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ConnectWise ScreenConnect vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Remote Access
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
247
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
ConnectWise ScreenConnect
Ranking in Remote Access
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (10th)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Remote Access
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.5%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ConnectWise ScreenConnect is 1.4%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 11.0%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
Todd Blake - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to set up, reasonable pricing, and useful remote control capabilities
I'm on the latest version of the solution. I just updated it yesterday. While we have the solution on-premises at this time, we'll likely move to the cloud later this year. They have a trial version that you can try. They have a free version that you can try as well. I use it myself to support my family. I would try the free version or the trial version depending on your business. They can set you up and you can get to see all the features. I would also advocate going to the cloud version. Don't bother with the on-prem. It's just easier to jump to the cloud. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Terje Romen - PeerSpot reviewer
Accessing the same desktop experience from anywhere but user template creation needs improvement
Mostly we are quite happy with it. However, some of us want a more powerful desktop. When not present, we use a remote tool called Splashtop, which is a good solution for some users. We have about ten licenses for those who need a powerful workstation at the office. We have not used many different tools. We are never in contact with Microsoft. These are quite basic configurations, to be honest. It's not complicated. AI is coming to or is already in some applications we are using. Not system-wise, however, it might be good. I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It's quite good, yet certainly not perfect.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of applying security policies to applications we deploy is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune."
"We have found the solution is capable of scaling."
"Maturity makes it a stable product."
"The core management feature in Intune is invaluable to us, especially considering the challenges we often face with System Center when pushing external updates."
"Intune makes our organization more secure and flexible."
"We have not experienced any bugs or glitches with this solution."
"We are a remote company, and the product helps us manage the global endpoints. It helps us natively manage the endpoints in the cloud from anywhere."
"While I don't think you can ever have full visibility and control, Intune certainly allows us to see the applications being used and tells us if things like Windows patches aren't applied to machines. It does a good job. That visibility makes life a little easier."
"Control lets us do remote management of machines without having to be on the VPN. It's super simple and super easy."
"It's very low maintenance."
"Setup was very straightforward. All I had to do was write a GPO on my domain controller and it automatically installed the agent that I downloaded from the software. I literally had to do nothing."
"We like the fact that on our website we can have the ConnectWise bit embedded, and it has instructions for the end-user about what they need to do. Previously, on LogMeIn, we used to have to almost talk them through everything... ConnectWise has step-by-step instructions, depending on the browser."
"The product is really easy to deploy."
"Session groups and triggers are the most valuable features, because they make a greater degree of organization possible. Greater degree of organization is valuable to my organization, because we have many sessions to handle."
"The flexibility to manage bandwidth and organize connections, and the price, make ConnectWise a really good choice."
"Valuable features include the responsiveness, ability to tune up and tune down the connection, and video."
"It allows employees to log on to corporate resources remotely."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"It is a stable product."
"The most valuable feature of this solution at the moment is the HTML5 web client. You get a browser experience, not just the terminal sort of client, and the integration with Azure multi-factor application."
"I give the stability a nine out of ten."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are unification, central management, and accessibility."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is its security and simple configuration."
"The solution is easy to deploy and there are many features available that you can turn on or off depending on your budget."
 

Cons

"I'd like some more reporting so that I don't have to delve into PowerShell and I can pull more of the local device information such as memory, apps installed, etc. It would be nice to be able to see the apps that are present there but might not be managed. For example, if they installed 7Zip, it could report that back via an installed program or feature to see what was currently installed."
"There's quite a lot of development that they can do within their Intune dashboard. I think there are too many lines hyperlinked to move you around. Others, in contrast, give you a simple dashboard and an intuitive administrative walkthrough."
"There are challenges with Intune, specifically in reporting. Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive. You can connect to Azure, monitoring, and the workbooks, but it's not streamlined."
"Intune could be improved by expanding its third-party patching capabilities for a more comprehensive solution."
"Since GMS is unavailable in China, we currently rely on device administrator enrollment for managing Android devices there."
"I know that their AI pieces are at the infancy stage, but allowing users to do more tagging for information would be an interesting thing because Intune also directly integrates with Azure. Because a lot of the devices are hosted with that, you also get a lot of tagging of user data and other things like that."
"Customer service used to be better. In the last couple of years, support has not been very good, even with Premier and Premium support. It's been very hit-or-miss."
"Intune doesn't provide much control over Windows servers. It's something we struggle with."
"There could be improvement to the remote command line tools."
"Reporting could definitely use improvement. With LogMeIn Rescue, I used to be able to, for instance, at the end of the month, pull off a report of every session. It was very simple... I could see the name that was typed in, the IP address to the computer that it was connected to, if it was running Windows... It just doesn't seem - there might be but I haven't found it - to be a way of pulling that information out of ConnectWise."
"The recent redesign has made it slower and basically worthless."
"At the moment, there's absolutely no specific feature that we actually need additionally since all the features that we need are available."
"I was not thrilled with their support. I do not have a lot of time to deal with the attention which is needed to fix issues."
"I would like to see more overlap, meaning, I would like to be able to see what processes are running on a computer, for example, or what services are running."
"There is one back-end issue that I am running into at some of locations where I login to provide support, and sometimes port 443 is blocked. That is what it uses to connect. So, I am having to do workarounds to get a session started."
"There needs to be a way to run the agent without installing, like GoToAssist."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having graphical acceleration."
"In the next release, I would like to see better performance over slower networks, and integration with Linux, but this is something that we're going to get out of Microsoft in terms of a unified solution."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having a better application for managing multiple sessions. There used to be one but they stopped supporting it."
"In the past, my company had faced some issues related to the stability of the product. The product's stability can be improved."
"It could offer better security for enterprises."
"Security in the connection between us and our clients' servers is something that can be improved."
"My customers are worried that the RDP protocol can be easily compromised and would like the option to use an alternative like Blast."
"Remote Desktop Services doesn't scale well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are licenses required for this solution. We enable licenses on the devices we need to manage."
"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."
"The price of Intune is included with the license for Office 365, so we don't have to pay anything extra for it."
"I recently got to know that the AD P1 license is compulsory to use Intune Autopilot, which was surprising for me. Earlier, this was not the case. It is the wrong thing to do. We now need to purchase AD P1 licenses for us and for our customers. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."
"The Intune license model is costly."
"Microsoft's licensing is more flexible and adaptive than its competitors."
"It is not a cheap solution. The price for a device when you start using it at a large scale can be improved. It is covered under our enterprise agreement. We pay once a year. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"The pricing for Microsoft Intune is reasonable. Our clients are satisfied."
"Their licensing model is good, their pricing model is good, their service is good; bandwidth is excellent. They're consistent."
"It is priced fairly."
"Make sure you have enough licensing for all the techs that you have."
"We pay an annual licensing fee."
"The cloud version is relatively inexpensive, but the on-premise version is expensive if you do not need three technicians, only one or two for concurrent sessions."
"I think the product's pricing is a good value. I paid $600 a year and that was fine for me. It was about $50 a month. Licensing is all very straightforward."
"Pricing is fair for Control and the licensing is simple."
"We pay $85 per month for each user for a ConnectWise package with multiple solutions."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. We're on the educational or academic license, and our terms are good. We're very happy with the pricing."
"There is a licensing cost."
"I think that Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is expensive compared to Login solution."
"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable."
"The cost is fair."
"It will probably cost about $500 USD to get the resources set up in the cloud."
"The pricing is moderate."
"Although not an expensive product, pricing is always something that can be improved."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ConnectWise Control?
I download the product for free with ConnectWise RMM's license.
What needs improvement with ConnectWise Control?
All the features provided by the product in terms of screen connectors have been good. There can be some complexities...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
I've never had an issue with it. I've always thought the pricing for RDS was reasonable.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
We would like configuration to be automatic and the price to be close to zero, however, that's not realistic. Everyon...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
ConnectWise Control, ScreenConnect
Remote Desktop Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Jon Rosen Systems
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about ConnectWise ScreenConnect vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.