KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. N-able MSP Manager

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KACE Systems Management Appliance
ScoreĀ 8.7Ā outĀ ofĀ 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 UEMā€¦N/A
N-able MSP Manager
ScoreĀ 8.6Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
N-ableā„¢ MSP Manager (formerly Solarwinds MSP Manager) is a cloud-based help desk and billing software for IT service providers, which includes a ticketing system, customer portal, technician mobile apps, billing tools, and reporting dashboards. MSP Manager offers a lightweight ticketing system with a quick entry feature that allows users to capture essential information such as customer name, service items, and issue details from any screen. Tickets can also beā€¦N/A
Pricing
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KACE Systems Management ApplianceN-able MSP Manager
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Detailsā€”ā€”
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
IT Asset Management
Comparison of IT Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
8.6
12 Ratings
12% above category average
N-able MSP Manager
-
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
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
N-able MSP Manager
5.3
4 Ratings
42% below category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings4.54 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings3.54 Ratings
Service restoration00 Ratings3.92 Ratings
Self-service tools00 Ratings3.54 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
N-able MSP Manager
6.7
3 Ratings
20% below category average
Configuration mangement00 Ratings6.33 Ratings
Asset management dashboard00 Ratings7.23 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
N-able MSP Manager
2.8
4 Ratings
100% below category average
Change calendar00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Service-level management00 Ratings4.54 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
Small Businesses
ConnectWise RMM
ConnectWise RMM
ScoreĀ 8.1Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Medium-sized Companies
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ScoreĀ 9.3Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ScoreĀ 9.3Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
ScoreĀ 9.1Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(12 ratings)
4.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(4 ratings)
3.9
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)N-able MSP Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
Quest
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
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N-able
It's a good company to grow with because as needs change there are more features available.
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Pros
Quest
  • 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.
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N-able
  • Web Based
  • Automated Ticket creation
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Cons
Quest
  • 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.
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N-able
  • It is just simply too slow! The web interface requires patience, even when moving between tabs or menu choices. This is by far the biggest detracting element of MSP Manager.
  • Input customization -- I would like the settings pages to allow me to customize some input screens, especially the Ticket Entry window. The "Quick Ticket" entry is missing a few key items I want in a trouble ticket, and the full ticket entry window has numerous fields I never use or are always the same, and so it just takes more time and effort than is necessary.
  • Both the asset tracking and the knowledge base should be more robust and integrally tied into the RMM console, so that licenses, serial numbers, procedures, network data are quick and simple to access from either interface.
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Usability
Quest
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.
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N-able
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Quest
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.
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N-able
They're good at resolving issues when they arise.
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Alternatives Considered
Quest
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.
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N-able
MSP Manager is a fully serviced paid option. Spiceworks is a free helpdesk. They both are very useful, but a company can just outgrow Spiceworks.
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Return on Investment
Quest
  • 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
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N-able
  • We have had to spend time and resources to create our own reports, as MSP Manager does not have them.
  • Searching for a ticket requires scrolling, wasting time
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ScreenShots

N-able MSP Manager Screenshots

Screenshot of N-able MSP Manager Dashboard