Automox vs Microsoft Windows Server Update Services comparison

Automox and Microsoft are both solutions in the Patch Management category. Automox is ranked #17, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. Automox holds a 3.5% mindshare in PM, compared to Microsoft’s 6.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Automox users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Automox

Read 10 Automox reviews

890 Views
671 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Windows Server Up...

Read 49 Microsoft Windows Server Update Services reviews

2,534 Views
1,906 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Automox

Microsoft Windows Server Up...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services and Automox are two leading solutions for managing and updating software across an organization. Automox seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive features and ease of deployment, despite having a higher cost.

Features: Microsoft Windows Server Update Services offers wide compatibility with Microsoft products, centralized update management, and control over update deployment. Automox provides cross-platform support, automated patching, and a comprehensive approach to endpoint management.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Windows Server Update Services needs enhancements in automation, better reporting functions, and more intuitive user interfaces. Automox could improve its integration options, fine-tuning of update schedules, and provide more detailed documentation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Windows Server Update Services integrates seamlessly with Microsoft ecosystems but requires more technical expertise during deployment. Automox is easier to deploy across various platforms and offers strong customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Windows Server Update Services is more cost-effective but offers a lower ROI due to manual oversight requirements. Automox has a higher price but delivers a better ROI through automation and reduced administrative overhead.

To learn more, read our detailed Automox vs. Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Automox vs. Microsoft Windows Server Update Services

April 2025

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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

Automox

Ranking in Patch Management

17th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (50th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (61st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (18th)

Microsoft Windows Server Up...

Ranking in Patch Management

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Automox is 3.5%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Windows Server Update Services is 6.5%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Patch Management

Featured Reviews

Jack Leung

EMEA Senior Systems Engineer at Quaker Chemical Corporation

Easy to use and deploy agents but needs more stability

We just need to deploy the agent to the endpoints. We don't need to set up anything. For a single agent, it takes one or two minutes. However, we deployed globally, and you need to take into consideration the time it will take to deploy across each endpoint. It's very simple to deploy. We had three or four engineers take care of the implementation.

Read full review

Chuck Colby

Network Architect at a construction company with 51-200 employees

Efficient patch management, potentially scalable, and free is using Microsoft servers

Whether to use the solution or not is going to be context-sensitive. If you have a strong Microsoft team, you can probably handle this. If, like my team, you also have a dozen other vendors to consider, it's not just the operating system. The pattern I've seen over time with WSUS is that it has the potential to be a fantastic product, yet it doesn't feel finished. People try to implement WSUS, and context is important. In my context, we're a small business without teams of Microsoft-certified people. We are just trying to use what's available to achieve a goal, and WSUS is fine, however, not the best product out there. The business in America often tries to do more with less. I would not recommend it to a team of my size. If a company had half a dozen or a dozen Microsoft-certified people, I'd say, run with it. For a team of my size, no, absolutely not. I would rate the overall solution a solid eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Among the most valuable features are its ease of use and the Worklets. Both of them are time-savers. Worklets enable us to customize things for a given environment. It's something like when Apple lets other people create applications. Other peoples' Worklets can be used in our environment and in our customers' environments. That saves a lot of time, and it's really cool."

"The flexibility in creating tools to make changes on remote machines is most valuable to me. The reporting feature is also fantastic because on any given day I can bring up a list of machines that don't have patches, for example. Or I can bring up a list of machines that are in my environment on a certain day. The solution helps me with not only my own role, and what I look for internally myself, but it also helps during audits. I can go in and look at the number of machines in there, and their owners and timelines. It certainly helps tell a story for anything that IT requires."

"It's super easy to use and we haven't found anything easier."

"Coming from prior solutions that were a lot more effort, Automox's patch management abilities are transformational. When I took over patching at my company, they were using on-premise architecture to patch. As the workforce shifted from being in the office into their home offices, I was able to lift and shift with no effort other than deploying the new agent out into the environment."

"The biggest improvement to our organization involves the reduction in its man hours... We've probably saved hundreds of hours."

"Its flexibility is most valuable."

"They've been adding some new features lately, which I'm not nearly as familiar with, but the ability to just deploy patches and exempt certain machines from certain patches is helpful. For instance, for our servers, we may not want to roll out zero-day patches. We are able to exempt those and make sure that they don't get those policies. We've got certain servers that have to run a particular version of Java, and being able to exempt those servers from receiving Java updates is pretty fantastic."

"The fact that it's just one product that can patch multiple operating systems is really great."

More Automox pros

"The most important aspect is that we can centrally deploy the updates that are necessary for the organization. It's important."

"The solution gives authentic updates."

"It ensures we get the necessary updates and features from the servers."

"We can easily download particular patches, and we can apply them on a group basis and policy basis."

"We get server updates from the internet and from the Bluetooth server. All of the clients are connected to it, and they're all updated from this exact server. It updates automatically."

"Once we configure it and it keeps updating the patches, all I need to do is filter out which patches are required or not."

"It is a scalable solution."

"This solution is stable."

More Microsoft Windows Server Update Services pros

Cons

"The stability has come a long way from what it was like when it started and now it's really good."

"The biggest area they need to fix, without a doubt, is the ability to copy and sync profiles and worklets between all of the organizations you manage, and the ability to have top-level user access control across all of the companies that you manage."

"There should be better inventory capabilities. Right now, they only allow you to have insight into software out-of-the-box. It would be nice to also extend that into custom inventory that can be modified and managed by the practitioner."

"When we bring on a new client, we need to go into that client and manually set up my account, my chief engineer's account, three technicians' accounts, and a billing person's account all over again, which is annoying. We have probably up to 15 or 16 of our clients on Automox now. For every single one of those, we have had to go in and set this up. Then, if anything changes, we have to remember to go to Automox and change it 15 or 16 times. So, we just want inheritable permissions, and that is it. We have talked to them about this, and they are like, "Yeah, we hear a lot of complaints about it." I am thinking, "Guys, I have been complaining about this for a year and a half. When are you going to do it?" It must be some tricky thing or not an easy fix, because I can only assume if it were easy, then they would have done it by now."

"They need to improve the automation features."

"As concerns the patching concepts, there's a bit of a learning curve in terms of working out how Automox wants you to work within the console, not only splitting up everything into groups, but then having the various policies assigned."

"We would like to see additional detailed reporting for Service providers like us. We had to build our own reports via their APIs to meet our needs."

"The only thing that we've ever truly wanted is an onsite repository. Currently, all updates are provided directly from the internet. So, if you have 1,000 devices, all 1,000 devices go directly out to the internet. We would love the option of being able to put the updates on local storage so that we're not consuming as much bandwidth. That is literally the only thing that we've ever wanted."

More Automox cons

"The main problem with WSUS is that the management console doesn't allow you to do a lot of operations. It's actually quite a primitive console, and has been since day one. In order to be more effective, you need to use another tool from Microsoft that can take advantage of WSUS and also offer you the extra features you need."

"Having the ability to group updates by the operating systems would be very helpful."

"Job management and control is an area that is in need of improvement."

"It would be good if it could deploy third-party patches or applications."

"A few bugs need to be figured out for the security side."

"The only complex part was the solution’s tricky setup phase."

"The reporting is not as practical as I would like it to be."

"This solution's deployment could be improved. When I was the admin, there were some problems when deploying to clients. Sometimes the policy is not effective. I guess, more on the reliability side, more reliable means working more often with the clients. It could be easier to deploy."

More Microsoft Windows Server Update Services cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For all these software tools, it is usually a subscription model. There is a monthly charge that we need to pass along to our clients because we are doing all this for their benefit. It is only a couple of bucks a month per computer, and that is a low enough price point where our clients, without exception, have accepted it, and said, "This is great. We will pay that. It sounds like a worthwhile thing.""

"We are on the premium licensing, which is the one that has the API capability that we use."

"There are no additional costs in addition to the extended licensing fees with Automox. You get your support and your per endpoint license with what you purchased."

"The cost is very reasonable compared to the competition."

"We're doing it annually directly through Automox. It is per endpoint. It is $2 and some change per endpoint, but I believe the cost is right around $28,000. Everything is covered in this fee."

"Its licensing for a year was nine grand. There was no additional fee."

"The product is a great value."

"Automox just charges us a set amount per user, per month, for using the product. That is very important to us. Because it's a cloud-native solution, you're saving on the cost of hosting an on-premises solution on your servers."

More Automox pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft's operating model determines the solution's pricing, and we use it based on our enterprise agreement, which incurs an annual cost."

"Microsoft Windows Server Update Services is not an expensive solution."

"Because it is not open-source, it has to compete with open-source solutions. Relatively it is expensive to open-source."

"The licensing of WSUS is free of charge because it comes with the Windows Server operating system, included as a feature of the operating system itself. It's simply a role that you enable within Windows Server."

"The WSUS cost is included in Microsoft Windows, and there are no licensing fees."

"I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"The solution is expensive, and the licensing costs are yearly."

"Configuration Manager is less expensive than Microsoft Windows Server Update Services."

More Microsoft Windows Server Update Services pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

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What do you like most about Microsoft Windows Server Update Services?

We can track the updates of the PC and servers.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Windows Server Update Services?

It's a free service. You just buy the Windows Server operating system, and it is an internal feature.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Windows Server Update Services?

Sometimes, I encounter issues with the Windows internal database, which occasionally does not load, leading to the Pandit console stopping. I have to repair the database and perform export and impo...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automox

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services

March 2025

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services report

Download Microsoft Windows Server Update Services product report

Also Known As

No data available

Windows Server Update Services, Microsoft WSUS, WSUS, Microsoft Software Update Services, Software Update Services, Microsoft SUS, SUS, MS Windows Server Update Services

Overview

Facing growing threats and a rapidly expanding attack surface, understaffed and alert-fatigued organizations need more efficient ways to eliminate their exposure to vulnerabilities. Automox is a modern cyber hygiene platform that closes the aperture of attack by more than 80% with just half the effort of traditional solutions.

Cloud-based and globally available, Automox enforces OS & third-party patch management, security configurations, and custom scripting across Windows, Mac, and Linux from a single intuitive console. IT and SecOps can quickly gain control and share visibility of on-prem, remote and virtual endpoints without the need to deploy costly infrastructure.

Automox dramatically reduces corporate risk while raising operational efficiency to deliver best-in-class security outcomes, faster and with fewer resources.

Automox

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a patch management tool that simplifies the administrator’s task of deploying the latest Microsoft updates. Administrators use WSUS to manage the distribution of updates released through Microsoft Update to computers in their network.

WSUS has features you can use to manage and distribute updates from a management console. The WSUS server can also be a source of updates to other servers within the organization, acting as an upstream server.

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Use Cases

The four main use cases that WSUS adds value to businesses are:

Centralizes update management.
Automates update management.
Performs general patch management to ensure compliance and protect against vulnerabilities.
Downloads all endpoint updates from data centers to a central location and then distribute them across the organization’s network.

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Features

This built-in server includes the following features:

Includes Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
Features client and server separation, which means you can deliver versions of the Windows Update Agent (WUA) separately from WSUS.
Automatic download of updates.
Deploy a targeted download of updates to a specific group of computers.
Multiple language support.
Advanced reporting capabilities.
Centralized management of network resources.

Requirements

In order to be able to use WSUS to manage and deploy updates, it is important to use a supported WSUS version, such as:

WSUS 10.0.14393
WSUS 10.0.17763
WSUS 6.2 and 6.3 with installed KB 3095113 and KB 3159706

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Benefits

Stable.
Ensures servers are always patched and prevents vulnerabilities.
Works great for internal updating.
Enforces automated updates and patching for applications.
Because the solution is used in the cloud, clients are always using the latest version.
Highly scalable and configurable regardless of the organization’s layout.

Different Types of WSUS Deployments

Simple WSUS deployment: A server inside the corporate firewall serves clients via a private intranet. The WSUS server downloads updates by connecting to Microsoft Update. Using this model, you can configure multiple WSUS servers with a parent WSUS server.
Computer groups: You can use computer groups to deliver updates to specific computers. There are two basic computer groups: All Computers or Unassigned Computers. When a client first contacts the WSUS server, it is added to both. You can then create a group from the Unassigned Computers group to the new group.
WSUS server hierarchies: The flexibility of WSUS enables the creation of complex hierarchies of servers. To do this, you need only a single WSUS server connected to Microsoft Update. This will serve as an “upstream server,” and the connected servers as “downstream servers.”
- You can link WSUS servers in two modes: autonomous or replica. In the autonomous mode, the upstream server shares the updates with the downstream servers but doesn’t update status or group information.
- The upstream server shares updates, status, and group information in replica mode. You cannot administer replica servers apart from the upstream WSUS server.

Microsoft

Buyer's Guide

Automox vs. Microsoft Windows Server Update Services

April 2025

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