Microsoft Intune
Intune is bundled with Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and is the path of least resistance for Windows-first orgs with some Apple devices.
Verdict
// Intune is bundled with Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and is the path of least resistance for Windows-first orgs with some Apple devices.
If your shop runs on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5, Intune is already on the invoice — and for Windows-first companies with a small Mac population, that math is hard to argue with. The catch: Intune’s Apple feature parity has historically lagged Apple-first platforms by months, sometimes years.
Intune’s strength is the integration story. Conditional Access policies anchored in Entra ID, App Protection, and the unified Endpoint Manager console give you a single pane over both fleets without standing up a second vendor relationship. For a Windows shop adopting some Macs, this is the cheapest functional answer.
For an Apple-forward organization — even a small one — Intune is rarely the right answer. The cadence at which Apple ships new MDM capabilities (DDM, Setup Assistant flow changes, visionOS, etc.) is faster than Microsoft adopts them, and the gap shows.
Specifications
- Best for
- Microsoft 365 shops with mixed-OS fleets
- Pricing model
- Bundled with M365 E3/E5 or per-user standalone
- Deployment
- Cloud-native (SaaS)
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Android
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- API
- Microsoft Graph API
Strengths and watch-outs
- Bundled with Microsoft 365 plans
- Single pane for mixed-OS fleets
- Tight Entra ID integration
- Mac feature parity lags Apple-first MDMs
- No real-time agent
- Partial DDM support
- No tvOS support
Notable features
- Single console for mixed OS
- Entra ID native integration
- Conditional Access policies
- Compliance / configuration profiles
- App protection policies
- Endpoint Analytics
- Autopilot (Windows) + ABM (Apple)
- Microsoft Graph API