Picking an MDM in 2026: Jamf, NinjaOne, JumpCloud and the Apple-versus-everything question

According to IDC data, the average enterprise now manages more than 10,000 endpoint devices, and 60% of that fleet is mobile. Every one of those devices is a potential compliance gap, a lost-laptop incident, or an unpatched app away from a real problem. G2 evaluated more than 20 MDM platforms against its Spring 2026 Grid Report to find the nine that actually hold up once you're managing that many endpoints instead of just a handful. Here's where they land, and the decision that shapes almost everything else: do you go all-in on Apple, or build for whatever shows up on the network.

Jamf is the Apple-only pick, and it earns that position with an 86% ease-of-setup score on G2. Zero-touch deployment through Apple Business Manager means a new MacBook configures itself, installs security settings, and deploys required apps the moment it's unboxed — no manual setup. Jamf also scores 94% on Apple Support, backed by deep scripting support (Bash, Python) for workflows standard MDM policies don't cover. The tradeoff is total: Jamf doesn't support Windows or Android at all, so any mixed-device org needs a second tool alongside it. Pricing starts at $5.75 per device per month, billed annually.

NinjaOne is the MSP-style remote endpoint pick, built as a hybrid MDM-RMM rather than a dedicated mobile tool. It posts a 94% ease-of-setup score and a 94% Ease of Admin score on G2, with an agent-based system that auto-enrolls devices the moment the agent installs. Its built-in third-party patching (Zoom, Chrome, Adobe, not just OS-level updates) is a differentiator reviewers call out repeatedly. The honest gap: mobile policy enforcement is noticeably thinner than its desktop controls — encryption and passcode enforcement work, but app management and containerization don't exist yet. Pricing is custom, quoted per endpoint.

JumpCloud is the cloud-native identity-plus-device pick, and it's less an MDM than a full identity, device, and security platform. Over 90% of G2 reviewers say they'd recommend it to another IT team, and it posts a 91% multi-systems support rating for tying SSO, MFA, MDM, and directory services into one console. That identity integration is the real draw — provisioning and de-provisioning sync directly with HR tools. The tradeoff: mobile app management isn't granular (no real containerization), and enrolling iOS/Android devices sometimes needs manual re-enrollment after OS updates. Free tier available; paid plans start at $3 per user per month.

Admin, Google's MDM, is the lightweight cross-platform pick for SMBs that don't need enterprise complexity. It posts a 93% applications management rating and a 90% usage-information score on G2, with flexible enrollment (QR codes, email invites, bulk CSV, ABM, Android Zero-Touch) and useful device-usage analytics beyond just security metrics. The gap: real-time device-level diagnostics are limited, and there's no multi-tiered admin role structure for larger IT teams. Pricing is custom.

Iru, formerly Kandji, is the second Apple-only pick, distinguished by auto-remediation: it continuously monitors devices and fixes compliance drift without IT stepping in. It posts a 94% ease-of-setup score and a 95% Ease of Admin score on G2, the highest admin-experience rating of the Apple-focused tools, plus 150+ pre-built Blueprints mapped to CIS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and NIST. Like Jamf, it's Apple-exclusive — mixed Windows environments need a second platform. Pricing is custom, based on device count.

AirDroid Business is the Android field-operations pick, built for fleets of tablets, kiosks, POS systems, and rugged devices rather than office laptops. It posts a 98% ease-of-admin score — the highest of any tool in this list — and a 98% quality-of-support score, with kiosk-mode customization and real-time device health monitoring (CPU, storage, battery) without physical access. It now supports Windows alongside Android, though iOS and macOS remain unsupported entirely. Pricing starts at $2.97 per device per month.

Rippling IT takes the unified HR-and-IT approach: device provisioning is tied directly to the employee lifecycle, so a new hire's laptop, apps, and access configure automatically, and offboarding revokes everything in the same workflow. It posts a 95% meets-requirements score and an 89% average user adoption rate on G2. The tradeoff: MDM-specific depth lags dedicated tools, since feature requests compete with core HR priorities. Pricing is custom, based on modules selected.

TeamViewer earns its spot on remote access rather than policy depth — a 95% multi-systems support score on G2 reflects how reliably it works across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, even on weak connections. HIPAA-compliant encryption and MFA make it viable for regulated remote support. But its MDM controls are genuinely thin: no app-level restrictions, no geofencing, no zero-trust framework. Pricing starts at $24.90 per month for remote access.

IBM MaaS360 is the AI-powered enterprise pick, using Watson for proactive risk scoring and real-time threat detection across iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS from one console. It posts an 86% meets-requirements score and an 89% regulation-compliant rating on G2, with secure containerization that reviewers in healthcare and finance call a compliance necessity. The consistent complaint: the admin interface feels dated, with settings buried in extra clicks. Pricing runs $5 per device per user.

The Apple-versus-everything question actually answers itself once you look at the fleet: if the org is Apple-only, Jamf and Iru both outperform anything cross-platform on depth, and Iru's auto-remediation makes it the lower-maintenance of the two. The moment Windows, Android, or a mixed BYOD policy enters the picture, JumpCloud's identity-plus-device model or NinjaOne's hybrid MDM-RMM approach cover more ground than forcing an Apple-only tool to do something it wasn't built for.

Full scoring breakdown, the complete comparison table, and G2's evaluation criteria across all nine tools are here: Best MDM Solutions for 2026: 9 Tools Worth Considering.