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Kaseya VSA vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 27, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Kaseya VSA
Ranking in Patch Management
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (2nd)
Quest KACE Systems Manageme...
Ranking in Patch Management
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (14th), Endpoint Compliance (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Kaseya VSA is 4.5%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 7.5%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ben Blissett - PeerSpot reviewer
Broken from the beginning and never functioned as anticipated
They had a major issue that resulted at one point (the straw that broke the camel's back for us, although we'd been fighting with support for months by that point in time) in which every Kaseya VSA customer was offline for two weeks. This vulnerability pushed us over the edge. It never functioned as intended. If it functioned as it was supposed to, it would've been fantastic. However, the previous solution we used just performed reliably and so much better. I can't say that there was anything positive about my experience. The intent of the software, other than integrations, is to be able to just make an anytime secure direct connection to an endpoint. However, whenever we would connect, at least half the time, it would not record keystrokes properly, no matter what system we connected from. So if you're trying to enter a password, there'd be 2-3 seconds' latency in the response and then it would just spew out a bunch of letters and numbers you didn't type in. You would just try, try, try again to type in something, and just half the time it worked, half the time it didn't. If you brought up more than three or four endpoints simultaneously, it never worked. It was a major point of contention for us. For us, at least, it just didn't work. It just was broken. Scripting didn't fire, reports didn't come back, and monitoring wasn't there. A server goes down or a router goes offline, no notification. Stuff like that. Bush league.
Fernando Cezario - PeerSpot reviewer
Helpful for IT asset management and offer a good dashboard
I like the KACE software dashboard so much! It's convenient. I don't need to know technical details like file formats (PDF or whatever) for installation, even for applications like Adobe. Here's how I use it: Let's say I have a license for Adobe and I need to install it on a computer named Julian. I simply open a case, enter the name of the application (Adobe), open the dashboard, and search for the computer named Julian. Once I select the computer, it shows up in the dashboard. Now, in the same case, I can open a large batch of software, select the application (Adobe Acrobat again), and choose the computer named Julian. KACE then deploys the application with minimal errors, usually within one or two minutes. Julian even receives a notification on their computer that the installation process has begun. It's fantastic! Moreover, it helped so much streamline our IT asset management and inventory. Sometimes someone changes the computer assigned to someone else. For example, Juliano had a computer, and then Matos changed it to his own use. I wouldn't know about this change if it weren't for KACE. 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 through endless spreadsheets. I just search for "Juliano" in KACE. KACE also lists other details like the last login user. So, if I see "Juliano" on KACE but a different user is logged in, that tells me something might be wrong. I find this functionality very helpful for IT asset management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of this solution are automation, inventory, and patch management."
"The most valuable features of Kaseya VSA are remote control, live connect, and automation."
"I like the remote control, audit, inventory, patch management, software management, and monitoring features."
"VSA installs an agent on every computer that allows users to create a help desk ticket with one click. That's why I chose VSA. Many users never create tickets when they have a problem. Sometimes I won't know about an issue until they run into me and say, "Hey, this has been broken for two months.""
"Being able to connect to client computers without them necessarily needing to be there and being able to put in the patches and manage different information systems is valuable."
"The way Kaseya VSA treats application vulnerabilities is good. They have released some new features that have been a benefit, such as updates from the Microsoft repository directory."
"We can schedule the patching of the endpoints."
"The patch management and the remote support are very good, especially the remote support. There is a module built into the solution which allows remote control without necessarily interrupting the user. We could manage things in the background without them seeing or interacting with anything, which is a very useful feature."
"The information available via KACE is up to date, critical to our normal operations, and has become the go-to tool of our IT teams for extended support."
"The big pros of Quest KACE Systems Management are its simple interface, and simple, direct management. It's very easy to maintain and manage the device, and it's easy to get it up and running. You can have it up and running in an hour..."
"The Systems Deployment Appliance is magical when it comes to automating deployment... Not only can we have multiple images, specific to end-users' uses, but we have a plethora of post-installation tasks to install or configure the system, tasks that can be re-used for each system. You just have one basic base image, and then you use the post-install tasks to customize everything else. It is amazing."
"There is one place for a lot of different things. If somebody has a problem with their computer, they will put in a ticket. From there, we will know who it is and the assets assigned to them, because there is one place to go look for what we are talking about and with whom we are talking. Just having one place for everything is really convenient. For example, we are able to deploy software to hundreds of computers. We don't need to go to each individual device."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to have an overview of all devices that are accessing our environment."
"The most valuable feature is the imaging of computers through the SDA... Being able to do that so quickly with the SDA, and to then use the SMA for reinstalling software, has been huge for our productivity."
"It also does patch management. At the moment, I'm rolling out a new feature update, 20.8.2, and it's a great challenge because we have to deploy it to 1,200 computers in the home office. We want to do it without interrupting production, but KACE is reliable and it's easy to adapt it to my needs for how and when to deploy the feature update."
"I can reach people now that I couldn't have reached previously. We are saving about 25 percent in time."
 

Cons

"The UI could be streamlined. The menu has 18 options, but we only use three. It has a lot of redundant stuff. Software management, software deployment, patch management, etc., all do the same thing, but they're different programs and licenses."
"The agent-based monitoring solution can be improved."
"There should be more Mac support. Whenever a new Mac operating system comes out, the support is very limited. It takes them a while to get things up to date. We're seeing more and more people move to Mac from the Windows environment for various reasons, but their support for Mac is very limited. A lot of it might have to do with Mac itself, but there are ways to improve upon that. That would be my biggest thing for improvement."
"The main difference would be the addition of audio transfer between the end-user and the remote connectivity software. That is the one critical piece that we are currently lacking."
"Kaseya VSA could be improved with more features to support the latest operating systems."
"Our main concern is related to security. Kaseya had a ransomware attack a few months ago, and it was a big concern for us because Kaseya was the main RMM tool that we were using. We faced a lot of difficulties accessing our users and systems. So, security is our main concern."
"There is room for improvement in the remote control strengths."
"The reporting feature in Kaseya VSA could improve by being more user-friendly. The reporting overview is too wordy or the representation can be better."
"The initial setup was complex. It is a Linux-based virtual server, where the customer cannot get into the back-end, so you can only follow their prompts. Then, there are specific things that have to be done in their implementation and upgrade phases that have to be done in a certain order or steps. If you don't get those steps right, the system doesn't work. I think that either simplifying that process or providing really good step-by-step documentation would be helpful."
"The only hiccups we had were some power issues, where the box was a little under-powered early on."
"I still need better communication about which processes are really due and which processes are currently being processed. According to the initial setup service provider, there is still no real management or overview on KACE where you can really see 100 percent of what is going on as well as what is going to be processed next and whether I can influence the overall process. It could really help me if I knew, e.g. exactly in 10 minutes my colleague will be supplied with this or that software. I haven't found this yet. If they could add this, that would be cool. It is still missing and I haven't yet found something like this."
"They could make the booting solution easier for different things, e.g., easier to insert drivers. They could make it easier to create a new image and put it onto the server. Those would be some nice solutions. They could make it so that somebody who has no knowledge at all can do it. That would be really nice. Because every time, until I get it memorized, I still need to go back to the training, the manual, or Google it to figure it out again. If they would make it a lot easier, to where a nine-year-old could do it, that would be really cool. If they made it easier, I could have more people managing the images on the server, instead of just one or two people."
"My biggest complaint is that almost every time they send out a new version, it fixes something and breaks another. Something that wasn't working in the last version now works, but something else stops; or they'll remove some dashboard that I really found to be nice and replace it with something totally different that I could care less about."
"The labeling process should be more streamlined. It should be easier to do. It gets confusing at times."
"The KACE Go Mobile App crashes a lot, and it always has. I would love to see that get fixed because it's very convenient when it does work properly, but most of the time it does not."
"There should be a mini toolbox, like the competitors of KACE have, with the small features for KACE administrators. That would make their lives easier. If you are troubleshooting a specific endpoint, remote control is available as is Wake-on-LAN. But if you want to execute some commands, you have to use a third-party tool, the PS tool. If they would integrate those small things, it would make KACE more powerful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kaseya's come down in pricing when I compare it to TeamViewer or other cheaper RMMs like LogMeIn."
"With the on-prem, you buy the agent license. That's a one-time fee, and it varies depending on how many you have. You also pay annual maintenance on the number that you have. So, there are two fees involved: a one-time fee and a recurring fee."
"Customers purchase the solutions because it is priced well. There are additional services that have an additional cost."
"The pricing is quite good and we are satisfied with it."
"The solution is robust and the price is good for the features that are provided."
"We use annual licensing, but we also have a special agreement."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable."
"We were looking at a price of $22.50 cents per user."
"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."
"The pricing and licensing are good. It's worth it."
"It may be more expensive, but you get what you pay for."
"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"We pay annually for technical support."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"Based on other solutions that we had implemented, its pricing seems to be quite competitive. It is not inexpensive, but it is also not more expensive than any other solution. They have the standard licensing fees and support fees."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Non Profit
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
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 Kaseya VSA?
The most valuable feature of Kaseya VSA is the ability to control laptops remotely.
What needs improvement with Kaseya VSA?
One area that could be improved is the documentation, which often contains errors that prevent you from following along, especially during migrations.
What is your primary use case for Kaseya VSA?
We use the solution as a remote control tool to help clients.
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?
It is expensive in Brazil. Generally, it's considered expensive, especially compared to solutions like Spiceworks.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell KACE Systems Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sage UK, MSP, CodeBlue Ltd, Connect Work Place Solutions, All Covered, 501cTech, Chairo Christian School, Green Duck
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Find out what your peers are saying about Kaseya VSA vs. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.