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Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
378
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Devolutions Remote Desktop ...
Ranking in Remote Access
11th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Remote Access
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 6.3%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.7%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune6.3%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services6.7%
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager2.0%
Other85.0%
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

OluwashileAdeniyi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Centralized endpoint security has improved and supports hybrid work and BYOD policies
Regarding what I dislike about Microsoft Intune and its downsides, I would say that more Mac controls are needed because we have limited Mac and Linux control. When comparing controls and policies between Windows, Mac, and Linux, Windows has almost everything you can think of, while Mac and Linux have limited types of control. You cannot implement certain things on Mac and Linux that you can on Windows. The limited controls are a major issue. Additionally, if Microsoft could find a way to embed servers into Microsoft Intune, that would be beneficial. Microsoft Intune is not really designed for servers or Windows servers. It is more tailored towards Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems. Windows servers are not fully supported. Enterprise organizations usually have both servers and endpoints, which are users' workstations. For servers, most people look for other solutions such as SCCM, which is Configuration Manager. However, SCCM is what Microsoft Intune is trying to replace. Both SCCM and Microsoft Intune belong to Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to transition organizations into Microsoft Intune, the native cloud solution. However, because this update is still in process, servers are not fully compatible with Microsoft Intune and cannot be managed by it. The current policy that has emerged from issues with clients is what they call co-management, which is relatively new, and I do not know if adoption is significant. Many legacy or older customers who have been using these products for decades still have SCCM. When it is time for them to manage their Windows devices, they use what is called cloud attach. Cloud attach is a term whereby your SCCM is connected to your Microsoft Intune. Most people do not know about it, but I have deployed it for several organizations. Cloud attach and co-management work together so that your device is in SCCM, but some policies are pushed from Microsoft Intune. It is like two different solutions working hand in hand. That is what they call co-management. Microsoft Intune does not bring all of your endpoint and security management tools into one place, which is the goal and how it should be. However, as I mentioned, servers are not included. If we talk about end users, Microsoft Intune does bring all your devices together. In a typical enterprise environment, you have end users with workstations, laptops, company-issued phones, and bring your own devices. You can create policies for all of these. However, for the backend, your servers do not have much coverage. Servers are not really covered by Microsoft Intune in that way.
StephenWatson - PeerSpot reviewer
National Sales Manager & Technical Consultant at Secure Networks
Easy to deploy with great security and responsive support
The security on offer is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It offers, for example, two-factor authentification. The remote connection across platforms is great. You can deploy it on anything, including Windows, Mac, iOS, your iPhone, et cetera. It offers multi-platform utility. This makes it great for enterprise. Users can use it for PAM access as well. The feature of Devolutions that has improved our customer's efficiency the most is probably the security side. It's gotten a lot tighter. Authentication and secure connections are helpful. They use encryption between them, which is just standard for them. The company has so many regulatory controls that they must ensure their security is very tight. There's a lot of potential cybercrime around casinos, and this solution ensures they are well-protected. Devolutions is a great product that can be safely used between China, Australia, or the Philippines, and it remains a good, safe product.
reviewer2795433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Secure remote access has protected sensitive country data and supports strict compliance needs
I understand from the IT team managing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services that it is complex to set up the multiple roles, certificates, and networks required. Networking is quite complicated. Even though on the data center side it is quite simple, maintaining the farm of other connections that connect to that server is the complex piece. I understand there are more modern systems replicating what this solution does, which are easier to use, such as Azure Virtual Desktop within Microsoft Azure Cloud or Amazon WorkSpaces, which I have used before. Rather than having to manage all the complex networking, you could abstract it away a little further in the cloud for easier use. I also understand that this tool is in an end-of-life state now, with Microsoft actively pushing people towards Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365. I do not believe further features will be rolled out due to its end-of-life state, making it a legacy solution now.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the ones that make sure that the deployment is of a standard operating system and the Zero Touch deployment, which is very useful. This allows users to have an out of box experience."
"Intune reduces the load on our on-prem Active Directory by having everything go to one Intune panel, so we can configure group policies, deploy applications, and manage devices, and it has really improved our operations."
"It has helped with compliance. It has helped to ensure that devices comply with the organization's policy. If they are not compliant and secure, they cannot access the resources."
"I like that it's very good and very simple. I found that we just needed to have a proper subscription for an Intune tenant, and from the subscription, if we have the right role assigned, like the global admin role or the owner role, we can use Microsoft cloud resources. With the help of that, we can do many things like setting up Microsoft Intune in the cloud to create our virtual machines. All these can be done, and the steps are very simple. I really liked it. I like features like Windows Auto-Enrollment. I like it very much because whenever you supply it to the end-user, it will be ready to use immediately. The end-user only needs to provide the user credentials, and then they are good to go. I also really like Cloud PC, which was recently launched on Azure."
"Microsoft Intune is a tool designed for enterprise customers to protect enterprise data from leakage or sharing."
"The dashboards, the security, and the customization capabilities work very well for us."
"Advanced endpoint analytics provides granular information about devices in Microsoft Intune, facilitating easier troubleshooting at system and application levels."
"As an IT administrator, I appreciate Intune's ability to implement granular device-level policies for our organization's employees."
"RDM has enabled me to do most of my work in one place. This helps me be able to have an RDP session open to a server in one tab and an SSH session open to a VMware host in another."
"Devolutions's team is constantly making improvements to their products. If you submit a feature request, they are usually quick to implement it."
"Setup and installation was simple."
"Being able to aggregate all connections (RDP, FTP, SSH, VPN, etc.) in the same interface and make each server readily available in the same way, which lets me focus on the problem regardless of where it is."
"Documentation per entry, good for device configs or important/special instructions."
"The interface is great to work with as it allows multiple connections in a tabbed interface. It also has the option to automatically start a VPN or an SSH tunnel, if required."
"Organizing credentials, connections, and contents by clients makes it so simple for someone to provide support."
"Being able to store my credentials makes connecting a breeze."
"I like the way it can assess our system."
"The solution is easy to deploy and there are many features available that you can turn on or off depending on your budget."
"This solution saves us time and money because running applications directly on the server means that we can use lower-priced, entry-level computers for the users."
"It has enabled our clinical staff to get real-time medicine prescribing information at the patients' bedside with a near 100% service uptime."
"The performance meets our requirements and the stability is good."
"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."
"The performance is one of the main features of this solution."
"The advice I would give to others looking into using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is to use it out of the box as it is one of the best and most valuable tools on the market."
 

Cons

"I expect Microsoft Intune to have more features in the cloud because there are two major functionalities that we need to be added. This is software metering and license management. These functionalities, for now, must be on-premise. For this purpose, we have set up a SQL Server and I hope that in near future this option will be in the cloud in Microsoft Intune."
"The support is not particularly good. Sometimes when you open a case with Microsoft, you end up resolving the issue by yourself."
"The installation could be improved to be simplified."
"Microsoft Intune needs to improve the initial login process."
"In terms of what can be improved, I am looking for better enhancements regarding Apple management, not only on the mobile device, but also on the laptop."
"There could be more wizard-driven policy development or creation. Some of the policies can get quite complex. If they have a wizard that assists the administrators in creating the policy, that will be a great job."
"Logs and similar deployment/remediation detail for application delivery to Windows 10 computers should to be improved Additional application deployment options e.g. MSI deployment with more complex parameters or additional side-by-side files, and non-MSI deployment options."
"Microsoft Intune could improve in reporting data for endpoints and fleets. Enhanced capabilities to run queries and gather specific device data to identify trends or issues would be beneficial. The feature parity for MacOS and handling devices from an MDM perspective is not comprehensive. Consolidation of these functionalities within Intune would simplify processes and finances."
"Maybe some clipboard functions could be added along with integration of different software."
"Sometimes the manual inventory of some entries hangs, and RDM must be closed via task manager."
"Sometimes when updating, the install window is on top of the prompt to close the application."
"On complex setups, I actually needed to reach out to support to get it working correctly."
"The console is a little bit clunky."
"There are always bugs to squash, beyond that, it is really kind of difficult for new users to discover and use many of the features due to the bewildering array of choices and ways to do things."
"Security roles could be improved, especially by enabling renaming of a role."
"If there was a way to streamline the process, it would make it nice."
"I rate Microsoft's customer service support a two out of ten. In general, Microsoft has poor support."
"The pricing could be better."
"The performance depends on connectivity."
"There could be better options and it could be faster."
"It's not as reliable a protocol as, for example, Citrix."
"The price is too high."
"There could be some improvement in the integration of the solution."
"In a future release, they could improve by providing more advanced technology and better buffering for if the connection is degraded or lost."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's bundled with Business Premium and an E3 license, which is beneficial. If you have to pay extra, it's pricey, but with the bundled package, it's acceptable. They recently increased the Business Premium pricing, which we don't appreciate. The price increase and yearly commitment are causing some problems for us."
"The cost is handled through our Office 365 license, so I have yet to be able to compare it directly with other tools in its class."
"Microsoft Intune has a user-based subscription model. You can go for a monthly or a yearly payment."
"While I don't have access to high-level financial information, I believe we have achieved lower costs with this implementation."
"With one user base license, we can use Intune for up to five devices. However, with Soti MobiControl, each license is tied to a single device, meaning one license is dedicated to one device only."
"There is a license required to use the solution. If you're core users in Office 365, for example, you have Outlook email and E3 license, this is only email. You have to buy an EMS license to have Microsoft Intune. It is expensive."
"Microsoft offers some licensing where it's included at no extra cost when customers are already using the licenses. In such a case, it's a really good value. If you have to buy the licensing for it, it's probably on par with other solutions. It isn't substantially more or less expensive. The great thing is that it is included in some of Microsoft's licensed packages. So, some customers don't have to spend additional money for it. Typically, most providers that support Intune do charge a management fee of some sort or some fee. Certainly, we're no exception."
"For organizations that are a Microsoft shop, the pricing is compelling."
"The Free Edition is completely free. You can try also the Enterprise Edition for 30 days for free."
"If you are a Microsoft MVP, VMware vExpert, Cisco Champion, etc., Devolutions offers a free Enterprise License."
"Setup costs for most people is negligible."
"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."
"The tool must be cheaper."
"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable. The solution can come for free for some clients with certain agreements."
"The solution is overly expensive."
"The solution has a perpetual license and it is purchased upfront."
"We do not have to pay for the product."
"It's not an expensive solution."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business192
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise185
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise36
 

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 Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
With the security factors built into it, the price point is quite good. They have entry-level and enterprise-level li...
What needs improvement with Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
The console is a little bit clunky. It could be modernized. A tech developer might think it is fine, however, from a ...
What is your primary use case for Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
We use the solution for a customer that needs pretty high security. They are in the poker machine manufacturing world...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the pricing is based on licensing costs and the setup ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services can be improved in several areas. Currently, it requires a license cost, it has per...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
Our main use case for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is to allow multiple users to remotely access our Windows mac...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
No data available
Remote Desktop Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Financial Services, Healthcare Provider Network, Government Agency,Technology and Software Development,Telecommunications, Retail Chain Management, MSPs, Manufacturing, Global Logistics and Shipping, Education, IT teams.
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.