ManageEngine Endpoint Central Reviews

We carried out a POC on Desktop Central before implementing and it's been in production for two months. Our use case is for patching third-party applications and Windows applications. We use the solution extensively so that aside from the monthly scanning we use it to work on Microsoft vulnerabilities.

We are customers of Desktop Central and I'm an IT Manager. 

Previously, our monthly maintenance would have taken about eight hours, and two or three people continuously on a laptop. Our maintenance is now carried out by this solution and once it's done there just needs to be a check for errors. It's time-saving and resource-saving which is pretty good. 

The patch management is really wonderful, it's effortless and just a matter of building a few configurations and creating a few templates which can be reused. The UI is quite good and user-friendly. 

There are a few basic things that haven't been configured in the tool. We're dealing with 600, 700 servers. The way the solution has been configured means you can only see 500 systems at a time. The company has acknowledged that this is an issue but they haven't worked on it yet. It's a little strange given the amount of time the product has been on the market. 

We're working on migrating to Azure. It involves a new patch that was not picked up by Desktop Central. I think it's a problem for them because Azure is everywhere right now and they don't seem to be up to date with the new patches. More needs to be included because everything Microsoft is launching now is more related to Azure.

I've been using this solution for six months. 

Performance is good and stable. If it's working on 600 servers at a time, there is a 90-minute window that it uses to communicate with its agent, and that's divided between all the servers. It can hamper performance at times when compared to other tools where you just click and everything is communicated without any wait time. The IT Ops team uses Desktop Central which, in our company, is two or three people. 

We haven't yet scaled but I believe it will be quite easy. 

All the ManageEngine products are pretty straightforward when it comes to implementation. There are a few configurations you have to do on a network level for the codes, but it's not complicated. I carried out the deployment with one other person. We contacted the vendor a few times for some assistance but that was it. The POC took about a month and the actual deployment took a week to 10 days including configuring everything on the network level.

In terms of maintenance, the server and installed agent need to be updated on all servers. You do have to check it on your test environment to make sure everything is compatible with a virtual environment, otherwise it could crash your VM. 

The solution is relatively cheap because we purchased the full package. For now, we're only using patch management, but it offers many other things such as software deployment, the ability to create configuration packages and install new software. There are no additional costs to the licensing fee. 

We only recently started using Desktop Central, so we're comparing the results with another solution use, BatchPatch. The Desktop Central UI is very good and easy to use. BatchPatch is a cheaper product so it's more complicated and the UI is not as good. What BatchPatch does have that's lacking in Desktop Central is the granular representation of progress and what's happening on the backend. BatchPatch gives you a clear picture of what's happening step by step and progress per server; it gives you specific errors so you can check and troubleshoot. Desktop Central lacks that visibility. If you're carrying out maintenance of 600 servers, you need to have that visibility, so that if something's not right, you can look into it instead of having to wait eight hours.

If you're new to the solution, check your requirements because the solution is not suitable for every situation. We're using it for a data center, so we configured it differently. If, for example, you're dealing with local laptops on office premises and you're looking to do patch management, a product like Ivanti might be more useful. For us, Desktop Central is pretty good because we are working on servers, and the vulnerability checks we do on the security base are pretty high, so the patch management option of Desktop Central is pretty good. 

There is room for improvement, so I rate the solution eight out of 10. 

I like that we can manage everything totally in one dashboard. We can install software easily. Anyone can handle the installation. It's got good documentation. 

The setup is pretty simple. 

It's scalable. 

The technical communication needs to be better. They need better technical support.

The solution is expensive. 

I've been using the solution for one to two months. 

The product is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. I'd rate the stability eight or nine out of ten based on its reliability.

It is scalable. It is simple to expand. I'd rate its ability to scale eight out of ten. 

Technical support has not been great. I haven't been pleased with their ability to assist when we need help. That said, there are some technicians that are good if you can get a hold of them.

Negative

It is easy to set up the solution. I'd rate the ease of implementation nine out of ten. It is not overly complex. 

It is a pretty expensive solution. With one being cheap and ten being expensive, I'd rate the affordability at a nine out of ten. Compared to other products, it costs a lot. 

I'm a customer and end user. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I'm pretty happy with its capabilities. 

We use it for Windows patching, third-party application patching, and third-party application deployment. 

The advantage of this solution for us is that it has basically centralized all our IT support, both remote and on-prem. We no longer need to do a lot of sneakernet. We're basically doing full remote support with it.

This solution has many valuable features. It's a complete product that allows you to remote troubleshoot, has an inventory of systems, as well as other things. We own the entire suite. The UEM suite allows us to deploy Manage Patching, Deploy OS' as well as MDM Management. We use the entire Swiss Army knife of the product. We use some other ManageEngine products and there's seamless integration between them. They've implemented in-application support so you can type a question to support and you'll get a real time reply, which is great. They really listen to their customers and try to proactively support them. They're constantly listening to feedback and making improvements on the product. It's one of those things where they listen to the customers and they're constantly evolving the product.

There are occasional glitches but they deal with it very quickly and efficiently. They've actually just rolled out a whole new endpoint security add-on that includes the features I've been looking for. 

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

The solution has been fairly stable. It's evolved over time and they've come a long way. It's been a consistently stable platform. We've previously used things like WSUS and Intune for Window Patch deployment, ManageEngine is by far easier to use than those products. 

This is a very scalable solution. It's deployed to our entire organization, so that's about 400 users.

The technical support is great. The challenge is that sometimes support has to go back to development and the lead time can take a while. It's no different to any other company. They're all going to do the same thing. I'd much rather have them fix it right the first time versus coming back constantly with band-aids.

The initial setup is easy. You build a server, you install, you run the executable, it installs. It has a self-contained database and it does its own thing. You're up and running in 10 minutes. Obviously, like any product, it's going to take you time to evolve the product, to use the product, to get to know the product, but you can be up and running in as quickly as 10 minutes.

The cost is fairly reasonable for what you're getting. As an end user, you always want everything for nothing, but the reality of the matter is you get what you pay for so I think the price is fair. If you compare it to things like other patch management and third party tools, I'd say the price is probably fairly good.

We've looked at a lot of solutions and, value for money, this product can't be beat. They're always packing more features into it. We've looked at a couple of other products and they're just more cumbersome to set up and more expensive.

It's worth taking a good look at this solution because I think it's a really good product and it has a lot of features. It has a lot of value added and they have great support.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We have about 180 endpoints that are spread across several buildings. We have an Active Directory environment. It is hard to maintain updates, install software, and do support in such an environment. Desktop Central has given tools to maintain our environment with ease, deploy updates to machines. Deploy software is an easy to use tool for our needs. The tool for remote support is so great with the ability to use shortcuts and chat. Also, we use an asset scan option very much to maintain an overview of our environment.

Since deploying Desktop Central our endpoints are all updated. We use configuration management to deploy shortcuts to our users' desktops with ease. Also, we use configuration management to map logical hard drives to our users. Our users are very happy with how much ease IT can solve their problems. Also, we have an overview of our complete IT environment and assets so we can upgrade our endpoints as needed. And we are an overall much secure IT environment since we deployed Desktop Central because all our endpoints are up to date.

Patch management is an excellent tool because we deploy patches with ease and also decline patches. Asset management and scan are also very useful because we have an overview of all our endpoints and their configurations. Remote connections to endpoints for support is great with chat, shortcuts to tools, and user keyboard locking. Also, notifications, if someone tries to remove any hardware from the endpoint, is working very well. We have somewhat used reporting options but it works very well and we will surely use it in the future.

We would like to see options for deploying Microsoft 365 accounts into Outlook. For now, we only can use it to deploy exchange accounts. Also, we would like to see an option do decline Windows 7 ESU patches in a bulk. For now, we have to decline them one by one which is not an easy process. Also, we are not clear about uninstalling Desktop Central patches from our server. That is not a problem for now but in the future, it could be. There should be some more clearance on how to uninstall Desktop Central patches and what are the consequences.

We have been using it for six months.

Great stability.

There are a lot of scenarios for scalability but we have not tried it yet. ManageEngine has a lot of products that can be integrated with DesktopCentral, like Service Desk Plus and Browser Security plus but we have not tried it yet.

Had no need for customer service or technical support.

We did not use a different solution.

It is very easy to setup and tutorials and online support are great.

We deployed it in-house.

The licensing is very easy to understand and pricing is right for what you get.

We didn't.

I'm a system admin and network engineer.

I've found the solution to be user-friendly for us in the IT department and for our employees. Raising a ticket is pretty much effortless and getting it to the next level is also simple. The entire package is quite flawless. The functionality, the basic elements and the help aspect are all fine.

The user interface could be improved because it's quite hardware based. There are no dynamic changes on web pages and it's lacking visually. 

I've been using this solution for six months. 

The solution is stable. I haven't found any crashes or abnormalities in the program.

We haven't fully tested scalability. For now our users include three IT people and 105 employees.

We haven't needed any support but I think everything is available on YouTube.

The initial setup was straightforward and took maybe half an hour. I found some useful tips on YouTube.

We've only tested the help desk aspect to date. From that perspective I would definitely recommend it. We've been testing ManageEngine for the past six months and we'll continue that for a while longer. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

Windows patching and inventory management are the most valuable features

ManageEngine Desktop Central is very limited. When you scan your system, it will only recognize Microsoft Windows Defender and BitLocker. The warranty period, on Desktop Central only recognizes the Dell. They do not recognize HP and they do not recognize any other brand like ThinkPad.

I have been using ManageEngineDesktop Central for eleven years.

ManageEngine Desktop Central is stable.

We maintain ourselves, but if there is something beyond our knowledge, then we contact technical support.

Neutral

I have used Spiceworks.

I would rate pricing as a seven on a scale of one to ten. ManageEngine Desktop Central could be cheaper.

Seven hundred users are currently using the system.

I would rate ManageEngine Desktop Central an eight on a scale of one to ten.

We are using the solution for desktop support. You can connect to the client machines and do the support for them remotely. You can record the sessions and you can deploy software. We use it to install operating systems. It's basically a desktop support solution.

The product makes it very easy to connect to clients. Normally, with all the tools I try, many have been messy when connecting with the client. With DesktopCentral, it's really easy. 

Normally, you can install the software and you are ready to run when you install the agent in the client. It's very easy to install on the clients' machines as you can connect with the active directory and deploy it automatically.

The initial setup is very simple.

The stability is very good.

The product tends to have some glitches in terms of connection when you have two connections to the same machine. For example, you have the internet cable connected to your PC, and you are connected to the WiFi. The client gets confused about that and loses the connection with the client a lot of the time if you don't deactivate one of them.

They should make it easier to deploy in the clients. 

Improvement of the chats on the web communication through the WAN would be helpful.

I've used the solution at this company for two years. In my last job, maybe I use it for four years approximately.

The product is very stable. Normally, I do the updates. I never have a problem or have to make a solution for coming back after a shutdown. It's reliable. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It's my understanding that the scalability is good. I don't have a cluster right now, however, from what I see, it's going to be easy to set up. In the option of the platform, you have an assistant to make a cluster and make your implementation bigger. That said, I didn't try it yet.

I have five technical users and I have 200 clients.

I don't have plans to have more clients or increase usage as the size of the company is finite. However, I will likely acquire more products from ManageEngine.

The initial implementation process was very simple. I even installed it myself. 

I didn't need support or a consultant to do the setup. I handled it myself and was very, very simple.

We pay licensing fees on a yearly basis. 

We have the aggregate fees for a few things, however, for the most part, it's all under one license fee. There aren't added costs.

We are partners. 

The advice I can give to people looking to implement this solution is to read all the information they have on the website as all the steps to handle the implementation is there. It is very easy to read and it's very accessible on their site. You don't need to look for other site guides or any other tutorials as everything you need is right there on their website.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. I've been pretty happy with the product in general.

We use this product for:

• User management and Patch management.
• Application and software deployment management, which is made very easy using its software.
• Remote support on different platforms like macOS, Windows, Linux, and tablets (Android and iOS).
• Software usage monitoring by the users.
• Providing endpoint security and assets management.
• Discovering the software license and warranty details. 
• Device control like USB and security policies.
• Effectively applying restrictions on end-user devices like cameras and browsers.

Having one single portal for all of our patch management, application management, mobile device management, and remote support has greatly improved our IT capabilities. Previously, we were using different tools for each different purpose.

The endpoint security helps us control the user device as per the IT policies. 

OS deployment and software deployment have saved the IT department a large amount of time during the mass onboarding.

Using desktop central has increased the efficiency of the asset management in our company. 

The most important feature we found to be useful in the COVID situation is the secure connection, which gives the IT support staff the ability to seamlessly connect with the users remotely and in a secure way. They can connect to almost all of the operating systems including Windows, Linux, macOS, and tablets. This also gives great control to the IT support staff, who remotely connect to the users during emergencies.

The patch management of the different operating systems in our environment is also made easy by using the desktop central software. 

There is a slight delay in customer support, which is something that can be improved.

We would like to see more integration on the macOS side, much as it is with Windows. There are still some access-level restrictions that we can see in the latest macOS when we connect desktop central remote. This is something that should be improved in the next release.

We have been using ManageEngine Desktop Central for two and a half years.

It is quite a stable product and we have access to customer support if there are any issues. Make sure that you subscribe to an annual support contract.

It's pretty good at scaling up. You just need to buy a license and it's ready to use.

The technical support is good but sometimes, there is a slight delay in response. 

We did not use another similar product before this one.

The setup was a bit complex initially but with use, we have become experts now.

Our implementation was done through a vendor.

We have been using this product for the past two and a half years and we have seen a 90% ROI. 

It's relatively cheap if you take the overall product. Choose wisely between the Professional and Enterprise editions, based on your needs.

We evaluated TeamViewer for remote support, as well as Microsoft System Center.

Overall, given the capabilities of Desktop Central, it is one of the best endpoint management solutions and it can cater to most of the operating systems in a client's environment, through a single portal.