Cheap Android MDM:
why per-device pricing is a scam.

Here is a conversation I have had more times than I can count. Someone needs to manage a fleet of Android devices — tablets for a small restaurant, scanners for a warehouse, kiosks for a trade show — so they go looking for MDM software. They find something that looks good. Then they see the pricing.

“$6 per device per month. Billed annually. Minimum 25 seats.”

For 40 devices, that's $2,880 a year. For a small business. For software that remotely reboots tablets.

I got this quote myself. I closed the tab and spent the next few months building DroidMDM instead.

The per-device pricing problem

Per-device pricing made sense in 2010 when enterprise mobility management was genuinely complex — BlackBerry servers, Exchange ActiveSync policies, VPN certificates per handset. The engineering effort scaled with device count, and so did the price.

In 2026, managing an Android device is not complex. The Android Enterprise APIs are mature, reliable, and well-documented. The marginal cost of adding one more device to a fleet is effectively zero. A device syncs its config, checks in every few minutes, and sits in a database row. That's it.

But the pricing model never caught up. Enterprise MDM vendors charge per device not because it costs them more per device — it doesn't — but because it's a convenient way to grow revenue automatically as your company grows. You scale up, your bill scales up. You have no choice but to keep paying.

This is not a good deal for the customer.

What flat-rate MDM actually looks like

When I designed DroidMDM's pricing, I asked one question: what does it actually cost to run this service? Not per device — total. Servers, bandwidth, support, development. Then I asked what a small or medium business could reasonably afford. Then I picked a number in between that worked for both sides.

The result is a tiered flat-rate model. You pay based on how many devices you manage — up to 30, 100, or 500 — not $X multiplied by every single device you add. Within each tier, you can add devices freely without touching your billing settings or worrying about the invoice at the end of the month.

Compare that to the alternative. If you're at 28 devices and you need to add 3 more, you're not doing mental arithmetic about whether the upgrade is worth it this month. You're just adding devices.

A real cost comparison

Let's use a concrete example. You manage 45 Android kiosk tablets for a mid-sized retail business.

• Jamf / SOTI / comparable enterprise MDM: ~$6–8/device/month = $3,240–$4,320/year
• Microsoft Intune (standalone): ~$6/device/month = $3,240/year
• DroidMDM Growth plan (100 devices): $35/month — $420/year

That's roughly a 90% saving for the same core Android management features. Those enterprise quotes also don't include onboarding fees, professional services, or the IT consultant you need to get the thing running.

If you only have a few devices, there's also a completely free Android MDM tier — 5 devices, no credit card, no expiry.

What you actually need from an Android MDM

Before you evaluate any MDM — cheap or expensive — it's worth writing down what you actually need. Most businesses need:

• Enroll Android devices without touching each one individually
• Lock devices to one or a few apps (kiosk mode)
• Push app updates remotely without visiting the device
• Reboot, lock, or wipe a device if something goes wrong
• See which devices are online and what state they're in

DroidMDM does all of that. It does not do SCIM provisioning, Azure AD conditional access policies, or zero-trust network access. If you need those things, you have an enterprise IT infrastructure and you should probably be talking to an enterprise vendor.

If you need to manage Android devices affordably and reliably without a procurement process, DroidMDM is the answer.

The “cheap” question

I want to address the framing directly. “Cheap” in software usually implies corners cut — shoddy reliability, missing features, poor support. That's not what I'm building.

DroidMDM is affordable because I have low overhead, no sales team, no office, and no investors demanding 10x returns. The pricing reflects the actual cost of running the service with a reasonable margin — not the maximum amount the market will bear.

I am one developer who uses this product on real devices. When something breaks, I fix it because my own fleet stops working. That's a different incentive structure than a public company with 200 enterprise customers who can be slow-rolled on bug fixes.

Who should use DroidMDM

• Small and medium businesses with 5–500 Android devices who can't justify enterprise MDM pricing
• Developers who build kiosk or dedicated-device Android apps and need a management layer
• Startups deploying Android hardware who want flat, predictable costs as they scale
• IT admins managing mixed fleets who need something simple for the Android side
• Anyone who has been quoted $8/device/month and wants a better option

The honest pitch

DroidMDM is not the most feature-rich MDM on the market. It doesn't have a 400-page configuration manual. It doesn't integrate with every enterprise identity provider. What it has is everything the majority of Android fleets actually need, at a price that doesn't require board approval to justify.

Five devices are free forever. Paid plans start at $15/month flat for up to 30 devices. You can start today without talking to anyone.

If you've been putting off getting proper MDM in place because the cost felt absurd, this is your sign to actually do it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does DroidMDM cost?

DroidMDM offers a free tier for up to 5 devices. Paid plans start at $15/month for up to 30 devices (Starter), $35/month for up to 100 devices (Growth), and $75/month for up to 500 devices (Scale). All plans are flat-rate — no per-device fees.

Is flat-rate MDM cheaper than per-device pricing?

Yes, significantly. At $6–8/device/month, managing 45 devices costs $3,240–$4,320/year with enterprise MDM vendors. DroidMDM's 100-device flat plan costs $35/month — $420/year. That's roughly a 90% saving for the same core Android management features.

What features are included in DroidMDM's paid plans?

All paid plans include kiosk mode, remote reboot and lock, app management via APK upload, device groups, real-time device monitoring, event logging, and file storage. The difference between plans is the device limit and included storage.

Does DroidMDM work for small businesses?

Yes. DroidMDM is specifically designed for small and medium businesses that need reliable Android device management without enterprise pricing. The free tier covers up to 5 devices, and flat-rate paid plans make costs predictable as you grow.