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ConnectWise ScreenConnect vs Parallels Access comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Remote Access
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
264
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
ConnectWise ScreenConnect
Ranking in Remote Access
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (10th)
Parallels Access
Ranking in Remote Access
12th
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 May 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.4%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ConnectWise ScreenConnect is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Parallels Access is 2.1%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
Todd Blake - PeerSpot reviewer
Simple to set up, reasonable pricing, and useful remote control capabilities
I'm on the latest version of the solution. I just updated it yesterday. While we have the solution on-premises at this time, we'll likely move to the cloud later this year. They have a trial version that you can try. They have a free version that you can try as well. I use it myself to support my family. I would try the free version or the trial version depending on your business. They can set you up and you can get to see all the features. I would also advocate going to the cloud version. Don't bother with the on-prem. It's just easier to jump to the cloud. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Binish Parikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy-to-deploy and good for small as well as large setups
There is room for improvement in the pricing policy. The price point is pretty aggressive. Since it is not very resource hungry, it doesn't require dedicated servers like high-end solutions do, so it's easier for customers to integrate it into their own solutions. In future releases, maybe more support for Macs and Unix so that customers with setups on those platforms can also benefit from the solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main advantage is that Intune performs its intended functions effectively."
"Intune can wipe devices. For example, if a disgruntled employee wants to leak the data on their company phone, Intune can terminate their access and wipe the entire device with a click."
"Conditional access helps me control uncontrolled access."
"We can securely manage both company-owned devices and personal devices enrolled in our BYOD program."
"The management control feature is the most valuable."
"Microsoft Intune helps us avoid issuing everyone company-owned devices. We provide a stipend, allowing users to bring their own devices. This approach gives us leverage against other MSPs. It also enhances collaboration because clients already covered by specific licensing can optimize their usage of Microsoft Intune."
"Microsoft Endpoint Manager is not expensive overall, especially for small environments."
"The central administration con dashboard is very easy to use and provides very good oversight on all that needs to be monitored."
"Due to the fact that we can help our clients virtually, the solution has allowed us to reduce our travel costs by about 90%."
"You can bring up a command prompt remotely and execute commands without having to disturb the user."
"Better than TeamViewer and useful for fixing problems remotely."
"It's very easy to use, very easy to understand. It gives us remote access to the PC without any issues."
"Remote support is efficient and easy for our end users to receive support."
"The unattended access functionality is a valuable feature, because I can go in at any time that I want, deploy fixes, or do maintenance."
"Being able to flip quickly between however many monitors that I have running, detune the video for black and white, or with fewer colors to make it faster, is amazing."
"Unattended access is the most important feature."
"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."
"It's great that the total deployment can happen completely remotely."
"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."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Intune has potential for improvement; I would like to see a lot more customization in the reporting tools."
"It could offer more attributes for authentication."
"Intune's server management could be better. If it could incorporate more features from System Center into Intune's Configuration Manager, it would be beneficial."
"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."
"The documentation about the custom image setup could be better. Although Microsoft provides the steps to configure Intune or set up or deploy Intune, it doesn't have much information related to custom images. If you ask, "how can we deploy the custom image?" There is no information. The steps they mention ask you to connect to your on-premises environment or create your own image on the cloud itself once there is connectivity. But I needed to go to multiple websites to get all this information. I had to figure out how to upload the custom image if you want to use the on-premise custom image for Cloud PC. If you have the proper subscription, you must have the right access, like global admin or owner. Then you can add your custom image to that. There are no steps mentioned over there. Microsoft Intune doesn't have Chrome browser support. I would like to have that support because they will want it if we pitch the product to clients."
"For autopilot, there should be more granularity on the settings that they offer at this stage."
"In terms of the admin experience, it is straightforward, but the Windows enrollment experience could be improved. Sometimes, for enrollment, we have to reset devices and re-enroll them."
"The scalability could be improved, and like most other MDM products, Intune is good but not 100% there yet."
"The solution should add the ability to video chat with the user on the other end."
"For my company, just installing the software and using it is very easy. But if I need to give one of my customers access to their machines, the process that you have to go through is some 15 to 20 steps. You have to create a group, and then you have to assign a policy. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to set up someone for remote access to their own machine."
"There is one back-end issue that I am running into at some of locations where I login to provide support, and sometimes port 443 is blocked. That is what it uses to connect. So, I am having to do workarounds to get a session started."
"I was not thrilled with their support. I do not have a lot of time to deal with the attention which is needed to fix issues."
"There is an issue which is pretty rare, but I find it at least when connecting from my mobile device. I am forced to refresh the screen by changing the screen quality to get screen updates. This only happens sometimes."
"What we need this product to do is to be able to control Windows Updates. LogMeIn Central allowed us remote access but also allowed to push and install Windows Updates, and third-party updates... When we made the switch to ConnectWise we lost the ability to do patching. That forced us, for our larger clients, to move to WSUS. We had to set up a VM on those larger clients to push Windows Updates and patches into the network."
"There could be improvement to the remote command line tools."
"There needs to be a way to run the agent without installing, like GoToAssist."
"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."
"They could improve the reporting."
"The solution may not scale well for enterprises."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing policy. The price point is pretty aggressive."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Generally, we get favorable discounts, so it's not too bad. Obviously, we're looking at decreasing those wherever we can to bring value back to the public purse because it's all charity based. It's all publicly funded."
"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."
"The price of Intune is included with the license for Office 365, so we don't have to pay anything extra for it."
"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."
"Intune is linked with Microsoft. We can deploy the Microsoft E365 license to users by Intune. There are different types of licenses, such as device administrator licenses, E5 licenses for device enrollment manually, and P1 and p2 licenses for device enrollment automatically. These are the licenses required for the administration."
"The cost of the license and the features are justified for myself as a technical person."
"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."
"Microsoft Intune's pricing is reasonable."
"Their licensing model is good, their pricing model is good, their service is good; bandwidth is excellent. They're consistent."
"Good price and works well."
"It is priced well and it is still a great value. Although I have been reading a lot about Splashtop. They are getting pretty competitive on their pricing, including a fairly easy to use remote support for mobile applications, like iOS and Android."
"I think the product's pricing is a good value. I paid $600 a year and that was fine for me. It was about $50 a month. Licensing is all very straightforward."
"We pay $85 per month for each user for a ConnectWise package with multiple solutions."
"Pricing is fair for Control and the licensing is simple."
"The cloud version is relatively inexpensive, but the on-premise version is expensive if you do not need three technicians, only one or two for concurrent sessions."
"It is priced fairly."
"The licensing costs are about $100 per user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
University
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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 ...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ConnectWise Control?
I download the product for free with ConnectWise RMM's license.
What needs improvement with ConnectWise Control?
All the features provided by the product in terms of screen connectors have been good. There can be some complexities...
What do you like most about Parallels Access?
Parallels Access gives me full access and control of the computer, and I can do anything I want remotely.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Parallels Access?
It's around $125 per user per year. It is a one-time charge for installation and implementation, which is a small cos...
What needs improvement with Parallels Access?
When you want to transfer a file from your iPad or remote device to the computer, the copy-and-paste feature doesn't ...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
ConnectWise Control, ScreenConnect
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Jon Rosen Systems
Gilt Groupe K.K.
Find out what your peers are saying about ConnectWise ScreenConnect vs. Parallels Access and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,900 professionals have used our research since 2012.