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Microsoft Intune vs Parallels Access comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 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
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)
Parallels Access
Ranking in Remote Access
23rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.9%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Parallels Access is 1.8%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune4.9%
Parallels Access1.8%
Other93.3%
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.
JP
CEO at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Allows users to access and operate their computers remotely
When you want to transfer a file from your iPad or remote device to the computer, the copy-and-paste feature doesn't always work. I'd have to turn on the Bluetooth a lot of times and transfer it that way on both devices, which was troublesome. However, it would sometimes randomly work. I could go on my iPad, find whatever I wanted to do, click copy, then go over to the computer through Parallels Access, click paste, and it would randomly work. I had to call Parallels many times. They would log in and try something, which would temporarily work, but then it wouldn't. When it worked, it made integration between the two things great. That was a very helpful feature that didn't get polished.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Intune is a tool designed for enterprise customers to protect enterprise data from leakage or sharing."
"The Microsoft Windows Autopilot and Defender policies are the most valuable features of this solution."
"Microsoft Intune has saved me about 30% of my time through streamlined processes and efficient resource management."
"Its most valuable aspect is it is very connected with the Microsoft ecosystem."
"The product has eased the deployment of Microsoft apps to the devices. We can manage it properly. We can control it and push the updates. Another company helped us with the deployment. However, we can do it internally."
"It is more efficient to have one solution rather than having security parts spread across three, four, or five solutions."
"Intune provides a centralized management solution, although its suitability depends on specific needs and comparisons with alternatives like Jamf, Kandji, or ManageEngine."
"The most valuable feature is probably mobile device management. Small businesses are coming under greater scrutiny and requirements for compliance as time goes on. We don't have to worry about a VPN because we can manage these devices, control company data, and lock users out. If needed, we can remotely wipe devices and deadman-switch them."
"What seems to be the most valuable from the customer side is the ease of operation, and the overall experience they have."
"Parallels Access has flexible licensing policies, which is beneficial for customers who have intermittent usage or users who are on and off the system."
"We don't have problems with stability. Everything is good."
"The application used to publish for mobile devices is very good and the desktop publishing is very, very good."
"Parallels Access gives me full access and control of the computer, and I can do anything I want remotely."
"It's got a very easy-to-use interface."
"It's great that the total deployment can happen completely remotely."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Intune's support for Mac devices is lacking and could be improved."
"A major challenge is making all the products work within device management solutions like Intune. It would be beneficial if Microsoft removed support for older products much earlier in the process."
"The solution can have some compliance problems in general and the end-point user can bypass easily the company policies in Intune."
"I would like to see micro VPN. I like the way that some of the other providers have done something similar where, as you open that app on an end-point device, it creates a micro VPN straight into your device, which is quite a nice little feature. Also, Microsoft Intune relies heavily on its fellow products in the suite. It would be nice if Microsoft Intune could stand on its own two feet."
"I rate Microsoft support four out of 10. Support is one area where Microsoft needs to improve a lot. I recently raised a ticket for a Microsoft Azure issue, and it took two and a half weeks for support to reply. They need to improve support across their entire catalog of products."
"Currently, BitLocker does not support BYOD enrollment, which is a product limitation."
"This limitation in Microsoft Intune is a significant drawback; we cannot produce overall reports on an organizational level."
"Policy and app deployment should be faster, as it currently takes between minutes to hours to apply, with an average of one hour."
"The solution may not scale well for enterprises."
"One challenge we do notice is that the application is limited to Windows servers only. If a customer has a Linux server, things get complicated. They should open it up a bit to be more compatible with different types of servers."
"When you want to transfer a file from your iPad or remote device to the computer, the copy-and-paste feature doesn't always work."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing policy. The price point is pretty aggressive."
"The scalability is great for small or medium-sized businesses. However, it may not scale well for enterprise-level entities."
"They could improve the reporting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing needs improvement."
"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."
"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."
"Intune is available as an individual product, but it also comes with Office 365 Premium or an Enterprise license, and the price varies for each version."
"The tool is cheaper than our company's other MDM tools."
"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."
"Cost is not my department, but the product is included in the E5 license that we already pay for every user, so no additional cost is incurred."
"Microsoft licenses are costly."
"The licensing costs are about $100 per user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
11%
Transportation Company
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business192
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise187
No data available
 

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 it easy to control security and manage the usage of mobile apps when you have a ...
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 the things I like about it: Pros: Protected productivity: Intune gives you th...
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 access to both Microsoft’s user community as well as around-the-clock customer s...
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Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Gilt Groupe K.K.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Intune vs. Parallels Access and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.