Check first whether you own Windows Autopatch: it comes with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5, and patches Windows and Microsoft’s apps only. For everything else, ManageEngine Endpoint Central reaches the most, from Linux servers to BIOS, and publishes every price.
Ivanti Neurons has the deepest rollout control and no price. Action1 is free to 200 endpoints, and NinjaOne includes patching with support that never costs extra.
- Check this first: Windows Autopatch, if you hold M365
- Best overall: ManageEngine Endpoint Central
- Best rollout control: Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management
- Best free: Action1, every feature to 200 endpoints
- Best support: NinjaOne, free and 24x7
We do not accept payment for placement. Scores come from a published 40-point rubric, applied to vendor documentation, support policies and pricing pages read at the source on September 11, 2026; vendors can dispute a fact but not a score. How we rank software · Affiliate disclosure
The rankingComparison table
| Tool | Best for | Pricing model | Starts at | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 ManageEngine Endpoint CentralBest overall | Mixed Windows, Mac and Linux estates that want one console | Per endpoint, in tiers | $795 / year for 50 endpoints | 8.1 |
 Ivanti Neurons for Patch ManagementBest rollout control | Security teams that want risk-based, ring-gated patching | Platform fee plus per device, by quote | Quote only | 8.0 |
 NinjaOneBest support | Teams that want patching inside a full RMM, with support included | Per endpoint | $1.50 to $3.75 / endpoint | 7.9 |
 Action1Best free | Organizations under 200 endpoints, or anyone who wants rings in the cloud | Per endpoint above 200, by quote | Free to 200 endpoints | 7.6 |
 Automox | Cloud-first teams that patch operating systems first | Per endpoint per month | $1 / endpoint / mo | 7.3 |
 Windows AutopatchCheck this first | Windows fleets already on Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 or E5 | Included in Microsoft licenses | Included in M365 Business Premium, E3, E5 | 6.4 |
 PDQ Connect | Windows-first teams that want a simple published price | Per device, per year | $12 / device / yr | 6.1 |
Score is out of 10, from the 40 point rubric below, and every subscore is published with it. The scores come from each vendor’s published documentation and pricing pages, read on September 11, 2026. Nothing was installed or trialed for this page, so it scores what vendors document and commit to, not how the software feels in use.
First, check whether you already own one
Patch management software is one of the few categories where a large share of buyers already hold part of the answer. Windows Autopatch is included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5, F3, and the Education A3 and A5 licenses.
If you have those, Windows 10 and 11, Microsoft 365 Apps, Edge and Teams can be patched in rings today at no extra cost.
What Autopatch does not do decides whether you need anything else: it does not patch Windows Server, macOS, Linux or any third-party application. Browsers other than Edge, PDF readers, Java, Zoom and the rest of a normal estate are exactly where the other six products earn their price, and that is the real shopping question for most readers.
And if you are replacing WSUS
The other common arrival route is Windows Server Update Services. Microsoft lists WSUS under features no longer in development, with the line that it is no longer actively developed while all existing capabilities and content continue to be available for current deployments.
Nothing has been switched off and nothing new is coming, so read it as a planning horizon rather than an outage. That is where a lot of the search for windows patch management software starts: a WSUS server that still works, on a clock nobody has published.
The replacement question is the same one as above. Windows and Microsoft applications are the part every tool here covers. Servers, Macs, Linux and third party applications are what you are choosing between, and WSUS never reached those either.
Which layers each one patches
| Tool | Windows | Windows Server | macOS | Linux | Third-party | Drivers, BIOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endpoint Central | Yes | 2012 to 2025 | Yes | Broad | 1,100+ claimed | Both |
| Ivanti Neurons | Yes, incl. ARM | 2016 to 2025 | Yes | Several families | 1,000+ claimed | Claimed |
| NinjaOne | Yes | Yes | Yes | OS only | 5,000 to 8,800 claimed | Drivers |
| Action1 | Yes | 2012 to 2025 | Yes | Broad | Hundreds, no count | Drivers |
| Automox | Yes | 2012 R2 to 2025 | Yes | Broad | 580 to 630, paid tiers | No |
| Windows Autopatch | Yes | No | No | No | No | Both |
| PDQ Connect | Yes | 2016 and later | Apps only | No | Hundreds, no count | Drivers |
The catalog numbers are claims, not specifications
Every one of these patch management tools that handles third-party applications prints a catalog size, and four of them print more than one. Automox gives 580, 600 and 630 titles on different pages. NinjaOne gives 8,800 and 6,000 on the same page and 5,000 in its documentation.
ManageEngine says over 1,000 on one page and 1,100 on another. Ivanti says 1,000-plus and, in the FAQ of the same page, thousands. Action1 and PDQ decline to give a number at all.
Some of the difference is counting: whether a 32-bit and a 64-bit build are one title or two, whether a package manager counts as a catalog. None of it tells you whether the applications you actually run are covered.
The useful test takes ten minutes: list the twenty applications on most of your machines, and check each one against the vendor’s published catalog before the demo rather than after it.
What you are buying is closed vulnerabilities
Patching is not maintenance. It is the control that closes a published vulnerability before somebody uses it, which is why seven of the forty points here go to prioritization. Nobody patches everything at once. The tool decides what goes first, and that decision is the security half of the purchase.
Most patch management solutions now sell that decision rather than the deployment. What automated patch management software automates is the dull half: find what is missing, stage it, handle the reboot, confirm it landed. The judgment half is which missing patch matters this week, and the vendors answer it with different data.
Ivanti scores with its own Vulnerability Risk Rating, which it presents as better armed than CVSS scoring because it adds exploit intelligence and human validation of exploits from penetration testing teams. Action1 documents a four step loop, discover, prioritize, remediate and verify, surfacing critical, known exploited and ransomware linked CVEs.
ManageEngine syncs a vulnerability database from its own central patch repository daily or on demand, starts a scan whenever that database updates, and states that all systems in the network are scanned for missing patches within the next 90 minutes. It then classifies each system as healthy, vulnerable or highly vulnerable.
Rankings of the top patch management software mostly stop at what each tool reaches. Exposure time is the number underneath it: how long a known vulnerability stays open on your machines, counted from the day the patch existed rather than the day somebody noticed it.
Compliance is the evidence, not the patching
The audit question is never whether you patch. It is what was missing, on which systems, and how long it stayed missing. That is a reporting problem rather than a deployment one, and it separates these products more than their coverage tables do.
Ivanti sells this directly, with what it calls exposure based compliance reporting and a Continuous Compliance feature that automatically remediates devices that fall behind, including machines that were powered off during the window. Action1 documents ring based staged rollouts as the way to cut disruption and maintain compliance.
Whatever framework you report against, ask for two things during the trial. A report that shows patch status across every asset on the network, and a history you can hand an auditor months later. A clean console screenshot is not evidence, and nobody discovers that at a convenient moment.
MethodHow we picked
Coverage carries the most weight, ten points, because a patching tool that cannot reach a system leaves it unpatched no matter how good the rest is. Automation and control carries eight: rings or phased rollout, approvals, maintenance windows, reboot handling, what happens to a laptop that was off during the window, and whether a bad patch can be pulled back.
Vulnerability prioritization carries seven, for mapping patches to CVEs and ranking them by severity, known exploitation on the CISA KEV list, or probability of exploitation through EPSS.
Pricing clarity, scale and support take five each. A complete published price list scores full marks on pricing, and a model with no figure scores close to nothing. Scale is scored on published evidence and architecture, not on the size of the company. Support is scored on hours, channels, published response targets and whether it costs extra.
What the scores cannot see
How reliable each vendor’s packages are in practice, how often a bad update reaches your machines, and how the console feels on a Tuesday night.
Two vendors publish what they commit to: ManageEngine targets third-party updates within 6 to 9 hours of a vendor release, and Action1 says within 24 hours, tested. Ask every vendor on your shortlist for that number in writing, and for what happens when a patch they published breaks something.
What the scores are made of
40 points across 6 criteria, applied to vendor documentation, support policies and pricing pages read at the source on September 11, 2026.
ManageEngine Endpoint Central
The broadest coverage on this page and the most documented scale. Endpoint Central patches Windows, Windows Server from 2012 to 2025, macOS and a long list of Linux distributions, Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky, Oracle, Amazon and more, plus what the vendor counts as 1,100 third-party applications and driver and BIOS updates, including BIOS behind a password.
ManageEngine publishes a patch availability target too: third-party updates typically within 6 to 9 hours of the vendor’s release, operating system security updates within 12 to 18.
Its weak spot is rollout control. The published model is test groups with automatic approval after a set number of days, scheduled windows and a reboot policy, rather than the multi-ring promotion Ivanti and Action1 document, and patch rollback works only for updates that support it.
Note also that test and approve is not in the cheapest edition: on the edition matrix it starts at Enterprise, $945 a year for 50 endpoints.
If patching is all you need, ManageEngine also sells it on its own as Patch Manager Plus, from $245 a year for 50 computers on Professional and $345 on Enterprise, on-premises. For large estates the architecture is published: a summary server managing at least 100,000 endpoints over probe servers of 25,000 to 30,000 each.
Where it wins
- Windows, Windows Server, macOS and Linux, with 1,100+ third-party applications claimed
- Driver and BIOS patching, including password-protected BIOS
- Every edition priced in public, and a patch-only product from $245 a year
- A published architecture for 100,000 endpoints and more
Where it loses
- Test groups rather than multi-ring rollouts, and test and approve starts at Enterprise
- Rollback only for updates that support it
- Included support is business hours by email and chat; 24/7 is a separate, unpriced plan
- Vulnerability scoring on EPSS sits in a separate module
How ManageEngine Endpoint Central scores, criterion by criterion
ManageEngine Endpoint Central pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endpoint Central Enterprise | $945 / year | 50 endpoints | Adds test and approve |
| Patch Manager Plus Professional | $245 / year | 50 computers | Patch-only product, on-premises |
| Patch Manager Plus Enterprise | $345 / year | 50 computers | Cloud version $445 |
| Free edition | $0 | 25 endpoints | Endpoint Central |
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management
The most complete rollout control documented by any product here. Deployments run in two or three rings, promoted automatically when a success rate is met and a soak time has passed, with an optional gate on user sentiment surveys.
Missed deployments run within an hour of the device powering back on, users can postpone a reboot for up to 14 days, and a patch can be rolled back across many devices at once.
It is also the most security-shaped. Windows deployments can be driven by risk score, Ivanti’s VRR, which the vendor says draws on exploit activity, CISA KEV data and asset criticality, and each patch carries reliability data and reported issues before it goes out.
Coverage is broad: Windows including ARM, Windows Server 2016 to 2025, macOS 11 to 26 and several Linux families, though Rocky and SUSE run the agent without patch support.
What pulls it down is the price. Ivanti publishes a model, a platform fee and device-based licenses, and no figure. Support is strong on paper, with a one hour priority response around the clock for cloud customers, but serious cases must be phoned in. For the company behind it, and what else it sells, see Ivanti alternatives.
Where it wins
- Two or three rings with automatic promotion on success rate and soak time
- Risk-based deployment using CISA KEV and exploit activity
- Multi-device rollback and a 14 day reboot postponement
- One hour priority response, 24/7, for cloud customers
Where it loses
- No published price, only the model
- Rocky Linux and SUSE run the agent without patch support
- Product-level scale evidence is thin
- Priority cases must be submitted by phone to get the response target
How Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management scores, criterion by criterion
Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any configuration | Quote | Platform fee plus devices | Estimate from sales |
| Support, Standard | Annual support and maintenance | 1 hour P1, 24/7 | Cloud customers |
| Support, Enterprise | Quote | 30 minute P1 | 24/7 |
NinjaOne
Patching inside a full endpoint management platform, and the only product here whose support is free, unlimited and around the clock. NinjaOne patches Windows, Windows Server, macOS and Linux through the native package managers, handles drivers and feature updates through its approval rules, and adds Patch Intelligence, which flags Windows patches that are proving unstable before you approve them.
Control is good rather than best: approvals by severity with automatic approval after a set number of days, rings built from device roles and policies, staggered and pre-staged installs, forced or prompted reboots, and missed runs that execute on reconnect.
Its catalog claims are the least consistent on the page, 8,800, 6,000 and 5,000 applications depending on where you read, and Linux application patching is not supported in its own deployment documentation.
This row scores NinjaOne’s patching on this page’s rubric. On the MSP ranking, which scores the whole RMM on a different rubric, it holds 7.4; the two numbers answer different questions. Its price, $3.75 per endpoint per month at 50 or fewer, buys the whole platform, not just the patching.
Where it wins
- Support free, unlimited and 24x7, with a published 31 minute average response
- Patch Intelligence flags unstable Windows patches before approval
- Patch caching and staggered installs for larger sites
- Patching sits inside a full endpoint management platform
Where it loses
- Third-party catalog counts disagree, from 5,000 to 8,800
- Linux application patching not supported per its own docs
- KEV data lives in a separate vulnerability product; EPSS not found
- Nothing published between its two price points
How NinjaOne scores, criterion by criterion
NinjaOne pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 endpoints or fewer | $3.75 / endpoint / mo | Published | Whole platform, not only patching |
| 10,000 endpoints | $1.50 / endpoint / mo | Published | Bottom of the range |
| Support | Included | Unlimited | 24x7 |
Action1
The strongest free offer in the category by a distance: every feature for the first 200 endpoints, without an expiry date. And the features are not thin.
Action1 documents update rings that promote an update outward on success rates and deployment counts, approval or automatic installation after a set delay, maintenance windows, peer-to-peer distribution from every agent, and a commitment that third-party updates are tested and published within 24 hours of the vendor’s release.
Vulnerability data is good for the price: CVSS, attack vector, whether a vulnerability is on the CISA KEV list and whether it has been used in ransomware, with a KEV report built in.
The gaps are that vulnerability assessment does not cover Linux yet, no catalog size is published, only hundreds of applications, and rollback of an operating system patch is not documented.
Above 200 endpoints the price is a quote, and the free tier comes with community support only. Its licensing rules, including which endpoints the free 200 cover, are on the Action1 pricing page.
Where it wins
- Every feature free for the first 200 endpoints, with no expiry
- Update rings with promotion on success rates
- CISA KEV and ransomware flags on every vulnerability
- Peer-to-peer distribution, no servers to run
Where it loses
- No price published above 200 endpoints
- Community support only on the free tier
- Vulnerability assessment does not cover Linux
- No catalog count published, and no documented OS patch rollback
How Action1 scores, criterion by criterion
Action1 pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 200 endpoints | $0 | Free forever | Community support only |
| Above 200 | Quote | Per endpoint | Adds vendor support |
| Trial | $0 | 15 days | With support |
Automox
The cheapest published price for operating system patching: $1 per endpoint per month on an annual commitment covers Windows, Windows Server, macOS and a long list of Linux distributions.
The catch is on the same page. Third-party application patching is not in that tier; it starts with Automate Essentials, which is custom priced, so the $1 figure is for the operating system alone.
Automox is strong on prioritization for its size: severity from CVSS, KEV and EPSS conditions in advanced patch policies, and Vulnerability Sync, which imports findings from CrowdStrike, Tenable and Qualys at no extra cost.
Its policies can target by severity, patch age and approval, run on Patch Tuesday offsets and respect exclusion windows. There are no native rings, only pilot groups, drivers and firmware are not patched automatically, and rollback is Windows only.
Its third-party count is another that disagrees with itself: 580, 600 and 630 titles on different pages. Included support is business hours, capped at five tickets a month on the standard plan; round-the-clock support is a higher tier with no published price.
Where it wins
- OS patching published at $1 per endpoint per month
- KEV and EPSS conditions in patch policies
- Scanner findings imported from CrowdStrike, Tenable and Qualys at no charge
- Windows, Windows Server, macOS and broad Linux from one cloud console
Where it loses
- Third-party patching only in custom-priced tiers
- No native rings, only pilot groups
- No automatic driver or firmware patching
- Standard support capped at five tickets a month, business hours
How Automox scores, criterion by criterion
Automox pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patch OS | $1 / endpoint / mo | Annual commitment | Windows, macOS and Linux OS patching |
| Automate Essentials | Custom | Quote | Adds 630+ third-party titles |
| Automate Enterprise | Custom | Quote | Adds scripting and remote control |
| Monthly billing | Not published | No commitment | Annual saves 25 percent, per the page |
Windows Autopatch
Check this before buying anything. Windows Autopatch is included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Windows Enterprise E3 and E5 (including through Microsoft 365 F3, E3 and E5) and the Education A3 and A5 licenses, and requires Intune and Entra ID. A business on any of those already owns it.
What it does, it does well: Autopatch groups and update rings, quality updates with deferral and expedite, multi-phase feature updates, hotpatch security updates that install without a restart, and driver and firmware updates with approvals. Microsoft publishes service targets, keeping at least 95 percent of up-to-date devices on the latest quality update.
What it covers is the limit, and it is a hard one. Autopatch updates Windows 10 and 11, Microsoft 365 Apps, Edge and Teams. It does not cover Windows Server, macOS, Linux or third-party applications, and it has no vulnerability prioritization.
Most organizations that use it still need a second tool for everything that is not Microsoft, which is why it sits sixth here and first in the order you should check.
Where it wins
- Already included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5
- Hotpatch security updates without a restart
- Driver and firmware updates with approvals
- Published service targets for update compliance
Where it loses
- Windows 10 and 11 only: no Windows Server, macOS or Linux
- No third-party application patching
- No CVE, KEV or EPSS prioritization
- Support requests only on E3 and above, with no published response targets
How Windows Autopatch scores, criterion by criterion
Windows Autopatch pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Premium, E3, E5, F3, A3, A5 | Included | No separate price | Requires Intune and Entra ID |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | $39.00 / user / mo | Paid yearly | Per the Intune pricing page |
| Third-party apps | Not covered | n/a | Needs another tool |
PDQ Connect
The clearest price here, in the simplest unit: $12, $18 or $28 per device per year, with a 100 device minimum and every tier published. For a Windows shop that wants software deployment and patching without a large platform around it, that is a lot of certainty for very little money.
The controls are the lightest on the page. Automated deployments start on the $18 Plus plan and trigger on a new package version, once or on a schedule, and recurring deployments queue for offline devices.
Update rings, an approval workflow, maintenance windows, user deferral and rollback are not documented. Coverage is Windows 10 and later, Windows Server 2016 and later and third-party packages on recent macOS; there is no Linux, and macOS vulnerability management is still planned.
Vulnerability scoring, using CVSS, exploitability and weaponization, is on the $28 Premium plan, along with priority support that promises a 60 minute first response within business hours. Other plans get email support.
Where it wins
- Every tier published, from $12 per device per year
- Simple automation on a new package version
- Risk scoring and KEV on the Premium plan
- An on-premises twin priced per admin for large single-site estates
Where it loses
- No Linux, and macOS operating system updates not listed
- No rings, approval workflow, maintenance windows or rollback documented
- Automation only from the $18 Plus plan
- Email support unless you buy Premium
How PDQ Connect scores, criterion by criterion
PDQ Connect pricing, verified September 11, 2026
| What you buy | Price | Annual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connect Basic | $12 / device / yr | 100 minimum | No automation |
| Connect Plus | $18 / device / yr | 100 minimum | Automation and remote desktop |
| Connect Premium | $28 / device / yr | 100 minimum | Vulnerability management |
FitWho this ranking is for, and who should skip it
What it costs, for the same 250 endpoints
| Tool | Unit | 250 endpoints, a year | What that buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Autopatch | Included | $0 extra on eligible licenses | Windows and Microsoft apps only |
| Action1 | Per endpoint above 200 | Free for 200, quote for 50 | Everything, community support on the free tier |
| ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus | Per computer tier | $1,395 on-premises, Enterprise | Patching only, one technician |
| Automox | Per endpoint | $3,000, OS only | Third-party patching is a custom tier |
| Endpoint Central Enterprise | Per endpoint tier | $3,595 on-premises | Patching plus endpoint management |
| PDQ Connect Plus | Per device | $4,500 | Automation and remote desktop |
| NinjaOne | Per endpoint | $4,500 to $11,250 | A full RMM, the published range |
| Ivanti Neurons | Platform fee plus devices | Quote | No figure published |
The table is for orientation, not a verdict, because the rows buy different amounts of software. Automox’s $3,000 excludes third-party applications, which are most of what goes unpatched in a normal office. NinjaOne’s range buys a whole remote monitoring platform. Endpoint Central’s figure includes one technician and device management well beyond patching.
Which patch management solution, in five lines
On Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 or E5, turn on Windows Autopatch first and buy a second tool only for what it cannot reach. Under 200 endpoints, Action1 does the whole job for nothing. For a mixed estate with Linux servers and BIOS updates to manage, Endpoint Central, or Patch Manager Plus if patching is the only job.
For a security team that wants ring-gated, risk-scored deployment and will accept a quote, Ivanti. And if patching is one part of running a fleet, NinjaOne includes it with support that never costs extra.
For how patching works as a process, rings, testing and the monthly cycle, see patch management explained.
ChangelogWhat changed in this update
- First published. Seven tools scored on a 40 point rubric from vendor documentation, support policies and pricing pages read on September 11, 2026, with every subscore published and NinjaOne scored for its patching only.
- Added the half a patching roundup usually leaves out: why the category is bought at all. Vulnerability prioritization and compliance evidence now have a section of their own, from what Ivanti, Action1 and ManageEngine document, and the page says what Microsoft publishes about WSUS. No score, price or pick changed.
FAQFrequently asked questions
What is the best patch management software?
On the rubric here, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, for the widest coverage, Windows, Windows Server, macOS, Linux, third-party applications, drivers and BIOS, with every price published. Ivanti Neurons has the deepest rollout controls and publishes no price. Check Windows Autopatch first if you hold Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 or E5.
Is there free patch management software?
Action1 is free for the first 200 endpoints with every feature and no expiry, and Endpoint Central has a free edition for 25 endpoints. Windows Autopatch costs nothing extra if you already hold an eligible Microsoft license, but covers only Windows and Microsoft’s own apps.
Does Windows Autopatch replace a patch management tool?
Only for Windows 10 and 11 and Microsoft 365 Apps, Edge and Teams. It does not patch Windows Server, macOS, Linux or third-party applications, and it has no vulnerability prioritization, so most organizations pair it with another tool.
Which patch management software covers Linux?
Endpoint Central, Action1 and Automox publish the broadest Linux lists. Ivanti patches several families but not Rocky or SUSE. NinjaOne patches Linux operating systems but not Linux applications. PDQ Connect and Windows Autopatch do not cover Linux.
What is the cheapest patch management software?
Action1 costs nothing up to 200 endpoints. Among paid lists, Automox publishes $1 per endpoint per month for operating system patching only, and PDQ Connect $12 per device per year with a 100 device minimum. ManageEngine’s patch-only product starts at $245 a year for 50 computers.
What are patch rings, and which tools have them?
Rings deploy an update to a small group first and widen it only when that group succeeds. Ivanti promotes between two or three rings on success rate and soak time, Action1 on success rates and deployment counts, and Windows Autopatch uses rings inside Autopatch groups. Endpoint Central uses test groups, Automox pilot groups, and PDQ Connect documents neither.
Which tools use CISA KEV or EPSS to prioritize patches?
Ivanti’s risk score uses CISA KEV data and exploit activity; Action1 flags KEV and ransomware use on every vulnerability; Automox supports KEV and EPSS conditions in advanced policies; PDQ Connect names KEV on Premium. Endpoint Central’s vulnerability module scores on EPSS. NinjaOne’s KEV data sits in a separate vulnerability product, and Autopatch has none.
Can these tools patch drivers and BIOS?
Endpoint Central patches drivers and BIOS, including password-protected BIOS. Windows Autopatch handles driver and firmware updates. Ivanti claims BIOS, driver and firmware updates. NinjaOne, Action1 and PDQ Connect handle drivers through Windows Update; Automox does not patch drivers or firmware automatically.
How many third-party applications do they cover?
The vendors’ own numbers disagree with themselves: Automox 580 to 630, NinjaOne 5,000 to 8,800, ManageEngine 1,000 to 1,100, Ivanti 1,000-plus or thousands. Action1 and PDQ publish no count. Check your twenty most common applications against each published catalog instead.
Which one has the best support?
NinjaOne, whose support is free, unlimited and 24x7 with a published 31 minute average response. Ivanti publishes a one hour priority response around the clock for cloud customers. Action1, Automox and Endpoint Central include business-hours support, and PDQ Connect’s priority support is on its top plan.
Is patch management part of an RMM?
Often. NinjaOne and Syncro include patching inside a remote monitoring platform, and for a managed service provider that is usually where it lives. The products on this page are also bought on their own, by internal IT teams whose problem is patching rather than monitoring.
How were these scores produced?
From each vendor’s published documentation, compatibility lists, support policies and pricing pages, read on September 11, 2026, against a 40 point rubric published on this page. No product was installed or trialed, so the scores measure what vendors document and commit to.
Why is patch management a security control rather than maintenance?
Because the gap between a published patch and an installed one is the window an attacker works in, and a patch release tells everybody where the hole is. Prioritization exists because nobody closes every hole at once, which is why seven of the forty points here go to it.
What does patch compliance reporting need to show?
What was missing, on which systems, and for how long. Ivanti sells exposure based compliance reporting and keeps remediating devices that fall behind. ManageEngine classifies systems as healthy, vulnerable or highly vulnerable. Ask for a report you can hand an auditor months later, not a console screenshot.
Is WSUS still supported?
Microsoft lists Windows Server Update Services under features no longer in development, saying it is no longer actively developed while existing capabilities and content stay available for current deployments. Nothing has been turned off, so treat it as a planning horizon. It never covered macOS, Linux or third party applications.
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