Impero vs Senso vs NetSupport vs Others?

[ashleylewisms92]

Hi All,

 

We currently use ABTutor Cloud at the moment, but are looking into alternative options due to various reasons.

 

We're looking into Impero at the moment, but obviously there's a few different alternatives out there such as Senso and NetSupport etc.

 

I just wanted to ask what you guys are using and would recommend?

 

Key things are:

- That the console/server is cloud hosted

- That the level of support for the product is good

- Good on pricing

 

Key Features:

- Wake on LAN

- Launch Program/Website

- Send Message/Chat

- Lock/Unlock Screens

- Log On/Off or Shutdown/Restart multiple PCs at once.

[OLPTech]

We use the on premise version of Impero Education Pro for all 3 of our sites and find it great, it has its issues but we couldn't find a product that could do everything Impero could. 2 of our sites had Senso but had nothing but issues with it but since they've had Impero they are much happier with it.

 

Admittedly Impero does have a hosted version of Education Pro although I'm not sure how scheduling Wake On LAN works since the server isn't onsite and the Desktop Console cannot remote control devices that are not in the same network as the console although they do have a 'cloud' bit of it where you can remote control devices outside the network.

[mrbios]

I was a senso.cloud customer for years, we've moved (or rather, in the process of moving) to netsupport classroom.cloud right now. Support have been good so far in answer questions, helping me get to grips with the different ways of doing things etc.

 

Senso is currently (i say currently, because netsupport assure me they have some things in the works) the better techy support tool. Classroom.cloud is a significantly better classroom management tool for teachers. I never really had WOL working in senso, but it works in NetSupport fine (Not that i really need it, as we use MECM for waking, and don't tend to wake on a schedule anymore due to power saving)

 

I previously used the on prem version of Impero, but always found myself getting frustrated with it. I haven't really looked at their cloud offering in detail.

[MrEprise]

I previously used the on prem version of Impero, but always found myself getting frustrated with it. I haven't really looked at their cloud offering in detail.

 

I found many of the early versions of on-prem Impero frustrating to configure and use but the more recent versions, despite still having occasional little niggling issues, do work a lot better. The only thing I dislike with Impero is that you have to ask them before you are allowed to update to a newer version rather than just letting us update as and when we feel it's needed.

[Pottsey]

Loved Netsupport DNA at my last place and had a good experience with their Tech support lines.

 

Using Senso at my current place as its across the trust and while I don’t find it as good as Netsupport it works well and is much cheaper. The IT Teachers like Senso.

 

Impero my personal opinion is to avoid its gone massively downhill over the years. We used them for many years before we switched to Netsupport. Impero went from being great to full of bugs, slow, crashing and just unreliable. I have not used the very latest versions.

[MrEprise]

Impero went from being great to full of bugs, slow, crashing and just unreliable. I have not used the very latest versions.

 

I was about to reply to the contrary but I've just encountered a bug that is really infuriating me at the moment. A teacher has applied a policy to one of the ICT Suites (I think it's a screen lock but I'm not entirely sure) and try as I might, I can't remove the policy no matter what I do short of removing all those PCs from the group. This is what really annoys me about it, it doesn't tell me anywhere who applied the policy or what the policy applied is, even if you hover over the active policy icon for each computer.

 

What seems like basic and required functionality, still not present in the software after all these years.

 

There's also a bug in the Inventory feature where is still can't differentiate between all the memory banks of a computer and while it'll list how many banks there are, they'll usually all show up as something dumb like BANK2 or BANK4 instead of listing each bank it detects.

[OLPTech]

I might of misunderstood but I can find out who applied a policy to a group by going to the group, then group tab, Advanced Policies, Find the policy called *GROUP NAME* Action List then in there will say the policy and who added it

 

Then what policies are applied to a device you can add the column Applied Policies then click it on the device in question, then it shows all policies applied (in my case Screen Lock)

[MrEprise]

Huh, I never realised you could find out by looking in Advanced Policies. Thanks for that.

[PotNoodleTech]

Still using on site Impero here. I would imagine for software such as this that almost needs to be local and permanent/fast/low latency connected, cloud versions from all the manufacturers will be less than stellar.

[eejit]

The only thing I dislike with Impero is that you have to ask them before you are allowed to update to a newer version rather than just letting us update as and when we feel it's needed.

 

Such a bizarre business decision and very annoying.

[rheibel]

Use the local Impero, most of the time its fine but has just enouth issues to be annoying. Cloud hosted is much more expensive and cant do WOL as networrk packet cant cross subnets. you would need a local server to send the packet(proxy) as its 'Layer 2'.

[ITGuyNW]

Someone has said on ANME that at the BETT show they were told that the Ed Pro version is not being developed anymore. Anyone heard similar?

[timbo343]

Someone has said on ANME that at the BETT show they were told that the Ed Pro version is not being developed anymore. Anyone heard similar?

See this topic for latest issues with Impero and Chromebooks

 

https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?t=240935

[SteveM555]

NetSupport DNA is a really good product and we're happy with it, problem is moving to something like classroom.cloud doesn't cover all features of DNA and for us, its more than double the cost. Senso looked to cover everything DNA does, as we're pushing for more cloud based rather than on-prem, we'll probably look at Senso to possibly replace our NetSupport products.

 

Impero we've had on-prem years ago (Education Pro I think it was?) don't think anything would make us go back. We had terrible support, random config/groups resetting and issues with internet filtering

[ITGuyNW]

I looked at senso but it would cost double what we pay for Impero ed pro, is that correct? £6.50 per device?

[slugshead]

Last summer we moved from AB tutor to impero ed pro. Managed to palm off the sales pitches for the cloud version.

 

They've recently stated to a colleague of mine that development has not ended for edpro, just slowed down as they are pointing their devs at the cloud offerings instead.

[ITGURU]

all rubbish to be fair, either have issues or hammer the server resources.

[snagrat]

I looked at senso but it would cost double what we pay for Impero ed pro, is that correct? £6.50 per device?

 

We don’t pay the same price that is on the website….

[ITGuyNW]

We don’t pay the same price that is on the website….

 

How much do you pay if you don't mind me asking? Do you have the full package?

[MisterTechMan]

We pay £5.50 for Enterprise. Now curios as to what others are paying...

[Warwick_Tech]

Last summer we moved from AB tutor to impero ed pro. Managed to palm off the sales pitches for the cloud version.

 

They've recently stated to a colleague of mine that development has not ended for edpro, just slowed down as they are pointing their devs at the cloud offerings instead.

 

I was assured the same by a team member - EdPro Desktop is still a popular and fully supported product; however I think when/if V3 extentions come for Chrome/Edge it might signal the end of EdPro in favour of cloud services.

 

Mind you, ATM Google are on the chopping board in America for being 'to powerful' which doesn't apply to other companies who's CEO literally hangs out at the White House...

[ITGuyNW]

Anyone else finding Impero ed pro woeful under Windows 11 24H2? Frequent disconnections.

[rheibel]

1 hour ago, ITGuyNW said:

Anyone else finding Impero ed pro woeful under Windows 11 24H2? Frequent disconnections.

Not so far for any hard wired device. Are these wireless devices? We maily have lenovo laptops for student use but there is one batch of ASUS powerbooks that seem to drop wifi about 1 per hour for 20 seconds. some sort of driver issue but have not had time investigate yet.

[Warwick_Tech]

No more than usual - I was contemplating if I should setup a sheduled task that just restarts the service after 10-20 minutes, but maybe I'll add that to the todo list.....

[ITGuyNW]

52 minutes ago, rheibel said:

Not so far for any hard wired device. Are these wireless devices? We maily have lenovo laptops for student use but there is one batch of ASUS powerbooks that seem to drop wifi about 1 per hour for 20 seconds. some sort of driver issue but have not had time investigate yet.

 

Happening to every and any device. Only common denominator is Windows 11 24H2. A service restart on both client and server may or may not bring them back to life. Sometimes it has to be a reinstall.