What's the best MDM for a small business in 2026?

Here's the question most small business MDM roundups skip: are you already paying for one? Open the Microsoft 365 admin center and check your licenses. If Business Premium is listed, Intune came with it. In an r/sysadmin thread from an admin running about 50 people, that was the most common answer by a wide margin.

Bought on its own, Intune Plan 1 is $8 per user per month on an annual commitment. One license covers every device that person uses, so 30 employees cost $2,880 a year whether they carry one device or three. Microsoft also sells a device-only license for kiosks and shared devices, but it drops app protection policies and Conditional Access.

The catch for a business with no IT person: the console is big. One admin put it bluntly, Intune is hard to set up for so few devices. Policies can also lag. The background check-in runs roughly every eight hours, while push notifications usually trigger a sync within minutes, and a manual sync from Company Portal forces it.

Hexnode puts its floor right on the pricing page: start with 15 devices. Below that, look elsewhere. Above it, it's one of the MDMs small teams find easiest. One reviewer who tried more than 20 called it the simplest of the lot.

For most small businesses, the right tier is Enterprise at $3.20, the one Hexnode labels Most Popular. It adds basic desktop management that Pro lacks. Fifty devices on Enterprise come to $1,920 a year. Scripts, Autopilot and FileVault sit in Ultimate, and OS patching for macOS and Windows only in Ultra, which is quote-only. That's the complaint that keeps coming up: the good features live in the top plan.

Count your admins too. Pro includes two technicians, Enterprise three. If an outside IT provider shares the console with you, that's enough. Support is English only, which won't bother a US buyer.

At $2 per device, Scalefusion Essential is the cheapest paid multi-platform option on this list. Twenty devices cost $480 a year. The minimum is low, 10 devices, but the pricing page is firm: every plan is billed annually.

Watch the BYOD line. Separating work and personal data on an employee's own phone (Apple User Enrollment, Android work profile) starts at Growth, $3.50 per device. If part of your team uses personal phones, price Growth: $2,100 a year for 50 devices. Autopilot and OS patching wait until the Business plan.

Scalefusion also manages Linux and ChromeOS, still rare at this price. Customers mostly grumble about licenses sold in bundles and add-on features, and one comparison flags 1 GB of storage by default.

Jamf runs two products for two sizes. Jamf Now, for organizations under 25 employees, starts at $4 per device per month. It's the simple option: enroll, set a passcode, push apps, wipe a lost iPhone. Some roundups still quote it as free for three devices and $2 after that; Jamf's own pricing page says from $4.

Past 25 devices, the main platform kicks in: $12.50 per Mac and $5.75 per iPhone or iPad per month, paid yearly, with a 25-device minimum. Twenty-five Macs come to $3,750 a year. That buys the deepest Apple management on this list, but it's a real jump from Jamf Now.

Before paying, look at Apple Business, now free, which includes built-in device management and zero-touch enrollment for devices bought from Apple or an authorized reseller. And compare Mosyle, which manages Apple devices for $1.

JumpCloud is a cloud directory first and an MDM second. It creates employee accounts, enforces MFA, then manages the devices those people use. For a business on Google Workspace with no Active Directory, it fills the gap Intune fills for Microsoft shops. It shows up near the top of US results for small business MDM for that reason.

Pricing is per user, like Intune. The Device Management package is $9 per user per month on a yearly plan, so 30 employees cost $3,240 a year. MDM alone is $5 a la carte. One billing detail on the pricing page matters: suspended users are billed as normal users. Delete accounts when people leave.

JumpCloud lists Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS and Android. Computers need its agent installed on each machine. There's no free plan on the pricing page, only a 30-day trial.

For a very small business, ManageEngine has the most generous free tier here: 25 devices, every feature, no time limit. An r/sysadmin commenter still called it a bit much for 20 phones. The console is dense and built with IT teams in mind.

The math changes at device 26. You move to the 50-device bundle, $645 a year in the cloud for Standard. That's still one of the smallest bills on the list, under $1.10 per device per month. At 100 devices, budget $1,195 a year.

One technician is included. If your managed service provider also needs a seat, add $445 a year in the cloud. ManageEngine is also the only tool here you can host on your own server.

Mosyle manages Apple devices only. If that's you, the free tier covers up to 30 devices, and Premium is $1 per device per month. Fifty Macs and iPhones cost $600 a year, a fraction of Jamf.

The threshold bites at device 31: you need at least 30 paid licenses, so $360 a year minimum. Switching from another Apple MDM? Mosyle offers an extended trial of up to six months and a migration credit, under conditions.

Mosyle Fuse adds Mac security and patching for $3 per Mac. If you only need enrollment and app distribution, free Apple Business may already cover you.

Miradore, now part of GoTo, manages up to 50 Android, iOS, macOS and Windows devices for free after a 14-day trial, with no time limit. Nothing else on this list goes that far for free on a mixed fleet. One r/sysadmin user since 2020 calls it really reliable and easy to use, and another says it's great for small fleets.

The free tier has gaps: no update or patch deployment, and partial support for non-Samsung Android, according to customer reviews. The bigger trap is the cliff. At device 51, the whole fleet moves to Premium. At $2.75, 50 devices then cost $1,650 a year and 100 cost $3,300.

Miradore lets you pay monthly, at $3.30 per device. Below 15 paid devices, the pricing page notes minimum payment terms.