ManageEngine Endpoint Central (Free Edition)

Overview

ManageEngine Endpoint Central (formerly Desktop Central) is a unified endpoint management and security platform from ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation. It lets IT teams manage and secure desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices from a central console, covering patch management, software deployment, IT asset management, remote troubleshooting, configurations, and reporting. The Free edition gives organizations a no-cost way to run Endpoint Central on up to 25 endpoints with one technician, which suits pilots, proof-of-concept evaluations, and small branch or departmental environments before scaling to a licensed edition. Endpoint Central is available as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment.

Highlights

• Free for up to 25 endpoints with one technician, available on-premises and in the cloud

• Automated patch management for Windows, Mac, and Linux, including third-party application patching

• Software deployment with predefined templates and a self-service portal and app catalog

• IT asset management with hardware and software inventory, license management, software metering, and warranty tracking

• Remote control with HIPAA- and PCI-compliant sessions, file transfer, and session recording

• Mobile device management for iOS, Android, and Windows devices

• Endpoint security capabilities, including vulnerability detection, application control, USB and peripheral device control, and BitLocker management, listed as available in the Free edition on ManageEngine’s edition comparison matrix

• Two-factor authentication and Active Directory authentication for console access

Supported Cloud Infrastructure

Endpoint Central is available as a cloud service managed by Zoho, accessed with a Zoho account, and as an on-premises edition that customers install and operate on their own servers. Agents on managed endpoints communicate with the cloud edition over HTTPS on port 443, and ManageEngine publishes separate US and EU domains for agent communication. Zoho Corporation also offers Endpoint Central server editions on AWS Marketplace as Amazon Machine Images. Native listings on Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, or Tencent Cloud marketplaces are not confirmed, and hosting the on-premises server on virtual machines from those providers should be verified with ManageEngine. Procurement for this SKU is transacted through the reseller.

Free Tier

ManageEngine offers a Free edition of Endpoint Central at no cost for up to 25 endpoints, with one technician, on-premises or in the cloud. ManageEngine describes its free editions as permanently free as long as the environment stays within the endpoint limit. Cloud accounts start with a 30-day trial of the UEM edition that manages unlimited endpoints. When the trial ends, the customer can extend the trial, purchase a license, or be moved to the Free edition. On moving to Free, the customer selects up to 25 endpoints to keep managing, and configurations for those endpoints are retained while the rest are lost. The Free edition does not include multi-technician support or role-based administration. Moving to a licensed edition (Professional, Enterprise, UEM, or Security) limits access to the features of that edition, which ManageEngine’s comparison matrix shows can be narrower than the Free edition in some areas, so the target edition should be chosen against the matrix. How a Free-edition account converts to a reseller-billed subscription should be confirmed with ManageEngine before being promised to a prospect.