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N-able N-central

N-able N-central

Overview

What is N-able N-central?

MSPs 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…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Remote Tasks Feature: Users have found the remote tasks feature to be extremely beneficial, with many reviewers stating that it has saved …
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N-Able? More like Dis-Able

1 out of 10
March 30, 2023
Ideally, we wanted to utilize N-able N-central's tools to provide RMM and remote access for client systems. We sought out an application …
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N-Able is more like M-abye

5 out of 10
March 16, 2023
We use N-able N-central to monitor our Windows servers in multiple data centers spanning Azure and 2 on premise data centers. We monitor …
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SolarWinds N-Central Review

10 out of 10
September 03, 2020
We use N-Central to manage AV, patching, and to provide remote helpdesk support to our clients. We also make heavy use of automation via …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is N-able N-central?

MSPs 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…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is N-able N-central?

MSPs 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, and password management .


3. Automate routine tasks using rules and filters to customize policies by customer, site, or device type to gain precision and control.

N-able N-central Features

Monitoring Tasks Features

  • Supported: Remote monitoring
  • Supported: Network device monitoring

Management Tasks Features

  • Supported: Patch Management

Additional Features

  • Supported: Remote Monitoring & Management
  • Supported: Endpoint Detection & Response
  • Supported: Network Topology Mapping
  • Supported: Mobile Device Management
  • Supported: Remote Access
  • Supported: Automation Manager

N-able N-central Screenshots

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

N-able N-central Video

SolarWinds N-central: One Powerful IT Management Platform

N-able N-central Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

Datto SIRIS, ConnectWise Automate, and Kaseya Traverse are common alternatives for N-able N-central.

Reviewers rate Patch Management highest, with a score of 6.

The most common users of N-able N-central are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(83)

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!

Remote Tasks Feature: Users have found the remote tasks feature to be extremely beneficial, with many reviewers stating that it has saved them time and provided convenience in managing multiple devices without physical interaction.

Remote Support Functionality: The remote support functionality of the product has received high praise from users, who appreciate its efficiency in troubleshooting and resolving issues without the need for physical presence. Many reviewers have specifically mentioned how easy it is to remotely control user devices and initiate remote sessions.

Management Capabilities: The management capabilities of SolarWinds N-central, especially in terms of patch management and anti-virus management, are considered top-notch by users. Automatic approval and deployment of patches, as well as scheduling automatic antivirus scans, streamline the process and ensure device security without manual intervention.

  1. Poor Customer Support: Users have expressed dissatisfaction with the customer support provided by N-central, stating that the support team often gives scripted or copy-paste responses, leading to a lengthy process of back and forth before finding a real solution. Several users have mentioned that it can take more than a week for their support issues to be resolved.

  2. Lack of Granular Security: Some users have mentioned the lack of granular security in N-central, where users are assigned roles and everything under that role becomes accessible. This may not be ideal for all technicians who require more specific access controls.

  3. Prioritization of Sales over Customer Satisfaction: There are concerns among users regarding Solarwinds N-able's prioritization of sales over customer satisfaction. Many users have experienced difficulties in receiving timely responses to their support issues or concerns, while the sales team appears to be relentless in meeting its quotas.

Users commonly recommend the following for N-Central:

  • Give it a try, especially with the free demos and trial period.
  • Take advantage of on-boarding sessions to fully understand and set up the product.
  • Spend time setting up and learning N-Central to fully experience its benefits.
  • Make sure to thoroughly research and understand the options and features before implementing.
  • Consider getting a trial to experience the capabilities of N-Central.
  • Plan implementation and start with basic features before fully committing.
  • Utilize global settings for easier use across customers.
  • Build graphic charts to monitor and track performance.
  • Dedicate a staff member to champion N-Central for maximum benefit.
  • Review the product and talk to an MSP using N-Central before switching RMMs.

These recommendations highlight the importance of exploring N-Central through free trials, taking time to set it up properly, understanding its features, utilizing resources available, planning implementation, and seeking feedback from other users.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Ideally, we wanted to utilize N-able N-central's tools to provide RMM and remote access for client systems. We sought out an application that had privileged access available (PassPortal) that also let us script solutions. The $99 price was enticing, so we gave it a shot.
  • A tad easier to setup than DIY solutions
  • Easier to manage many customers than a few other options out there
  • Relatively inexpensive if options are disabled
  • 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.
In my opinion, N-able N-central is a good "learn your lesson and move onto something better" tool. I've used many RMM tools over the years and I feel that this one is slow, does a terrible job with reporting, alerting, monitoring, software deployments, etc. The ability to turn on services like AV, backup, etc easily is cute, but you're not going to be able to use your own tools with this easily. In my experience, if you do turn those tools on for testing during the trial, you'll be charged later (despite it being a trial). They also turn off your ability to monitor these increased costs or to turn them off yourself. As a company, I found that they were impossible to work with. The sales team is right there if you want to buy something - but if you need anything other than to buy something, in my experience, they take days or weeks to navigate. I found that they are not a terribly ethical company and are more concerned with making a few dollars than creating a partnerships with MSPs. I can see value is in the advertised price of $99 for a hundred endpoints. However, you need to remember to not trial any other tools (like AV, backup, etc).
  • I don't think they follow through on the features that my team was looking for
  • We sought out good software deployment management, patch management, and easy to understand billing
  • The patch management isn't bad but they don't hit the mark on the other two
Monitoring Tasks (2)
15%
1.5
Remote monitoring
20%
2.0
Network device monitoring
10%
1.0
Management Tasks (1)
60%
6.0
Patch Management
60%
6.0
Application Performance Management
N/A
N/A
Remote Access
N/A
N/A
  • Negative ROI
  • Limited RMM functionality and time consuming to dial-in
  • In my experience, we were overcharged by N-Able with no useful mechanism to resolve
I selected N-able N-central as I liked the idea of easy-to-work with pricing that integrates with other PSAs (specifically ConnectWise PSA aka Connectwise Manage). I did not succeed with that. I'd use any of the other tools instead. The integration is problematic as the default checks will automatically turn on alerts that you may not want. If you delete them, it will recreate them (adding chatter into your PSA ticketing system). Software deployments are harder for this system than any other one I've ever worked with.
ConnectWise PSA, Pax8, Arrow Services, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure
I contacted them for a billing dispute. I was charged for a service I didn't use, didn't want, didn't need, didn't ask for. I wasn't aware I was being charged for it. When I reached out to them they sent along a guide to remove the feature... which I didn't have access to. They removed it from their back-end but still charged me. I don't work with, in my opinion, unethical companies so I asked for the account to be cancelled. That takes 6 weeks, per them. Avoid this company.
I did not purchase premium support. I generally don't need help with tools like this. Billing issues shouldn't require premium support though and I don't believe my issues would have been resolved by using a premium channel.
No
The initial setup for a server or network object is about 60% setup using their templates without a lot of effort. However, the last 40% is difficult to dial in. The default template is "intelligent" in that different sized servers can be monitored with that template. However, I found that the manual templates didn't have this intelligence so you'll need a template for every use-case and size. For some clients, we would need a custom template for every server. Once one template is created they can be cloned and edited but it's still problematic to have so many templates. Software deployments can be pushed immediately. The alerting for deployment issues is largely non-existent. You'll need to script in your own verbose logging and repository for those logs.
  • Default template works for some servers without too much effort
  • If you sell a client AV, backup, etc and want to use the N-Able tools then it's not hard to add those tools
  • Monitoring software deployments or receiving info about deployment issues
  • In my opinion, the built-in scripts are useless. You'll need to build them yourselves in PS and batch. Remember to setup verbose logging and repository to review the logs.
  • You'll need to create a lot of your own templates based on use-case, sizing, etc
  • If you use something other than N-Ables tools for AV, backup, etc then you'll have a hard time with monitoring, alerting through N-Able
Yes
The interface for mobile is very limited, basic "green light, red light" status. You don't have the ability to do anything useful via mobile besides restarting a server (which I would not recommend doing as the first troubleshooting step).
Nicolas Poague | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use the SolarWinds N-able N-central product to manage all of the customers we provide IT service to. It is used to monitor our client's networks, manage and maintain their assets, and to provide remote support.
  • 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.
  • Support - their customer support is extremely lacking. This goes all the way up to management. Entry-level techs provide scripted or cut and paste answers, which is not a bad thing, but there is almost always a back and forth process that happens before you can get to a real solution. The biggest issue with this is that it seems as if they only want to respond to an issue once every day - it is not uncommon for support issues to take a week or more to be resolved.
  • Security features - Ncentral does not have very granular security. Users have a role, and basically anything under that role is game. We don't want all techs to have access to a clients Active Directory, but they would still need the ability to have remote access for example - there is no way to lock down specific features.
  • Solarwinds N-able seems to be more focused on sales than customer satisfaction. It feels like pulling teeth to get responses to support issues or concerns, but salesmen will be relentless when it comes to needing to meet their quota.
The tool, when it works, is excellent. The main reasons for the lower score are poor support and a need for improved security features.
Monitoring Tasks
N/A
N/A
Management Tasks
N/A
N/A
Application Performance Management
N/A
N/A
Remote Access
N/A
N/A
  • The product definitely increases productivity. Technicians can spend a few seconds to take care of remote tasks with a few clicks as opposed to minutes to get a user to start a remote control session, or worse, going on site to work on a piece of equipment.
  • The packaging of the features makes selling and pricing the product fairly straight-forward and convenient. This saves our sales team time from trying to work with add-ons when pricing our services - the product makes it easy to just have an "all you can eat" package at a set price.
  • When something goes wrong with the product, our business and our customers suffer. If for example, a bug causes all managed computers to reboot, our customers call in, resulting in our technicians being booked solid doing damage control. This also causes loss of trust with our customers - we can't simply blame the product, the customer trusts us to provide them a service and if the product fails, we fail.
Since I came in to manage the product, we have only tested one other product. The main reason for not switching was that it would take a considerable amount of time and resources to convert everything to a new service. Additionally N-able's interface, while it does have much room for improvement, is far superior to that of LabTech's.
ConnectWise
Yes
We can't afford downtime when there is an issue, and do not have the resources with the expertise to resolve issues with the software.
A lot of time is spent going back and forth when creating a support case. The biggest problem with this is that it usually takes a day to get a response, so when you have to supply additional information, it may be another day until you hear anything back. A plan of action is almost never provided, or a status update. Short generic answers are often provided. Management does not seem too invested in making improvements.
Yes, there is one specific technician, named Lennaert, who has always been prompt and helpful. He would talk through issues with you and provide status updates, and most of all seemed to really know what he was talking about. I'm not sure if he was promoted, or left, but I have not worked with him or anyone that provides the same caliber of service in well over a year.
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