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ConnectWise Automate is a powerful tool that is actively used by customers to support and monitor their networks and servers. With this …
Starting at $700
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What is ConnectWise Automate?
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.
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Popular Features
- Remote monitoring (21)7.272%
- Policy-based automation (21)6.969%
- Patch Management (20)5.959%
- Network device monitoring (20)5.151%
Pricing
Agents
$1.00-$6.00
On Premise
per month/per agent
Implementation Fee
$700
On Premise
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://info.connectwise.com/automate/b…
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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What is ConnectWise Automate?
ConnectWise Automate enables users to proactively monitor, manage, and support client networks. Key features of ConnectWise Automate include:
- Discovery – Automatically deploy and detect the status of devices, creating accountability and access to all managed devices.
- Management – Providing access to each endpoint managed makes it easier to resolve issues fast and keep downtime to a minimum.
- Patching – Configures Windows patch management with out-of-the-box policies for Microsoft and third-party software.
- Automation – Automates repeatable tasks to decrease costs and also keeps techs happy by automating the tasks they hate doing.
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ConnectWise Automate Competitors
ConnectWise Automate Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows |
| Mobile Application | No |
| Supported Languages | Automate's Control Center is in English, Agents are compatible with all Windows supported Languages |
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Reviewers rate Remote monitoring highest, with a score of 7.2.
The most common users of ConnectWise Automate are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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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!
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ConnectWise Automate is a powerful tool that is actively used by customers to support and monitor their networks and servers. With this platform, users are able to provide fast and efficient service by remotely managing all clients' computer systems and maintaining software. This includes managing endpoints, providing patch management, and remote monitoring/maintenance for clients. Users also leverage ConnectWise Automate as a comprehensive asset inventory, support ticketing, monitoring, and alerting tool. It allows for screen sharing access to assist end-users and manage servers remotely.
LabTech, another name for ConnectWise Automate, plays a crucial role in managing technology assets for multiple clients. The service department of organizations uses it to handle Windows patching, alerting, and remote access for clients' servers and workstations. LabTech ensures that client networks are efficiently managed by independently scanning and deploying agents, installing patches, and monitoring critical machines. Additionally, LabTech serves as an RMM platform for managing, automating, and maintaining customers' networks. It enables remote support, patch management, and remote monitoring while providing flexibility and multitenant architecture.
ConnectWise Automate has gained recognition for its ability to serve as a central point for end-user support and automation management. Its flexibility and multitenant architecture make it a valuable tool for managing, automating, and maintaining customers' networks. By offering features such as remote support, patch management, and remote monitoring, ConnectWise Automate empowers organizations to provide top-notch services to their clients while increasing efficiency in IT operations.
Tight Integration with Connectwise: Users have consistently praised the seamless ticket management and resolution that comes from LabTech's integration with Connectwise. Several reviewers found this aspect to be very tight, allowing for a smooth workflow between the two platforms.
Powerful Scripting Capabilities: Many users have highlighted LabTech's scripting capabilities as a standout feature. They appreciate its versatility and ability to automate mundane tasks. This has made their work more efficient and streamlined.
Effective Alerting System: Reviewers have mentioned that LabTech's alerting system is highly effective in notifying the on-call team of critical events while separating non-critical issues. This feature has been particularly valuable in ensuring timely responses to important incidents.
Confusing and Outdated User Interface: Many users have found Labtech's management system user interface to be confusing, outdated, and in need of updating. Some users have described it as unintuitive and difficult to navigate, making tasks more challenging to perform.
Steep Learning Curve for New Users: A significant amount of configuration is required out of the box for Labtech's software, which has led to a steep learning curve for new users. Some reviewers have mentioned that it can be intimidating and complex, requiring dedicated resources to fully leverage its capabilities.
Issues with Stability and Functionality: Users have experienced issues with the stability and reliability of Labtech's infrastructure when using cloud partners. Several built-in scripts, screens, and modules were reported not to work completely, indicating some problems with functionality.
Users recommend using the self-hosted version of ConnectWise Automate instead of the cloud version, particularly for companies with more than 500 employees. It is suggested to evaluate other products if support is a priority and to dedicate sufficient time to planning before implementing ConnectWise Automate. Users advise familiarizing oneself with all the software's capabilities and taking advantage of online courses to gain a deeper understanding. ConnectWise Automate is regarded as reliable with regular updates and excellent support, although there is room for improvement in its reliability. To ensure long-term success, it is recommended to set up ConnectWise Automate correctly from the start and to establish the appropriate configuration. Additionally, when comparing to other free RMMs, users suggest considering the cost and setup required for ConnectWise Automate.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 44)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 12, 2022
ConnectWise Automate - Automate Everything
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Being a highly automated MSP, Connectwise Automate is the backbone of our company. Coupled with Connectwise Manage, ConnectWise Automate creates the alerts and tickets and autoremediates. With the robust scripting engine (yes it's a bit old and clunky but there is no other RMM tool out there with as much control as ConnectWise Automate) there is no limit, we can make scripts to resolve or partially resolve any issue that comes up.
- Automation
- Customized Alerting
- Connectwise Manage integration
- The fat client is not stable but they are working on a web client
- The web client doesn't have all the features as the fat client
- ConnectWise Automate Support not always the fastest at resolving known issues
November 21, 2022
ConnectWise Automate was the right choice for us
All of our project team and support desk use ConnectSise Automate (formerly LabTech) to remotely manage all of our clients' computer systems (both workstations and servers).
- ConnectWise Automate helps us manage Microsoft updates for our client base.
- ConnectWise Automate makes it easy to remotely troubleshoot issues for our client.
- ConnectWise Automate works well when we need to push a script out to one or multiple computers.
- Sometimes computers show as offline when they are really online.
- We find that sometimes a computer will show in the program multiple times.
- It often will not update the current username so makes it harder to find computers sometimes.
October 06, 2022
Not For Small MSP
We use ConnectWise Automate for both Microsoft and 3rd party software patching management for our customers. We also utilize its monitoring capabilities in addition to integrated Auvik. Its remote management (Control) is much better than previous RMM we used in the past.
- Remote Control Support (Connectwise Control)
- Customize Report
- Vendors integration
- Dashboard
- Technical support
- Patching is hit and missed
October 03, 2022
In My Opinion, Please, Don't Go with ConnectWise Automate Unless You Never Want to Reduce Your Client Count
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it with clients on their computers. ConnectWise Automate is supposed to do a lot of things, but it's still called Labtech within the program, which you'd think after all of these years, they would have fixed since it was purchased and renamed years ago. ConnectWise Automate requires a client license for each computer that it is installed on, but you can only add licenses and never remove them. If you don't have enough licenses, you can't use it properly. If you have too many licenses that you aren't using, you have to pay for them no matter what happens. Imagine if Microsoft did the same thing with Office and made you pay for the licenses that you don't use. In my opinion, this isn't a company that wants partners, this is a vendor only interested in making money without regard to their clients. As an MSP, my client count fluctuates, and ConnectWise Automate removes the ability to allow my client count to fluctuate as needed, which to me, that just isn't acceptable.
- Ironclad contract
- Inflexible terms
- Requires licenses to use
- I would appreciate it if you could please value your clients.
- Also, please allow us to add and remove clients as needed so the product scales with our needs.
- I believe you should rename the product from LabTech.
- I would like it if you could make it easier to use.
I am the RMM Manager for ConnectWise Automate. We use ConnectWise Automate for: Patch Management, Process Automation, Software Version Control, Monitoring, Remote Remediation, PC inventory/specification checks, Warranty Management, and Security Features.
Every computer that we manage gets ConnectWise Automate installed on it, and it handles installing the rest of our tools stack and gets those machines assigned to the proper client with the proper settings for that client
Every computer that we manage gets ConnectWise Automate installed on it, and it handles installing the rest of our tools stack and gets those machines assigned to the proper client with the proper settings for that client
- Alerting / Monitoring
- Process Automation
- Software Version Control
- Selective Targeting of Automations
- Patch Management - kind of clunky, but works well
- Reporting
- Endpoint user management
February 03, 2021
A fair RMM with some strong automation, but challenging to learn.
We use [ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)] to manage and monitor client end points, as well to provide automation. We integrate it with ScreenConnect, ConnectWise Manage, and ITGlue. Automation is one of the major functions it performs for us. With it we can push other tools like Logic Monitor, ScreenConnect, AutoElevate and DeskDirector. We also have it send alerts to our ticketing system for reactive support.
- Automation
- Monitoring
- Configuration reference
- Automation can be difficult to implement
- Discrepancy between web and installed client.
January 28, 2021
Automate Review
We are a managed service provider so we use Automate for all our MSP clients; it helps us to monitor updates for our customers and, if needed, uninstall updates if something went wrong.
- Takes care of updates
- Support
- Technical documentation
- Has a big learning curve just starting out.
- Needs mores simplified directions.
- Better support.
March 14, 2020
ConnectWise Automate
We are an MSP who uses Automate to manage 3000+ endpoints. Automate handles Windows patching, alerting, remote access, among many other things for our business. It is our primary source of management for our users workstations and servers.
- Manages Windows updates.
- Alerting for offline servers.
- Antivirus management.
- Backup management.
- Due to its many features, it seems some areas are a bit difficult to configure.
February 13, 2020
A Fantastic RMM That Stands Apart from the Competition
Automate is being used by the support services department of the company. We are a managed services provider, so we manage all of our clients from within ConnectWise Automate. It allows us to easily connect to client machines and servers, run scripts against the machines to install applications, and assist with installing patches without manual intervention. It definitely helped cut back a lot on manual tasks, which saves the team a lot of time on more menial tasks. It allows us to devote more time to other issues instead of the various management tasks for machines we support.
- Automated patching. The patch management is very robust and doesn't let us down. We can rely on it to do its job.
- Scripting. The scripting engine and layout is excellent. It's very easy to work with and adapt Powershell scripts and other script to the native format with its functions. It also gives detailed logs to help determine why something went wrong if there's issues.
- 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.
January 02, 2020
Automate Me, Baby!
We use ConnectWise Automate as our RMM platform. We are happy with the product as a whole. We are using the on-premise version of the software. One complaint we do have is the slowness of the application. However, they are moving more and more functions over to the web URL. At one point, we switched from Labtech over to Kaseya. Kaseya was substantially less expensive, however, we ended up switching back to Labtech within 8 months due to the technical support and lack of features within Kaseya.
- Computer Management
- Remote Control
- Performance
- Integration
November 15, 2019
To ConnectWise or not to ConnectWise?
- Automation of mundane and repetitive tasks.
- Management of our clients
- It can be painfully slow.
- It's quite complex and needs a lot of training.
October 29, 2019
If you are an MSP, you should be using ConnectWise Automate.
I use it daily in my technical support role. It is used across my organization.
- Seamless integration with other ConnectWise products.
- Works well and is feature rich.
- Allows me to access servers at anytime for patching and maintenance.
- Honestly, there is not much I would change.
- As far as I am concerned; it is the best by far.
- Might be a little expensive for small MSP's...But worth the investment.
October 07, 2019
Great software for an MSP
We use Automate every day to provide our customers with support. We use it to remote control, automate maintenance tasks, monitor our clients' systems. It is an essential part of how we do business. Our business would not be successful without this application and the rest of the ConnectWise suite of products.
- Remote control.
- Patching.
- Monitoring.
- It is a little slow some times.
- It can be difficult to set-up and maintain.
- The interface is not very intuitive for new users.
October 04, 2019
Automate with flexibility
Our organization uses ConnectWise Automate as a central point for end-user support and automation management. We leverage Automate as a scripting repository which provides us with the flexibility to apply configurations based on machine information such as installed applications, site where the machines are located at, and other parameters such as resources available. Automate allows us to 'script it once' and deliver many times, as a managed services provider, this is of crucial importance as it is a multitenant architecture which we can apply to all of our customers based on service tiers that they have signed up for.
- Scripting.
- Centralized configuration management.
- Healthchecks.
- The GUI interface is archaic.
- Scripting engines could use work to be more PowerShell native.
- Ability to work in VDI environments.
October 03, 2019
CW Automate automates our business
RealTime, LLC uses ConnectWise Automate in our managed services department. Automate provides rich data, simple endpoint management, and allows RealTime to automate tasks that were out of reach prior to changing to Automate about 7 years ago.
The primary uses are patch management, VMware management, automation, client onboarding, cybersecurity solutions deployment, reporting data, and tight integration with our PSA, ConnectWise Manage. Remote control via ScreenConnect, or Connect I think it's called now, is pretty seamless and we even have one-click access to backstage when using the web version of Automate. Security-wise, we use AD integration and Two-factor authentication to secure our connections to the tool in and out of the office.
The primary uses are patch management, VMware management, automation, client onboarding, cybersecurity solutions deployment, reporting data, and tight integration with our PSA, ConnectWise Manage. Remote control via ScreenConnect, or Connect I think it's called now, is pretty seamless and we even have one-click access to backstage when using the web version of Automate. Security-wise, we use AD integration and Two-factor authentication to secure our connections to the tool in and out of the office.
- It feeds tons of data to our reporting solution.
- A good overview of client endpoints, online status, av status and access to many tools to keep from disturbing end-users while troubleshooting their computers.
- Synchronizes with our PSA to automate billing changes.
- Tightly integrated with the remote control tools so we don't have to jump into a different console to make that connection.
- Alerting on multiple items (got one just a little while ago from the VMware plugin about a failed drive on a VM Host) and automatic ticket creation, and in many cases, automated remediation.
- Patch management is always a little finicky. Gets better every time.
- If you decide to hitch your MSP to ConnectWise Automate, make sure you have a clear plan of what you want to accomplish and please, save your self a ton of hassle and use ConnectWise consulting to get things going initially.
- Conflicting answers from support on more complicated items.
- Not sure if this applies, but you need to have someone at your MSP whose job is the care and feeding of Automate, as well as that script and automation creation. Not really a complaint, more along the lines of "you are buying a business automation platform, you need to dedicate people to get the most out of it."
We are an MSP using ConnectWise Automate to manage about 1100 endpoints for our clients. We use this product for patch management and remote monitoring/maintenance.
- Integration to ScreenConnect and ConnectWise are fairly tight at this point.
- Powerful tool for automation and custom scripting - if you have the technical capabilities and time, you can do more with Automate than any RMM on the market...
- New UI is built to be pretty, but it's bloated, slow, and lacks the information that used to live on the main screen. You now have to dig to get information that was once easily at hand...
- Too Noisy - it alerts on EVERYTHING, and it's very difficult to tone it down without missing things that are important. This puts a drain on staff time... We can't respond to every ticket, and then important details get lost in the noise...
- No Mac/Linux client - my admins need access to a Windows PC to function...
May 01, 2019
ConnectWise Automate does more than our needs for an RMM - It provides a platform to grow
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
ConnectWise Automate solves our ability to provided scripted resolution to repetitive tasks for all of our clients. Regardless of the client or physical location ConnectWise Automate is the tool that allows us to perform a consistent task, document the work, and send the necessary details of it to billing. Network Services Group deploys it to every client. It is part of our comprehensive support stack.
- Automatically perform and records billable work time.
- Consistently perform representative tasks.
- Schedule tasks for off-hours to minimize disrupting our clients.
- Excellent source for details in developing new sales.
- Having to pay for licensing in advance. If you need additional licenses you need to plan ahead to have them available.
- Some ConnectWise Automate options such as third-party patching could offer patching for more software.
- ConnectWise Automate can be very complex so it can take time to understand all it can do. The more time you invest in ConnectWise Automate the easier and more powerful it becomes.
February 19, 2019
My ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech) Review
Our entire Service Team uses ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech). It gives us the power to automate the management of a greater number and broader range of endpoints, maximizing our efficiency and our profitability. We use the scripting and numerous connected products, such as Warranty Master and ConnectWise Control (formerly ScreenConnect). Screens like Dataviews and tabs like Hardware are immensely useful.
- It's better than Kaseya.
- It's flexible, allowing our integration team to leverage the data therein, creating custom tools that empower and accelerate us.
- It's fairly stable, considering its immense power.
- Its interfaces have a wide variety of looks and feels, and it might be nicer if it were more cohesive.
- Documentation of usage and features can be hard to locate at times.
- A little more memory stability would be nice.
February 05, 2019
ConnectWise Automate Is Great If You Have The Money.
When we first started using Automate we used it for all of our clients. However, we have now brought that down to just a few due to the cost of the product. We still actively use it today for a handful of servers.
- It organizes client machines very well.
- Is very good at automating processes.
- Is great for setting up alerts on client's machines.
- The cost of the product is way too high.
- A better GUI and wizard would help streamline the process.
- The auto-install process for other applications could be made a lot better.
October 18, 2018
Powerful product but support needs an overhaul
We use Automate as one of our tools to provide Managed Services to our client base. It is used for patch management, system monitoring and alerting, remote control, scripting and asset management. We install Automate on all managed servers and workstations.
- Scripting in Automate is very comprehensive and flexible. Other tools we've used pale in comparison to the scripting in Automate.
- Remote control is 2nd to none. Screen Connect has proven to be incredibly fast and stable. This is a significant improvement over the old LabVNC in previous versions of Automate
- The ability to group things manually and dynamically. Being able to automatically add systems to groups based on some criteria (almost anything) and then run scripts or commands against those groups is a huge benefit. A great example is adding machines to a group based on anti-virus install. If a machine doesn't have AV installed it gets added to a group. The group is setup to run a script at some frequency to install AV.
- The biggest issue for Automate is their support. They seem to be completely overwhelmed. Chat support for simple questions can be anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in the queue. Then when you are connected they are doing little more than creating a ticket that will take days to hear back from them.
- Patching. The documentation and advice from our implementation person do not match reality. The process of denying a patch is documented, but doesn't work. We were unable to block certain patches from being distributed until we spoke to a specialist about it. He couldn't explain the mis-matched documentation.
- Speed. Using the Automate client is painfully slow. Very sluggish and non-responsive at times.
August 03, 2018
Connectwise Automate - Tons of power, tons of time spent
We used Connectwise Automate for many years. The product handles remotely monitoring PCs & Servers for any problems that match the automation either built-in or created in Automate. The problem solved is monitoring all the endpoints in a way no human could.
- Remote Control via ScreenConnect is wonderful.
- Scripting is the best of all RMM products we have tried.
- The customization capability of Automate beats all other RMM products.
- Because Automate is so configurable it also requires the most time put into it of all RMM products we have used. It requires a dedicated employee to just managing the product and the services provided by it. Without that dedicated resource, many alerts will be missed (due to configuration issues).
- Support is not very good. This is a larger scale Connectwise issue.
- The product is very resource intensive if you host locally. Upgrades are usually pretty buggy and add the need for extra resources.
- We found VMware and Dell Open Manage monitoring to be very weak compared to other RMM products.
June 14, 2018
Connectwise to the rescue!
I'm a sole proprietor and ConnectWise makes it possible for me to connect with my clients from home, across the United States and Canada. ConnectWise allows me to connect with clients and see their specific issues first hand. I am also able to save clients money for training that would have to be done on site because I am able to connect to their individual workstations and to do program training with the individual or group remotely at their convenience.
- Allows me to download files from a toolbox feature or drag and drop from my server to their system.
- Gives an easy to use client access window to easily find different clients and groups.
- Simple to use, install and work with. Unlike many other programs of its type, it is easy to generate an email invitation to a client to connect or give them a simple code to connect. Also has the ability for me to share my screen with clients for training and demonstrations.
- That's a tough one! Great program, great features already.
- Possibly allowing the chat box to remain on screen. It closes when you connect to a program or open windows on the screen.
- Allow more than 1 username/ password to be stored for the auto access. Notes made on different machines seem to disappear if there is an upgrade. I lost some notes I had made on sites I support using this feature.
January 10, 2018
Behold the power of ConnectWise Automate
- Scripting across multiple domains
- Remote Resource Monitoring
- Onboarding
- Patch Management can be un-reliable at times
- Easier UI
- Better integration with AntiVirus providers
December 27, 2017
Automate - the fastest way to improve productivity and client satisfaction for MSPs
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Management of servers and workstations. Organized by client and location for ease of use.
- Remote access is unparalleled, one button click and the computer is up with very good refresh rate.
- Scripts and automation are easy to create and perform. Automated reboots of servers / workstations make management easy.
- Steep learning curve, program can be very intimidating when initially configuring and deploying.
- Software version upgrades can become a bit clunky and "undo" some progress. Recent version upgrade revamped entire Windows patching system and required setup from scratch.
- Limitations on hardware monitoring, especially for hypervisors with VMWare.
December 27, 2017
ConnectWise Automate Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- One single location for all data (for NOC)
- Easily scalable
- Enforces consistent workflows (once the are configured)
- Support often takes days if not weeks to respond
- Constant attempts to upsell us on other products
- Typically we are told changes to the program will require us to pay them more $