Compare Microsoft Intune Suite features to core Intune capabilities

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Understanding the difference between core Microsoft Intune capabilities and Intune Suite add-ons helps you identify when your organization needs premium features. Core Intune provides comprehensive device management that meets many organizational needs. Intune Suite extends these capabilities for advanced scenarios.

What core Intune provides

Core Microsoft Intune includes device management fundamentals:

• Device enrollment and lifecycle: Enroll Windows, iOS, Android, and macOS devices using various enrollment methods
• Configuration management: Deploy device configuration profiles controlling settings, features, and capabilities
• Application deployment: Deploy and manage applications including Microsoft 365 Apps, mobile apps, and Win32 applications
• Compliance policies: Define and enforce device compliance requirements
• Conditional access integration: Control access to resources based on device compliance and other conditions
• Device protection: Configure security settings and manage Windows Update deployments
• Basic reporting: Access standard reports showing device inventory, compliance status, and application deployment
• Role-based access control: Define administrative roles and permissions for Intune management

These capabilities support fundamental endpoint management needs for most organizations. You can successfully deploy, configure, secure, and manage devices using core Intune features.

Remote assistance scenarios

Core Intune includes basic remote actions like device lock, wipe, sync, and restart. You can view device information remotely and initiate actions from the Intune admin center. However, when your support team needs to interact with user desktops—viewing screens, controlling devices, or troubleshooting software issues—core Intune doesn't provide these capabilities.

Remote Help (part of Intune Suite) adds enterprise-grade remote assistance with:

• Screen sharing and full remote control
• Role-based access controls determining what helpers can do
• Compliance visibility before connecting to devices
• Elevation support allowing helpers to enter administrator credentials
• Comprehensive session auditing and reporting
• Integration with Microsoft Entra ID for authentication

Organizations using third-party remote assistance tools can replace them with Remote Help, consolidating remote support within Intune and eliminating separate tool licensing.

Privilege elevation scenarios

Core Intune can deploy applications, scripts, and configurations that run with system privileges during deployment. However, it doesn't provide mechanisms for users to run specific applications with elevated privileges when needed.

Traditional approaches create security challenges. Granting users local administrator rights violates Zero Trust principles and increases security risks. Requiring users to contact IT support for every software installation or driver update creates productivity bottlenecks.

Endpoint Privilege Management (part of Intune Suite) solves this by:

• Allowing standard users to elevate specific applications through defined rules
• Supporting automatic, user-confirmed, and support-approved elevation workflows
• Providing granular controls based on file attributes, paths, and certificates
• Reporting all elevation activity for security monitoring
• Isolating elevated processes using virtual accounts

This approach maintains least privilege principles while enabling user productivity—a combination that's not possible with core Intune alone.

Analytics and insights

Core Intune provides standard reporting on device inventory, compliance status, configuration deployment, and application installations. These reports answer questions like "Which devices are non-compliant?" and "Has this application deployed successfully?"

However, core reporting is reactive—showing current states and historical events rather than predicting future problems. You learn about device issues after users report them or after devices fail.

Advanced Analytics (part of Intune Suite) adds proactive capabilities:

• Anomaly detection identifying devices with unusual performance patterns
• Predictive analytics forecasting which devices are likely to experience problems
• Actionable recommendations for improving end-user experience
• AI-driven insights based on device health signals and usage patterns

This shift from reactive to proactive management reduces user disruptions and support costs by addressing problems before they impact productivity.

Application management workflows

Core Intune supports Win32 application deployment with full control over installation packages, detection rules, requirements, and uninstall behavior. You create application packages, configure installation parameters, and deploy to targeted groups.

This process works well but requires time investment for each application. You must source installation files, determine appropriate installation switches, create detection rules, define system requirements, and host installation content.

Enterprise App Management (part of Intune Suite) streamlines this workflow for common applications:

• Pre-configured applications in the Enterprise App Catalog
• Default installation settings and detection rules
• Microsoft-hosted application content
• Simplified deployment process for popular business applications

Core Intune still handles the actual deployment and management. Enterprise App Management reduces preparation time by providing ready-to-deploy application configurations. Your IT team can still use the traditional process for applications not in the catalog.

Additional suite capabilities and core alternatives

The following table summarizes additional Intune Suite capabilities and what core Intune provides for similar scenarios:

Scenario	Core Intune	Intune Suite Add-on
Mobile VPN for unenrolled devices	Microsoft Tunnel requires device enrollment	Microsoft Tunnel for MAM supports unenrolled Android and iOS devices
Certificate management	Requires on-premises certificate authority infrastructure or third-party solutions	Cloud PKI provides cloud-based certificate lifecycle management
Firmware updates	Device manufacturers' native update mechanisms	FOTA provides centralized firmware management for supported devices (Zebra)
Specialty device management	Standard device management policies apply to all device types	Specialized management capabilities for AR/VR, smart screens, and meeting devices

Understanding licensing implications

Core Intune is available through several Microsoft 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security licensing plans. Organizations with these licenses can use all core Intune features without additional costs.

Intune Suite add-ons require additional licensing beyond core Intune. You can license:

• Individual add-ons separately based on specific needs
• Intune Suite as a complete package including all add-ons
• Some add-ons are available with Intune Plan 2 subscription

Organizations should evaluate which capabilities address their specific challenges and license accordingly. Starting with trials helps validate value before purchasing licenses.

When you need Intune Suite capabilities

Consider Intune Suite add-ons when:

• Your security team wants to implement Zero Trust with least privilege but users need to run privileged tasks
• Support teams need remote screen sharing and control beyond basic remote actions
• You want proactive device health management rather than reactive problem resolution
• Your organization supports bring-your-own-device programs requiring secure access from unenrolled mobile devices
• You need to manage specialty devices like AR/VR headsets or conference room systems
• Managing on-premises certificate infrastructure creates operational burdens
• You deploy rugged mobile devices requiring centralized firmware management

For standard device management, configuration, application deployment, and compliance enforcement, core Intune capabilities are typically sufficient. Intune Suite addresses advanced scenarios beyond fundamental endpoint management.