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ConnectWise Automate vs Datto Remote Monitoring and Management vs SCOM 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Event Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Sean Saeb - PeerSpot reviewer
Responsive, integrates well with other applications, and the technical support is helpful
There is always room for improvement. I haven't had any problems, and they're doing a great job, in my opinion. They're doing quite well. In most cases, when we discover an issue, we report it to their engineers, who then schedule a fix. Normally, when we request something, I can see it happening within three to four months. This is a raw system. Of course, it has some flaws that could be improved. But, it's something that we will have to work with to get to the point where we need this, we request it and they do their best to make it happen. There is a lot of integration with other applications through Automate, and I believe they are working with all of the industry leaders to get the integration going. I am very pleased to be working with them.
Dario Caraponale - PeerSpot reviewer
It's very easy to implement and create policies
Implementation for our first customer took about a week. The console is cloud-based, while we install agents on customer desktops and laptops, both on-premises and remote. Maintenance seems quite easy so far. I can set up alerts for anything happening in the tool, so my technical staff don't need to monitor the console constantly.
MarcMermuys - PeerSpot reviewer
Has efficient monitoring with robust integration capabilities
We use SCOM to configure different monitors using several management packs. It integrates systems like Active Directory and correlates them, and it is used for monitoring and managing systems SCOM allows integration of several systems, providing correlation between different systems such as…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"ConnectWise Automate's interface is pretty easy to use. It's pretty intuitive to get around and navigate it. It does what I need, which is usually connecting to the client and customers systems."
"Scripting and patch management are really important for us. Patch Manager is something that we use a lot, and we would love to have it continually improved. It is one of the most useful features for us for controlling patches and other things for different clients."
"The implementation is nice and easy."
"The database is great. It's a nicely ordered database."
"It allows us to manage all client requests, jobs and invoicing."
"It's definitely improved the help-desk servicing, et cetera."
"This product saves us a lot of time and increases our efficiency."
"We use monitors to keep track of our machines. We use a pretty good portion of information from Automate."
"AEM support is great for Macs."
"Automation, in terms of the standard patches and standard updates, and remote support are valuable. When it does the standard Windows and patches, it works really well. This is something they focus on. Remote support is also something they focus on quite a bit, and it works really well. Being able to get to an agent or a client computer right away is very helpful."
"The tool's main valuable features are its ease of use and intuitive console. It's very easy to implement and create policies. I don't need highly technical staff to manage the tool, which is a big advantage."
"The alerting system helps us determine what are high level alerts, and what are alerts which can wait for a day or two. We catch RAID failures, hot servers, bad drives (or predicted failures on drives), etc."
"The remote tool is nice. If a user needs assistance, I don't have to tell the user to do anything. I just ask the user if I can remote in, and 30 seconds later, I have remoted in. It has been really handy."
"It has a single pane of glass, and it integrates well with other software."
"Even when the connection to the server is lost, the monitoring continues without interruption."
"The project management and task management features work well. It's a decent product in that regard."
"The solution's reporting engine has given me detailed information on which applications or services I've either failed or about to fail in terms of the predictive makeup on Azure cloud."
"The monitoring features are the most valuable. We have seen a major benefit from that so far."
"Alerts notify the server or service owner of problems, allowing quick decisions or actions to keep the service running based on configured thresholds."
"This solution allows us to standardize all of the reports for monitoring the network, so it helps a lot for auditing purposes."
"We have found the scalability capabilities to be okay."
"The most valuable features in SCOM are Azure monitoring and integration with Azure Monitor for monitoring Azure-hosted servers from SCOM on-premises."
"The most valuable features for us are the monitoring, the health explorer, and the console."
"The inbuilt management pack that Microsoft provides is really helpful. I know it's a mature product, and they keep upgrading the management pack."
 

Cons

"I have a problem with the reports available on the solution. I don't understand how to work with the reporting functionality. For example, when I want to give a report for a specific machine, ConnectWise doesn't seem to have this as an option. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, or if the reporting functionality is just poorly conceived."
"The project management needs improvement and there's a section of the product called configuration that also needs to be improved."
"Their support needs to be better."
"Patching and reporting need improvements, especially reporting. The reporting engine is quite outdated, so you end up having to use your own dashboard."
"Technical support was helpful."
"The menu doesn't always load properly."
"The fixed client for Automate is slow. The web client is not very intuitive."
"We would love to get feature updates and cumulative updates fixed. I know they aren't really supposed to be pushed with Patch Manager. We've got recommendations from ConnectWise to use the scripted feature update installs, scripted KB updates, etc. Having these in Patch Manager itself would be great."
"Be prepared to spend a lot of time on conversions if you have a lot of clients."
"The CRM capabilities are not very good. It's clunky and could work a lot better than it does. There are no marketing add-ins, for example."
"The only area where I see room for improvement is the ability to delay the application of patches for a set number of days."
"The main challenge was implementing patch management for software that was not in the tool's standard library or catalog."
"They have a tab to provide information about the type of hardware the computers have. One thing they don't specify is what model of hard drive the computers have. Identification of storage models would be nice."
"We would like to see a little more functionality when monitoring network devices, such as switches and routers."
"My most significant criticism is Datto is a complex product that takes a while to understand, but that could be said of almost any solution at the same level. It depends on where you're starting from. You have to rework all your workflows, and it's some heavy lifting if you want to get it right."
"Sometimes we have some downtime when Datto is doing updates. Maybe it's because of the cloud service they use. I'm not sure if they're going through AWS or Azure or what. That's happened, but the outages have been few and far between."
"The configurations could be better. There are multiple tests where you can do something, but they can be a trigger as well. The overriding methodologies are not that easy. The configurations are difficult. The configuration and thorough day-to-day operations to get them to the level you want takes some time. It's very difficult."
"The interface is a little bit cumbersome and certain actions could be simplified."
"The solution’s initial setup is difficult."
"I would like to see them improve their network monitoring."
"All of the areas of reporting are very bad and need to be improved."
"SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure."
"SCOM needs to improve its usability."
"In future releases, I would like to see APM solutions and dashboards like Grafana."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I pay $85 a month per user for a ConnectWise package that contains multiple solutions."
"Pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"I believe Automate is available for around $2."
"From what I've overheard, it is pretty comparable to other solutions in terms of price."
"Regarding pricing, Kaseya sells it as part of a bundle called Kaseya 360. This package includes several tools, such as EDR, ransomware protection, and more. Considering the bundle, the price is reasonable. However, where I am in Brazil, the high dollar rate and taxes make it not cheap for mid-sized companies. Still, it's competitively priced compared to similar tools."
"The license typically depends on the number of endpoints. On the RMM side, I think we're paying around $2,250 per endpoint. Then there is also a license per user and tech, so that comes out to about a hundred bucks per tech, give or take."
"We had to pay out some overtime for a few problematic sites. Sites on domain networks are incredibly easy to install. We learned a few tricks that streamlined the process, but in the beginning, it was a bit tedious."
"AEM is a lot more scalable as you just pay per agent instead of having to purchase expensive licenses."
"It goes by how many endpoints you have. It is about $3,000 a month for us. If we can't figure it out ourselves and need additional help to set it up, we would have to pay for that."
"It fluctuates on the number of computers you have. Depending on the number of computers you have, it can fluctuate anywhere between $5 to $10 per computer per month, which is not too bad. I am not aware of any additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee. It was one flat rate per device."
"The pricing and licensing are fair."
"It is more expensive than the competition."
"We have to pay for a license and the price is fine for us."
"Two customers bought the enterprise agreement with Microsoft and paid for Software Assurance. But few customers don't buy it for Software Assurance. They just buy it and deploy it, and they think that we will be using it for the next five years."
"We have an enterprise agreement that includes this product as part of it."
"SCOM's pricing is average."
"SCOM is very cheap because it's included in the license for the System Center suite, which is around $8,400 per CAL."
"Our Enterprise Agreement includes the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
35%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
5%
Performing Arts
5%
Performing Arts
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Wholesaler/Distributor
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
We are still on the learning curve with the solution, so I can't point out many specific areas for improvement yet.
What advice do you have for others considering Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
The main challenge was implementing patch management for software that was not in the tool's standard library or cata...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Datto Remote Monitoring and Management?
Regarding pricing, Kaseya sells it as part of a bundle called Kaseya 360. This package includes several tools, such a...
What do you like most about SCOM?
The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?
I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substan...
What needs improvement with SCOM?
SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga ( /products/icinga-reviews ) for applic...
 

Also Known As

LabTech for IT Service Providers, ConnectWise Automate for Corporate IT Departments, ConnectWise Automate for IT Service Providers
Autotask EM, Autotask Endpoint Management, Datto RMM
System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

I-M Technology, Mainstay Technologies, PC Works Plus, Integrity IT, Kerkhoff Technologies Inc., Marathon Consulting, Christenberry Sales Company, EDTS, Secom Technology, Ready to View, ARRC Technology, DaVinci Digital, JNR Networks, Quinn Technology Solutions, PCIT, Liberty Technology, Capital Computers & Networks, Atlanta Technology Force, Doberman Technologies, First Column Enterprises, CisCom Solutions
Wessex Networks, Base2, Valiant Technology, Technology Services Group, TechGuru
Dialog Telekom
Find out what your peers are saying about NinjaOne, Kaseya, TeamViewer and others in Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM). Updated: May 2025.
856,856 professionals have used our research since 2012.