Tools & Technology

ManageEngine vs NinjaOne for Vulnerability Management

ManageEngine and NinjaOne are two popular solutions that offer strong features to help mitigate vulnerability risk. This analysis will compare these two platforms, looking at their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. By examining aspects like ease of use, scalability, integration, and overall performance, this analysis aims to help organizations choose the best solution for their security needs.

ManageEngine

ManageEngine offers a main product for vulnerability management: Vulnerability Manager Plus, a standalone, dedicated vulnerability management solution that provides comprehensive features like vulnerability assessment, patch management, compliance management, and more.

Vulnerability Manager Plus is a multi-OS vulnerability management and compliance solution that offers built-in remediation. It is an end-to-end vulnerability management tool delivering comprehensive coverage, continual visibility, rigorous assessment, and integral remediation of threats and vulnerabilities, from a single console. Whether your endpoints are on your local network, in a DMZ (demilitarized zone) network, at a remote location, or on the move, Vulnerability Manager Plus is the go-to solution to empower your distributed workforce with safe working conditions.

ManageEngine's Vulnerability Manager Plus is a prioritization-focused vulnerability management software for enterprises offering built-in patch management.

Features

Vulnerability Assessment:

Asset Discovery: ManageEngine Vulnerability management plus detect and manage local and remote endpoint, roaming devices, and closed network (DMZ) machines.

Vulnerability Scanning: It spots all OS, third-party, and zero-day vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability Assessment: Understand the impact of threats and prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity, age, exploit code disclosure, patch availability, and various infographics for timely risk reduction.

Vulnerability Remediation: Deploy automatically correlated patches to seal vulnerabilities and leverage alternative mitigation measures if no patch is available.

Patch Management:

Heterogeneous, Multi-Platform Patching

Centralized and Comprehensive Management: Manage patches for Windows, Mac, and Linux across various devices (servers, laptops, desktops, VMs, remote and roaming) from a centralized console, including security updates, service packs, and third-party applications like Adobe, Java, and Firefox.
Real-Time Deployment and Updates: Deploy real-time security and non-security patches, including antivirus definitions for Windows Defender and McAfee, and ensure seamless patching for over 500 third-party applications.

Test and Approve Patches

Automatic Testing and Approval: Create a test group identical to the production environment, automatically test patches for compatibility and bugs, and approve them manually or automatically once verified.
Automated Deployment: Use successfully tested and approved patches for automated deployment tasks, ensuring stability and reliability in the production environment.

Automated Patch Deployment

End-to-end Automation: Automate the entire patching process from detecting missing patches to downloading, testing, and deploying them to production machines.
Scheduling and Monitoring: Schedule scans by time, computer, group, or user-defined collections, continuously monitor for missing patches, and receive periodic updates on deployment status.

Deployment Policies

Customization and Scheduling: Customize patch deployment schedules, including preferred weeks, days, and windows, and configure deployment initiation during system startup or refresh.
User Notifications and Reboot Policies: Notify users about deployment, allow them to postpone or force deployment, and carefully configure shutdown and reboot policies for critical machines.

Decline Patches

Selective Decline for Specific Groups: Decline patches for specific groups of computers, legacy applications, or those identified as problematic during pre-testing.
Delay Less Critical Patches: Delay deployment of less critical patches by initially declining them.

Compliance Management

Ensures your IT infrastructure meets security compliance requirements like CIS benchmarks.
Helps identify compliance violations and provides remediation guidance.

Security Configuration Management

Firewall and Password Management:

Firewall Audit: Ensure firewalls are correctly configured to block vulnerable ports like NetBIOS and port 445 to prevent unauthorized access.
Password Policies: Enforce strong, complex password policies and manage password reuse to protect against brute force and dictionary attacks.

Data and Network Security:

BitLocker Encryption: Enable BitLocker to encrypt disk volumes, preventing unauthorized access and data breaches.
Manage Network Shares: Control network shares to prevent ransomware and malware from spreading via shared folders with write permissions.

User and System Hardening:

User Account Control: Implement UAC to prevent unauthorized changes by displaying elevation prompts and requiring administrative credentials in secure desktop mode.
OS Security Hardening: Configure OS security settings such as memory protection, logon authentication, and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) to enhance overall system security.

Additional Features:

Risk Management: Prioritizes vulnerabilities based on their severity and potential risk.

High-Risk Software Audit: Identifies and helps remove unauthorized or unsupported software on your network.

Zero-Day Vulnerability Mitigation: Provides mitigation strategies to address vulnerabilities even before available patches.

Network Device Management: Discovers and patches vulnerabilities on network devices.

Web Server Hardening: Secures web servers by managing configurations and access controls.

Insightful Reports: Generates detailed reports on vulnerabilities, compliance status, and patching progress.

Customer Review for ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus

Pros:

Comprehensive Scanning: ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus offers thorough, detailed scanning capabilities that help identify vulnerabilities across all systems and applications.
Prioritization and Risk Management: The tool prioritizes vulnerabilities based on risk, allowing us to focus on the most critical threats first.
Automated Patch Management: Its automated patch management feature is a game-changer, saving us time and ensuring our systems are always up-to-date with the latest security patches.
Remediation Guidance: The tool provides clear and actionable remediation guidance, making it easier to address identified vulnerabilities.
Detailed Vulnerability Information: We appreciate the detailed vulnerability information provided, which helps us understand the nature and severity of each issue.
Easy to Deploy and Set Up: Deployment and setup were straightforward, allowing us to get up and running quickly.
User-Friendly Interface: ManageEngine has designed an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that simplifies navigating the tool and managing security tasks.

Cons:

Minimal Report Generation: The tool's reporting capabilities are somewhat limited, and we would like to see more comprehensive report options.
Database Updates: The database is not always updated automatically and occasionally requires manual intervention, which can be inconvenient.
Pricing: ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is slightly on the expensive side, which may be a consideration for budget-conscious organizations.
Risk in Deploying Security Configurations: Implementing security configurations can sometimes be risky and have adverse effects on servers, requiring careful planning and execution.

Pricing

Vulnerability Manager Plus pricing per 100 endpoints is available in the following plans:

Free edition: Small businesses with up to 20 workstations and 5 servers - $0
Professional edition: Suitable for LAN networks - $695/year
Professional edition (perpetual)----$1737
Enterprise edition: Suitable for WAN and LAN networks - $1195/year
Enterprise edition (perpetual) - $2987

NinjaOne

NinjaOne itself offers vulnerability management functionality. It doesn't require a separate product within their suite. Their Endpoint Management solution includes features specifically designed for vulnerability management such as ninjaone endpoint management.

NinjaOne Endpoint Management Features

NinjaOne Endpoint Management provides proactive device monitoring, alerting, assessment, prioritization, and mitigation

Vulnerability Identification and Assessment:

Real-time Monitoring: NinjaOne continuously monitors your network endpoints (desktops, laptops, servers) to identify vulnerabilities in their configurations and applications.
Patch Management Integration: Integrates with various third-party patching tools, providing a wider range of vulnerability coverage.
Custom Scripting: Allows creation and execution of custom scripts to identify specific vulnerabilities beyond those covered by pre-built tools.

Prioritization and Remediation:

Automated Prioritization: Policies can be set to automatically prioritize vulnerabilities based on pre-defined severity levels, exploitability, and potential impact. This helps focus IT teams on the most critical issues first.
Policy-Driven Remediation: Define policies that automatically trigger actions (like deploying patches) when specific vulnerabilities are detected.
Scripting for Remediation: Utilize scripting capabilities to automate specific remediation tasks beyond patching, offering greater flexibility.

Alerting and Reporting:

Real-time Alerts: The system instantly notifies your IT team via email or other channels whenever a new vulnerability is detected on a device, operating system, or application within your network.
Detailed Reports: NinjaOne generates reports that provide insights into identified vulnerabilities, including their severity, location, and remediation status. This helps track progress and identify any lingering vulnerabilities.

Mitigation actions:

You can define policies that trigger specific mitigation actions when vulnerabilities are detected. These actions might include:

Configuration Hardening: Automatically adjusting system configurations to make them less susceptible to exploit, like disabling unused services or tightening access controls.
Network Segmentation: Isolating compromised or vulnerable devices to prevent them from spreading malware or impacting the rest of your network (if supported by your network infrastructure).
Application Blocking: Disabling or blocking vulnerable applications until a patch becomes available.
Custom Scripting: NinjaOne's scripting capabilities allow you to create custom mitigation procedures beyond pre-defined options. This offers flexibility to address specific vulnerabilities or implement mitigation strategies tailored to your environment.
You can see also the features of other vulnerability management tools in Rapid7 vs Tenable

Customer Review for NinjaOne Endpoint Management

Pros:

Easy to Set Up: Customers appreciate how straightforward and hassle-free the initial setup process is, allowing them to get started quickly without extensive technical knowledge.
Fast Command Execution: Users have noted the impressive speed at which commands execute, enhancing overall efficiency and productivity.
Time and Resource Savings: Automation features are highly valued as they save significant time and resources, allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic tasks.
User-Friendly Interface: The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
Customizable Features: The ability to disable or hide features that are not needed makes phased rollouts and implementations more manageable and tailored to specific needs.
Accurate Documentation: Customers find the documentation to be precise, easy to follow, and accurate, which helps in troubleshooting and utilizing the platform effectively.
Straightforward Patch Management: Configuring and monitoring patch management is simple and efficient, ensuring systems stay up-to-date with minimal effort.

Cons:

No Built-in Ticketing System: Many customers find the lack of an integrated ticketing system inconvenient for managing support requests, requiring the use of external tools.
Inconsistent Customer Service: Some users have reported inconsistent experiences with customer service, with responses varying in timeliness and helpfulness.
No Email Output Feature: The absence of a feature to directly send action or script outputs to an email is a drawback for users who need immediate notifications or logs.
Limited Endpoint Integration: Customers have noted that the platform has limited integration capabilities with some endpoints, which can hinder comprehensive management.
Network Device Monitoring Limitations: The tool's ability to monitor network devices is limited, which can be a significant drawback for users needing extensive network visibility.
Unresolved Issues and Lack of Support: There are reports of unresolved issues and a lack of sufficient support, leading to frustration and reduced confidence in the tool's reliability.

Pricing

Ninjaone Endpoint Management pricing ranges from $2-4 per endpoint:

$3.50/endpoint for less than 50 endpoints
About $2.80 for 250 endpoints
About $1.25 for 1000+ endpoints

Conclusion

ManageEngine and NinjaOne are well-regarded solutions in the vulnerability management market, each with its strengths. ManageEngine provides a comprehensive suite of IT management tools, while NinjaOne excels in delivering a streamlined IT operations platform. However, like many traditional vulnerability management tools, both ManageEngine and NinjaOne may fall short in offering robust remediation capabilities. This often necessitates the purchase of additional tools for comprehensive remediation. Vicarius vRx addresses this gap with a unique focus on remediation, providing a unified solution that combines vulnerability management with effective remediation capabilities. As a result, Vicarius vRx presents itself as a superior alternative for organizations seeking a more integrated and efficient approach to vulnerability management and remediation.

Alternative to ManageEngine and NinjaOne

Vicarius vRx is an all-in-one vulnerability management tool that emphasizes proactive vulnerability assessment and remediation. Unlike traditional methods that rely primarily on patching, vRx offers a more comprehensive approach to managing and mitigating vulnerabilities.

Why vRx?

All-in-One Vulnerability Management Tool: vRx offers a comprehensive solution by integrating assessment, prioritization, and remediation into a single platform. It ensures continuous monitoring and real-time assessment of vulnerabilities without relying on scheduled scans.
Proactive Vulnerability Prediction and Patchless Protection: vRx enables threat hunting and gap-closing before vulnerabilities become known. Its Patchless Protection tool secures high-risk applications and blocks exploitation attempts, enhancing security posture while reducing downtime and disruptions associated with traditional patching.
Advanced Vulnerability Prioritization: Combining contextual data with external sources and AI, vRx delivers advanced CVSS calculations. This allows for more accurate risk and severity rankings for each threat, including applications, optimizing resource allocation, and improving cost efficiency.
Real-Time Patch Management: Provides flexibility for immediate or scheduled patch installations across Windows, macOS, and Linux, effectively reducing organizational risk.
Continuous Assessment: Monitors the environment continuously without the need for time-consuming scans.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with existing IT infrastructures and security tools, enhancing the overall security ecosystem and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Community-Driven Platform: Vicarius vRx supports vsociety, a community-driven platform that shares knowledge, tools, and best practices related to cybersecurity and vulnerability management.