Action1 vs. PDQ Deploy & Inventory

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Action1
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Action1 is an autonomous endpoint management platform that is cloud-native, scalable, and configurable in 5 minutes. It is free for the first 200 endpoints, with no functional limits. By pioneering autonomous OS and third-party patching - AEM’s foundational use case - through peer-to-peer patch distribution and real-time vulnerability assessment without needing a VPN, it eliminates costly, time-consuming routine labor, preempts ransomware and security risks, and protects the digital…N/A
PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
PDQ.com headquartered in Salt Lake City offers PDQ Deploy, a software deployment tool used to keep Windows PCs up-to-date without bothering end users.N/A
Pricing
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPDQ was built by entrepreneurs & educators. Small businesses (<50 employees), nonprofits, and schools enjoy a 15% discount.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Considered Both Products
Action1
Chose Action1
While other RMMs may only be good at one thing, Action1 is really good at everything that their does. If they don't have it in the platform yet, that's because it's not good enough for their standards. From a pricing standpoint on Patch/Software management there is no match for …
Chose Action1
Action1 has a sweet spot with the functionality it provides at a great price point. The product is not overwhelming yet continues to grow with functionality that customers request.
Chose Action1
Freshdesk and Freshservice are great products with Freshservice being the better of the two. However, in comparison to Action1 with regards to our budget, it was an easy choice to select Action1. I selected Action1 not only because of the "free" price tag, but also because I …
Chose Action1
Aforementioned regarding the high cost of Lansweeper. In my experience, it also has a greater effort to configure and isn't as easy to deploy and customize out of the box. In my opinion, their platform is built around the assumption everyone is a long-time customer and/or a big …
Chose Action1
To be honest, I might have been lucky, but Action1 was the first I actually tested.
I've heard from our mother company from Italy, that they have tested NinjaOne but it was not what they were expecting in terms of vulnerability and patch management. I've recently suggested them …
Chose Action1
GFI Languard was pretty nice, but that was ages ago. I do pay for PDQ deploy and inventory though and am happy with that software...however, while its feature set does overlap with Action1, it is not just another flavor of the same thing, so I find that I use both of them.
Chose Action1
Action1 excels with patch management and their ability to show if applications have been marked as vulnerable. It is also hard to beat their free model where the first 200 are free. When I first started with Action1 it was only 50 endpoints so seeing that expand so much is …
Chose Action1
Action1 is cheaper then the competitors that I have used.
Chose Action1
From a functionality point of view the platforms are very similar, when we worked with NinjaOne they tried the hard push for us to onboard our entire organization. We didn't want that and they refused to scale down to the requirements of our small satellite office (<10 …
Chose Action1
For the amount of functionality you get with the cost, no other product compared to Action1 did. The free trial and free endpoints they offer help prove there is no time trial to rush and select a product. The support has been fantastic with the company as well as the Action1 …
Chose Action1
Action1 is a similar but less feature-filled product than ConnectWise or Kaseya. However, Action1 can fulfill the main use-case scenarios of both products at a much lower cost per endpoint. Action1 is also constantly innovating and working with its users to improve upon the …
Chose Action1
Price for one. The cost is extremely reasonable IMO. Action1 is easier to use for a non-technical person and there is zero maintenance since it is cloud hosted.
Chose Action1
After looking at different solutions, Action1 [Cloud Remote Monitoring and Management Solution] was the perfect fit for us that delivered all of the features we wanted without being as costly as some of the others alternatives we've looked at. There was no minimum endpoint …
Chose Action1
Action1 Cloud Remote Monitoring and Management Solution may not be as feature rich as SCCM and Intune, but it does its job without having to set up and support additional infrastructure on your network. It's more user friendly than ManageEngine's Desktop Central but does most …
PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Ultimately it was the overall cost that steered me toward PDQ rather than GFI. Happy with my decision and have no buyer's remorse.
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
We use Lansweeper for the ticketing system and inventory. Since we have not use the Inventory part of PDQ we cannot compare the two.
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
We used group policies and scripting to push out software, PDQ deploy does this much faster and better then using group policies in microsoft.
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
This software was referred to us by an IT professional. Previously, we were installing the software with the help of remote desktop applications but it was very time consuming; it was wasting the user's time since he could not use his computer. After testing PDQ Deploy, we just …
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
The only other product on the market is Ninite, the major disadvantaged of Ninite you need to build you own packages and scripts for deployment. I would much rather download the packages and manager the software in this fashion then to take all of the time to do it Ninites …
Chose PDQ Deploy & Inventory
We struck it lucky with PDQ Deploy; it does all we could possibly expect from this kind of product. Continuing the search for something that can't be perfected would be a waste of our new-found plethora of time.
Seriously, PDQ Deploy is one of those WOW applications - you wonder …
Best Alternatives
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Small Businesses
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Action1
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Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
KACE Systems Management Appliance
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Action1
Action1
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Action1PDQ Deploy & Inventory
Likelihood to Recommend
Any place that has multiple computers that need to be managed can benefit from using Action1. Currently that means Windows PC's and servers, Linux PC's and servers and devices running MacOS can be managed by Action1 and benefit from their patch management and software management tools. Mobile OS need not apply at this point.
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PDQ Inventory is great if you have a local network of computers on or off a domain. As long as you have a way to log into them with common credentials. Great for large organizations, particularly ones interconnected with VPNs. PDQ Inventory isn't so great for PCs that aren't connected to the same LAN the server is on. (i.e. non-vpn remote users) They used to have a remote agent you could install, but it was removed after numerous issues.
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Pros
  • Automations. We utilize scheduled tasks that we define within Action1 to provide additional controls for reporting, alerting, and for endpoint management. It is a unique way to expand functionality by use of centrally managed scripting events.
  • Able to create and view reports showing detailed information of all types of endpoints within my enterprise. We can also create custom reports from a large set of available data points and can also create custom alerts based on these data points.
  • Vulnerability detection and resolution management. Able to detect vulnerabilities and apply controls or actions based on the vulnerabilities found. Along with the Security patching, this adds and extra layer of visibility and control to secure my environment.
  • Custom application deployments. Action1 provides a large set of third part applications you can deploy and patch updates for, but if you have custom applications built in-house or just an application that is not available in the software repository that Action1 has, you can build your own custom deployments easily.
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  • Deploy updates to software like Adobe and Java
  • Show which computers are currently connected and turned on
  • Turn on computers that are off
  • Turn off computers that are on
  • View which hardware (RAM, HDD, processor, etc) is on each device
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Cons
  • Remote Access could use added functionality
  • The deployment screens for update deferrals can be hard to understand at first and easy to skip since it carries some default info when you create a new automation rather than a more conspicuous prompt to update.
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  • The scripting part could benefit from samples / examples
  • Deployment scenarios could be included for ease on first use
  • Including Inventory directly within Deploy would be great
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Likelihood to Renew
it is an excellent product
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PDQ is very useful and one of the tools that we use a lot.
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Usability
Easy to use. Straight Forward. No hidden settings or stuff that's buried several layers deep and you have to watch a video before you do it. Point. Click. It works and I can feel assured that my CVE issues are being handled.
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The interface is straight forward and guides you through the process there. PDQ keeps track of the when new updates are made available writes the scripts and all l you need to do is push the button. (Mr George Jetson) Now with the download done you just sit back worry free and watch the software install in 1% of the time it would take to take care of the PC manually.
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Support Rating
I never contacted support services
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I have not had to use PDQ Deploy support's process. In terms of the actual application, I haven't found an exe, msi or script that I can throw at it that it can't handle. Being able to call the config file for Office is an especially useful feature.
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Implementation Rating
very easy to start using it.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Freshdesk and Freshservice are great products with Freshservice being the better of the two. However, in comparison to Action1 with regards to our budget, it was an easy choice to select Action1. I selected Action1 not only because of the "free" price tag, but also because I didn't need a full fledged ITSM product. Action1 is cheaper, easier to setup and use, and is cloud based as well so you don't need to install it on a server to utilize.
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The only other product on the market is Ninite, the major disadvantaged of Ninite you need to build you own packages and scripts for deployment. I would much rather download the packages and manager the software in this fashion then to take all of the time to do it Ninites way. I would need to go find and keep update date in the industry when a vendor updates something... I have not time to do this Please Choice PDQ.
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Return on Investment
  • It's pretty hard to negotiate investments / costs in IT when you have a small team in a mid size company. Everything is seen as useless cost and not investment. As of now, I'm pretty sure that if we ever cross the free-tier, I'll have no problems with investment approval since the tool is proven and useful on a daily basis. I believe this was the single most importat decision that Action1 took in their sales model.
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  • Convenience! Despite being a small team, PDQ Deploy has boosted our ability to deliver up-to-date Windows applications to our client PCs in a fraction of the time it took when the process was a manual one. Our reach has naturally improved; installing a simple application on a suite of 20 PCs no longer seems to be a daunting task.
  • TIME-SAVING! I cannot emphasize enough the time savings one can enjoy with this product!
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ScreenShots

Action1 Screenshots

Screenshot of the Action1 dashboardScreenshot of Action1 patch managementScreenshot of Action1 software deploymentScreenshot of Action1 endpoint managementScreenshot of an Action1 vulnerabilities viewScreenshot of Action1 vulnerabilities remediation