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Jamf Pro 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

Jamf Pro
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (2nd)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Jamf Pro and Microsoft Configuration Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Jamf Pro is designed for Mobile Device Management (MDM) and holds a mindshare of 29.5%, up 28.7% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 6.0% mindshare, down 8.6% since last year.
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Pete C - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable with a self-service portal and a good security posture
Policies enabled for self-service should have keywords attached, so that multiple search terms can direct to a single preferred result, without having to clutter the description field. The new remote support tool is still lacking features compared to other industry solutions. There is no built-in functionality for tracking changes over time for multiple devices. All patch reporting is only a current snapshot. The password management tools are fairly outdated. The web console (GUI) is slow with maddening UI/UX inconsistencies.
MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements
While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's as easy as procuring the licensing for the apps and then setting it to the volume purchasing back in Jamf."
"The self-service portal enables standard users to install and update software, change settings, and open organizational URLs."
"One of the key features that I liked the most and a lot of the customer value as well is the geofencing. Geofencing is geographical locations. If the device is on a particular premise, then the policy applies. And when the device is not there, the policy goes away."
"I have been using Jamf Pro for a few years now, and I'm impressed with its functionality and ease of use."
"Jamf cut the time it takes to deploy a new machine to a new user."
"Jamf has made it achievable for us to easily deploy & manage Apple devices anywhere in the world, without the need for hands-on assistance from IT staff."
"The ease of use and access allows us to manage all of our devices collaboratively."
"From the reviews that we are getting, the feedback from the client, the tool is very good on the Jamf side - especially for the Macs."
"Microsoft Configuration Manager is integrated with other Microsoft products."
"I like the data collection."
"What's valuable is the basic management of the systems, being able to control who can access the systems."
"It is a very well-rounded product. It is a complete package with all the features using which we are able to manage our PCs very efficiently."
"Endpoint Manager is valuable to our organization because it allows us to connect to our enterprise from remote locations securely. The most useful feature is its robustness and scalability. It is highly scalable and flexible, allowing us to use it in various environments. Additionally, we can specialize the policies related to each device group. This ensures that each group has access to the applications they need for their work and non-work hours."
"The dashboards have information about our assets."
"Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is very scalable."
"I like its ease of use. It does what you need it to do, and it's a one-stop-shop for the company and for all your deployments. If you incorporate Intune into it, you can have both. You can bring your own devices and corporate devices, and everything runs out of SCCM and Intune."
 

Cons

"For patch management in Jamf, two Smart Groups are required as patch policies cannot be scoped as of now. This is not a major issue, as there is a great workaround by using a wrapped "member of" duplicate Smart Group. However, being able to avoid two Smart Groups for patch management would be nice."
"A more modern UI in the next release will make the product absolutely perfect."
"It would be great for Jamf to provide templates for commonly used tasks like updating an operating system, packaging commonly used apps like Office 365, or enabling FileVault."
"They need to alphabetize payloads."
"This solution would benefit from more focus on Self Service, such as Office 365 and GSuite integration."
"We had some issues with its integration with other products, such as Intune. There were some issues with the way you have to register your device into Intune."
"The solution needs cheaper training."
"I would love to see more integration with ASM and ABM."
"The product needs to improve scalability."
"A lot of experience is needed in terms of troubleshooting, as this is one of the most difficult tasks in MECM. We were seven people in a group and I was the only one that had the patience to do the troubleshooting at times."
"The solution should incorporate AI. It should also incorporate real-time capabilities. If we could get real-time information about challenges or issues, it would allow us to take immediate action. For example, with the recent outage caused by the Windows issue, having a real-time warning system could have helped us avoid or reduce the downtime we experienced."
"The solution could improve the functionality for automating, license management. Additionally, more and better-looking reports are needed."
"The database should be made to be more stable and robust, but not so much the configuration."
"This solution needs to be supported on all Operating systems."
"The operations could be faster and you need some patience with this tool."
"Built in PowerShell cmdlets would be a nice feature because managing clients remotely can be a pain without knowing the WMI calls to run."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product is surely worth the cost of implementation."
"The total ROI is worth every penny."
"JumpStart looks a little bit pricey; however, it is worth every penny."
"If you have the in-house capability to support Jamf, then paying for onboarding / JumpStart training is a no brainer."
"Don’t go into a sales call without knowing all the details of your system because Jamf has a ton of tools outside of Jamf Pro to offer and knowing them ahead of time is a must."
"We have signed a licensing contract for three years. There is an option to buy an annual license subscription, but we opted for three years as it came with a 25% or 30% discount."
"It seems fair. It could be a little bit less, but you have to pay for a product. You can't get something for free. You get what you pay for, so if you put in a little bit of money, you're going to get a good quality product."
"This is a pricey solution."
"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."
"The price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is expensive."
"The price is competitive and reasonable."
"For enterprises, there is an annual license required to use this solution. The price of the solution could be cheaper. However, this is mostly because of the exchange rate from the dollar to the Nigerian currency."
"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."
"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
"Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
42%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
University
5%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Jamf Pro?
The most valuable features of Jamf Pro for me are the device locator, which helps find missing iPads, and the ability to remotely manage and disable devices.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jamf Pro?
The pricing structure is one of the cons. However, the licensing model is simple and easy to manage from an MSP perspective. Licenses are annual, and any changes are communicated effectively.
What needs improvement with Jamf Pro?
The biggest area for improvement is the price and the structure of Jamf's onboarding process, especially the mandatory JumpStart consultation, which can be costly for small organizations. The solut...
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 do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
 

Also Known As

JAMF Software Casper Suite
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Xero, National Geographic, Oxford University, Via, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Fallon, Cabela's
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 JAMF, Microsoft, Cisco and others in Mobile Device Management (MDM). Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.