Microsoft Intune
Ranked 2 of 4 MDM software by recommenders
Recommended for managing Windows and Mac devices through MDM, especially for teams already on Microsoft licensing. Critics call it half-baked next to on-prem AD and Group Policy.
Recommended for managing Windows and Mac devices through MDM, especially for teams already on Microsoft licensing. Critics call it half-baked next to on-prem AD and Group Policy.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 22
- approval share
- 31%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works smoothly with Windows and MDM tools
“The last upgrade included a separate work profile managed by MS Intune, and that was also smoothly handled by the upgrade process.”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Setting up phones is a nightmare” “because It Just Works (TM) with Intune and other MDM tools”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Motorola announces a partnership with GrapheneOS Foundation” Handles macOS reasonably well
“It's a lot less capable for Mac but these days you can get by with it.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Apple Business” “Intune handles MacOS reasonably well, you don't need Jamf”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Apple Business”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too many overlapping settings and footguns
“the combination of Windows, Intune, modern Store apps, multiple similar settings, and licensing, make it a full time job full of footguns”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “IT administrators are "fed up" with Microsoft's "useless" apps and Windows 11” “SCCM and Intune is a gun. MS will not stop you from blowing your foot off with the gun.”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Iran-Backed Hackers Claim Wiper Attack on Medtech Firm Stryker” “Nobody needs 5 ways of configuring GPOs like Intune has it (+ Azure policies)”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18” Half-baked compared with on-prem AD
“Both of those products are about as bad as you might imagine the "cloud" versions of GP & AD might be.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “Intune, which to me feels half baked compared to something like on Prem AD/GP/SCCM”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production” “5 alternatives in azure/intune for every thing as well that are half baked”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” Pushes customers toward costlier licensing
“People didn't buy it otherwise, so now there's an incentive to move customers off E3 and into E5.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas” “building up additional capabilities to extend the dependency, like InTune”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “they just need to bring hotpatching out of Intune/B2B licenses”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” Weaker on Android and Mac
“It's a lot less capable for Mac but these days you can get by with it.”
Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Apple Business” “since it's garbage but haven't found a good alternative for Android devices yet”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Over 170k Nonprofits Lost All Their Data. Is Microsoft to Blame?” “managing windows via Intune is still years behind a good macOS MDM”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production”
Other MDM software people recommend
The three most recommended other MDM software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Business | 17 | 52 | 25% | 2 | — | — |
| Microsoft IntuneThis page | 10 | 22 | 31% | 4 | — | — |
| Jamf | 8 | 7 | 53% | 5 | — | — |
| Apple MDM | 5 | 3 | 63% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
33 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“when you're already paying Microsoft $/user/month for Intune, Teams&co.”
“since it's garbage but haven't found a good alternative for Android devices yet”
“the combination of Windows, Intune, modern Store apps, multiple similar settings, and licensing, make it a full time job full of footguns”
“Took them about a week before I could use it again.”
“Intune, which to me feels half baked compared to something like on Prem AD/GP/SCCM”
“managing windows via Intune is still years behind a good macOS MDM”
“The ability to do that shouldn't exist, but the IT department happily rolled out the means of their own destruction”
“Intune needs up to 24 hours to appply changes to a managed computer”
“Both of those products are about as bad as you might imagine the "cloud" versions of GP & AD might be.”
“building up additional capabilities to extend the dependency, like InTune”
“MDM (which InTune uses as well) negates the AD + GPO advantages of the past 20+ years in enterprise”
“It's a lot less capable for Mac but these days you can get by with it.”
“fundamentally still doesn't work as well as Windows and Intune”
“Intune handles MacOS reasonably well, you don't need Jamf”
“vendor-lock in technologies that cement a business”
“they just need to bring hotpatching out of Intune/B2B licenses”
“5 alternatives in azure/intune for every thing as well that are half baked”
“but it's really full Device Control”
“They order the software from our portal and it gets pushed into Company Portal via Intune”
“SCCM and Intune is a gun. MS will not stop you from blowing your foot off with the gun.”
“The company should have known better than to trust their IT infrastructure to Microslop.”
“Don't do work apps on my main phone, especially InTune.”
“Not that i’m a fan of it, but meh it exists.”
“The last upgrade included a separate work profile managed by MS Intune, and that was also smoothly handled by the upgrade process.”
“because It Just Works (TM) with Intune and other MDM tools”
“InTune needs user's to put Edge on their devices, which means a significant set of users will just give up being able to open links”
“Intune and basic CA policies ensure unexportable MDM certificates in the TPM are used for all authentication events.”
“dedicated MDMs are better than Intune”
“Intune was supposed to be the answer to that, making Windows management MDM like.”
“The modern form of socially engineered phishing quite often entices victims to install a legit MDM software package (eg. MS InTune)”
“People didn't buy it otherwise, so now there's an incentive to move customers off E3 and into E5.”
“Nobody needs 5 ways of configuring GPOs like Intune has it (+ Azure policies)”
“Entra and intune are a poor substitute for Active Directory.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.