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Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services 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
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
335
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Devolutions Remote Desktop ...
Ranking in Remote Access
15th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Remote Access
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.2%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 8.2%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune9.2%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services8.2%
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager1.6%
Other81.0%
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24
Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license
The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.
StephenWatson - PeerSpot reviewer
National Sales Manager & Technical Consultant at Secure Networks
Easy to deploy with great security and responsive support
The security on offer is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It offers, for example, two-factor authentification. The remote connection across platforms is great. You can deploy it on anything, including Windows, Mac, iOS, your iPhone, et cetera. It offers multi-platform utility. This makes it great for enterprise. Users can use it for PAM access as well. The feature of Devolutions that has improved our customer's efficiency the most is probably the security side. It's gotten a lot tighter. Authentication and secure connections are helpful. They use encryption between them, which is just standard for them. The company has so many regulatory controls that they must ensure their security is very tight. There's a lot of potential cybercrime around casinos, and this solution ensures they are well-protected. Devolutions is a great product that can be safely used between China, Australia, or the Philippines, and it remains a good, safe product.
reviewer2795433 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Secure remote access has protected sensitive country data and supports strict compliance needs
I understand from the IT team managing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services that it is complex to set up the multiple roles, certificates, and networks required. Networking is quite complicated. Even though on the data center side it is quite simple, maintaining the farm of other connections that connect to that server is the complex piece. I understand there are more modern systems replicating what this solution does, which are easier to use, such as Azure Virtual Desktop within Microsoft Azure Cloud or Amazon WorkSpaces, which I have used before. Rather than having to manage all the complex networking, you could abstract it away a little further in the cloud for easier use. I also understand that this tool is in an end-of-life state now, with Microsoft actively pushing people towards Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365. I do not believe further features will be rolled out due to its end-of-life state, making it a legacy solution now.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If they have Office 365 or Azure, Intune is by far the best choice."
"The most valuable feature is the policy CSPs."
"The thing I appreciate most about Microsoft Intune is that the management of the devices was very simplified."
"Microsoft Intune has definitely reduced management burdens."
"As an IT administrator, I appreciate Intune's ability to implement granular device-level policies for our organization's employees."
"For our customer, it meant no on-premise systems configuration infrastructure or identity management services were required."
"When a user receives the machine, sets it up, and turns it on, it connects to the domain and begins installing software, becoming ready within approximately half an hour, which represents a significant time savings for IT departments."
"Autopilot is the most valuable feature."
"Being able to store my credentials makes connecting a breeze."
"By integrating all our connections previously spread across multiple locations, a lot of time has been saved."
"The remote connection across platforms is great."
"Devolutions's team is constantly making improvements to their products. If you submit a feature request, they are usually quick to implement it."
"It really helps to have all the data already pre-entered and all I have to do is enter the password."
"Setup and installation was simple."
"RDM has enabled me to do most of my work in one place. This helps me be able to have an RDP session open to a server in one tab and an SSH session open to a VMware host in another."
"There is not a day that goes by that I do not use the tool."
"Scalability-wise, it is very good, with auto-scaling so if there are more users required then Azure will help you to automatically manage it, and in addition it is HA, so I think that the overall scalability is pretty good."
"The most valuable features are availability and security."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has positively impacted my organization by increasing our security, as we are able to confirm 100 percent that data which needs to stay within the country does so because it only exists on the server and never leaves it, allowing us to hit 100 percent compliance very easily without worrying if someone can accidentally send the data somewhere else."
"We have scaled the solution and find this easy to do."
"Everything is really good and it works well."
"What I found most valuable in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is accessibility because the solution lets you take control of your computer remotely."
"The valuable features I mentioned assure a stable and highly available environment with maximum uptime for business users."
"The initial setup is not that difficult. I have gone through the RDS initialization steps, which only seem easy."
 

Cons

"Intune should support platforms other than Windows. We have encountered several limitations, especially when handling iOS devices."
"The installation could be improved to be simplified."
"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."
"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."
"At this time, I do not have any areas for improvement. I have heard about some downtime, but I am not in the local IT team."
"Intune could be enhanced by automating application upgrades, similar to how it automates operating system upgrades."
"The way the apps are getting deployed, the checkboxes for deleting previous versions are actually creating more conflicts than fixing problems."
"I would like to see better integration with Microsoft."
"If there was a way to streamline the process, it would make it nice."
"Sometimes when updating, the install window is on top of the prompt to close the application."
"On complex setups, I actually needed to reach out to support to get it working correctly."
"Sometimes the manual inventory of some entries hangs, and RDM must be closed via task manager."
"Security roles could be improved, especially by enabling renaming of a role."
"Sometimes the manual inventory of some entries hangs, and RDM must be closed via task manager."
"There are always bugs to squash, beyond that, it is really kind of difficult for new users to discover and use many of the features due to the bewildering array of choices and ways to do things."
"The RDM client (.NET issue, actually) can stall or lock up while it clears communication threads to the server."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is only available for the professional version of the Windows operating system. This restricts a lot of users. The feature should be available for all versions."
"Network bandwidth may limit a users experience with remote desktop services."
"Updates sometimes impact the application and we have system crashes."
"In the next release, I would like to see better performance over slower networks, and integration with Linux, but this is something that we're going to get out of Microsoft in terms of a unified solution."
"We've had issues with security breaches."
"Sometimes the server stops working, and we don’t know why."
"We'd like more granular security control of the desktop services."
"The solution should introduce a chat feature for end users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Intune is included in the Microsoft 365 licensing package that we have."
"Its price is in the medium range. It is acceptable because you're paying for the features. I am not aware of any additional costs."
"I recently got to know that the AD P1 license is compulsory to use Intune Autopilot, which was surprising for me. Earlier, this was not the case. It is the wrong thing to do. We now need to purchase AD P1 licenses for us and for our customers. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."
"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."
"We don't get Intune as a separate module. Most of the time, we use it within an enterprise agreement like E3 or E5. Those licenses are at a good price, but what is annoying is that every single year they go higher."
"There is a license needed for this solution and it is either included in one of the enterprise license agreements. Microsoft licensing is a mathematical institute, it could be quite complex. We tend to ask specialized organizations to research what the most profitable way it would be for us to use licenses in the organizations."
"The E5 license is expensive."
"In terms of the product price and licensing costs, my company finds the product to be reasonably priced."
"Setup costs for most people is negligible."
"The Free Edition is completely free. You can try also the Enterprise Edition for 30 days for free."
"If you are a Microsoft MVP, VMware vExpert, Cisco Champion, etc., Devolutions offers a free Enterprise License."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. We're on the educational or academic license, and our terms are good. We're very happy with the pricing."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows."
"The solution is expensive. My company pays toward the monthly licensing costs of the solution...The additional cost, apart from the solution's licensing cost, is related to the technical support a user wants."
"I think that Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is expensive compared to Login solution."
"The tool's pricing is high in the Slovenian market. I rate it a nine out of ten."
"There is a licensing cost."
"It's not an expensive product."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Media Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business124
Midsize Enterprise53
Large Enterprise167
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise34
 

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 Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
With the security factors built into it, the price point is quite good. They have entry-level and enterprise-level li...
What needs improvement with Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
The console is a little bit clunky. It could be modernized. A tech developer might think it is fine, however, from a ...
What is your primary use case for Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager?
We use the solution for a customer that needs pretty high security. They are in the poker machine manufacturing world...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
I was not involved in the pricing and licensing perspective, so I cannot speak too much on that. However, I know that...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
I understand from the IT team managing Microsoft Remote Desktop Services that it is complex to set up the multiple ro...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
No data available
Remote Desktop Services
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Financial Services, Healthcare Provider Network, Government Agency,Technology and Software Development,Telecommunications, Retail Chain Management, MSPs, Manufacturing, Global Logistics and Shipping, Education, IT teams.
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.