No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

ManageEngine Applications Manager vs Microsoft System Center comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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

ManageEngine Applications M...
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
34th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (40th)
Microsoft System Center
Ranking in Cloud Monitoring Software
28th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud Monitoring Software category, the mindshare of ManageEngine Applications Manager is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft System Center is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft System Center0.7%
ManageEngine Applications Manager1.0%
Other98.3%
Cloud Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

SN
Senior System Engineer at Qatar Petroleum
Managing application health has become simpler but new monitoring features still need faster delivery
I use application discovery and dependency mapping. It helps with managing application health What I like about ManageEngine Applications Manager is the ease of use and ease of deployment. I cannot remember anything specific for future updates of the product. The new features take a lot of time…
Carl Palapal - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Sys. Server & Storage Egineer / Tech .Consultant at CANAR OFFICE SYSTEMS
Provides comprehensive system management with effective deployment and integration capabilities
The advantages of Microsoft System Center are significant, and I have seen other products as well. As far as advantages are concerned, they have PXE deployment, which is good for deploying operating systems, such as Windows client systems including Windows 10 and Windows 11. Since it is a Microsoft product, all the patches are proprietary, making it easier to deploy. In Microsoft System Center, all the features are integrated already, whereas in ManageEngine, you have to license each feature individually to access those features. The automated features of Virtual Machine Manager are very useful; it automates as long as the policy that I have created is in line with the objective, especially the templates when I'm going to deploy. Regarding endpoint management, Microsoft System Center is very helpful; it has integrated endpoint protection deployment, allowing me to handle endpoint configuration, system deployment, and patch deployment, making it an all-in-one stop shop for managing and configuring end clients. The impact of using Microsoft System Center is significant; it gives me a whole picture of my environment, making it easy to get inventory details regarding applications and hardware, providing full visibility of my setup within the organization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are: Takes care of all IT monitoring in one console: Server, apps and business services."
"ITSM is a valuable feature, it complies with the requirements in Pakistan."
"The feature that I have found most valuable in ManageEngine Applications Manager is its dashboard."
"The anomaly detection feature helps with maintaining the system's health. It is regarding our IT incident center."
"The Service Level Management (SLM) rules engine stands out due to its flexibility and customization capabilities, making it an invaluable tool for tailoring processes to our specific needs."
"ManageEngine Applications Manager maintains the historical data and it's easy for us to analyze the trends and patterns and fix them accordingly."
"Its price and the flexibility to deploy are the most valuable. Flexibility is very important, and you can scale from very basic to more complex. This solution is a part of a complete suite of management tools. So, it can be integrated with other solutions for monitoring networks, which is very important. You can expand it or interconnect it with many other tools, which is a powerful feature. We have a very good and long relationship with ManageEngine support guys. They provide very good support for us."
"I used it extensively for a year, and prior to that, I was very comfortable."
"I like the automated features of it that let you schedule those updates and the ability of the product to focus on the specific updates, specific platforms, and products that we're interested in keeping up to date."
"We like Microsoft System Center's Operations Manager. That is primarily why we use it."
"If you're using only Microsoft products then this is a good solution because you're working in a unified environment."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it helps us manage our company's application pool, license pool, application update pool, and OS updates."
"System Center helps to create the basis for ITIL alignment."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the ease of configuration and the easy discovery of the environment."
"System Center 2012 SP1 is one hell of infrastructure management suite."
"The deployment and asset management features are the most valuable; these are the product's main features."
 

Cons

"Even with the top-notch dashboard, it could be made stronger in order to have an additional plug-in for analytics."
"The dashboards in the interface need a lot of work."
"They could probably rearrange the UI so that it would be easy for people who are new to the Application Manager to configure things."
"At the moment, we are not finding this solution to be very stable. We've had a lot of calls with the vendor to sort things out."
"It can’t be configured to store APM Insight data for more than one month."
"I would say that the implementation of ManageEngine Applications Manager is too detailed. You need some training to effectually use it."
"The agent often crashes when there is too much load on the application side. If a sudden storm of data comes in, the agent crashes down most of the time."
"The information provided by ManageEngine is not deep-dive like IBM and CA provide."
"The solution's dashboard needs improvement."
"Implementation and integration in the case of multi-tenant environments needs improvement."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"In Microsoft System Center, it is difficult to follow the steps to create dataflows at times."
"Less server consumption would help, as would better, more flexible reports."
"The platform performance and responsiveness need improvement. It still demands high computing resources."
"For me, the tool's UI seems to be too old."
"The solution's dashboard needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is noted for its cost-effectiveness, a crucial consideration for potential users."
"The licensing costs for ManageEngine Applications Manager are around $1,200 per year. For additional monitors, you have to pay extra."
"The annual licensing depends on the number of monitors you have connected. Once you get to two hundred monitors you can see the price reflect."
"Price-wise, it is a cheap tool...The solution's licensing model is subscription-based, in which yearly payments are to be made."
"Its price is good."
"The solution's licensing costs are yearly."
"The cost of this solution is not too bad, although it could be cheaper considering what you're getting for the price."
"ManageEngine Applications Manager has reasonable pricing. It's more affordable than other solutions in the market. My company has an instance-based license for ManageEngine Applications Manager. You can purchase a yearly subscription or a perpetual license. The standard license covers most features, but you can still have some paid add-ons."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"I rate the product price as five to six on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is cheap and ten means it is expensive."
"I know that sometimes there is some reduction in the prices of Microsoft System Center because of the costs of Microsoft SQL Server, which can be advantageous."
"Microsoft System Center is quite expensive."
"It's rolled into our enterprise subscription. The entire subscription is around $25,000 a year, however, that covers all the products that we use."
"Microsoft System Center's licensing is costly."
"We maximized our license investment."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Monitoring Software solutions are best for your needs.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine Applications Manager?
I am satisfied with the licensing cost for ManageEngine Applications Manager.
What needs improvement with ManageEngine Applications Manager?
The new features take a lot of time to be implemented, and that could be improved about ManageEngine Applications Manager. If I were requesting a new feature that is not existing, making it availab...
What is your primary use case for ManageEngine Applications Manager?
I use application discovery and dependency mapping. It helps with managing application health.
What needs improvement with Microsoft System Center?
The disadvantage of Microsoft System Center is related to the many integrated services; if one service is failing, then all features will be affected. For example, with site configuration, when one...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft System Center?
I am using Microsoft System Center. I use Microsoft System Center for patch deployment and application deployment.
 

Also Known As

Applications Manager
MS System Center
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Certis Europe, Financial Domain, SaaS Office Suite, On Demand TV, Parliament's IT Systems, Sastra Technologies, UniServity
Kassen_rztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein, Magyar Telekom Nyrt., Adeka, QualCare, Aeriandi, UniCredit Bank d.d., Mostar, Allianz Australia Ltd., Grupo Familia
Find out what your peers are saying about ManageEngine Applications Manager vs. Microsoft System Center and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,738 professionals have used our research since 2012.