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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
377
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Devolutions Remote Desktop ...
Ranking in Remote Access
10th
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) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 5.4%, down from 10.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.6%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune5.4%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services6.6%
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager2.2%
Other85.8%
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Senior Business Development Executive at Digitaltrack
Centralized device management has automated onboarding and improves remote security compliance
One thing I feel Microsoft Intune could improve is troubleshooting visibility. In many cases, when a policy or application deployment fails, the error messages are a bit generic. So, admins still spend time checking logs manually or testing on devices one by one. Compared to the simplicity of deployment, troubleshooting sometimes feels less mature. I also think reporting and real-time monitoring could be stronger. The dashboard gives useful information, but in large environments, many teams still depend on additional tools or scripts for deeper reporting and analytics. If I had to focus on one area first, I would probably choose troubleshooting and reporting. Deployment through Microsoft Intune is generally straightforward, but when something fails, identifying the exact root cause can still take more time than expected. Error messages are sometimes too generic, and admins often have to dig through logs, sync status, or multiple portals to understand what actually happened. I think user experience and policy management could also improve further. Microsoft Intune has become much better over the years, but sometimes the admin portal still feels fragmented because certain configurations open in different sections or redirect to older interfaces. For new admins, especially, it can take time to understand where everything is located. Another thing is policy conflict handling. In larger organizations, multiple device policies, compliance rules, and configuration profiles can overlap. When conflicts happen, the visibility is not always very clear, so admins spend time figuring out which policy actually won or caused the issue.
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

"Overall, I would rate Microsoft Intune as eight out of ten."
"If any user tries to access company data, it directly interacts with the conditional access policy. This helps us protect our data and set the criteria for how data can be accessed and shared."
"While Microsoft Intune boasts a wide range of features, its user-friendliness and bundled licensing cost are key considerations for me."
"The stability is good."
"If they have Office 365 or Azure, Intune is by far the best choice."
"It's cloud-based with no need for on-premise infrastructure, you can access it anywhere and start working on it, and you will have the record of data in your hand anytime if you need it quickly."
"Microsoft Intune has positively impacted our organization by giving us a more centralized and consistent way to manage endpoints, especially as remote and hybrid work become more common."
"If you are looking for endpoint protection and compliance, Microsoft Intune is definitely a go-to product."
"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."
"Organizing credentials, connections, and contents by clients makes it so simple for someone to provide support."
"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."
"Initial setup was very straightforward."
"Integration with a third party credential storage, web login, and VPN are the most usable and useful functions at the moment."
""Inherited" function for credentials - Configure the desired credential at one (top) location, and use the Inherited function on all sub-connections that should use this credential."
"Being able to store my credentials makes connecting a breeze."
"It sped up our response rate to anything that happened in the network."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is scalable."
"Using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has helped my team save time and improve productivity because we had Microsoft servers that were impossible to connect from our MacBook Pro laptops, and once we started using RDP, we could connect and move forward to deliver the project."
"It's simple and easy to use."
"It's a good solution, and especially if you already have Microsoft running then it's probably one of the better solutions to choose from."
"The installation is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is the ability to remote into a system that is not on-premises."
"Scalability-wise, it is very good, with auto-scaling so if there are more users required then Azure will help you to automatically manage it, and in addition it is HA, so I think that the overall scalability is pretty good."
"The solution is scalable."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Intune fails a lot when it comes to device compliance."
"Its integration with Mac and Linux devices can be better. They should provide more features similar to Windows. We should be able to manage policies within Linux and Mac machines. If we can have more granular controls for these two operating systems, it will be really helpful."
"More integration with monitoring tools is needed."
"Certificate management within Microsoft Intune's Suite is still under development. It's not very reliable compared to other certificate tools, though it has made good progress within a couple of years."
"Microsoft Intune could be faster with client to server communication. Whenever I push something, it takes time; sometimes it takes more than one hour to deploy on the Windows side."
"Setting up Intune Autopilot can be a little complicated."
"One major concern I have is user friction. When you enforce many policies and people log into apps like Microsoft Teams or Outlook, they encounter numerous MFA and other policies."
"I wish Microsoft would keep up with their documentation. They make changes so quickly to these platforms that they do not update the documentation properly in a timely manner."
"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."
"Maybe some clipboard functions could be added along with integration of different software."
"If there was a way to streamline the process, it would make it nice."
"Security roles could be improved, especially by enabling renaming of a role."
"The filing system of connections is a little clunky, but is completely functional."
"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."
"I suggest some improvements for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, such as introducing redundant gateways or better bandwidth access to reduce the frequency of remote connection breaks, especially during larger sessions with clients where I often need three or four remote sessions."
"The pricing could be better."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services needs to improve its security."
"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."
"The only problems that you're going to have with the remote desktop are going to be firewall ports, security, and NLA, which is a net network level access control, or TLS transfer layer security or some other SSL-type of security."
"The administrative functionality is not enough for me."
"We had some instability during the implementation process. This has since been resolved."
"I would like to see a web-based interface, instead of client installation to refresh the UI through HTML."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Existing E5 license holders for M365, Intune, and Azure, receive a free license."
"This cost is approximately $30 USD per user per month."
"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."
"We spend a lot of money on Intune licensing, and some of our users have to be double licensed just because of how our dev and corporate environments are segmented."
"Microsoft Intune's pricing is reasonable."
"Its price is fair. It's a normal price. It isn't too expensive or too cheap."
"Intune's pricing is reasonable considering its benefits and the high costs it helps avoid."
"Setup costs for most people is negligible."
"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."
"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable. The solution can come for free for some clients with certain agreements."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows."
"I would say it's expensive as there similar products available for free."
"The solution has a pretty comparable pricing."
"The solution has a perpetual license and it is purchased upfront."
"It will probably cost about $500 USD to get the resources set up in the cloud."
"The solution is overly expensive."
"It's not an expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business192
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise186
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: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.