Apple Business Manager is a free software tool that registers and manages iOS devices like iPhones, iPads, and macOS devices like MacBook computers owned by an organization. Apple Business Manager also manages your organization’s Apple IDs (user accounts), purchased content (apps), and device SSO. Apple Business Manager is not an MDM — but it is required in order to use an MDM with Apple devices. Apple Business Manager has a number of core features that are useful to organizations managing iOS and macOS devices. Apple Business Manager is not an MDM (mobile device management) tool. However, Apple Business Manager integrates very closely with Apple’s paid MDM service, Apple Business Essentials. Think of Apple Business Manager as the “foundation” layer to using an MDM. Apple Business Manager keeps track of every iOS and macOS device in your organization and can be configured to automatically enroll each of those devices in your MDM. Every iOS device you want to manage must be registered through Apple before it can be enrolled in an MDM. Apple Business Manager is the simplest way to register your iOS devices in a highly automated fashion and is specifically built to streamline the process of MDM enrollment. Technically, Apple Business Manager can be used without an MDM. But Apple Business Manager is not a device management tool; it’s little more than an enrollment and device inventory manager. This means Apple Business Manager can’t control the apps distributed on your devices, manage software updates, security settings, or remotely lock and erase your iOS devices. For these kinds of functions, you need a proper iOS MDM. Further, Apple’s own MDM, Apple Business Essentials, lacks key features like remote device viewing, staged application rollouts, and other crucial features for organizations operating fleets of iPad kiosks. Apple Business Essentials is also useless for mixed Android and iOS fleets — it only supports Apple devices. For a more flexible iOS MDM solution, you can learn about Esper here: