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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
KACE SMA increases efficiency and productivity, offering rapid ROI by streamlining operations and reducing time, costs, and staffing needs.
Sentiment score
7.0
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform boosts efficiency, saving time and resources, despite initial costs, by automating server provisioning.
The return on investment is seen in the quick access to information, good inventory management, and efficient systems management.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
KACE SMA support is praised for its expertise and 24/7 availability, with occasional room for flexibility improvement.
Sentiment score
7.2
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers extensive online resources and community support, though response times and support scope need improvement.
I would rate the customer support for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) as a 10.
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The customer service is very good, providing quick customer support in Spanish.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
I have not escalated any questions to the Red Hat support team regarding Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, as their modules are professional and complete.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
KACE Systems Management Appliance efficiently supports various organization sizes, excelling in integration, scalability, and comprehensive network management.
Sentiment score
7.2
Red Hat Ansible excels in scalability, handling diverse environments with modular features, though performance tweaks may be needed.
The product is very scalable as it supports 10,000 thousand endpoints with just one appliance.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
We have outgrown the size of one KACE appliance and are now running two.
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
KACE Systems Management Appliance is praised for its stability, reliability, and efficient performance, with swift recovery during incidents.
Sentiment score
8.0
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is highly stable, reliable, and suitable for large-scale deployments, meeting enterprise needs effectively.
The stability of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is excellent, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

KACE Systems Management Appliance struggles with scalability, usability, customization, integration, image deployment, and technical support responsiveness.
Red Hat Ansible requires enhancements in modules, speed, scalability, UI, documentation, integration, credentials, dashboards, and community involvement.
Currently, we have to go into each org to deploy applications when we need them all across the university.
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SMA-based interface.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform could improve by creating modules for upcoming AI and ML tech stacks.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Both Event-Driven Ansible and cloud management platform features are crucial improvements needed.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
More detailed dashboards would be beneficial because there is a lack of dashboards on Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
IT Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

KACE Systems Management Appliance offers cost-effective enterprise solutions, although potentially expensive for small businesses, with no additional feature costs.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers free and paid pricing options, valued for its open-source model and automation advantages.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is that, hands down, it beat all of the others in simplicity and pricing.
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
The pricing is high, and since I'm not using all functionalities, it would be better if the price depended on the functionalities used.
IT Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost of combining Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible is extremely high, which presents a significant challenge with the Red Hat product.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It is free and open-source for testing or small labs.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
 

Valuable Features

KACE SMA offers integrated, centralized IT management for efficient software deployment, asset management, and security with customizable inventories.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers agentless architecture, user-friendly syntax, and scalability, ensuring efficient task automation and management.
Scripting has saved us hundreds of hours over the years when patching these vulnerabilities compared to how we did it before.
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable features include simplicity, which makes systems management easier and faster, especially for device management.
Avocat at Star Boxes India Pvt Ltd
The agentless architecture of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, using the SSH key, makes it passwordless and allows us to push configurations with one click, creating a major advantage.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easy to integrate.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

KACE Systems Management App...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (3rd), Endpoint Compliance (7th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (12th), Patch Management (9th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (10th)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (3rd), Configuration Management (1st), Network Automation (1st), AWS Pro Service Providers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Lifecycle Management solutions, they serve different purposes. KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 1.6%, up 1.2% compared to last year.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 13.5% mindshare, down 18.4% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)1.6%
Kaseya VSA16.4%
NinjaOne11.5%
Other70.5%
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform13.5%
Microsoft Configuration Manager10.4%
Microsoft Intune8.2%
Other67.9%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

MH
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reliability and adaptability enable efficient application deployment and security management
The best features Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) offers include the scripting function, which stands out to me because I can find specific needs and deploy the applications based on those needs. There was a time when scripting really saved me time by allowing me to find specific registry entries and modify them to patch security vulnerabilities. Scripting has saved us hundreds of hours over the years when patching these vulnerabilities compared to how we did it before. I really enjoy the security features that are enabled to deploy Microsoft and other vendor patches, which stand out to me as key functionalities.
Sudhir Kumar Tiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Have managed thousands of servers with streamlined configuration processes
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very helpful due to passwordless integration and the ability to interact with multiple servers at once, which is especially advantageous when dealing with thousands of servers. The integration aspect of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has optimized my IT ecosystem significantly by consolidating multiple tools, such as a CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins, where we validate everything, including testing and SonarQube code quality. The agentless architecture of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, using the SSH key, makes it passwordless and allows us to push configurations with one click, creating a major advantage. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's main benefit is that it allows us to push configurations to multiple servers without manually visiting each one, maintaining efficiency.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions are best for your needs.
879,927 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Government
9%
Non Profit
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise48
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest KACE Systems Management?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is that, hands down, it beat all of the others in simplicity and pricing.
What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?
I wish Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) would have a top-down approach since we use orgs; currently, we have to go into each org to deploy applications when we need them all across the...
What is your primary use case for Quest KACE Systems Management?
My main use case for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is to deploy applications and maintain security, and we use it day-to-day to handle those tasks. With Quest KACE Systems Managemen...
What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?
Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management have been outstanding. If you have a large environment, patching systems is much ...
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
What do you like most about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?
The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.
 

Also Known As

Dell KACE Systems Management
Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Subscription on AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Find out what your peers are saying about KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
879,927 professionals have used our research since 2012.