Comparison of Mac Management software

[Merdiation]

Hello guys,

I want to share the comparison I made for Jamf Pro and some various other Mac Management solutions, like Parallels, Airwatch and Centrify, in terms of features they provide and support.
This comparison served us to highlight the benefits of Jamf and to ultimately choose Jamf over other solutions.

The feature list has been imported from the official Jamf site and all solutions have been compared to these.

Please keep in mind that not all of the information will be 100% correct and that there could be mistakes or faults. If you have any comments or changes you want to add, please feel free to add them into the comparison table directly, I will check them afterwards and adapt them.

Find the comparison here:
Comparison: Mac Management software
Update: 20/12/19: Now editable by everyone!

Hope this can help some you and will be useful for some of you!
(I'm relatively new to this community, so if you have some tips or improvements for me, please feel free to tell me, thanks!)

[paulnz]

Addigy would be an interesting addition.

[donmontalvo]

[Merdiation]

@paulnz : Didn't knew about that one! Will get some infos about it and add it to the list :)

[marklamont]

Not used it myself but there is filewave

[Merdiation]

Update:

• Addigy has been added
• Filewave has been added

Please feel free to comment the lines. If wanted, I can change the rights for everyone to edit the document. Just let me know.

Thanks for the suggestions all.

[mark_mahabir]

There's also Ivanti Endpoint Manager (was HEAT LanRev, and Absolute Manage before that I believe).

[easyedc]

Almost a decade ago, in our pre-JAMF Days, we used Vintela was bought by Quest was bought by Dell is now One Identity Authentication Services which I always called GPO for Mac. Limited in what it did, other than integrate into ADUC.

[boberito]

You could add the awful evil BigFix to the list.

[al_platt]

MobileIron also cover macOS now.

[LovelessinSEA]

@al_platt We use MI for our Mobile Devices and JAMF for MacOS, we're taking a good look at MI currently, we're hopeful that by the time our next JAMF contract is up, MI will be far enough along that we'll be ready to move. They're pretty green over there but are doing some good things.

[thoule]

IBM Bigfix is by far my favorite tool. Sadly, it's super complicated, but if you have enough machines to justify a person learning it, then it's awesome.

[pete_c]

Might also want to add Kaseya and SolarWinds N-Able - neither are anywhere near as feature-complete or Mac-centric, but both are common in larger organizations and MSPs.

[sullrich]

Fleetsmith might also be a good addition to consider

[tnielsen]

I heard someone mention filewave. I used to assist an admin of that when I was younger. It was not good. Maybe they improved it? Has been 8 years. I very much disliked Filewave. It's crossplatform, fyi.

[Merdiation]

Added the following solutions:

• Ivanti Endpoint Manager
• One Identity Authentication Services
• IBM BigFix
• MobileIron
• Kaseya
• SolarWinds msp

Please help me to complete the list (Leave a comment in the excel file if you have details about a feature, I will change it accordingly) .

[boberito]

What about like munki? Or is this only for commercial software.

[philburk]

I think you'll find that there are many platforms that do MDM-level management but very few beyond that. Getting beyond basic profile-based management is where Mac Management really begins to have payback.

[marco]

Awesome collection of information started here @Merdiation! If you are going to add the One Identity product, perhaps also think about the Apple Enterprise Connect and NoMAD products? Not a management tool, but more like an add-on at this point.. Perhaps with different key items/features in the first column (that none of the other management products will cover).. Just an idea.

[Just_Jack]

Marco: I think you’re looking for this article. https://macadminsdoc.readthedocs.io/en/master/Integration/Active_Directory.html

[Just_Jack]

Looks like you have your work cut for you. Here let me pile more onto your plate.

https://puppet.com
http://www.faronics.com/products/deep-freeze/mac

[hpavlic_]

Hi,

You can add Microsoft Intune, it is not much but you can enroll the device and set compliance.

[Merdiation]

Update:

• Added Puppet
• Added Microsoft Intune

@boberito : I'd like to add only "all-in-one" solutions. I guess Munki cannot be considered a real Mac Management solution, can it?

@marco : Thanks man, glad you like it :) Same goes for the Apple Enterprise Connect and NoMAD products. They're more specific tools, specializing in one area. I guess the Excel sheet will be to complex if we add all such products.

@JSilin : Not everyone has Jamf already and may want to check, which benefits one can get with it (and if these are necessary in the environment) ;). About Deep-freeze from Faronics: Is this like a complete Mac Management solution or more like a snapshot tool for Mac devices?

If you know some features that are missing in the list, please tell me which to add. (Maybe other solutions offer features that Jamf doesn't have (yet)).

[bpavlov]

SimpleMDM
Fleetsmith

[Nix4Life]

@Merdiation

How is Puppet on the list and Munki Not? I use both and Munki is closer to an all in one than Puppet. @JSilin , guess you forgot when JAMF had to walk back similar comments and push JAMF and.... No tool is 100% it will always be JAMF and

[alv2015591]

I have used Munki Filewave
Parallels for Mac Management
Puppet
Centrify
AirWatch

I agree with @Merdiation Jamf is by far the best tool I have ever used in my 18 years as a Mac Systems Engineer. As our budget shrink and our Man Power decreases the days we all have the time to spend 3-5 hours coming up with creative ways to solve problems has deteriorated. One thing those of us who have been in the business for a while don't take into account is. Can what we just creatively did be duplicated or understood by anyone we work with? How many man hours did this solution take and is there a more efficient way. The combination of Jamf 90% and Centrify 10% with their excellent support departments has given me back my efficiency. In addition to that when I actually go on vacation my co-workers / employees call Jamf and Centrify for engineering questions. I manage 900 Mac as the principal engineer and IT Director while my 8 Desktop Engineers manage our 5000 PC's. I am not only able to innovate, update, manage and maintain my systems. I am able to stay ahead of the curve while still attending all my BS Management meetings in a 50 hour work week. I have had some as-semblance of success with every tool listed above but Jamf is by far the best of those tools.

[bpavlov]

Just wanted to leave this outdated table for reference purposes as to what kind of things might be good to track for MDM services:
http://www.enterpriseios.com/wiki/Comparison_MDM_Providers

[Asnyder]

Anyone using Mosyle? I've been thinking about making the switch to them.

[KSchroeder]

Add Symantec's Altiris too...I don't think it does any of the MDM stuff (profiles), which limits functionality, but if the environment is already established for Windows, or you need a holistic CMDB, it would have a place.

[Just_Jack]

Faronics is an imaging software.

[MacLover]

Good work mate, Parallels and their USB solution.

[lee_smith]

Has anyone done a comparison on Mosyle?

[edickson]

How about Rippling? It's not just for Mac or IT management but also does PC and Human Resources automation as well.

[cainehorr]

I just learned about Mosyle from a friend/colleague of mine this morning. Has some nice dashboards and some interesting features for K-12 education. But from what I've read, it seems to be slow and frustrates a lot of admins.

I'm not in edu, but I'll still stick with Jamf!

[cainehorr]

Airwatch needs to be updated too - it's now known as Workspace ONE

[tlarkin]

Probably an impossible ask, because of the time and resources it would take to compile the data, but I would love to see a product to tech debt document. Meaning, what sort of manual labors does it take to use the products day to day. I doubt anyone has time to spend at minimum a few months with each product and then go through the ins and outs of it, but would be a very interesting read.

[Merdiation]

Hi together,

I changed the file to be edited by everyone now. So feel free to add your information :)

[jefff]

As someone who has stood up Jamf systems at 3 universities and been through the purchase/decision process each time, a good comparison site is definitely something that is needed in this space. My employers each had either a legal or procedural obligation to compare Jamf with competing MDM products, and I was the one who did most of the legwork in that process. One of the lessons I have learned is that if you can get access to their reports, Gartner and Forrester both do a good job of providing the overview and comparison. You'll save yourself a lot of effort if you can either use your search engine skills to get their reports or convince your employer to pay for them.

[James_von]

Thoughts on the 2019 Gartner report? My question is why did others score higher in certain areas over Jamf? And I have trialed the other product and i'm left scratching my head on how the others could get a higher rating then Jamf. Do we know if they included Jamf Connect?

[tim_c_arnold]

Anyone know what used to be in I1? And what's up with N1 while we're at it?