Best Desktop Management Software for 2025

For IT managers, keeping desktops secure and up-to-date can be a challenge, especially when the IT environment grows. A growing IT environment means more devices to manage, increased security risks, and more demand for automated workflows.

Desktop management software helps with this by offering the tools for automating routine tasks like software updates, patch deployments, and system monitoring. Without these tools, maintaining an IT environment quickly becomes highly manual and leads to increased vulnerabilities.

To help you choose a desktop management software, we’ve written this article. We evaluated the different options and listed the nine best options, along with their key features and pricing.

What is desktop management software?

Desktop management software is a category of IT tools designed to help organizations efficiently manage, monitor, and maintain desktop computers and other endpoints within their networks. It centralizes administrative tasks, improves operational efficiency, enhances security, and ensures devices comply with organizational standards and policies. 

Although the name implies “desktop management,” these tools can monitor laptops, servers, and other endpoints within an organization. The key features of these tools include 24/7 system monitoring and alerting, patch management, remote access, asset management, ticketing, and more.

Types of desktop management software

Before investing in a desktop management tool, you should know the different options available.

Generally, desktop management software can be divided into:

1. Patch management software: The best Patch management software helps acquire, test, and install software patches on computer systems. Automated solutions enable patch deployment at convenient times to minimize disruptions.

2. Remote access software: Use remote access software to remotely access client devices for troubleshooting and support without interrupting the user.

3. Asset management software: An IT Asset management software helps track and maintain hardware and software assets throughout their lifecycles. These tools often include an asset discovery tool for identifying all connected devices within a network.

4. Unified IT management software: Unified IT management solutions, like Atera, combine all the key capabilities into one platform, such as patch management, remote access, asset management, and real-time monitoring and alerting. Using unified solutions, IT teams don’t need to invest in multiple tools to manage their IT assets.

Why you need desktop management software

Desktop management software brings IT teams many benefits, including:

1. Centralized management: Organize all of your IT assets in one place for easy management.
2. Manage security threats effectively: Desktop management software helps you control security threats through regular patching, system monitoring, and automated actions.
3. Save on costs: Modern desktop management software helps reduce costs by automating tasks and minimizing the need for staff hands-on involvement in repetitive processes.
4. Scale when needed: As you want to add more endpoints or devices, the best desktop management software is capable of scaling with you.

The 9 best desktop management software in 2025

The best desktop management software in 2025, according to out own research and findings, are the following:

1. Atera
2. Microsoft Intune
3. ManageEngine Endpoint Central
4. Syxsense
5. Scalefusion
6. N-able
7. Jamf
8. ConnectWise Automate
9. LogMeIn

1. Atera

Atera is an all-in-one IT management platform that helps users monitor and secure their desktops, laptops, servers, and other endpoints. 

Unlike most desktop management software, Atera combines all the key IT management tools into one single platform, so you don’t need to invest in redundant software to meet your IT support needs.

Atera’s key features can be divided into:

• Real-time monitoring and alerting – to monitor your system activity in real-time and receive alerts when issues arise.
• Reporting and analytics – to gain insights into your system’s health and performance.
• Patch management – to keep your Windows, Linux, and Mac devices up-to-date with the latest security patches.
• Remote access – to access devices remotely and perform maintenance tasks.
• ActionAI™ – Atera’s propriety AI technology to 10X your IT team’s efficiency with the help of AI-powered ticketing, scripting, and device troubleshooting.
• PSA – to handle tickets, contracts and billing, SLAs, knowledge base articles, and more.

For a full list of Atera’s features, read our Atera review.

Atera customer reviews

Atera G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (760+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on G2:

• “Atera’s pay-per-technician pricing is a breath of fresh air in an industry plagued by complex pricing structures,” a G2 user says.

• “Using Atera, I’m able to provide remote support from both desktop and mobile. The automation policies are easy to configure and enable patching for all devices,” a G2 user mentions. 

Atera Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (400+ reviews)

What Atera users are saying on Capterra:

• Atera integrates RMM, PSA, and remote access capabilities into one platform, which is highly beneficial. Our experience with Atera has been quite excellent,” a Capterra user explains. 

• “Atera is like having an extra team member, but without the coffee runs. If you’re managing millions of IT tasks manually, give Atera a try,” a Capterra user says. 

Atera pricing plans 

Unlike most RMM pricing plans, Atera uses a pay-per-technician pricing structure, where users can manage unlimited endpoints/devices and still pay a fixed fee. This way, you don’t have to worry about increasing costs when scaling.

Below is a breakdown of Atera’s pricing plans:

Atera’s pricing plans for IT departments:

• Professional: $149 per month, per technician
• Expert: $169 per month, per technician
• Master: $199 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Custom quotation, contact sales for pricing

Atera’s pricing plans for MSPs:

• Pro: $129 per month, per technician
• Growth: $179 per month, per technician
• Power: $209 per month, per technician
• Superpower (Enterprise): Custom quotation, contact sales for pricing

Get started with Atera on a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.

2. Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune lets you manage desktop, mobile, and other endpoints across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux operating systems. The platform has an app management feature that lets you deploy, update, and remove third-party and Microsoft 365 apps. To track the health of your endpoints, users have access to endpoint analytics, which show a score for app and device health.

Integrations are available with third-party partner services and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (200+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (30+ reviews)

Microsoft Intune pricing:

• Microsoft Intune Plan 1: Starting at $8 per month per user for unified endpoint management

3. ManageEngine Endpoint Central

ManageEngine Endpoint Central helps users protect laptops, mobile devices, desktops, and other endpoints through features like patch management, remote troubleshooting, ransomware protection, and asset management. The dashboard shows the health of your IT environment, and you gain insight into issues like potentially harmful plugins and patch gaps.

It aims to be a unified platform for desktop management, although it needs to be integrated with third-party tools for features like IT ticketing.

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 (850+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 (900+ reviews)

ManageEngine Endpoint Central pricing:

• Professional: Starting at $104 per month, per technician
• Enterprise: Starting at $124 per month, per technician
• UEM: Starting at $139 per month, per technician
• Security: Starting at $205 per month, per technician

4. Syxsense

Syxsense is an endpoint management software for managing and securing desktops, laptops, servers, and other endpoints. The platform monitors your devices and provides real-time data for better decision-making and compliance reporting. You can gain insight into your OS, hardware, and software inventory and deploy patches as needed.

Syxsense has a remediation tool that lets you scan your devices for vulnerabilities and automate response actions through pre-built workflows.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (80+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (60+ reviews)

Syxsense Pricing:

• Custom pricing. Request a quotation from Syxsense’s website.

5. Scalefusion

Scalefusion offers three different products for endpoint management, with varying levels of functionality. The most popular option, Scalefusion UEM, helps you manage your Windows, Mac, and Linux devices. It comes with key features like automated workflows, patch management, and role-based access control. 

Enterprise plan customers get access to additional features, like remote troubleshooting and PowerShell scripting. Similarly to Atera, Scalefusion offers an AI tool to resolve device issues, although Atera also extends the AI to other areas, like IT ticketing.

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars (330+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (100+ reviews)

Scalefusion pricing:

• Essentials: $2 per device, per month
• Growth: $3.5 per device, per month
• Business: $5 per device, per month
• Enterprise: $6 per device, per month

6. N-able

One of N-able’s products, N-central, is an endpoint management solution that lets you manage servers, workstations, and mobile devices running on Windows, Max, or Linux. The system automatically discovers and maps out networks upon onboarding, providing a view of all connected devices.

In addition, users can patch network environments, follow and monitor performance through analytics, use the available MDM features, and use the AI-powered script generator.

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 stars (400+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 3.9 out of 5.0 stars (40+ reviews)

N-central pricing:

• Pricing is not disclosed publicly; it is based on a custom quote. Request a quote from N-able’s website to find out the pricing.

7. Jamf

Jamf is designed for organizations that need a platform for managing and securing their Apple environment devices. It includes threat control to prevent unsafe activity, compliance risk signaling, and reporting to identify devices running vulnerable software versions. The integrations include Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, Sumo Logic, and more.

For organizations with multi-OS environments, Jamf is not the right choice as it only supports Apple devices. Alternatives, like Atera, support devices with Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (1,800+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars (500+ reviews)

Jamf pricing:

• Jamf Now: $4 per device, per month (no user minimum)
• Jamf Business: $14.33 per technician, per month (25 technicians minimum)
• Jamf Enterprise: Custom pricing available

8. ConnectWise Automate

ConnectWise Automate is an RMM software that monitors users’ system activity in real time for application performance issues, security threats, and network bottlenecks. When devices need fixing, you can access them remotely and perform troubleshooting. Users get access to a patch management tool for configuring, testing, and installing Windows updates.

New devices are automatically detected and tracked through ConnectWise’s asset discovery tool.

G2 rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 (120+ reviews)

Capterra rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 (130+ reviews)

ConnectWise pricing:

• Pricing is not publicly available. To learn more about ConnectWise pricing, request a quote from their team.

9. LogMeIn

LogMeIn is mainly known as a remote access and support software for IT professionals. It supports mobile devices, tablets, and computers with iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, or Linux operating systems. In addition to that, it offers simple tools for managing endpoints with real-time alerts, patch management, and reporting.

For more advanced desktop management capabilities, such as RMM and asset management, LogMeIn needs to be integrated with third-party tools. 

G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (150+ reviews)

Capterra Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (25+ reviews)

LogMeIn pricing:

• The pricing plans start from $1,539.99 per year for access to up to 10 computers

AI-powered desktop management, only with Atera

While many desktop management software are available, Atera is the only option powered by ActionAI™ to assist with all tasks related to IT management.

Atera’s AI Copilot assists with:

• Device troubleshooting: Identify and resolve any issue in seconds through AI-powered actions.
• Remote sessions: Receive automatic remote session summaries after your remote session.
• Script generation: Generate complex scripts automatically by describing your problem in a simple sentence.
• Ticketing: Get instant ticket summaries and reply suggestions for every ticket.

And more. 

If you want to see how Atera Copilot can revolutionize your IT management, an easy step you can take is to contact our sales team for a custom demo. 

Try Atera for free! No credit card required.