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Clarity CA vs Microsoft Configuration Manager 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

Clarity CA
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (4th)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Software Distribution (1st), Server Monitoring (5th), Configuration Management (4th), Patch Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Clarity CA is designed for Client Desktop Management and holds a mindshare of 11.2%, up 5.7% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 3.9% mindshare, down 5.6% since last year.
Client Desktop Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Clarity CA11.2%
ManageEngine Endpoint Central18.9%
Symantec Client Management Suite13.1%
Other56.800000000000004%
Client Desktop Management
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Configuration Manager3.9%
Zabbix10.7%
Nagios XI6.1%
Other79.3%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

TN
Solution center consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Multipurpose and useful for managing projects and resources; easy to integrate with other systems, and has a knowledgeable technical support team
I support Clarity CA, but I'm on the administrator side rather than the end-user side. My company has a partnership with Clarity CA. Clarity CA is deployed on-premises in my company, but I have a customer who deployed the solution on the cloud. Deploying the solution requires two or three resources. For ongoing support, it depends on how many people use Clarity CA. A minimum of three or four resources would be enough to support the solution, particularly two LIFF developers and one administrator. My advice to people looking into implementing Clarity CA is to make sure there's a team who'll support it, otherwise, you have to look into a Broadcom partner that can provide you with a service support deal. This way, you don't have to deal with the many administrative and maintenance responsibilities that go with Clarity CA as that could be a hassle. You have to be ready by having a team who will support the solution. My rating for Clarity CA is nine out of ten. Its interface is getting better. It has everything you need in terms of program or project management. The solution works for any organization. It's stable, flexible, and has been around for a long time. You can do a lot with Clarity CA, and that gives you a little bit of power.
NS
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"To me, the most valuable feature of Clarity CA is the timesheet. It's the only feature I use because I just support the tool, and I just enter time on it. Others use Clarity CA for other purposes, such as resource management, project management, scheduling, and financials. The tool also has a fairly simple integration with other systems, so at the moment, it's working fine. I also like that you can write your own code in Clarity CA, and you can make changes to it based on your needs."
"It is also really easy to use; you just schedule a job and create a package of software, and everything just works."
"My organization has benefited from Clarity CA because everyone can do project staffing through it, people in the organization can staff projects by looking at the resources and skills before staffing, change requests can also be done in Clarity CA, and through it you can have an overall view of each project and how a project is doing, so it helped improve my organization."
"Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is very scalable."
"The solution enables significant streamlining and reduces resources from a personnel perspective."
"It is a scalable product and we have 1,000 users in our organization with plans to continue using this solution."
"The initial setup is fairly straightforward."
"SCCM is a stable solution."
"It lets you know what your infrastructure is like and what state you are in."
"Microsoft Configuration Manager gives different tools in one solution."
"I find the product valuable for deployment recovery and it has done much more than that."
 

Cons

"The software also has too many functions, so it would be good if the functions or features could be split up, rather than needing to buy the whole Clarity CA package, when you'll only use a few of its functions."
"What could be improved in Clarity CA is its UI, but I know the Clarity team is working on a new UI, so I'm expecting its UI to get better. The software also has too many functions, so it would be good if the functions or features could be split up, rather than needing to buy the whole Clarity CA package, when you'll only use a few of its functions. This increases the cost of the software, so that's another area for improvement. How Clarity CA is marketed could also be improved."
"Technical support is good, when they get back to you. I usually have to use Google, though, because sometimes we have to meet deadlines and don't have the time to wait for them to get back to us."
"The main room for improvement is the on-screen display. I think it would be good if some improvements were made."
"Microsoft should extend support for additional platforms."
"The cost of the product can be improved."
"The TSM component could be improved."
"Troubleshooting in general needs improvement. There's just a ton of logs to go through, and so finding the error log that corresponds with that you're doing can sometimes be difficult."
"The solution could improve the functionality for automating, license management. Additionally, more and better-looking reports are needed."
"The configuration of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager could be improved, it is a bit complicated."
"The App to upgrades to the server needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's fairly expensive to use Clarity CA. There's a yearly license fee for the solution based on the users, and there's a one-time implementation fee as well."
"Presently, I am using a free trial version."
"There is an annual license needed to use the solution."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"The price could be better."
"SCCM comes with its own version of SQL Server. If you use that SQL Server with SCCM and don't use it for another applications than you get an SQL Server for free."
"We have to pay for a license."
"The solution operates on a licensing model that can be expensive."
"When you compare this solution with other tools in the market you might actually find a lot of variation in the pricing and that's why people opt for the other tools rather than Microsoft tools."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise66
 

Questions from the Community

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How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCCM?
The setup cost is considered sufficient. It is not significant enough for us to consider a change at the moment.
 

Also Known As

Client Automation, CA Client Manager, CA Client Automation
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

First Horizon National Corporation, Olympus, Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago LimitedŒ _Petrotrinî, Racing and Wagering Western Australia
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine, Quest Software, Broadcom and others in Client Desktop Management. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.