KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KACE Systems Management Appliance
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Quest now offers the KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) as an IT Asset tracking and management appliance (also available as a virtual deployment if hardware requirements are met). Beyond discovery, inventory tracking and license management, KACE emphasizes automating software upgrade distribution with minimal end-user disruption, featuring remote replication for multi-site upgrades and rollouts. KACE SMA may be bundled with KACE Cloud Mobile Device Management (MDM) to form a complete UEM…N/A
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
A solution focusing on providing call center and service agents information about when and why customers buy a brand's products, and that also lets customers use digital self-service to lighten the workload of agents. Agents are given access to complete customer histories, with a variety of tools united in a single agent dashboard.N/A
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.
$69
per month per agent
Pricing
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Suite Team
$69
per month per agent
Suite Growth
$115
per month per agent
Suite Professional
$149
per month per agent
Suite Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KACE Systems Management ApplianceManhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoNoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Considered Multiple Products
KACE Systems Management Appliance
Chose KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
We have selected this software because it rolls several different systems into one. We have a helpdesk system with this and an asset and inventory management system as well. We pay one price for the whole system instead of paying multiple companies different amounts that …
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement

No answer on this topic

Zendesk Suite

No answer on this topic

Features
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
IT Asset Management
Comparison of IT Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
8.6
12 Ratings
11% above category average
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Software and hardware inventory tracking10.012 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
License management9.011 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset lifecycle monitoring8.010 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract management6.06 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset relationship management10.08 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
173 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings00 Ratings9.3172 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings00 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings00 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings00 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings00 Ratings9.4173 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings00 Ratings9.2172 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
157 Ratings
2% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings00 Ratings8.1151 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings00 Ratings8.3144 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Manhattan Active® Customer Engagement
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
169 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings00 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings00 Ratings8.471 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings00 Ratings9.3166 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Atera
Atera
Score 8.8 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.3 out of 10
Dialpad Support
Dialpad Support
Score 9.1 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.3 out of 10
Verint Community
Verint Community
Score 9.9 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(12 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(208 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)Manhattan Active® Customer EngagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Quest Software
I think it has added value for any organization. It reduced our Tech Support cost by: -Supporting users anywhere -Reducing users downtime as well keep them informed with the status of their tickets -Managing software and hardware actively -Processing automation -deploy mass software installs, patching or updates - Provide approved software's to users to install without IT help
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
The cloud-native technological architecture on which Manhattan Active WM is built is designed for scalability, flexibility, and easy upgradeability. A responsive user interface, which is available on a tablet or fixed station and supports several of these operations, provides the unified control capabilities of the system. Real-time data is shown in a variety of ways, including a global map of facilities, individual facility data, labor utilization, and tasks broken down by job function.
Read full review
Zendesk
Being a customer support agent, I found it very good when it comes to send an email or call or chat- with the user. I can do all that from the one single platform which is so easy and time saving for you. It does not take much time to use this, We can chat- with the user and at the same time we can send an email to them as well.
Read full review
Pros
Quest Software
  • Inventory: KACE provides a ton of hardware and software inventory information that is easy to search, filter, and export. This is critical when we need to find the answers to questions about how many of such and such we have in our fleet.
  • Patch Management: We were using WSUS before and it was altogether too cumbersome. KACE has given us the power, flexibility, and verification we need to feel comfortable our patches are up-to-date.
  • Service Queue: We made KACE our help desk system and it does everything we need it to do. Great improvement over our old system.
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
  • Permanently Adaptive.
  • Seamlessly Integrated.
  • Greater Visibility.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • UI/UX; mature macros and automations, slick and well thought out UI.
  • Reporting, reporting, reporting. With user, org, and ticket level tags, we can track every aspect of our ticket flow.
  • Extensibility; the app marketplace is a great resource for expanding functionality from the baseline offering.
Read full review
Cons
Quest Software
  • The KACE SMA needs a better way to handle different roles in the software so certain users can access or administrate certain parts of the software, but not the entire software installation.
  • The KACE SMA could improve the ticketing process of projects. The aspects of the title and some information do not always flow down from the parent ticket to its child tickets.
  • The KACE SMA could improve the UI of the software with the addition of different CSS color schemes.
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
  • User Interface.
  • Data Security.
  • API's
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
  • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
Read full review
Usability
Quest Software
Overall, the software is simple to understand and use. That said, most vendors have been slowly updating their user interfaces to HTML5 so that they have a clean updated look and feel. This is where KACE falls short in that the UI is great for a packaged software 10 years ago. This isn't a major limitation as the software is really meant primarily for technology users.
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
Read full review
Performance
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
Read full review
Support Rating
Quest Software
KACE does exactly what you need it to do, it maintains your computer environment. You can set patch schedules, inventory computers, setup software catalogs; basically everything you need to ensure the computers on your network are being actively managed. This is all with little need for constant configuration or updating the setup.
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
Read full review
Online Training
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Quest Software
We have selected this software because it rolls several different systems into one. We have a helpdesk system with this and an asset and inventory management system as well. We pay one price for the whole system instead of paying multiple companies different amounts that would have totaled more than we pay for the single system.
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
Manhattan enables seamless business configuration and interoperability. Manhattan Associates' architectural principles will drive the creation of cloud-native apps. These principles were developed to ensure that Manhattan Associates' solutions could achieve the engineering velocity that its end clients demanded while also striving to reduce the cost of innovation. As a consequence, you are not obliged to wait for technology to catch up to your decision-making before introducing new goods and services to your customers.
Read full review
Zendesk
The customisable reporting every time. Our leadership reply on me to run my team and want to know what customers are telling us so they can elevate our products. We have extensive custom reports that tie up all aspects of our product and customer journeys. I've not found another product that allows me as much freedom as Zendesk Suite explore does, so far.
Read full review
Scalability
Quest Software
No answers on this topic
Manhattan Associates
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Return on Investment
Quest Software
  • KACE has saved us from having to spend several days of employee hours in crafting DVDs and duplicating them (100+ DVDs)
  • KACE has saved us on the postage required to send out those DVDs for every update (monthly) to all of our customers electronically
Read full review
Manhattan Associates
  • Implementation of the whole supply chain and fulfilment.
  • Better Data Management.
  • Effective use of configurations.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Integrating other AI solutions for an organization with high volumes can cost about USD5000 monthly. With Zendesk AI and by building onto the same with AI powered apps built for Zendesk Suite we save a projected USD4000 monthly.
  • Robust Zendesk APIs have enabled us to integrate our internal system with a customized app saving us hundreds of hours every quarter spent loading customer profiles that are not loaded instantly from the app.
  • Plug and play apps like Round robin save us weeks of sprint delay timelines as they do not require additional coding or developer support to install and start using.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of the Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations