ConnectWise Automate vs. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ConnectWise Automate
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
ConnectWise Automate, formerly LabTech, is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. It provides powerful automation to discover and manage devices, monitor for problems, and scripts repetitive action.
$700
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
ADAudit Plus offers real-time monitoring, user and entity behaviour analytics, and change audit reports that helps users keep AD and IT infrastructure secure and compliant. Track all changes to Windows AD objects including users, groups, computers, GPOs, and OUs. Achieve hybrid AD monitoring with a single, correlated view of all the activities happening across both on-premises AD and Azure AD. Monitor every user's logon and logoff activity, including…
$595
per year
Pricing
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Editions & Modules
Agents
$1.00-$6.00
per month/per agent
Implementation Fee
$700
Standard
$595
per year
Professional
$945
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is dependent on the number of domain controllers and starts at $595/year for the Standard edition, and $945/year for the Professional edition.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Considered Both Products
ConnectWise Automate
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Enable has a clunky interface more suited for management reporting versus technician toolbox and Ninja is very basic and lacks any significant bells and whistles behind basic remote command interface. Very poor in features to the point if being quite disappointing during a …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
If we have to do it again, we would not choose to Automate due to the number of efforts and monetary investment (3rd party consultants) to implement it as well on going managing it. But, in comparison to the other RMM products we used in the past, Automate offers more …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
I regret using ConnectWise Automate since we can't effectively add and remove clients and I feel like we're locked into a multi-year contract where only ConnectWise seems to be happy.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
I have evaluated NinjaRMM, but it was after I was already familiar with ConnectWise Automate. While it seems like a good product, I found that ConnectWise Automate was more flexible in allowing me to make custom configurations to meet various business needs across different …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Formerly used Lansweeper, Solarwinds Orion, BMC track-it, which were all replaced with Connectwise offerings.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
I believe the monitoring and alerts in Continuum command is better, but [ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)] does have stronger scripting, and perhaps a better interface. N-Central is inferior on all fronts to both. I did not make the purchasing decision. I would myself …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
It just seems like Automate is a tool for professionals who want to be the best proactive solution for their customers. There are so many different things built into Connectwise Automate which makes it a superior tool compared to anything else on the market currently. Once …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
So as you can see from this review my experience is mostly with its desktop sharing aspect; however the IT support team use this more comprehensively as a monitoring, inventory, reporting, even application deployment tool that the above-mentioned apps don't have.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Automate is by far the best of all RMM solutions we have tried. The overall ease of use and support is much better than we have experienced with other RMM vendors.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
I touched on this in the previous section some. Kaseya's choice of managed antivirus was very poor (KAV, a tweaked version of Kaspersky) when it first started. It took them a long time to fix anything, and the fixes usually produced new and different issues. Kaseya kept …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
We have used Kaseya. It is not nearly as functional or reliable as ConnectWise Automate.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
It is, by far, the best solution we have ever used. The others are not even close.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
We ended up choosing ConnectWise because LogMeIn which is part of Continuum is slow and requires a lot of system resources and the patching is all that great within Continuum.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
ConnectWise Automate helps you do more with less by leveraging ConnectWise Control® to remotely manage multiple machines simultaneously.

Eliminate blind spots in your supported environments before they become a problem.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Automate is one of the best when it comes to RMM-applications in terms of features and ability to execute, however, where it is weak is in the necessity for an SME to run and maintain it and while it is quick and gets the job done, it is difficult to stack it up to a full …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Automate is the most well-established platform among its peers. Because it is part of a native ecosystem, you know that everything from remote management to ticketing to quoting an invoicing will work together. I have used other platforms, and many of them share core …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
We switched from Kaseya to Automate 7-8 years ago - it was no contest at the time and Kaseya wasn't cutting it in a number of areas at that time that was really hurting us. I'm sure it's improved since then.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
We have only previously deployed HoundDog/GFI and Autotask but evaluated all that we found. In the long run, none of the others compare with the features of ConnectWise Automate. Many others are less expensive but simply do not do all that ConnectWise Automate can do. We …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech) took us a while to implement and adopt, but it was worth the time, cost, and effort.
Chose ConnectWise Automate
The Continuum RMM is very simplistic in comparison to Automate. The scripting engine in Continuum doesn't compare at all with the scripting in Automate. Continuum has a single level of agent grouping (all agents for a client are in a single group). For clients that have …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
Automate is the most flexible and customizable tool on the market - but it's also the most complex and requires the most care and feeding to run smoothly...
Chose ConnectWise Automate
We selected ConnectWise Automate over Kaseya as it provided many of the same features but less of the headache. Often times, scripts would not work in Kaseya or updates would not push. We have not had this experience with Automate, scripts and such just run when scheduled. …
Chose ConnectWise Automate
ConnectWise has a wider scale and more functionality than LogMeIn. ConnectWise is better suited to large organizations. Training using the software is fairly simple getting techs off the ground.
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
For AD auditing management, an AD audit is one of the top tools on the market. I have not found anything lacking or missing in either the reports or the platform.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
very easy and friendly use. also upgrades
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We selected ManageEngine ADAudit Plus because the reporting and alerting features are useful and the cost of the product is not prohibitive
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Very different to compare
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We were using the Snare client that was only capable of forwarding logs to some type of syslog server. To be able to get meaning full reports or alerts from that system it would all need to be customized. This would require that you had the expertise on staff to set up these …
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We selected ManageEngine ADAudit Plus for two simple reasons. One is it is so easy to use. Logging in and being able to easily see data, find data and gather data is so much easier then other products on the market. The other reason is what you get out of the product. We get …
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
I think their product is slightly different but has overlap, better long-term logging in ManageEngine ADAudit Plus but much better real time metrics and response from Tenable
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We use Varonis for different things than ManageEngine ADAudit Plus. They complement each other well.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
I have not looked at other products like AD AUdit
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We haven't haven't previously used any similar product before ManageEngine ADAudit Plus.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Choice for ManageEngine was made on support, ease of implementation and cost. We were looking for a monitoring solution that was on premises and cost effective.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
We are still using both but I prefer ManageEngine for AD auditing by a mile. The gui interface and prebuilt reporting is great
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
ADAudit Plus was the clear winner for us. Price, features, ease of use, etc.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
In terms of features, ADAudit Plus offers a comprehensive set of features for monitoring and auditing Active Directory, including real-time alerts, detailed reports, and user behavior analytics. The platform also offers support for multiple platforms, including Windows, UNIX, …
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
All products have their niche.
What stood out for us - 1) we use other products from manageengine. Made sense to keep it to one pane of glass, so to speak.
2) price. at the price point we got a lot for our buck. 3) features. It does exactly what we needed.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
ADAudit had a better ability to easily customize reports. Also the interface was snappier. Netrix was kind of clunky to use and not as intuitive.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
I have not tried any other products as this hit the requirements and delivery first shot.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
somewhat the same features
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
ManageEngine is very cheaper to get into and expand its use. It's a robust but not quite as powerful application as something like Quest or others. But for the most prevalent and needed, AD reporting requirements will meet your needs and expectations.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
For AD Auditing, this software provides the reporting we need more than other products.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Cheap and cheerful entry-level products. I feel they have tried to cover a lot of areas but poorly executed each one. They seem to spend more time re-designing the UI that fixing issues. For example, it has been a year since we requested 256-bit BitLocker. By the time they get …
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
With other manufacturers, you must have 1, 2 and up to 3 tools to carry out the audit that can be done, as long as it is licensed, from a single console such as ADAudit Plus.
Chose ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Used and tested various other products before settling down with ADAudit Plus in the past, and never have the organization regretted its decision to go with this product over others. It's lightweight and fast and does what it needs to be without being an annoyance. Best of all, …
Features
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Application Performance Management
Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
8.5
Ratings
15% above category average
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
-
Ratings
Virtualization monitoring8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
IT Asset Discovery9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring Tasks
Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
7.4
Ratings
0% below category average
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
7.0
Ratings
10% below category average
Remote monitoring10.00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Network device monitoring8.00 Ratings4.30 Ratings
Activity Monitoring8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Server Monitoring00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Multi-device monitoring00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Automated alerts and notifications00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Management Tasks
Comparison of Management Tasks features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
7.8
Ratings
4% above category average
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
8.3
Ratings
12% above category average
Patch Management10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based automation9.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Service configuration management00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Software and hardware inventory00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Remote Access
Comparison of Remote Access features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
8.0
Ratings
16% above category average
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
-
Ratings
Attended device access10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Unattended device access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile device access5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Virtual device access8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple-display support9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple concurrent sessions8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting
Comparison of Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
-
Ratings
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
8.1
Ratings
7% above category average
Performance data reports00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customizable reporting00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Data visualization00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Risk analysis00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
ConnectWise Automate
-
Ratings
ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
6.4
Ratings
0% above category average
Data backup and recovery00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Antivirus and malware management00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Administrator access control00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
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User Ratings
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Performance
3.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ConnectWise AutomateManageEngine ADAudit Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
I recommend it to all IT colleagues; regardless of the size of the PCs with which you work most of the time, the application allows connection stability between computers that make it possible to continue working or taking care of the infrastructure from afar.
Read full review
ManageEngine is mostly a "check the box" solution for SIEM systems. We needed something that satisfied our customer and was cost-effective. I would highly rate the system on "worth what paid for". Support is eager to please and prompt. My only issue is that it's mostly based outside the US with helpful, but non-native speakers so it's hard to understand them. I wish they would spring for better help "phone lines" so I'm not dealing with difficult to understand and unclear speakers.
Read full review
Pros
  • Automated patching. The patch management is very robust and doesn't let us down. We can rely on it to do its job.
  • Scripting. The scripting engine and layout is excellent. It's very easy to work with and adapt Powershell scripts and other script to the native format with its functions. It also gives detailed logs to help determine why something went wrong if there's issues.
Read full review
  • Logons - reports are very clean and concise and accurate
  • Account Lockouts - very challenging to do without ManageEngine ADAudit Plus. The tool allows us to easily locate the device or, at the very least, point us in the right direction!
  • AD change management - IT admins should consider this a necessity, and ManageEngine ADAudit Plus facilitates this seamlessly
Read full review
Cons
  • You can track all your clients information and every single job you do for them. You can do quotes, send them, add providers to compare prices, manage the calendar of the employees, assign tickets to the correct person, there is nothing you can't do with this tool.
  • Inside all the greatness, there are some works around that you have to do for specific duties that could be automated.
  • Make sure you keep notes on each client profile, you can use the private note section, it is secure and it works as a reminder of everything you need to do about that specific client, only you and your employees will see those.
Read full review
  • In earlier releases there were quite a few bugs and performance issues. These have since been resolved.
  • When integrated with the Log360 Suite, it can be confusing on whether EventLog Analyzer or ADAudit Plus are "managing"/"Ingesting" the data from a given endpoint.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Support and the Speed of supporting the latest technology is the main reason for not giving this a 10. But the product is powerful and flexible. The best way that I can sum it up is "You can get out of it what you put in to it"
Read full review
It works great for everything we need and use. Any issues in the software are pretty easy to resolve with tech support. And they are very responsive to resolving issues. Even ones where a fix/patch are required. At present, the software does everything we need it to for compliance, audit, and account review.
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Usability
Basic use of the product is fairly easy. Information about the machines you manage can be found in customizable dashboards, which can be unique for each user, and, therefore, properly suited to the users' needs/job function. This is not a 10 because some of the interfaces are very clunky (Patch Management), and some features are not intuitive and not well documented (reporting). Scripting and Patch Management have a fairly steep learning curve (For structure in patch management and syntax in scripting), but once learned, they work well.
Read full review
ADAudit with its cloud and on prem install option allows any organization to get in on AD report management. Whether you need to report internally only for for external audit controls its a great tool with flexibility to handle most any user or group report capability. Since this also includes m365 integration it enables IT pros to administer usage, license, cost control and permission access to most anything in Microsoft's portfolio. Its a great tool all around for AD integrated access needs.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
uptime good
Read full review
Performance
It used to be great, but then they broke reporting, speed and responsiveness with version 11 and the new Patch Manager. It's really bad and their support people are way behind on fixing so many bugs. They have really gone downhill. If they don't get it together soon, we'll start looking around.
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Integration/overlap between products could be improved
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Support Rating
Far too many issues that take ages to get resolved. Even their chat support takes a long time to get in contact with someone. When you do chat with a support rep they generally can't help you and just escalate the ticket. At least everything you've chatted about is now in the ticket.
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The attention to cases or situations with the tool has been exceptional. being able to count on the manufacturer either by mail, call or chat. generate cases directly from the application allows you to have personalized support in order to solve problems that has been able to appear.
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Online Training
LabTech online training is very very thorough in training and helping individuals understand the theory and practical side of using a Remote Monitoring & Management. The training has multiple methods of explaining each section which helps to re-enforce everything about the Training Modules. I have had some Engineers lose their interest after a number of modules because they said that it was too much, that was too similar. I've found that the training is tailored towards a technical background but the Sales training does help NON technical individuals familiarize themselves with the Remote Monitoring and Management components and how it relates to Managed Services.
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knowledgable and prompt response
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Implementation Rating
ConnectWise Automate was already implemented at all organizations I have used it at when I started at those MSPs. At my current MSP, we used professional services for a period after I took over management of it, and they assisted with changes that I saw needed to be made. While not specifically implemented, those services were well organized and well scheduled, and all things we discussed were tracked and recorded, allowing for good change management/tracking.
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The remote setup team helped when i needed it and setup weas very straight forward and easy. The advanced setup for an external db and customizations for our latest version AD environment went pretty easy once they found documentation on customization.
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Alternatives Considered
I have evaluated NinjaRMM, but it was after I was already familiar with ConnectWise Automate. While it seems like a good product, I found that ConnectWise Automate was more flexible in allowing me to make custom configurations to meet various business needs across different clients. I have also evaluated Addigy. While I think Addigy does a better job of managing apple devices, it is clunkier, and customization is harder in Addigy than in ConnectWise Automate.
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In terms of features, ADAudit Plus offers a comprehensive set of features for monitoring and auditing Active Directory, including real-time alerts, detailed reports, and user behavior analytics. The platform also offers support for multiple platforms, including Windows, UNIX, and Linux, as well as integration with other ManageEngine tools.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
updates are effective and system is reliable
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • As mentioned briefly previous there have been a couple of times where accessing servers at different sites due to point to point connectivity going down where this has been a big life saver
  • Ease of management of servers
  • Made deployment of applications rule based easier
Read full review
The visibility of changes made in AD are very helpfull. We had an admin that made a change in a GPO that causes some strange behaviour in our environment. Normally that would take days to find, especially because the admin was a few days out of office and couldnt tell us the change he made. But after looking into our alerts we found very fast the specific change that was made to a GPO that pointed us in the right direction to solve the problem within 30 minutes.
  • No more ghost accounts and password never expires in our AD, the security level is therefore much higher then it was before. And we need less manhour to maintain that.
  • Before ADAuditplus we had several hundred accounts with password never expires and at least 15 changes on that item every week. Since we have ADaudtiplus we have no accounts with password never expires and we only see modifications on that item sometimes when a new IT employee starts within our group. IT crew learns fast what to do and especially what NOT to do in our environment to keep things secure.
  • Before ADAuditPlus I wrote PowerShell scripts to create reports for management, since ADAuditplus the reports are build automatically every month and send to management.
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ScreenShots

ConnectWise Automate Screenshots

Screenshot of Monitor: Find problemsScreenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Screenshots

Screenshot of Active Directory AuditingScreenshot of Track Account LockoutsScreenshot of Logon MonitoringScreenshot of Audit User PrivilegesScreenshot of PCI - DSS Compliance