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KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. PDQ Deploy & Inventory

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    KACE Systems Management Appliance

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AQuest 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

    PDQ Deploy & Inventory

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/APDQ.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.

    $1,575

    per year per user

    Pricing
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—PDQ was built by entrepreneurs & educators. Small businesses (<50 employees), nonprofits, and schools enjoy a 15% discount.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Considered Both Products
    Quest Software
    Chose KACE Systems Management Appliance
    More features, better integration into our system(s). Ease of use for not only Techs but also end users.
    Incentivized
    PDQ
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    4 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Features
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    IT Asset Management
    Comparison of IT Asset Management features of KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and PDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Feature
    KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
    8.6
    12 Ratings
    11% above category average
    PDQ Deploy & Inventory
    -
    Ratings
    Software and hardware inventory tracking10.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    License management9.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Asset lifecycle monitoring8.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contract management6.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Asset relationship management10.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    KACE Asset Management Appliance
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Lansweeper
    Score8.7 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    9.6
    (12 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (3 ratings)
    9.3
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.5
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    KACE Systems Management AppliancePDQ Deploy & Inventory
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    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.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    • Push out new software
    • Push out Updates to current software
    • Push out patches and updates that we don't have other ways to push out
    • Keep end-users updated with little involvement
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    • The facility to attempt re-deployment can be a bit easier to use, however, once you get used to it, it is OK.
    • The errors that it produces can be a bit cryptic, so could do with some sort of a verbose mode, when logging issues with packages being deployed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Quest Software
    No answers on this topic
    PDQ
    PDQ is very useful and one of the tools that we use a lot.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    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.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    The built-in help menus and general ease of use render whatever systems support there might be almost irrelevant. There is stability in the system's simplicity; if you're in the position to use such a product, you're your own best friend. Simple web searches more often than not turn up the solution to any little niggles, such as what silent install switches specific applications require (a remarkably wide choice of options exist). System updates are timely and unobtrusive, installing in no time at all. Maybe I've just been lucky; if so, long may it continue!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    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 never looked back.
    Incentivized
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PDQ
    • Speed of deployment is very positive for new software setup, saving hours of testing and deployment locally
    • Made patching for large computer estate very efficient, another positive for staff not having to spend hours of patching individual machines
    • Works well for small team of IT's and again makes various repetitive tasks much easier
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots