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BigFix vs Heimdal Patch and Asset Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (9th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (34th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (9th)
Heimdal Patch and Asset Man...
Ranking in Patch Management
24th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 4.4%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Heimdal Patch and Asset Management is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
BigFix4.4%
Heimdal Patch and Asset Management0.6%
Other95.0%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

AM
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Successfully manage endpoint security and compliance while facing integration challenges
I have not come across any difficulties. I integrated it with ILMT (IBM License Metric Tool). It lets us identify all software being used in my organization with BigFix. It provides input of all types of software being used, including details and information about hardware specifications. I am more involved in software licensing and procurement, so I utilize this tool for procuring more licenses if needed for our company. After integration, we get different dashboards showcasing our IBM infrastructure, highlighting various issues in our environment that we can mitigate. I recommend BigFix to others. I rate BigFix a seven out of ten.
Melvin Ong - PeerSpot reviewer
Country Manager at PT Symcaw Solutions Indonesia
Has plug-and-play capability once configured and good reporting system
The tool's most valuable features have been its plug-and-play capability once configured and its reporting system is good. The most improved feature of asset auditing is its physical logging of all software. This allows us to understand what software and applications are installed on endpoints. We can easily check which software applications are installed in the network infrastructure during client processing or audits.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's enabled us to have a highly successful endpoint patching program for the past decade. It's been enormously successful there. It's also become a core part of many of our business processes, from compliance monitoring of endpoints, encryption management, key escrow, and local administrator password escrow. It's built into our inventory. It's very much everywhere."
"I’ve found patching to be the most valuable feature of the solution."
"Being able to intelligently create reports, gather data, export CSVs and give that to the leadership of some of the client groups that my team supports has helped my organization."
"The most valuable point is when you deploy an application, you have to make sure that the application has been deployed to all computers and that is working perfectly. This solution works well at deployments."
"The most valuable aspect of BigFix is its ability to patch desktops. While we have complete control over servers and can easily push patches to them, desktops pose a greater risk for leaks and vulnerabilities if patches are not installed in a timely manner. By using BigFix, we have significantly improved our ability to patch desktops, whether they are laptops, desktops, or other mobile devices used by end-users."
"It has improved reliability upon delivery of software and has also helped reduce software expenses. The extensibility of BigFix helps to create custom solutions where we may have considered purchasing something instead."
"The most valuable feature of BigFix is the reporting tool and patching Windows."
"BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them."
"The tool's most valuable features have been its plug-and-play capability once configured and its reporting system is good. The most improved feature of asset auditing is its physical logging of all software. This allows us to understand what software and applications are installed on endpoints. We can easily check which software applications are installed in the network infrastructure during client processing or audits."
 

Cons

"Maybe the online help could be improved. It'd be nice if you would have a lot more phrases and keywords that you could search for and find answers with the help."
"BigFix could improve its asset management capabilities to discover assets, including hardware."
"I self-taught for this online, so the initial setup was a little difficult to pick up at first. I had to create a couple of testing environments and destroy them in order to learn how to use it. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading of the manuals."
"There is no support for patch management on SLES on IBM pSeries (only the Intel platform is supported)."
"I would request them to build a robots, or an easier way for integration with the other tools, like ITSM tools."
"The stability is generally pretty good. The one thing that we came across is the battle between load on endpoints and load on our servers and relays versus how quickly, effectively and reliably actions can be taken. I'd like to not have to take an action on a system while I'm working with someone and then have to say whether something will happen between five seconds or thirty minutes from that point."
"The reporting structure could be a little more simplistic. Currently, it throws too many vulnerabilities. Some of them are not needed because they are only informational and limitations, and they are not of much help. It doesn't need to show us these things."
"The relevant language takes a little getting used to since it's not used anywhere else in the industry. It's just in the BigFix environment."
"The tool needs to be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compliance, inventory, and licensing are really pricey. They should lower the price. It discourages users from getting onboard."
"When purchasing, buying with other IBM tools provided us with a very good discount in pricing."
"So, the pricing is slightly more expensive than the others. I have to keep buying licenses every time I add a new device."
"You get what we call the Platform Edition, which you get for free. The patch service is maybe $0.50 per workstation per month. Then there's the basic server cost, which is about $1.50 per server per month. You also get into Lifecycle which does power management, OSD remote control, and those types of things, and that might be about 10 times the price - which works out to about $13 per server and, maybe $5 per workstation per month."
"We have a subscription-based contract with BigFix."
"The license is subscription-based."
"It might be about $23 a client."
"The cost is slightly high."
"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Agriculture
9%
University
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise66
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigFix?
The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to other major software solutions, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
The reporting still needs improvement since customers want specific reporting, such as N-1 month patching reports. In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application c...
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
Thor Foresight Enterprise
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Brother, Symbion, CPH West
Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys, Microsoft, Vicarius and others in Patch Management. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.