GFI LanGuard vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) comparison

GFI LanGuard vs. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

GFI LanGuard

Ranking in Patch Management

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Quest KACE Systems Manageme...

Ranking in Patch Management

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (14th), Endpoint Compliance (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of GFI LanGuard is 4.0%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 7.5%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Patch Management

Featured Reviews

Ted Mbugua

Security Manager at CRAG

Scalable, light on resources, and useful visibility

The most valuable features of GFI LanGuard are the vulnerability assessment, it provides us with substantial insight into what applications are running on the endpoint systems and what vulnerabilities are there in the running applications. The second would be the assets tracking. I'm able to see in the network whether my endpoint server is operating and if all the other IT equipment is running in the environment. Additionally, GFI LanGuard is not heavy on system resources. It gives a competitive advantage over others.

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Scott Tweed

Windows Engineer at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Low maintenance, reliable, and easy to create packages

I like how when you click on the device, it shows you everything that has changed as well as the software versioning. I am really enjoying the inventory aspect of it. The deployment process for both deploying and creating a package is straightforward. I believe the inventory in KACE is superior to SCCM's. I know with SCCM I could do things like remote console into machines via the agent's remote console, but that is not a feature that is provided in KACE. I know that at least in the Systems Management Appliance, I can't get to it. I'm not sure how distribution works, with distribution points. I'm not sure if KACE has that feature. You could use an SCCM to set up distribution points at remote sites so that they don't have to download patches or software from across the country. If you have a DP or something similar, they could pull it down.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution is easy to use and integrates well with other operating systems."

"The initial setup was easy."

"It is helpful to patch and scan vulnerabilities."

"The most valuable feature of GFI LanGuard is its email spam feature."

"The most valuable features in GFI LanGuard are patch management and vulnerability assessment."

"The most valuable features of GFI LanGuard are the vulnerability assessment, it provides us with substantial insight into what applications are running on the endpoint systems and what vulnerabilities are there in the running applications. The second would be the assets tracking. I'm able to see in the network whether my endpoint server is operating and if all the other IT equipment is running in the environment. Additionally, GFI LanGuard is not heavy on system resources. It gives a competitive advantage over others."

"The most valuable feature is that I am able to patch third-party solutions."

"I like that the solution can block users from unnecessarily putting devices on the network."

More GFI LanGuard pros

"I can reach people now that I couldn't have reached previously. We are saving about 25 percent in time."

"It is excellent in terms of updating and configuring everything the way we need. For anything more complex, we do professional service engagements, and they're exceptional. For anything less complex, we just need to ask questions. Their support division is extremely good too."

"This solution makes it easy to control assets and upgrade all types of software."

"We use the Systems Deployment appliance. It's our bread and butter. It is every machine that gets imaged here in this building and out through the whole state goes through the SDA. We rely on it completely. There is no manual process of getting a laptop out of a box, plugging it up, turning it on, and waiting for Windows to start. If you were to go to Best Buy and buy a brand new laptop, you spend the next two to three hours just setting it up. We don't do that. We get a laptop, plug it into the network, connect it to the SDA, and within about three clicks, we're done."

"I like how when you click on the device, it shows you everything that has changed as well as the software versioning. I am really enjoying the inventory aspect of it."

"KACE has made our life much easier since we got off the Microsoft solution. The Microsoft solution was a lot harder to image over different ports and stuff. They would only have this one place where we could do all the imaging. Now, we have a whole building where we can image from. This means that we can image from our storage area, where we have a place to do our imaging. We can also image right at our desks, which is a lot easier."

"Pretty much all of the features are valuable. The inventory is very helpful to be able to keep track of our devices. The deployments make it easy to deploy new software packages or upgrade packages. The help desk is also a great tool for tracking problems and problem tickets."

"The initial setup is relatively easy."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pros

Cons

"The only drawback with GFI LanGuard is that you cannot directly integrate it from the Outlook email; instead, you have to first log in to the site to make changes."

"When you want to uninstall software from an endpoint, sometimes it becomes very problematic."

"The version we are using only allows one person to use it at a time and does not allow multi-users."

"GFI LanGuard has some technical limitations with machines."

"GFI LanGuard can improve by adding more modules, such as asset control or asset inventory."

"The documentation on how to use this solution in a Linux environment is not clear, which is something that should be improved because it is complicated."

"GFI LanGuard can improve by adding asset tracking."

"If GFI LanGuard had a cloud version it would be better for people that are working from home."

More GFI LanGuard cons

"The labeling process should be more streamlined. It should be easier to do. It gets confusing at times."

"The GUI needs some work. I love all that it can do, however, it can be just be so cluttered at times."

"We'd love to see support for larger dependencies in the scripting feature."

"The problem is that it's harder to directly emulate a lot of the stuff that the group policies do, using the KACE solution. With regular group policies, you just specify the various settings you want to change on the workstations, and then you specify the workstations and—while it's kind of an ugly mess—it does it. Whereas on KACE, you really have to know what you're doing with scripting to effectively script those exact same changes."

"Sometimes the information is not as real time as it's supposed to be."

"Its dashboard needs improvement. Currently, there is no way to modify the dashboard. There should be more flexibility so that we can create views according to our use case."

"The solution needs to have the ability to push out managed feature updates from Microsoft in a more seamless way."

"I have complaints about smart label adaptation and because of this, I recommend a 24 to 48 hour bake-in period."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the pricing of GFI LanGuard a four out of five."

"GFI LanGuard cost approximately $1,000 annually to use the solution."

"On a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being competitive, I would rate the price as a four."

"GFI LanGuard isn't expensive."

"We are a gold partner and we receive favorable discounts. The price of GFI LanGuard is competitive. When you evaluate other solutions, such as ManageEngine."

"GFI LanGuard has very fair pricing compared to other similar solutions out there."

"Their pricing is per end-point device. There is an initial cost for the license for the server, which is pretty low, and then there is a per end-point device license, which is also fairly low. So, the pricing is still reasonable."

"It was a very attractive price. This is a huge feature of this product. If you would "credit score" this product versus others out there on the market, this one has a very attractive price."

"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The pricing is fair."

"n terms of pricing and licensing, my advice is that you need to assess what you need and then look at what they offer. It's easy to get caught up in the things that you want, but don't really need."

"We need it, so we have to pay the price. It is what it is. If you need a gallon of milk, then you have to pay the price for it. You don't want to buy the cheap stuff. You want to buy the stuff that is organic and good for your body, which doesn't have all this other junk in it. You want it clean for your body. Quest has done that for our deployment and management systems."

"We pay annually for technical support."

"It is expensive in Brazil."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Photography Company

Computer Software Company

13%

University

11%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GFI LanGuard?

The most valuable feature of GFI LanGuard is its email spam feature.

What needs improvement with GFI LanGuard?

The only drawback with GFI LanGuard is that you cannot directly integrate it from the Outlook email; instead, you have to first log in to the site to make changes. Instead of directly white listing...

What is your primary use case for GFI LanGuard?

Internally, as a user, I use GFI LanGuard for email and web monitoring.

What do you like most about Quest KACE Systems Management?

KACE automatically tracks this information and saves it for me, allowing me to call it up on the dashboard. For example, if I need to find Juliano's computer in the system, I don't need to search t...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest KACE Systems Management?

The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.

What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?

The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SMA-based interface and lacks a manual configuration option.

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs GFI LanGuard

Comparisons

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Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 17% of the time

Ivanti Patch for Endpoint Manager vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 17% of the time

NinjaOne vs GFI LanGuard

Compared 7% of the time

More GFI LanGuard Competitors

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 30% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 28% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 10% of the time

BigFix vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 7% of the time

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Competitors

Product Reports

GFI LanGuard

Download GFI LanGuard product report

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Download Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) product report

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) report

Also Known As

LanGuard

Dell KACE Systems Management

Learn More

GFI

Quest Software

Overview

GFI LanGuard enables complete patch management of security and non-security patches to Microsoft operating systems, Mac OS X, major Linux distributions and third-party applications. It can also automate patching for all major web browsers too.

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is a comprehensive endpoint and service desk management platform. It supports IT operations with functionalities such as ticketing, patch management, software deployment, and asset management.

KACE provides robust automation for managing software distribution and patch tasks. Organizations depend on it for security updates, system compliance, and centralized control over diverse devices. Integration with tools like Bomgar and ServiceNow enhances its remote support capabilities, while its intuitive interface streamlines IT processes, increasing productivity. Managing thousands of endpoints, it supports accreditation compliance and reports on system status and security.

What are the key features of Quest KACE SMA?

Automation: Streamlines software deployment and patch management.
Asset Management: Offers comprehensive inventory controls.
Integration: Compatible with Bomgar and ServiceNow for enhanced remote support.
System Deployment: SDA simplifies deployment across multiple machines.
Intuitive Interface: Facilitates IT task management from a single pane.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Increased Productivity: Simplifies IT tasks, optimizing resources.
Centralized Control: Manages a wide range of devices from one interface.
Security Compliance: Ensures systems are updated and compliant.
Enhanced Support: Improved remote support through integrations.
Reporting Capabilities: Provides insights into IT operations and status.

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is implemented across industries needing robust IT management solutions such as healthcare for compliance and security, education for asset tracking, and corporate enterprises for efficient IT operations. Its multifunctional nature caters to diverse industry requirements, enhancing communication and data management.

Sample Customers

BayView Medical Clinic, FrugalBrothers Software, Zaw, National Theatre, American Red Cross

Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King

GFI LanGuard vs. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)