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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs NetCrunch comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 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 Configuration Man...
Ranking in Server Monitoring
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Software Distribution (2nd), Configuration Management (4th), Patch Management (2nd)
NetCrunch
Ranking in Server Monitoring
28th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (74th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (60th), Log Management (54th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 4.2%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetCrunch is 2.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Configuration Manager4.2%
NetCrunch2.3%
Other93.5%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

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.
it_user1038504 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Administrator, Technical Lead at Connectivity Wireless
A network monitoring platform with a useful reporting feature, but permission-based options could be better
The initial setup is fairly easy. Most of it's wizard-based. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to set it up. But if you don't know certain things related to protocols and everything else, it might be difficult. If you know how SNMP works, it'll be fairly simple to set up.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is user-friendly and easy to learn."
"The solution is the best there is in the market today."
"We're a Microsoft-centric organization, so we are happy with the integration between products."
"Automation of operating system, application, and update deployments massively reduces IT operations effort."
"We are using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager in our organization for patch deployment, and we additionally deploy and manage Microsoft antivirus solutions to most of the desktops and the servers which we have."
"Offers good patching."
"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."
"I like a lot of the reporting capabilities and baseline configurations."
"The setup is very intuitive and quick - it all just took a few minutes we were done."
"Reporting on NetCrunch is pretty good; it's very similar to SolarWinds, just with a different interface, and the majority of everything there was beneficial."
 

Cons

"In spite of us being a premier customer, we find the support unsatisfactory."
"Based on my experience with SCCM 2016, the main, big issue is not having a good user-friendly environment. It needs much better GUI."
"This solution should be simpler, and more consistent across modules/sections."
"Sometimes the time it takes to find the fault is a bit too long. The resolution time needs to be shortened quite a bit."
"On some hardware, we'd like an easier way to get peripherals attached."
"Its dashboard can be improved and made a little bit better."
"The deployment process is lengthy and should be quicker to complete."
"We'd like the solution to make it easier to manage remote users."
"Our network is made up of a lot of Cisco devices, and it needs improvements."
"I didn't care for the role-based, permission-based options, which were not the best."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the price of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager an eight out of ten."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"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 license price could be reduced for Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager They should make the price more affordable for smaller companies, most companies would be able to use the solution if it was priced better. There are more people on this cloud because you don't have to have either a server room or an on-premise server. You can have one IT person handle this without any local infrastructure."
"Microsoft provides a steep price for their enterprise products, but they offer very competitive pricing for their legacy customers."
"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
"The price of SCCM depends on the size of the organization. The price is competitive."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
24%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
manufacturing, banking, utilities, energy, universities, healthcare institutions, school districts, military and police entities, non-profit organizations, 
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. NetCrunch and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.