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Parallels Access vs ScreenConnect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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 Remote Access
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
377
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Parallels Access
Ranking in Remote Access
23rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ScreenConnect
Ranking in Remote Access
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Meetings (17th), Remote Visual Support (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 4.9%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Parallels Access is 1.8%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ScreenConnect is 3.0%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Intune4.9%
ScreenConnect3.0%
Parallels Access1.8%
Other90.3%
Remote Access
 

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.
JP
CEO at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Allows users to access and operate their computers remotely
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. I'd have to turn on the Bluetooth a lot of times and transfer it that way on both devices, which was troublesome. However, it would sometimes randomly work. I could go on my iPad, find whatever I wanted to do, click copy, then go over to the computer through Parallels Access, click paste, and it would randomly work. I had to call Parallels many times. They would log in and try something, which would temporarily work, but then it wouldn't. When it worked, it made integration between the two things great. That was a very helpful feature that didn't get polished.
Todd Blake - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Specialist at a healthcare company with 11-50 employees
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My advice for those implementing Microsoft Intune is to proceed with it; there is no other software that can perform the job better, and Microsoft offers extensive experience with a mature ecosystem, so I recommend going for it."
"When comparing these two products, I prefer Intune."
"Our configuration profiles used to be all over the place. For example, there's a lot of legacy stuff in Active Directory. Going through Intune has helped us enforce settings, which has improved device security and functionality. When you apply something through Intune, you know it works. You don't have to worry about a legacy setting from Active Directory that was uploaded by somebody seven years ago. With Intune, you can see that a device has a setting, and you can be confident that the device is configured how you want."
"I like Intune's ability to manage roles, maintenance tasks, compliance settings, and patch development for all endpoints."
"By using Microsoft Intune we can control which websites the users can go to and it provides a secure environment for our employees using their laptops that are having access from home. We have installed Intune to control the user's environment minimizing the chances of any hacking."
"I particularly appreciate the administration and security features, which can be deployed easily."
"This product works very well for companies already using the full Microsoft suite."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune is patching-related capabilities."
"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."
"Parallels Access has flexible licensing policies, which is beneficial for customers who have intermittent usage or users who are on and off the system."
"The application used to publish for mobile devices is very good and the desktop publishing is very, very good."
"It's great that the total deployment can happen completely remotely."
"What seems to be the most valuable from the customer side is the ease of operation, and the overall experience they have."
"We don't have problems with stability. Everything is good."
"Offers more security than TeamViewer, Google Remote Desktop, and Zoom. It's a stable, feature-rich solution that's easy to set up and easy to scale."
"it gives me the ability to remotely connect to machines that I manage without user intervention."
"Engineers have quick, usable access to clients' infrastructure, which was not so easy with GoToMeeting."
"ConnectWise Connect is very convenient as we can remote to a PC even when it is not within our LAN."
"Session groups and triggers are the most valuable features, because they make a greater degree of organization possible. Greater degree of organization is valuable to my organization, because we have many sessions to handle."
"The remote management piece is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us due to the fact that we can support our clients after hours."
"Compared to what's out there the pricing is probably a good value."
"It's very easy to use. Provides connections that are always on. It was nice to be able to see a list of end-points and see whether or not they were connected so I could troubleshoot any network issues I had."
 

Cons

"However, with Microsoft, it takes a lot longer, and I’m not getting quick resolutions. Sometimes, I find myself bouncing around between different support groups."
"There have been instances where enrolling devices should take 10 minutes but ends up taking an hour due to various issues."
"For macOS devices, we use the Jamf portal. I understand that the Jamf portal and server are more secure than Microsoft Intune for macOS."
"It would be great to see on-premises mailboxes and for the solution to have geofencing capabilities."
"Intune endpoint analytics can be challenging."
"I, as such, do not have any specific inputs or needs. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to scalability."
"The solution could improve its flexibility."
"For improving Microsoft Intune, it sometimes feels laggy, taking some time to implement any policies on machines."
"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."
"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."
"The scalability is great for small or medium-sized businesses. However, it may not scale well for enterprise-level entities."
"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."
"At the moment, I cannot use my own domain to install it and use it with my clients."
"There could be improvement to the remote command line tools."
"However, the main issue I have seen with it is that, if they are having issues with their web browsers or network, there is really no way to connect with it."
"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."
"On a Linux machine, there are different limitations that are not there on a Windows Server. Much more limitations exist on Linux deployments."
"An option I would want would be to have a shortcut on my desktop, to click on it, and immediately be able to select which system I wanted to access and which computer in that system I wanted to access, and have fewer steps that I would have to physically go through to do so."
"Eventually, we're going to be moving to them and shutting off ConnectWise."
"There can be some complexities when running patches or when building up all the profiles, making them areas where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price for Intune is fair."
"The licensing costs we leave up to the customer and these vary from one to another."
"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."
"While I don't have access to high-level financial information, I believe we have achieved lower costs with this implementation."
"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."
"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 am not that aware of the pricing, but as compared to other MDM solutions, Microsoft is providing a lot of things at the organizational level. So, it is quite reasonable as compared to other MDM solutions."
"Intune is available as an individual product, but it also comes with Office 365 Premium or an Enterprise license, and the price varies for each version."
"The licensing costs are about $100 per user."
"ConnectWise Control is not an overly expensive tool. Its pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"I download the product for free with ConnectWise RMM's license."
"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 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."
"We pay $3,000 USD for the service, yearly upfront."
"Make sure you have enough licensing for all the techs that you have."
"Their licensing model is good, their pricing model is good, their service is good; bandwidth is excellent. They're consistent."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
11%
Transportation Company
9%
University
7%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business192
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise187
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Gilt Groupe K.K.
Jon Rosen Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Parallels Access vs. ScreenConnect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.