TABLE OF CONTENTS
Frantic midnight calls?
Five different dashboards trying to pinpoint why the critical database server and half the sales team's laptops decided to cause chaos? Yeah, we've been there.
IT folks need a unified view, something powerful yet accessible, preferably from anywhere. Pulseway promised to solve that challenge. Could it, though?
You’ll find out.
TL;DR
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Pulseway is an all-in-one IT platform that monitors and manages servers, computers, and mobile devices. Its focus is on doing this from literally anywhere.
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Pulseway’s core features are solid: Remote monitoring and management (RMM), automation, patch updates, and detailed server monitoring (like AD, SQL, VMware, Hyper-V) are strong.
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The mobile app works well. You get alerts and can immediately fix issues (restart stuff, run scripts, remote in) wherever you are.
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Pulseway smoothly handles mobile device management (enrolling, securing phones/tablets) and basic network gear monitoring (SNMP discovery, mapping), which is convenient.
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The web dashboard feels clunky compared to the mobile app. Advanced automation or monitoring takes some learning, and it's not as deep as specialized high-end tools for complex networks or MDM policies.
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Pulseway is great for IT teams or MSPs looking for comprehensive management on the go. It is probably pricey for small businesses or those just wanting basic remote access.
What is Pulseway?
Via Pulseway
Pulseway is a unified IT management platform designed with mobility in mind.
It combines remote monitoring and management (RMM) for servers and workstations, Mobile Device Management (MDM), patch management, basic backup, and security features into a single solution.
The idea is to give IT teams full visibility and control over their entire infrastructure, not just from a desktop console but from anywhere via a powerful mobile app. It simplifies workflows, automates routine tasks, and enables rapid response to issues, regardless of where you are.
These are some of its main features:
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Remote monitoring and management (RMM): Get real-time insights into system performance, services, and processes across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints.
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Mobile device management (MDM): Enroll, configure, secure, and manage iOS and Android devices.
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Remote control: Access and control managed workstations and servers securely from a desktop or mobile for direct troubleshooting and support.
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Automation workflows: Create automated responses to alerts or schedule routine maintenance tasks (like restarting services, running scripts, or deploying software) using a visual workflow builder.
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Network monitoring: Discover and monitor SNMP-enabled network devices like routers, switches, and printers.
Moving on from the spec sheet, here’s how Pulseway performs when handling real IT tasks.
How Does Pulseway Hold Up in Real Life?
Remote monitoring and management
Pulseway positions itself as an RMM solution first and foremost, so why not start there?
Remote monitoring and management (RMM) is Pulseway's most important feature, and its RMM module promises some good efficiency bumps.
Pulseway’s core RMM desktop/web platform features are solid across the board. The remote control grants reliable access to your managed Windows and macOS endpoints.
The automation engine is a big draw; you can script routine maintenance tasks, software deployments, and automated responses for common alerts, saving many hours.
You can also deploy patches and updates to Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and more. Patching support is available for 850+ third-party apps, BIOS, and driver updates.
Moreover, you’ll easily see system information, performance metrics, running processes, and installed software across your entire fleet.
The mobile app, however, is the best feature. It's not an afterthought; it feels like the main interface, made for managing IT on the go. Getting real-time alerts pushed directly to your phones or tablets, be it a server low on disk space, a critical service stopping, or a backup failing, is a convenience you can’t take for granted.
Via Trustpilot
Users can configure custom alerts, from server outages to memory error pings. The app lets you act on those alerts immediately.
It even initiates remote desktop sessions right from your mobile devices.
What about drawbacks? There are a few. First, while the mobile app is modern and slick, the desktop web interface, while functional, is unpolished and feels a bit slow and clunky. Setting up complex automation or monitoring rules also has a learning curve, but docs and forums help.
Our rating: 4.7/5
🔥Hot Take: Pulseway gives IT teams full visibility and control over their digital infrastructure, from real-time monitoring to patching and remote troubleshooting.But when it comes to the physical side—retrieving, replacing, or redeploying devices—Pulseway falls short.That’s where Workwize steps in, automating the entire hardware lifecycle from offboarding logistics to preparing devices for the next user.
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Mobile device management
Having mobile device management baked right into the same platform you use for your servers and workstations is a big draw for overloaded teams. The appeal is obvious: fewer tools and a more centralized workflow.
From what we’ve seen, the enrollment process is quite simple. The platform supports QR code setup for corporate Androids and enrollment links for BYOD iPhones, allowing a smooth onboarding experience. It’s a plus not needing a separate, heavyweight system just to cover mobile basics.
Once devices are enrolled, core functionality looks solid. The web interface makes setting up security policies, like enforcing passcodes, disabling cameras on select devices, or pushing Wi-Fi profiles, easy.
The option to remotely lock or wipe a lost or stolen device stands out, too. It’s one of those ‘hopefully never needed, but good to have’ features that make a big difference in a bad moment.
There’s also support for deploying internal apps and managing updates remotely, which is much easier than manually walking users through installs. That kind of control is a time-saver, especially at scale.
Now, if you're coming from a high-end, dedicated MDM solution, you will notice some missing bells and whistles. You might wish for more granularity in certain policy restrictions or deeper application configuration options for enterprise apps.
Pulseway's MDM covers the essential 80-90% well. For keeping your standard company phones and tablets secure, compliant, and manageable alongside everything else? Pulseway hits a sweet spot of functionality and convenience.
Our rating: 4.5/5
🔥Hot Take: With Workwize, you can order devices, get them pre-installed with an MDM of your choice, and then ship them to your office or remote employees anywhere in the world. You can also handle device management, retrievals, and disposals from the same intuitive platform. |
Server management and monitoring
One of the main reasons you might consider Pulseway is managing your server infrastructure. I'm happy to report that Pulseway delivers.
Dedicated modules for Microsoft Active Directory make management much easier. You can monitor the AD forest, get instant alerts for locked-out accounts (a frequent helpdesk issue), and manage user access, enabling, disabling, or resetting passwords directly from the app.
Managing group memberships on the fly? Pulseway handles it well. For your SQL Servers, Pulseway goes beyond basic monitoring; you can peek at table data, execute quick diagnostic queries, and get alerted about potential deadlocks or databases nearing capacity; which is useful for troubleshooting application slowdowns.
Managing your virtual environments also becomes simpler. Pulseway gives you visibility into hypervisor status and individual VM performance, be it Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, or Citrix XenServer.
You can monitor resource usage, start or stop VMs, and even take snapshots remotely. The VMware integration without complex firewall rules or VPNs also deserves a mention.
For Hyper-V, you can send commands or view a VM's screen in real time directly from the mobile app. For Microsoft Exchange, monitoring DAG, tracking database mounts/dismounts, and checking replication queues got much easier.
While specialized tools would provide deeper analytics in one specific area, Pulseway gives you broad, actionable control across your most critical server applications. It also helps you maintain uptime and manage operations much more effectively.
Our rating: 4.6/5
Network Management
How does Pulseway handle network management? Mostly using SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol, standard stuff for network gear.
The automatic network discovery is another plus point. Running a scan will populate your dashboard with the various SNMP-enabled devices lurking on your subnets. Moreover, these devices automatically appear on a topology map.
The map gives you a visual overview of how things were connected, and you can customize this map—changing icons, grouping devices logically—to make it reflect your real-world setup rather than just being a spiderweb.
SNMP Profiles make configuring the actual monitoring effortless. Instead of setting up checks individually for every switch port, you can create profiles for device types containing the standard SNMP variables and alert conditions you care about. Applying these profiles to discovered devices saves a ton of repetitive configuration.
Troubleshooting became more integrated, too. The topology map uses simple color-coding, so spotting devices with errors or warnings becomes quick. From there, you can directly initiate an SSH session to the device right from the Pulseway interface, even from the mobile app, which is handy for quick checks when away from the desk.
Speaking of downsides, you won't find deep packet inspection or flow analysis (like NetFlow or sFlow) for granular traffic troubleshooting. And while the topology map is great for visualization, managing extremely large or intricate multi-vendor network diagrams is less intuitive than what you'd find in a dedicated, high-end Network Management System (NMS).
While it’s excellent at unified alerting and basic-to-intermediate SNMP monitoring and troubleshooting, if your role is deep network engineering or managing complex configurations, you will still need a more specialized tool alongside it.
Our rating: 4.4/5
Pulseway Pricing and Plans
Pulseway's approach to pricing felt refreshingly transparent compared to some other platforms where costs can be murky. Their whole model seems built around flexibility and paying only for what you use.
You build your plan based on the number of endpoints (servers and workstations) you must manage. Then, you can bolt on extras like Mobile Device Management (MDM), Endpoint Protection (their AV solution), Ransomware Detection, and Third-Party Patching.
There’s an interactive calculator right on the pricing page. It lets you slide the endpoint count up and down, toggle the add-ons, and instantly see the estimated monthly cost.
Remember, there's a required, one-time onboarding fee (€149 when we checked) for a "Best Practices" session, which seems fair to ensure you get started on the right foot. Pricing goes up steeply as soon as you begin adding endpoints and MDM, easily reaching a 4 to 5 digit figure per month.
Pulseway Ratings and Reviews
Pulseway is rated 4.6 out of 5 stars in the popular review aggregator site G2, based on 100+ reviews. In Capterra, it earns a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5, based on over 300 genuine user reviews.
Our positive feelings, particularly around the core RMM and mobility aspects, seem widely shared. Users praise the power and usability of the mobile app—the ability to manage critical issues from anywhere resonates across the board.
No platform is perfect. We saw mentions echoing some of our thoughts, like a steeper learning curve for the most advanced automation workflows or niche features, perhaps not as deep as dedicated standalone tools.
Here’s what users are saying about Pulseway:
Here’s what people are saying about Pulseway outside of official forums and review sites:
Via Reddit
Final Verdict: Is Pulseway Right For You?
Pulseway is a powerful IT management platform.
Its strengths, particularly the outstanding mobile app, the solid RMM features, and the convenience of integrated MDM and automation, are undeniable. For IT teams constantly on the move or needing immediate response outside of traditional office hours, Pulseway feels like it was built specifically for them.
However, Pulseway is a comprehensive suite that comes with a certain level of complexity and, naturally, a corresponding price tag. Pulseway shines for established IT departments or MSPs that can use its extensive features—the detailed server monitoring modules, the full MDM capabilities, the patching, the automation engine, and the security add-ons.
If you're a tiny business, a startup, or an IT team with fairly basic needs, Pulseway might be overkill.
Before committing, we suggest you weigh your specific, day-to-day needs against its feature set.
Let's wrap up!
Pulseway keeps your IT systems running, but what happens when an employee leaves and their laptop is still out there?
That’s where things get messy. Unreturned devices. Lost assets. Manual tracking nightmares.
Workwize fixes this. It automates retrievals, redeploys devices, and keeps your IT assets where they belong without the hassle.
Brands like Adyen, HighLevel, DuckDuckGo, and more trust Workwize for seamless IT hardware lifecycle management.
