Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Configuration Manager 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Jamf Pro
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (2nd)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (4th), Patch Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Jamf Pro and Microsoft Configuration Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Jamf Pro is designed for Mobile Device Management (MDM) and holds a mindshare of 28.4%, up 28.0% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 5.7% mindshare, down 8.6% since last year.
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Pete C - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable with a self-service portal and a good security posture
Policies enabled for self-service should have keywords attached, so that multiple search terms can direct to a single preferred result, without having to clutter the description field. The new remote support tool is still lacking features compared to other industry solutions. There is no built-in functionality for tracking changes over time for multiple devices. All patch reporting is only a current snapshot. The password management tools are fairly outdated. The web console (GUI) is slow with maddening UI/UX inconsistencies.
MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements
While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have been able to keep our tech department lean and mean, maximizing our efficiency by utilizing Jamf to set up our iPads for us, rather than installing each app one at a time."
"Zero-touch deployment is the most valuable feature because many organizations have employees working from home. This feature allows devices to be configured and ready for use without needing physical handling by IT staff, making it important for remote work environments."
"The Automated Device Enrolment is great!"
"The full API lets us write custom scripts and apps to enhance even further the end-user experience."
"Having the ability to automate our workflows has been great."
"The most valuable features are the restrictions, Lost Mode, Self Service, and full implementation of anything Apple will let MDM manage."
"If you want to manage macOS devices in your enterprise and want to make it as easy for the user as well as for the administrators, you should use the DEP with Jamf Pro."
"My team use this solution to provide end-to-end support on our managed Mac fleet. This includes doing OS updates and upgrades, application deployments, configuration settings and outlining."
"Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is very scalable."
"With the right administrator, application deployment can do wonders."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is it's incredibly simple to configure and execute changes in bulk, allowing for seamless deployment. With this solution, you can easily track the status of all modifications and send them with ease, making it a comprehensive and efficient solution for any necessary adjustments."
"It works well for the endpoints for the customer I'm consulting. It has a bunch of knobs, and you can tune it to do lots of things."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"I like Mircosoft's technical support. Microsoft has a few updates, like some of the critical KBs. They are published within the interval time, and in case of an escalation on the client missions, we will raise a ticket with the Microsoft team. They will create a hotfix or a critical update. They will chat with us, and that is one thing I like about Microsoft. Whenever any issues occur at my organization, they will help you out soon as possible within the SLA."
"I find the product valuable for deployment recovery and it has done much more than that."
 

Cons

"It would be nice if Jamf added an onboarding tool integrated into Jamf Connect during the automated DEP enrollment workflow. It would also improve the user experience if Jamf integrated native macOS notifications, with the option to interact within the notification center."
"I can only say that I would love to see a more customizable dashboard."
"For patch management in Jamf, two Smart Groups are required as patch policies cannot be scoped as of now. This is not a major issue, as there is a great workaround by using a wrapped "member of" duplicate Smart Group. However, being able to avoid two Smart Groups for patch management would be nice."
"Technical support is in need of improvement."
"They need to alphabetize payloads."
"Jamf needs to get an inbuilt remote support tool to allow the admin to remote into machines. At present, you can use third-party remote apps, however, a Jamf one would be better."
"Some improvement can be made in the customer service realm, while also making additional training level courses available for online study and exam-taking."
"Jamf could improve versioning as in outright blocking OS upgrades OR improving maintaining every application’s update feature. As of now, only some apps, like Flash, have managed updates."
"It should provide the ability to remotely connect to mobile devices. There are some solutions that are doing that, but with Microsoft Intune, the only way to remotely connect to devices outside the organization and mobile devices is by using TeamViewer. It is pretty strange for a big company like Microsoft to not have something for that."
"It is not easy to get good technical support, especially at level one."
"Could do with some cosmetic improvements on the user interface."
"The solution can be improved by speeding up the synchronizing of the policies on the devices."
"They should improve their anti-malware policies like the SCEP policies. For instance, you can't have different policies for different servers, there is only one policy in all the servers, and everything is covered under that. For example, say you want to scan one group of servers on Saturday, and then you want to scan another group of servers on Sunday, you can't do that. You have to scan all your servers, a regular scan or a full scan, on the same day and at the same time. That's definitely one thing they need to resolve. In the next release, it would actually be nice if they included Apple products. It will also help if you can use Intune again. Their compliance reporting feature could also be better. They can maybe work a bit on that for patching now. It would be better if SCCM came with the functions of Right Click Tools built-in. If SCCM would have all those functions already built-in, we won't have to go and spend $5,000, just as an add-in from another company to get those functions."
"It would be better if reporting were more user-friendly. I would like to see an upgrade in the reporting structure in the next release. At the moment, you have to use an SQL query or configure it to pull reports through the graphical user interface. Their updates could be more regular. I think Mircosoft updates it every six months. They are also moving many things to Intune, and Microsoft decided to move the deployment solution there. I think SCCM is getting old, and Intune is new."
"I would like to see an agentless version of the solution."
"The time the solution takes for updating systems could be quicker. For example, the system information status is not updating as it should. Additionally, the database synchronization querying is slow and could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"JumpStart looks a little bit pricey; however, it is worth every penny."
"The price of a training pass for five people was $18,000 USD."
"Don’t go into a sales call without knowing all the details of your system because Jamf has a ton of tools outside of Jamf Pro to offer and knowing them ahead of time is a must."
"The total ROI is worth every penny."
"With respect to pricing, Jamf Pro is the better bet."
"Jamf is quite up there. It wasn't the cheapest solution, but it's reasonable. Apigee was cheaper than Jamf."
"Setup and licensing prices are getting to be too high."
"If you have the in-house capability to support Jamf, then paying for onboarding / JumpStart training is a no brainer."
"The price model is different for every client."
"For enterprises, there is an annual license required to use this solution. The price of the solution could be cheaper. However, this is mostly because of the exchange rate from the dollar to the Nigerian currency."
"The solution operates on a licensing model that can be expensive."
"The price is competitive and reasonable."
"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"Its licensing is quite complicated because we are getting the license not only for SCCM but for the full Microsoft package. We don't need to pay for a separate license. We need to have one license that includes everything we need, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, SCCM, encryption, and so on. So, we don't have a specific price for it. Perhaps, it is good that it includes the full suite of licensing of Microsoft. It is expensive, but we are getting a lot of features."
"Presently, I am using a free trial version."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions are best for your needs.
850,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
38%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Jamf Pro?
The most valuable features of Jamf Pro for me are the device locator, which helps find missing iPads, and the ability to remotely manage and disable devices.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jamf Pro?
The pricing structure is one of the cons. However, the licensing model is simple and easy to manage from an MSP perspective. Licenses are annual, and any changes are communicated effectively.
What needs improvement with Jamf Pro?
The biggest area for improvement is the price and the structure of Jamf's onboarding process, especially the mandatory JumpStart consultation, which can be costly for small organizations. The solut...
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
 

Also Known As

JAMF Software Casper Suite
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Xero, National Geographic, Oxford University, Via, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Fallon, Cabela's
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Find out what your peers are saying about JAMF, Microsoft, Cisco and others in Mobile Device Management (MDM). Updated: April 2025.
850,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.