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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

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 Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
377
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Ranking in Configuration Management
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Software Distribution (1st), Server Monitoring (4th), Patch Management (2nd)
SolarWinds Server Configura...
Ranking in Configuration Management
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 7.5%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is 1.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune4.3%
Microsoft Configuration Manager7.5%
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor1.5%
Other86.7%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

HA
Senior Business Development Executive at Digitaltrack
Centralized device management has automated onboarding and improves remote security compliance
One thing I feel Microsoft Intune could improve is troubleshooting visibility. In many cases, when a policy or application deployment fails, the error messages are a bit generic. So, admins still spend time checking logs manually or testing on devices one by one. Compared to the simplicity of deployment, troubleshooting sometimes feels less mature. I also think reporting and real-time monitoring could be stronger. The dashboard gives useful information, but in large environments, many teams still depend on additional tools or scripts for deeper reporting and analytics. If I had to focus on one area first, I would probably choose troubleshooting and reporting. Deployment through Microsoft Intune is generally straightforward, but when something fails, identifying the exact root cause can still take more time than expected. Error messages are sometimes too generic, and admins often have to dig through logs, sync status, or multiple portals to understand what actually happened. I think user experience and policy management could also improve further. Microsoft Intune has become much better over the years, but sometimes the admin portal still feels fragmented because certain configurations open in different sections or redirect to older interfaces. For new admins, especially, it can take time to understand where everything is located. Another thing is policy conflict handling. In larger organizations, multiple device policies, compliance rules, and configuration profiles can overlap. When conflicts happen, the visibility is not always very clear, so admins spend time figuring out which policy actually won or caused the issue.
NS
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.
AR
Software Developer at NOESIS Portugal
Alerting has helped us detect server issues across our environment
The alert mechanism is the biggest advantage of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor. The customizability of the alerting system is particularly valuable. Whatever devices are in the environment, whether EC2 servers or on-premises servers, all of them can be monitored using this service. I can easily find out what exactly is going wrong in the environment. The clear audit trail aids in troubleshooting and optimization. The tool is effective for detecting unauthorized changes across platforms.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Intune has transformed my organization; we are managing to scale the Intune deployment across all our regions efficiently, and it works perfectly for our needs."
"It is a wonderful product; I would advise others to go for it because it is definitely helpful for an enterprise and has been improving constantly."
"Internet-based access with security is what I have found to be most valuable. It is also a stable and scalable solution."
"Microsoft Intune is the best solution available; we can connect with any device and handle all queries, which sets it apart from other tools available in the market."
"The ability to deploy patches and automate software deployments to end-user devices is very useful."
"It significantly reduces the overhead associated with providing support."
"If you want to manage your mobile devices as well as your Windows 10 devices, Intune is the best option."
"The security features are most definitely valuable. If I have to give an example, the lockdown features that prevent employees from configuring anything or downloading company data are valuable. We get high-quality device protection, malware protection, and information protection at the same time."
"We are happy with the collaboration of SCCM with Patch My PC, which allows us to do patch work."
"What's valuable is the basic management of the systems, being able to control who can access the systems."
"Endpoint Manager is valuable to our organization because it allows us to connect to our enterprise from remote locations securely. The most useful feature is its robustness and scalability. It is highly scalable and flexible, allowing us to use it in various environments. Additionally, we can specialize the policies related to each device group. This ensures that each group has access to the applications they need for their work and non-work hours."
"You can remote control or RDP. That has been the most valuable because we can go into one console and can get to anything we want. Instead of going to all these different consoles, we centralized everything."
"Microsoft has done a good job with authentication solutions, such as single sign-on, or open authentication."
"Software deployment and WSUS are most valuable."
"It deploys all the bare metals using PXE and it gathers all of the information of the device using a discovery, whatever it is in the domain and we can schedule the deployment according to our need."
"I like a lot of the reporting capabilities and baseline configurations."
"The customizability of the alerting system is particularly valuable; whatever devices are in the environment, whether EC2 servers or on-premises servers, all of them can be monitored using this service."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is version control. For example, if we began on the first of the month and we considered that as the configuration of the server, I could set that configuration as my baseline. On a daily basis, if there was the operations team that did, for example, server patching, the tool will maintain all levels of versions."
"SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is a good-to-have solution for all customers who are under audit pressure, especially from regulatory authorities."
"The product’s alert feature is good. We receive notifications whenever some failures occur in the configuration."
 

Cons

"China blocks Google and Google Play Store, which makes installation challenging. Microsoft Intune is a company software, which has to be installed to the app portal or Microsoft Software Center."
"A more incisive reporting tool with automated progress updates and graphical representation would be beneficial, as the current manual method lacks efficiency and visual clarity."
"When I started learning Microsoft Intune, I struggled because it was not straightforward; everything is in forms and it takes time to understand. The UI is extremely bad; it has a lot of overlapping elements and is confusing in many senses."
"The scalability could be improved, and like most other MDM products, Intune is good but not 100% there yet."
"Reporting can be better. Only global administrators can see detailed reports at the moment, and I don't want to use the global admin."
"The only issues I have had with Microsoft Intune were with applications where if they are not an MSI file, I cannot really upload it as an application."
"Microsoft Intune could be improved by making the UI more intuitive, enhancing reporting and analytics for better visibility, simplifying troubleshooting and error messaging, and improving performance and policy sync speed in larger environments."
"It needs certificate provisioning for S/MIME purposes."
"In terms of the monitoring, the timeframe it takes to actually report back on the compliance of a device after it has been patched is a bit too long."
"The availability of technical support could improve."
"Their compliance reporting is not accurate, and they admitted it on the phone when we had a call with them. We were trying to understand why their numbers didn't match on our compliance reports. It is not accurate and you cannot depend on the compliance reports. The numbers just don't match, and we can't figure out why. We called Microsoft and they said, "Yeah, that's a known issue." But there is no word that they're working on it."
"There are also some limitations of Intune, such as the inability to deploy operating systems the traditional way via task sequences, making it such that we have to use Autopilot to deploy operating systems."
"I would like to see Microsoft extend the coverage of the product to integrate better with other platforms beyond Windows."
"It offers a very difficult cloud gateway when it comes to cloud management."
"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 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."
"The product’s support services and licensing models need improvement."
"In a feature release, they could enhance the reporting. However, we have not evaluated this part of the solution extensively."
"The price of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is not reasonable, it is slightly on the higher side."
"Some dashboards I observed in Dynatrace are not available in SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing needs improvement."
"I would rate the price a four out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"It's a bit expensive from a licensing perspective, especially as we look to have organizations with tenants across the globe."
"The price of Microsoft Intune is reasonable."
"The price of Intune is included with the license for Office 365, so we don't have to pay anything extra for it."
"The pricing is good because customers are not complaining about it."
"Intune is included with our F3 and E5 licenses."
"Our Office 365 Business Premium license, including Office 365 and Intune Management, offers excellent value."
"The license price could be reduced for Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager They should make the price more affordable for smaller companies, most companies would be able to use the solution if it was priced better. There are more people on this cloud because you don't have to have either a server room or an on-premise server. You can have one IT person handle this without any local infrastructure."
"I would rate the cost as eight out of ten."
"Pricing and licensing are a downside of SCCM. It's expensive. I'd have to confirm this, but I think they changed the licensing to core-based instead of socket-based. It's not cheap, because you have to buy the software, you have to buy SQL. Another thing we learned from talking to Microsoft is that they provide you a license for SQL if you run it on the same box as the primary server. If you run it outside that box, you have to buy SQL. Microsoft does recommend you running it on the same box because of performance. But then, in order to run SQL, SCCM, and everything on the same box, you better have some resources. It's an expensive solution. There's no doubt about it."
"The price is competitive and reasonable."
"When you compare this solution with other tools in the market you might actually find a lot of variation in the pricing and that's why people opt for the other tools rather than Microsoft tools."
"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."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"There is an annual license needed to use the solution."
"SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor has medium pricing compared to other solutions."
"The price of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is not reasonable, it is slightly on the higher side."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business192
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise187
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
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 ...
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 ...
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. Wh...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCCM?
The setup cost is considered sufficient. It is not significant enough for us to consider a change at the moment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
In general, I think that licensing for SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is acceptable, and the solution is qui...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
Some dashboards I observed in Dynatrace are not available in SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor. The dashboard f...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor?
I work only with SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor. My major use case is the monitoring of environment servers ...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS
SolarWinds SCM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,938 professionals have used our research since 2012.