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WSUS most of the times is a pain.

What is the best free WSUS alternative?

41 Spice ups
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What size organization? Some companies offer free up to a point.
I don’t share your sentiment though. I prefer WSUS, but it runs, and runs well in my environment. It isn’t a set and forget, but most servers aren’t. If you’d like to share your pain points, maybe someone can offer some suggestions on what can be done to help reduce or alleviate those issues.

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We have 150 workstations.

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PDQ Deploy/Inventory or their new version of PDQ Connect which is cloud and agent based.

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PDQ Connect May not have a free version but it’s worth its cost in time and reliability savings.

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You could take a peek at Action1. Free for up to 100 but should give you a chance to see if you want to pay to go more.

@Action1

@peter-action1

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What is best?

WSUS is also free, but depending on how your devices are managed, InTune or WSFB?

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WSUS doesn’t have to be a pain. When you have it setup properly, it only takes about 5-15 minutes a month to approve updates to both a test group and then a few days or a week later, approve to the production groups.

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@overdrive ​ that’s my experience with it. My monthly effort is more like a half an hour - That’s mainly because management wants me to report on all of the computers that WSUS has not been able to reach.

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My experience with WSUS was at my last place but it was not really fine-tuned. Once I did that, I liked it for controlling Windows updates. For 3rd party software, I’ve found PDQ works pretty well. As others have said here, what are your pain points?

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We use WSUS for windows patching, no significant issues with it…most of the time I spend with windows patching is testing before releasing. We use Ivanti SC for third party and the free version of PDQ Deploy for misc. tasks that the other two don’t really cover. PDQ Deploy is great.

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Are you patching workstations, servers, both? Workstations off network?

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+1 overdrive. I have read his blogs and instructions having recently delved into the world of WSUS and found (after some teething issues) things to be working quite well.

What are your specific painful experiences?

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WSUS does what it does (updates Windows and MS apps,) and does it pretty well. I’m not sure there’s really a better free option out there. You can technically deploy and update other software too, but then it becomes a real challenge to use. If I were in your situation I’d keep using WSUS for MS updates and such, and another tool for everything else.

I’ve used EMCO RemoteInstaller and really like it. I’ve heard PDQ Deploy is similar and also very good, but neither of those are free I don’t think. At some point you may consider something like MEM/Intune, but that’s not free either and comes with its own complications.

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Aha, the WSUS master himself @overdrive ​

^ it really is that simple to keep your server issuing the latest updates.

Feel free to check out this PowerShell report for Windows Updates, I found this to really help me with reporting failed updates and ensuring machines are getting patched etc…

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Thanks for the mention @michael9595 ​ !

Action1 is so much more than WSUS because it also adds built-in third-party app patching and other features, like app deployment and remote control. It can work alongside WSUS, if needed, using WSUS as a local cache for Windows updates (even though it’s a lot less relevant these days with P2P update distribution).

P.S. It’s actually free for your FIRST 100 (not up to), meaning that you always get your first 100 free and then pay only for the excess number (only if you want to cover more): https://action1.com/free

@Action1

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For all our laptops we just went with Windows update for Business (no desktops anymore). Servers we use WSUS but are switching to Azure update manager thru ARC. Our datacentre is in its twilight years anyways. Looking forward to the day I can shut off that last DC :smiley:

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I haven’t found any good alternatives to WSUS. I setup WUFB with Delivery Optimization and just let all the machines keep themselves up to date.

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Throwing the name Manage Engine out since they’ve been good to me.

There are hundreds or thousands of different products for RMM that manage patching. It would be hard to call one best and I wouldn’t spend the money on any if Windows patching is your only use for it.

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If you’re already using Microsoft 365 Business Premium or E5 licenses in your organization, you have Intune included which would be a “free” alternative to WSUS.

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