Top 6 Automox Alternatives for Effective Patch Management Solutions

TL;DR

The best Automox alternatives for patch management are Action1, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Ivanti Neurons, Tanium Patch & Deploy, and NinjaOne, offering varied strengths in cost, OS coverage, third-party patching, deployment flexibility, and compliance readiness.

Today, SMBs, large enterprises, and MSPs need reliable endpoint management solutions to handle patch automation and other crucial processes that strengthen both their own and their clients’ security posture. Minimizing the attack surface across on-premises and remote endpoints keeps businesses operational and reduces the risk of cyberattacks or unexpected downtime. Moreover, such platforms eliminate manual time-consuming processes, reduce hardware and workforce expenses, ease regulatory compliance, and offer seamless scalability.

If you’re currently using Automox or considering it but want to explore other options, we will help you find the right fit. With countless vendors on the market, choosing the right endpoint management tool for your company isn’t as simple as picking the highest-rated option. To choose wisely, you must understand the platform’s true capabilities, its strengths and weaknesses, and determine whether it will address the biggest pain points across your network, and of course, at what cost.

In this blog, we’ll introduce you to the best 6 Automox alternatives and discuss their features as well as their limitations and how budget-friendly they are, with the main purpose of helping you make an informed decision that aligns with your organization’s requirements, expectations, and budget.

Why Look for Automox Alternatives?

Automox is a cloud-based IT operations platform that is designed to automate OS and third-party application patching processes, configuration management, vulnerability management, and endpoint visibility from a single unified console. Although Automox is a solution supporting various operating systems that offers many helpful features, it has several drawbacks, including limited report generation, a restricted service environment, limited third‑party patch management support, high bandwidth consumption during downloads, and a subscription based pricing model that is a bit expensive, especially for SMBs.

These limitations leave no other choice for companies operating in different industries but to seek solutions that fill these gaps and offer everything they need, like ease of use, powerful OS and third-party application patching, risk-based vulnerability prioritization, flexibility, 360-degree visibility, effortless creation of audit-ready reports after each update lifecycle, and last but not least, an adequate pricing model.

Such an all-inclusive endpoint management solution can give the necessary confidence to business owners and their IT teams that their on-premises and remote endpoints are secured, compliant, and operating smoothly with minimal to no unexpected downtime.

6 Best Automox Alternatives

The best Automox alternatives are Action1, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Ivanti for Patch Management, Tanium, and NinjaOne. These platforms can successfully replace Automox and offer your organization a diverse range of tools and features you need to keep all your endpoints up-to-date, secured, compliant, and operating at their peak performance.

Now, let’s have a closer look at the features list and pros and cons of each solution to make things more clear and help you choose the right Automox alternative for your business.

Action1

Action1 is a powerful autonomous endpoint management platform that is cloud-native, infinitely scalable, highly secure, and configurable in just 5 minutes. The software successfully automates each step of the OS and third-party patching process: vulnerability identification, risk-based prioritization, missing patch listing, scheduling, testing, deployment, and report generation.

Free for up to 200 endpoints with no feature limits, Action1 enables patching for Windows, macOS, and third-party applications from anywhere directly from your browser—no VPN required. The private software repository ensures only verified updates reach your endpoints, while P2P distribution speeds large deployments without consuming excessive bandwidth or requiring on-premises cache servers. Certified for SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, TX-RAMP, CSA, CISA Secure by Design, CAIQ, and GDPR, Action1 helps you keep your endpoints up-to-date, secure, and compliant with strict regulatory standards.

Key Features:

• Cross-Platform Support: Automated patching of Windows and macOS systems (Linux support coming soon) with granular filtering, manual/automatic approval, SLA-based compliance tracking, driver management, and Windows Update Agent auto-repair .
• Third-Party Patching: Automated patching of numerous software titles on Windows and macOS based on filters (severity, vendor, etc.) with real-time progress status and 99% coverage for typical enterprise environments (Adobe, Chrome, Zoom, etc.)
• Ability to Patch Offline Devices: If there are offline endpoints at the moment of the scheduled deployment, they will be automatically updated as soon as they become online. This feature is extremely useful for remote employees working across different time zones and locations.
• Vulnerability Management: Real-time vulnerability detection with built-in remediation capabilities.
• Risk-Based Patch Management: Action1 prioritizes and applies patches and updates based on their level of severity, real-world risk to your organization, CVE numbers, and CVSS scores.
• IT Asset Management Inventory: Real-time visibility into every endpoint’s system health, patch status, and hardware configuration.
• Software Deployment: Fully automated and effortless deployment of prepackaged and custom applications.
• Software Uninstall: Allows you to uninstall multiple unauthorized or legacy software across your endpoints.
• Scripting Automation: Provides built-in scripts while supporting custom PowerShell, CMD, and Bash scripting capabilities.
• Real-Time Reporting: Create detailed audit-ready reports by taking advantage of 100+ built-in report templates with customization options to meet your specific requirements.
• Roles-Based Access Control (RBAC): Define granular levels of access for individual user accounts. With it you can allow specific users or employees to manage endpoints and configure automations while giving view-only access to certain reports to others. Moreover, Action1’s RBAC is fully customizable with customer-defined roles granting permissions to scopes (organizations, groups, scripts, etc.) and functions (reports, automations, dashboards, etc.).
• Single Sign-On (SSO): Integrates with your existing identity provider for Single Sign-On (SSO), including Entra ID (Azure AD), Okta, Google, or Duo.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): MFA provides you with the opportunity to further strengthen endpoint security posture and protect access to business-critical data and applications through email verification or authenticator applications like Google Authenticator and Duo.
• Update Rings: This feature enables phased, risk-free, and autonomous patch rollouts, where updates advance from inner to outer rings based on predefined success metrics. This way, only reliable patches move forward automatically, while problematic ones don’t. As a result, unexpected downtime risks are minimized as much as possible.
• Update Approval per Organization: Allows software update approvals to be managed at the organizational level, rather than uniformly across the entire enterprise. Essential for MSP-managed clients and large enterprises, this capability enables you to independently approve, defer, or decline updates for each unit or department within the Action1 platform.
• P2P Distribution: Updates and patches are downloaded once, then shared across all of your endpoints. Thus, external bandwidth usage is minimized while ensuring quick deployment of large updates, without any on-premise cache servers.
• Privately Maintained Secure Software Repository: Provides you with peace of mind knowing that only thoroughly tested patches and updates reach your endpoints.
• Custom Endpoint Attributes: Configure custom attributes based on registry keys, installed or missing software, machine type (VM, physical, laptop, server, etc.), warranty expiration date, BitLocker status, free disk space, environment variables, BIOS version, and more.
• Remote Access: The cloud-native platform allows you to effortlessly manage on-premises and remote endpoints from anywhere without a VPN connection, directly in your browser.
• Public Roadmap: Feedback-driven development prioritized by customer votes in Action1’s public roadmap.
• Full REST API Access: With OAuth 2.0 at no additional price.
• Windows Feature Updates: Automatically upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11 on one or all of your endpoints.
• Free for up to 200 Endpoints: Fully featured, with no functional limits, forever. You can use it for free in your SMB or thoroughly test it in your large enterprise before purchasing.
• Technical Support: Via phone or email.

Limitations:

• Missing Linux support, although it will be available soon.

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus is an automated patch management platform that successfully simplifies the process of deploying updates and patches across Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as third-party applications, to keep your endpoints compliant, secure, and smoothly performing.

Key Features:

• Cross-Platform Support: Windows, macOS, and Linux-based endpoints.
• Third-Party Patching: Advanced third-party application patching (Adobe, Java, Chrome, and many more business-critical apps).
• Flexible Update Deployments: Enables organizations and their IT teams to deploy updates at convenient times, with user notifications and customizable policies for reboots.
• Patch Testing: With it you can automatically test patches and updates on smaller groups of endpoints before deployment across your production systems.
• Insightful Reports: Create detailed reports on patch compliance and status to help you meet regulatory standards with minimal effort.
• Remote Endpoint Management: It allows you to perform remote management by accessing and controlling endpoints outside of your organization for troubleshooting and patching purposes without requiring VPN connections.
• Decline or Delay Non-Critical Updates: This feature allows you to decline patches for legacy applications or postpone non-critical updates in order to prioritize security updates.
• 30-Day Free Trial: You can test the product for 30 days before purchase.
• Technical Support: Via phone or email.

Limitations:

• Limited Third-Party Application Support: Some users find the current options limited, although the platform offers support for many third-party apps.
• Patch Failures: Sometimes patches fail to install without a clear reason about the issue that is causing it.
• Custom Patching Challenges: Custom patch implementation and management can prove challenging, as less technical users often find the workflow too complex to handle independently.

Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that is used for managing and securing devices, applications, and user access to organizational resources. With it you can manage not only desktops but also mobile devices and even virtual endpoints that are company, or personally owned. Intune offers reliable and efficient patching, mobile device management, and security policy enforcement through a single console.

Key Features:

• Unified Endpoint Management: Allows you to manage all of your on-premises and remote endpoints across your organization’s network, like PCs, mobile devices, and virtual machines
• Cross-Platform Support: Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android-based devices.
• Advanced Device Management: With Intune, you can enroll devices, configure settings, deploy updates and policies, or use it for enforcing security configurations like BitLocker encryption in windows environments.
• Application Management: Enables the deployment, update, and control of access to apps while successfully protecting the data within those applications
• Conditional Access: With Intune, your IT team can set policies that control access to your organization’s resources based on different criteria like device compliance and user identity, thus enforcing a zero-trust approach.
• Endpoint Protection: Offers reliable endpoint security through integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to equip you with advanced cyber threat detection capabilities and harden the security posture across your on-premises and remote devices.
• Effective Compliance Management: The cloud-based solution helps you meet regulatory requirements through delivering compliance policies, reporting, and real-time visibility features.
• Remote Desktop Support: Provides not only remote assistance capabilities for troubleshooting endpoints and apps but also instant security actions (wipe and lock) for lost or compromised devices.
• Windows Autopilot: With Intune, you can provision endpoints for your employees that are ready to use, with a zero-touch deployment process.
• Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Since Intune is a Microsoft product, it integrates seamlessly with other tools like Azure Active Directory, Microsoft 365.
• 30-Day Free Trial: You can test the product for 30 days before contacting the sales team for purchase.
• Technical support: Via phone, live chat, and directly from the Intune admin center’s “Help and Support” pane.

Limitations:

• Limited Support for Non-Windows Endpoints: Intune does not provide the same flexibility and capabilities for non-Microsoft endpoints, operating systems, and third-party applications as when managing Windows-based devices.
• Complexity in Setup: Small businesses that don’t have IT teams on their side face significant challenges when setting up the software.
• High cost: The cost of implementation and ongoing management is quite expensive, especially for SMBs.

Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management

Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management is a cloud-based patching solution, which is designed to help organizations regardless of their size to automatically identify and remediate vulnerabilities by using risk-based prioritization for deploying missing patches and updates across on-premises and remote endpoints. It successfully strengthens their overall network security posture, eases regulatory compliance, and eliminates time-consuming manual processes.

Key Features

• Cross-Platform Support: Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints.
• Third-Party Patching: Patches many different third-party applications

• Risk-Based Prioritization: Automatically prioritizes patches that address critical vulnerabilities first, especially those related to ransomware.
• Active Threat Context: Uses adversarial risk and exploit intelligence to properly prioritize the identified software vulnerabilities across your endpoints.
• Ring Deployment: Deploys software updates with precision and control, with the main goal to reduce downtime risks.
• Compliance Reporting: Generates audit-ready reports after each patch cycle to help your company easily meet regulatory standards and reduce non-compliance risks.
• Equal Access to SLA Tracking and Risk Intelligence for both IT and Security Teams: Successfully breaks down barriers between departments to foster a detailed view and a common language that promotes quick and effective cross-functional actions.

• Security-Driven Patch Automation: Patch and update deployments are executed through automated workflows based on security priorities and risks.
• Integration with SCCM: Integrates flawlessly with your current System Center Configuration Manager infrastructure.
• Technical support: Via Ivanti Support Portal and phone.

Limitations:

• Steep Learning Curve: Many users have reported that they find the user interface confusing and cluttered, seeing it as difficult to learn, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have IT teams.
• High cost: Although it has multiple exciting and helpful features, Ivanti Neurons can be quite expensive compared to other solutions.
• Resource Intensive: The platform negatively impacts the performance of devices, especially those with weaker configurations.

Tanium Patch & Tanium Deploy

Tanium Patch & Tanium Deploy represent another exciting solution set that simplifies and automates each step of the patching process from vulnerability identification to their remediation. Tanium Patch handles operating system updates for Windows and Linux endpoints, while Tanium Deploy manages third-party application installations, updates, and removals across your endpoints.

Together, these modules offer reliable and efficient patch management capabilities that keep your on-premises and remote devices up-to-date, compliant, and ensure their smooth performance.

Key features:

• Cross-Platform Support: Windows, macOS and Linux systems.
• Third-Party Patching: Patches a variety of third-party applications.
• Flexible Patch Scheduling: With Tanium you can deploy updates at your convenience to avoid unexpected downtime.
• Block/Approve Lists: With this feature you can create lists of patches that you want to approve or block based on different metrics and criteria like severity, release date, and CVE score.
• Real-time Patch Visibility and Control: Provides you with real-time information about the patch status of your endpoints.
• Remote Control: Allows you to patch remote, mobile, and on-premises endpoints.
• Compliance Reporting: Offers detailed reporting after each patch lifecycle to ease regulatory compliance.
• Automatic Group Creation: It separates your endpoints based on their OS (Windows and Linux).
• Technical Support: Through the Tanium resource center—via phone and email.

Limitations:

• Resource Intensive: The software negatively impacts the performance of the devices, especially those with weaker configurations.
• Higher Learning Curve: If you are not a tech-savvy user, you will find it difficult to set up and configure Tanium Patch and Deploy. Many users say they needed a lot of time to get used to the interface and properly utilize the tools.
• Bandwidth Constraints: Large deployments may strain network resources and server capacity, requiring strategic configuration and traffic distribution features to prevent performance bottlenecks.

NinjaOne Patch Management

NinjaOne Patch Management is a cloud-based remote monitoring and management solution that successfully handles automated patch deployments across different operating systems and third-party applications. It equips organizations with scripting, real-time monitoring, and flexible scheduling options. The software helps IT teams keep their systems secured and compliant, with minimal manual oversight.

Key Features:

• Cross-Platform Patching: Windows, macOS, and Linux.

• Third-Party Patching: Patches many different third-party applications.

• Compliance Management: Supports regulatory compliance by generating reports, providing visibility into patch status, and enabling automated policy enforcement.

• Risk-Based Vulnerability Management: Automated vulnerability scanner integrations provide continuous vulnerability scan data with CVE and CVSS data to prioritize the deployment of patches.

• Flexible Patch Scheduling: Custom patch scan and deployment schedules with the ability to deploy updates during off-hours to minimize business disruption.

• Patch Testing and Approval: Custom patch approval workflows where you can configure rules to automatically approve certain types of patches while holding others for manual review.

• Granular Device Control: Ability to assess and apply updates based on a client, device group, or individual endpoint basis.

• Free Trial: 30-day free trial with full access to all features.

• Technical Support: Available via phone and email support channels.

Limitations:

• Higher Cost: Many users report that the software is quite expensive, especially for smaller businesses with a hundred or fewer endpoints.

• Limited Reporting Flexibility: Users have mentioned several times that the reporting depth could be more robust; their concerns come from the fact that they have noticed restrictions in generating detailed, customizable reports for specific organizational or client needs.

• Limited Customization Options: Several users note that the platform could offer more options for advanced customization.

What is the cheapest Automox Alternative?

Action1 is the most budget-friendly option since it is free to use for up to 200 endpoints forever, with no functional limits. Making it an ideal choice for small and mid-sized businesses, as well as for large enterprises, which can test in their environments before purchasing. Moreover, the platform is infinitely scalable, allowing you to grow from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of endpoints at a gradually lowering per-endpoint price.

Apart from that, Action1 is one of the best options on the market for automating your patch management process. With it, you can strengthen your overall security posture by identifying and remediating software vulnerabilities across your on-premises and remote endpoints with just a few clicks. Action1 allows you to confidently schedule, test, and deploy patches and updates by using the update rings feature, ensuring that your systems remain current through a staged, intelligent, and risk-free process.

Which Automox Alternatives Support Both On-Premise and Cloud Deployment?

Action1 is the best choice when searching for an Automox alternative that supports both on-premise and cloud deployment. The software enables safe and fast deployment of updates to all your endpoints, and you can manage the process from anywhere through your browser without requiring a VPN.

Other reliable Automox alternatives include ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Tanium Patch (only for OS) & Tanium Deploy (for third-party apps), and NinjaOne.

Do Any Automox Alternatives Support Third-Party Software Patching?

Yes, Action1 offers exceptional support for third-party applications from its privately maintained secure software repository with 99% coverage for typical enterprise environments (Adobe, Chrome, Zoom, etc.). Moreover, the platform uses peer-to-peer patch distribution to minimize external bandwidth usage and speed up deployment of large updates without requiring any on-prem cache servers.

Action1 offers automated, reliable, and flexible testing, scheduling, and reporting features to not only patch your systems as quickly as possible but also give you confidence that downtime risks are minimized and audit-ready reports are generated with just a few clicks.

The list of alternatives to Automox that support third-party patching includes options such as ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Tanium Patch (limited to operating systems), Tanium Deploy (for third-party applications), and NinjaOne.

What’s the Easiest Automox Alternative to Deploy and Manage for Small IT Teams?

The easiest Automox alternative to deploy and manage for small IT teams is undoubtedly Action1. This cloud-based autonomous endpoint management platform is highly secure and configurable in just 5 minutes. It’s always free for the first 200 endpoints with no functional limits, offering an intuitive and extremely user-friendly interface.

Action1 helps organizations of all sizes keep their on-premises and remote endpoints up-to-date, compliant, and performing smoothly. It automates each step of the patch management process: vulnerability identification, missing patch listing, testing, scheduling, deployment, and report generation.

What Is the Best Automox Alternative for Compliance-Driven Organizations?

The best alternative for compliance-driven organizations is Action1. The software not only automates the vulnerability remediation through deploying patches promptly but also offers more than 100 built-in reports on patching, vulnerabilities, software and hardware inventory and security configuration.

Moreover, you can customize the existing reports according to your or multiple clients’ specific needs by adding/removing columns, changing filters, ordering, grouping, etc. Last, but not least, IT teams can build new reports based on PowerShell script output.

By automatically addressing software weaknesses as quickly as possible, keeping all of your endpoints current, and generating audit-ready reports after each patch/update lifecycle, your organization ensures regulatory compliance. Thus, not only is the attack surface across your network minimized, but also the possibility of facing costly regulatory fines and penalties.

Summary and Key Takeaways for Your Best Alternative to Automox

Automox is definitely a great solution and offers decent features and capabilities. However, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and many organizations of various sizes find it is not the right fit for their IT infrastructure, specific business needs, expectations, and budget. That’s why they seek better alternatives that can successfully solve the pain points across their networks and offer the features and capabilities they expect at a reasonable price.

In other words, they need a patch management platform that automates each step of the process from vulnerability identification to remediation. Moreover, the software must be able to provide the needed flexibility, scalability, remote control, and reporting capabilities, all from a single platform using a unified approach.

Action1, ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus, Microsoft Intune, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management, Tanium Patch & Tanium Deploy, and NinjaOne are among the best alternatives to Automox on the market. They can successfully handle and automate patch management processes across multiple operating systems and third-party apps and give you confidence that every single endpoint is protected, compliant, and up-to-date.

Among these solutions, Action1 stands a step ahead for Automox users, not only because of its impressive set of features that allow you to eliminate manual-intensive patching processes and generate detailed reports after each patch lifecycle. But also because it is a cloud-based platform that allows remote access and control, flexibility, and a private and secure software repository.

Allowing you to remediate software vulnerabilities in a timely manner and minimize the chance of experiencing cyberattacks, or unexpected downtime. Most importantly, it is free for up to 200 endpoints, fully featured forever. This combination makes Action1 a supreme choice not only for small- and mid-sized businesses but also for large enterprises and managed service providers.