ManageEngine Endpoint Central Reviews

I am part of the Professional Services team for the Apple team at a reseller in India, and my profile is to implement everything that Apple technology provides via all other MDM solutions or security solutions, with ManageEngine being one of them. My reseller is a partner for Zoho and ManageEngine, and we also do managed services for ManageEngine and for other customers for Zoho and ManageEngine tools altogether, the entire suite.

My profile is more towards the device endpoint management and security side of it, and I have been using this tool on the customer side to help them achieve what they want to do for their Apple devices by following Apple best practices, and ManageEngine just happens to be one of the tools which helps me to do so.

The best feature of ManageEngine Endpoint Central is the packaging tool, which provides packaging for Windows as well as device packaging and patch management. It is easier for Windows devices, but the only downside is that the same experience is not exactly available on Apple. If that can be improved, it would enhance the entire experience of IT admins or the customers who are buying Zoho tools or ManageEngine tools, which would be appreciated by their Apple engineers as well.

Currently, it is more focused toward Windows; when it comes to Apple, there are a few gaps in between, and it can be filled, but it requires a few extra clicks and steps when trying to do it on Apple devices.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central enhances endpoint management with AI technologies by integrating features from the admin perspective, allowing them to ask questions and receive documentation that addresses their queries. This alleviates a lot of previous issues where users struggled to find the correct documents, often wasting time on Google searches; only industry experts would know which documents to follow, making it difficult for normal IT admins.

From a ManageEngine perspective, there is room for improvement regarding the Platform SSO technology introduced by Apple, which allows you to integrate your hardware with your identity providers. It used to be only a few selected ones via OIDC protocols or some other protocols, which are not necessary anymore.

If a customer is already using Microsoft 365, they can integrate with any MDM for Platform SSO, which essentially hardens their device identity with the person logging in for the first time. It also helps automate enrollment and provide a zero-touch experience. Currently, while some MDM tools InTune and Jamf support this feature, ManageEngine still does not fully support Platform SSO via Microsoft or Google. I have customers using ManageEngine who are looking forward to this solution, and if ManageEngine can provide it, it would enhance the overall product value.

For enterprise users, the solution needs improvement. For SMB, it is straightforward; if it is a small company of 100 to 500 users, anything below 1,000, they do not have much of a compliance or security requirement—they just want to manage their devices and push applications. Simple tasks are easier to accomplish.

However, when it comes to enterprise-grade deployment, many complex configurations need to be considered, such as Wi-Fi configurations, network configurations, VPN configurations, and advanced certification deployment, such as ACME certification deployment practice introduced by Apple. These are a few things that can be improved on that side, but from a basic user perspective, if someone is in the SMB market or a company just starting off pre-IPO, without going into compliance, they typically find Zoho and ManageEngine to fit their needs. For enterprise-grade deployments, it is more than enough for Windows, but for Apple, it is still in development and not up to the mark.

My experience with ManageEngine Endpoint Central is around six to seven months now, and before that, I had a wide gap, but altogether it is about a year or so.

It is a stable solution; it does not provide incorrect information. Instead, it will say it is not available rather than showing something just out of thin air. Some competing tools such as Scalefusion and 42Gears sometimes tend to showcase wrong information, whereas ManageEngine prefers not to display any information if it cannot be properly gathered.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central is a scalable solution.

I would rate technical support from ManageEngine an eight for the paid version and a five for the free version.

The reason I rate the free version five out of ten is that there are a few common questions that some users, especially those who are very new to IT or have no IT admin background, tend to reach out for support on. Instead of pointing them to helpful documentation or asking the right questions, support often asks irrelevant extra questions. There are optimizations to be made, so it would improve. Instead of investing an hour on unnecessary issues, we could streamline the process to focus on specific pain points and make it easier.

The initial setup of ManageEngine Endpoint Central is straightforward; it is not hard, and it is very easy for someone who is just starting off. For SMBs, it is best, but for enterprise users, I think a bit more automation or a user-friendly experience can be created.

Regarding the pricing of ManageEngine Endpoint Central, it depends on the region. In India, it is very cost-effective and provides great value. In other regions such as the UAE, US, or UK, the pricing model changes. Nonetheless, from a pricing perspective, I find it competitive and a good solution to have within an organization. If you have a limited budget and seek a unified endpoint management tool with an end-to-end solution, combined with an IDP solution from Zoho, it complements the entire suite similarly to Microsoft. I would not say it is exactly Microsoft, but it offers good value addition and value-added services.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central is usually deployed on the cloud; people are obviously moving towards cloud solutions. Unless it is something from the BFSI or hospital sector, they would prefer on-premise; otherwise, everyone prefers cloud nowadays, based on my overall input and experience.

Based on my experience, I would recommend ManageEngine Endpoint Central to others if it fits their budget and technical requirements, as it is one of the best tools available in comparison to its peers in the market. It is approaching the leader category rather than just being an upcoming tool; it is gradually establishing itself as a leading solution.

I would currently rate ManageEngine Endpoint Central eight out of ten, as it fits best for most organizations, apart from a few edge cases.

Managing the endpoint, inventory, and software is the main use case and main requirement for the product. I check the patch status of the endpoint components, and software deployment is also a primary function.

Software distribution and remote access services are the most useful functions and features in ManageEngine Endpoint Central that I really appreciate. Automated patch management is also helpful.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central helps reduce some vulnerabilities. However, vulnerability management in ManageEngine Endpoint Central is not the primary tool that we are using for vulnerability management, as we also work with some third parties for that.

I also use ManageEngine Endpoint Central asset management. It helps me take the situation under control based on my extensive experience with ManageEngine Endpoint Central in terms of inventory, software, license optimization, checking vulnerabilities to reduce the impact of a missed patch on a PC and different devices.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central is what I am personally working with and using, along with the Service Desk, which is another tool we use.

We have been working with ManageEngine Endpoint Central for four years or more. The customizable packages in software deployment are very positive; you can apply different policies for the package that you are going to deploy. This is something we are still using and working with.

ManageEngine has a very large portfolio of products. There is some functionality that is not managed from ManageEngine Endpoint Central, but you can find that functionality in another module of ManageEngine's portfolio.

It would be great to see some additional options within ManageEngine Endpoint Central. A better monitoring tool to analyze network traffic related to patch management would be something good to see inside the product.

We have been working with ManageEngine Endpoint Central for four years or more.

I would rate the stability as nine; it is really stable.

I would rate scalability as eight as well; the ability to scale is a good point.

The technical support is good because we are in direct contact with the development team technician in India. I would rate the technical support from ManageEngine as eight.

Positive

I am not in the position to make this comparison correctly because we have been working with ManageEngine for four or five years and have not tested any alternative solutions.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central setup is a little bit complex at the beginning, but that is normal because we have to set up different aspects of the solution and clean up our organization. At the end, it is working quite well.

Setup and training on how the module works and how to set up jobs to deploy the software are important. The first setup and first configuration were a bit complex. You have to understand how ManageEngine Endpoint Central works and have a clear view of your organization in terms of IT and devices. Setting up the discovery properly is important.

I would rate the pricing as seven; it is quite expensive from my point of view for ManageEngine Endpoint Central.

We primarily use ManageEngine Endpoint Central for patch management. We still have around 300 servers, all of them Windows. The monthly maintenance, as well as the installation of security patches from time to time, is done by Endpoint Central. Whenever there is a security patch, we push it through Endpoint Central or conduct monthly maintenance on every last Saturday of the month.

The GUI of Endpoint Central is very user-friendly, which simplifies the process of training new users. The tabs are clearly visible and intuitive, allowing users to understand their functions without difficulty. 

Additionally, the patch management feature is effective and allows us to see what new patches are available and which machines are affected, making it easy to target specific machines and deploy patches with just a few clicks.

There are times when we have a particular software installed in our system, but we do not receive patches for it from Endpoint Central. The support team mentions that the software may not be updated in their database yet, which requires us to raise a request for their database update. This lack of regular database updates has been an issue. 

Additionally, Endpoint Central does not support Linux, which makes it challenging to patch Linux machines using commands. Support for Linux, such as CentOS or Ubuntu, would be highly beneficial.

I have been using Desktop Central, now Endpoint Central, for five years.

I rate the stability at eight out of ten. We haven't encountered issues very frequently, however, there have been instances where an update created issues, which is common across products.

We are not using any scalable features in Endpoint Central, and there's a predefined configuration with a specific number of endpoints. We haven't faced any scalability issues.

ManageEngine provides good support for their products. I rate the technical support at eight out of ten. The support team is available via chat and will create a ticket if they're not available, providing assistance even for small issues.

Positive

All ManageEngine products are very simple to set up. They do not have a lot of complexity like some other systems such as Nagios. The GUI simplifies the installation and configuration process.

The pricing is average and not very high. ManageEngine products offer reasonable prices for their product quality.

Competitors include Qualys, which is more complex than Endpoint Central, yet offers more functionality. We use both systems, scanning with Qualys and patching with Endpoint Central. Qualys provides data based on international standards, which is reliable.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central could improve by introducing features for cloud resource management, such as scanning and patching for vulnerabilities in Azure subscriptions and other cloud environments. We have moved to the cloud and might not continue using Endpoint Central once we have no endpoints or servers left to manage. 

I rate the overall product as eight out of ten.

I am using ManageEngine Endpoint Central for managing all the endpoints, such as application push, device configuration, policies, device patching, Windows patching, and third-party application patching.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central has significantly simplified my device management practices. Previously, installing something on 400 devices was quite challenging, but ManageEngine Endpoint Central has made this process much faster and easier. 

Additionally, the remote support capabilities are easy to use. The system misconfiguration part of vulnerability management is quite good, providing detailed insights into endpoint misconfigurations.

The patch management module could be simplified as it is currently a bit complicated. Other than patch management, everything else is fine. The technical support could improve response times, especially when immediate assistance is needed.

I have been using ManageEngine Endpoint Central for almost a year.

The stability of ManageEngine Endpoint Central is good; it's stable.

The solution is very scalable, especially with its cloud deployment.

I require support from time to time and usually write to them for assistance. While they are generally good, there could be improvements in their response times to align with our SLAs.

Before ManageEngine Endpoint Central, I was using Microsoft Intune for endpoint protection. I switched since Intune lacked remote support, and its deployment processes were not user-friendly.

The initial setup was straightforward as I opted for implementation from local partners. They managed everything, making it a smooth process.

I used a local partner team for the implementation, which worked out well.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central provides good ROI as the investment in the solution is justified by the support and benefits it provides.

The pricing of ManageEngine Endpoint Central is quite decent.

I did not evaluate many other options. Based on references and a demo, I decided on ManageEngine Endpoint Central.

I would recommend ManageEngine Endpoint Central to SMBs for its cost and ROI. 

Overall, I rate it as an eight on a scale of one to ten.

We use ManageEngine Endpoint Central for patch updates for computers. We push updates to endpoints using the server manager within ManageEngine. It also allows us to connect to computers remotely to address problems.

It has improved our patch management significantly because it centrally controls every update file that can be downloaded or pushed to computers. It has saved a lot of time for our IT department. Before using ManageEngine, it would take a lot of time, but now it has reduced the time and the number of team members required for these tasks. There is a cost saving.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central is straightforward to use and implement. It helps in deploying patches and software, and remotely connecting to computers to address issues.

Sometimes computers fail to receive patches, and we need to investigate why. It would be great if there was a smarter solution to address this issue.

We have been using ManageEngine Endpoint Central for three years.

The product is very stable, especially with the cloud version.

I find the solution scalable.

We had no other solution before ManageEngine Endpoint Central for patch management.

The initial setup was successful, although I was not the one who implemented it. The system is easy to use from the implementation side.

I was not part of the initial implementation team. The team in Dubai carried out the research and decided on the solution.

It has reduced a lot of time and the number of IT team members needed, leading to cost savings.

I am not aware of the pricing and costs. I might know more when we renew our contract.

I have experience with Ninja and some other legacy software, however, ManageEngine is better.

I have no concerns or advice for others considering ManageEngine.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We are using ManageEngine Endpoint Central primarily for desktop management. It allows us to deploy patches, manage antivirus, control endpoints like DLP, and more.

The most valuable feature to me is the vulnerability management. It also has effective patch management capabilities.

The main issue that needs improvement is the pricing. Additionally, while there are no technical problems, the cost is higher compared to some competitors.

We have been using ManageEngine Endpoint Central for two to three years.

The solution works perfectly. There are no stability issues.

Scalability on-premises is a bit difficult because it depends on hardware performance. However, the cloud version offers better scalability.

The support is there. If any issues arise, we contact them, and the ManageEngine team provides the support.

Positive

The installation process is easy. One person is enough to handle it.

One person can manage the installation and configuration.

I cannot disclose the exact ROI, but we do see some returns, such as time and cost savings.

Compared to Intune, ManageEngine is not expensive but its pricing is somewhat higher since it offers all the features. If they reduce the cost, more people would opt for ManageEngine.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Our agency did not have any way to manage the actual computers we provided our users. The tech support team would take such a long time to get to a user because they had to physically walk to every office to support the client. 

The primary use case for this product was to have a solution in place to manage all of our endpoint devices. Now the tech team is more responsive and efficient when it comes to supporting our endpoint users. Patch management is another win-win for us due to the way it was done in the past. 

This has a single pane of glass that allows us to manage our computers. We can now remote into computers, patch management, audit, check for issues while being virtually connected to a computer, report, and a ton of other options. 

Remote control was not a solution that was in place before and it's strange to think that you can be an efficient team without a solution like this in place, however, my team did what they could prior to my arrival. The same goes for patching computers, VMs, and physical servers. 

As stated earlier, the two most beneficial options for us are patch management and remote control. What is great about the patch management solution, is that it patches OS, applications, browsers, plug-ins, and firmware updates. 

We can report against it and make sure that all computers, servers, and anything else that has a security concern are patched. As for Remote, this application has a ton of features associated with it, such as: remote CLI, remote execution, chat, voice call, and many more. 

Tech support is mediocre at best. You sometimes get someone who knows what they are doing, but most times they trying to find their way around their own system. It really seems like support is just an afterthought. When the support issue gets escalated, it seems like there is no communication between the first-tier support tech and the second support tech, since we've had to re-iterate the entire issue from the beginning to the second-tier support person. 

We have been using ME (ManageEngine Endpoint Central) for about one year now. 

The stability is OK. 

It scales well within their catalog of apps. 

Technical support is poor. Sometimes I needed to look for my own solution on my own time as support was not able to fix the issue. 

Negative

We did not have an alternative solution prior to ME. 

The setup is straightforward. That said, the agent sometimes works and gets installed on clients and sometimes it does not. 

I did the implementation myself. 

We've had various issues that have prevented us from trying out multiple solutions so we have not had a great ROI. 

The only advice I have for others is to always look at the fine print. Talk to them and get it in writing about getting the best support possible when in need. Also, negotiate the price. 

We evaluated a couple of other products, however, it seems, for the money, that this was the best solution. 

It is basically an endpoint management solution. It is used for endpoint configuration and life cycle management of an endpoint. It helps you to manage the entire cycle of a machine, which includes patch management, security updates, configuration settings, and user configuration settings. It helps you with application delivery, application patching, and application removal. It provides you with all of that. It also gives you the keys to log onto the machine remotely and run commands via PowerShell script or a remote command capability.

It is a pretty in-depth product. It supports macOS and Linux. They also offer MDM now. So, you can do mobile device management, and they've got new plugins for security modeling for identifying caesar-based vulnerabilities and patch remediation. They give you configuration management tools to allow you to see if your web services are configured properly or even configured at all. It does network scanning and network vulnerability assessments, port audits, software audits, software metering, and software licensing. It is pretty in-depth.

In terms of its version, there is an ongoing update with the product. I started with version 7 or 8, and it is probably at version 11 now. They are on-prem and cloud versions of it.

It is pretty intuitive when it comes to where and how you need to do things. A lot of already preconfigured templates and settings are available to you. It is beneficial where you don't have to go through or do post configuration. A lot of applications have a tendency of being very end-user-heavy. For example, with System Center Config Manager, which is a Microsoft product, if you're not an engineer and you don't understand that product, you're probably not going anywhere with it, whereas with ManageEngine, you can bring some junior-level tech support. Because it does have scalability, you can assign roles to users whether they are junior help desk support engineers or senior engineers. You can also have reporting and inventory metrics that are only available to management. It provides a role-based granularity to all these key capabilities, and it makes it very easy for even non-technical people to run a program. It is based on web technologies, and a browser is all you need to really use to get to it. Obviously, you'd want to secure that web access down, but you do have role capabilities.

Its cross-platform capabilities and the ability to do both OS-level patching and third-party patching are valuable. It is difficult to find a software product that will do all that for you out of the box, and you don't have to do any configuration other than your initial setup. Once you do that, there is a very minimalistic approach to getting it operational. You can have it up and running within a 20-minute time span.

Their pre-configuration and ability to keep it simple for the end user, including the admin side, is helpful. It is not a very difficult program to bring on. It doesn't require a lot of technical skill to run. As long as you understand the technology that you're working with, you don't have to learn this program.

It has enterprise-level capabilities. They do offer a distributed version. If you need to really build it out, you could build it across the globe, or you could just run it in a small shop with 200 users or less. It is a pretty robust product.

Their support channel could be better. They're an India-based company. They're based out of India. So, here in the States, support can be difficult when you're dealing with time zone requirements. A more global support channel would be a wise choice for them.

I have been using this solution for about 12 years.

There have been issues in the past. I've been using the product for about 12 years, if not longer. At one time, they delivered an agent that ate up your CPU and your memory. The agent is auto-install on your machine. So, out of nowhere, your entire network went down because of agent deployment. They turned around and fixed that pretty quickly. I'd probably call that their biggest flaw.

It is quite scalable. Our environment is not very large, but I've seen large deployments. We have about 1,000 machines and 1,500 users, but it is possible if you want to scale it out through the enterprise. I've seen it in multi-site environments with more than 10,000 users. 

For 1,500 users, in a well-trained and well-capable environment, you would probably have four people to manage your entire environment with that app.

They should have a more global support channel.

It is very straightforward. The more complex part is doing security hardening and configuration on the server, which includes setting up certificates, starting on two-factor, and running through all security configurations to make sure it is secure. You obviously want your server to be as secure as possible because it could be a huge hole in your environment if someone were to take control of that server or application.

I don't have the metrics, but in my personal experience with the app, our return on investment is pretty high considering the number of human resources we would have needed to do all that it can do. 

There are multiple flavors of the app. They have a distributed version for enterprises. It depends on your size. They price it on a per machine basis. 250 or 500 is probably their least amount. 

I focus primarily on security and hardening, and they've made leaps and bounds in that as well as mobile device management and cross-platform capability in terms of working with multiple vendors and multiple devices. They seem to fit the bill there.

The MDM is incorporated in the Desktop Central, and they also offer an OS deployment module. ManageEngine has a lot of modules. Desktop Central is probably made from two or three separate products. They all are combined and collaborated into what Desktop Central is. Their analyzer tools pull from different apps to build functionality into some of the bigger core applications, such as DTC or Endpoint now. It is called Endpoint Management.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The primary use case for ManageEngine Endpoint Central in our company is patch management. It is mainly used for patch management, remote access, and remote management. We use it to plan and organize updates and restarts.

ManageEngine Endpoint Central has helped our organization by providing more clarity about what is happening in the network. It has optimized our operations, making them properly organized. It is simple to use and easy to manage, which is a significant improvement compared to the older Microsoft system we were using.

The most valuable features of ManageEngine Endpoint Central are patch management and remote access and management. The product's interface is very user-friendly and easy to manage.

Many features in Desktop Central are licensed separately. It would be more convenient if they could organize these tools into a single package. Instead of requiring users to choose each feature individually, they could offer a package that includes commonly needed tools.

We have been using the solution for one year.

So far, we have not faced any challenges with the stability of the product.

We contacted their technical support and mostly found their compatibility to be good. However, support can sometimes be delayed due to the two-tier support system, where issues are first handled by the first level of support before being escalated to the second level.

Positive

Before ManageEngine Endpoint Central, we managed basic things through group policies and WCS, an older Microsoft free product. We decided to switch because we needed better reporting and a clearer picture of network activities, especially for auditing purposes.

We took the solution through a local partner, but I am not directly involved with them. Our company uses the product as an end user.

We have observed a return on investment through improved management of patch updates, which was a significant headache with our previous Microsoft system.

Comparatively, the pricing of ManageEngine Endpoint Central is reasonable and cheaper than other options we considered.

This solution is not needed by small companies. However, it is very useful for managing remote sites and offices for larger companies with distributed sites. It would be beneficial if the company could package multiple tools into a single offering, as it would make it easier for users to know what they need.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use the solution for patch management, Infinity Scan, and deploying iOS images and MDM. We utilize all the modules, especially for USB blocks and policy management.

Patch management features are an important feature. We have more than three thousand machines, so we need solutions to monitor what's happening in each batch. With ManageEngine Endpoint Central, we can manage Microsoft patches and third-party applications from third-party vendors.

ManageEngine should support various browser features, including those that address browser limitations. 

I have been using ManageEngine Endpoint Central for over three years. We are using the latest version of the solution.

I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.

It is 100% scalable. Ten users are using this solution.

Support provides all the necessary guides and instructions on building, implementing, and deploying the Software Gateway. Whenever I try to reach support, I always get access.

Positive

We have used SCCM from Microsoft. It's like a basic solution without any features.

We work with vendors in Saudi Arabia, making the implementation very easy. The communication and configuration take just three to four hours.

I rate the initial setup a ten out of ten.

I rate its pricing as six or seven out of ten because the app is very expensive.

By applying policies such as SpeedLocks and compliance rules for browsers to block certain websites, ManageEngine Endpoint Central helps manage speed blocking, browsing, and filtering.

It was easy to integrate other tools.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.