Apple MDM Evaluation Checklist
Choosing the Best Apple MDM: An Evaluation Checklist
Apple now represents the majority of enterprise endpoints, and 96% of U.S. CIOs expect their Mac fleets to grow in the next 12–24 months. At the same time, security risks, compliance pressure, and “do more with less” mandates are all on the rise. This checklist gives your team a clear, vendor-agnostic way to evaluate Apple MDM options and avoid costly mistakes on your first deployment.
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Why choose an MDM with an Apple focus?
As Macs, iPhones, and iPads become mission‑critical for your business, managing them with manual tools or legacy workflows is no longer sustainable. IT teams need a platform that can enforce security baselines, streamline onboarding, and provide real-time visibility—without adding friction for end users. This is especially true as Apple adoption accelerates and Apple devices now account for roughly two‑thirds of enterprise endpoints on average.
What you’ll learn:
This evaluation guide walks you through the 10 most important areas to review when selecting your first Apple MDM with simple, score-based criteria your entire team can align on.
- Core Apple ecosystem integration
Learn how to verify support for Apple Business Manager, Declarative Device Management, VPP, day‑one OS compatibility, and critical macOS controls so you’re always aligned with Apple’s roadmap. - Security, compliance, and patching
Get a clear view of what “good” looks like for FileVault enforcement, identity provider integration, platform SSO, automated patching, and audit-ready reporting mapped to frameworks like CIS, NIST, and SOC 2. - Automation, policies, and real-time support
See how a modern Apple MDM should handle baseline configurations, automated remediation, third‑party app updates, remote access, and live troubleshooting—so admins never have to touch a device in person again. - Identity, user experience, and BYOD
Evaluate vendors on federated identity, passwordless login, self-service app catalogs, and differentiated treatment for corporate vs. BYOD devices to keep users secure and productive with minimal friction. - Visibility, scalability, and architecture
Understand what to expect from dashboards, inventory search, alerting, multi‑tenant support, and cloud‑native performance so your MDM can scale from dozens to thousands of Apple devices.
Each section includes sample “pro tip” questions to ask during demos, plus a simple 0–2 scoring model to keep your internal discussions objective and outcome‑focused.
Why Addigy with this checklist
This checklist is vendor‑agnostic—but it reflects what leading Apple‑focused IT teams already expect from their MDM. Addigy delivers real-time visibility, multi-tenant management, automated remediation, and zero‑touch deployments for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, all from a cloud‑native platform. Organizations using Addigy report faster onboarding, fewer security incidents, and lower support overhead as their Apple fleets grow.
