.25 per device, per month
View PricingOverview
What is Apple Business Essentials?
Apple Business Essentials is a subscription service that brings together device management, 24/7 support, and cloud storage. It enables small business to manage every iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TVs throughout the business.
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Pricing
Fleetsmith Managed
$8.25
Cloud
per device, per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.fleetsmith.com/pricing
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Apple Business Essentials?
Apple Business Essentials is a subscription service that brings together device management, 24/7 support, and cloud storage. It enables small business to manage every iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TVs throughout the business.
It includes the functionality of the former Fleetsmith, a cloud management solution for Apple devices. In June 2020, Fleetsmith was acquired by Apple, and then discontinued in October of 2022 to make way for Apple Business Essentials, which was launched to the public at the end of 2021 in beta, and is now the company's flagship device management solution going forward.
It includes the functionality of the former Fleetsmith, a cloud management solution for Apple devices. In June 2020, Fleetsmith was acquired by Apple, and then discontinued in October of 2022 to make way for Apple Business Essentials, which was launched to the public at the end of 2021 in beta, and is now the company's flagship device management solution going forward.
Apple Business Essentials Features
- Supported: Zero-touch deployment: Local user account, DEP, apps and settings
- Supported: Automatic OS upgrades and enforcement
- Supported: Set-and-forget deployment, configuration & enforcement for 70+ apps
- Supported: Smart inventory
- Supported: Fully-automated patch management
- Supported: FileVault 2 Encryption with automatic key escrow
- Supported: Kernel Extension Whitelisting
- Supported: TCC/PPPC Whitelisting
- Supported: Custom script deployment
- Supported: Kernel-level binary blacklisting
- Supported: WiFi, VPN and printer deployment
Apple Business Essentials Competitors
Apple Business Essentials Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
| Supported Languages | English |
Frequently Asked Questions
Apple Business Essentials is a subscription service that brings together device management, 24/7 support, and cloud storage. It enables small business to manage every iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TVs throughout the business.
Jamf Pro, Workspace ONE Unified Endpoint Management (UEM), and Addigy are common alternatives for Apple Business Essentials.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.8.
The most common users of Apple Business Essentials are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Apple Business Essentials Customer Size Distribution
| Consumers | 0% |
|---|---|
| Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 30% |
| Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 60% |
| Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 10% |
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Reviews and Ratings
(23)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
Fleetsmith is a powerful tool that has proven to be invaluable for companies and organizations looking to efficiently manage their Mac devices. Users have praised its ability to automate inventory and management tasks, saving valuable time and resources. With Fleetsmith, non-technical users can easily configure workstations without the need for extensive tinkering. This user-friendly approach makes it an ideal solution for businesses striving for workplace flexibility. Additionally, Fleetsmith's robust reporting capabilities provide comprehensive information on encryption status, allowing companies to ensure the safety and security of their devices.
One of the standout features of Fleetsmith is its integration with G Suite, which has been particularly helpful in educational settings. Teachers switching between classrooms can effortlessly log in to classroom computers, thanks to this seamless integration. Fleetsmith also excels when it comes to meeting compliance requirements and maintaining certifications such as HITRUST. It enables organizations to control, manage, secure, and track Macs across the entire company or organization.
Overall, users appreciate Fleetsmith for its niche product offering and evolving features. It offers a single-pane-of-glass interface that makes managing Apple products a breeze. From deploying globally and managing remote and local MacBooks to providing confidence in company-issued laptops through easy deployment, updates, productivity enhancements, and compliance gains, Fleetsmith proves its worth by solving various challenges faced by businesses of all sizes.
Intuitive and Easy to Navigate: Reviewers have consistently praised Fleetsmith for its intuitive user interface and easy navigation. Several users have stated that compared to other solutions, Fleetsmith stands out as a user-friendly option.
Convenient DEP Enrollment: The DEP Enrollment feature of Fleetsmith has received high praise from multiple reviewers. Users appreciate the convenience it offers in setting up passwords for users and granting immediate access when they turn on their computers.
Simple Software Deployment: Many reviewers have commended Fleetsmith for its ease of adding software to be pushed out. They have found this process to be straightforward, highlighting the simplicity of deploying software using Fleetsmith's platform.
Limited software options: Some users have expressed frustration with the limited list of native software that can be deployed, preventing them from using custom software. Clients feel restricted by the lack of flexibility in choosing and utilizing the applications they need for their specific requirements.
Reporting capabilities dissatisfaction: Many customers have voiced their dissatisfaction with the reporting capabilities of the software. They find the current reporting features to be lacking in terms of generating comprehensive and meaningful insights from device data, which hinders their ability to make informed decisions and track important metrics.
Unclear issue communication and configuration limitations: Users have found it difficult to achieve desired configurations due to unclear communication about the issues. This lack of clarity leads to confusion and delays in resolving problems. Additionally, some reviewers have mentioned that they are unable to determine what actions the software is taking on managed devices, resulting in uncertainty about its functionality and effectiveness in performing necessary tasks.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-8 of 8)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 11, 2019
On Fleet.
We are using Fleetsmith to inventory and manage Mac devices for our company and clients. It's used across the whole organization and maximizes our ability to automate. It helps give great reporting information (encryption status) and helps keep the computer up to date.
- Ease of use to manage. Some other solutions can be a little hard to navigate. Fleetsmith is intuitive.
- DEP Enrollment is really nice. If you are shipping a laptop out to the user you can set their password and when they turn on their computer they will have access.
- Adding software to be pushed out. Pretty easy to do.
- The list of native software to be deployed isn't as large as it could be.
- Pushing out custom software would be a good workaround but that doesn't seem doable.
- Clients frequently tell me they dislike the reporting capabilities.
September 08, 2019
Fleetsmith
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Fleetsmith to manage our corporate Mac OS fleet, pushing software patches and configuration to our whole company, enforcing policies and supporting the security and compliance baselines required in our market. It enables us to amplify our small engineering team with enterprise-scale policies and visibility of potential risks before they become problems.
- Policy enforcement
- Enrollment of new workstations
- Patch management
- Eagerly waiting for custom packages, though the support for scripts and toolings like Chef and Puppet is strong.
September 05, 2019
Fleetsmith Review
We use Fleetsmith to manage software and settings for our staff computers. I like that I have the ability to set security, wifi and system settings as well as make sure that 3rd party software is kept updated and current. The G Suite integration is really helpful for our classroom computers so when a teacher switches rooms they just need to log into the computer in the room.
- Making sure security settings are enforced.
- Deploying software.
- Keeping track of users.
- Would be nice to be able to import 3rd party software.
September 05, 2019
A great product!
We have been using it across the whole organization. It's our MDM of choice currently and it helps ensure all of our devices contain anti-virus, encryption, and firewall and are up to date.
- Great user interface.
- Simple implementation and rollout.
- The catalog contains a lot of the most used services.
- Customer service needs a chat or phone support.
- The catalog is nice but doesn't contain everything.
- Custom scripts should have a better user interface.
August 21, 2019
Makes Apple admin simple
It’s being used by my department to maintain laptops and mobile devices. It allows us to see who needs updates and allows us to roll out secure software.
- Manages leased laptops.
- Keeps software up to date.
- Let’s me see who has which device.
- Tracking devices.
- Advanced asset management.
- Apple lease details.
August 20, 2019
Managing Macs at a distance with Fleetsmith
We manage about 170 Macs across four states. It has replaced manual provisioning for new computers and OS imaging on re-issued computers and upped our security stance considerably.
- Escrow of FileVault keys
- Managing of common 3rd party software apps (Office, Zoom, 1Password)
- Hardware reporting - battery, storage use, etc.
- Zero-touch deployment of newly purchased machines
- Handling of updates and/or communication about undeployed updates on Macs with limited storage space
- I hope they're working on a way to do automatic macOS user account creation as part of a hardware 'refresh' when reassigning a unit from one staff member to another.
- Easier/more customization options for deploying in-house and other custom softwares
August 09, 2019
Friendly, unobtrusive mobile device management
Fleetsmith solves two problems for me: first, I want to spend a minimum of time tinkering with the configuration of my own workstation, and second, I support relatively nontechnical users who have even less
patience for tinkering.
patience for tinkering.
- Fleetsmith does a great job of being unobtrusive on managed devices. After initial deployment, one might never know it’s there except when it prompts to enforce a software update.
- Fleetsmith has sensible defaults and relatively few decisions for the administrator to make; for most applications and configurations, it’s sufficient to enforce a minimum version. For more complex use cases, I suggest falling back on Fleetsmith’s ability to install tools such as Puppet and run arbitrary shell commands.
- I’ve seen Fleetsmith be unable to achieve its desired configuration, but not communicate the problem clearly. For example, when I first enforced FileVault encryption via Fleetsmith, the device showed FileVault encryption as “Enabled, but not enforced”. After talking with Fleetsmith technical support, I found that the underlying issue was that Fleetsmith had not been able to escrow the encryption key because encryption had been manually applied before Fleetsmith was installed; technical support staff suggested that I resolve this situation by manually disabling encryption and then allowing Fleetsmith to reenable it. This solution was acceptable for me, a relatively technical user, but would have been a nonstarter for a nontechnical user.
- It’s difficult for me to determine what exactly the Fleetsmith agent is doing on a managed device. When I enforce a change via Fleetsmith and then notice that the change has not been made on the device, it’s difficult for me to tell whether a) the agent tried to make the change but was unable or b) the agent hasn’t yet tried to make the change.
August 09, 2019
Fleetsmith is Solid Software for Growing Startups
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Fleetsmith is our default MDM solution for our entire set of Macbooks and Apple devices. As a company focused on flexibility in the workplace, having a solution that worked well with a remote, part-time, and location diverse set of employees was critical to our success. We work with large Fortune 500 companies that need guarantees on safety and security that Fleetsmith helps orchestrate for us.
- Very simple to roll out.
- Customer service is fast and top notch.
- Takes customer recommendations on features seriously.
- Simplicity of the interface means some feature options aren't as clearly defined as they could be.
- User profiles vs device profiles can be confusing.
- No "master view" of profile setups.
- Can't duplicate a profile or set of applications (yet).