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KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) vs Perforce Puppet comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Configuration Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
309
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
KACE Systems Deployment App...
Ranking in Configuration Management
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Perforce Puppet
Ranking in Configuration Management
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Configuration Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 8.2%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Perforce Puppet is 2.9%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Intune8.2%
Perforce Puppet2.9%
KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA)0.7%
Other88.2%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24
Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license
The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.
MH
Server Administrator III at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
User interface and deployment efficiency save time and reduce staff needs
The best features KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) offers include the ease of operation and the ability to create images for deployment. When I say ease of operation, the user interface is easy to create the images, and the people deploying do not have to have access to the appliance in order to deploy images. KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to keep labs with over 300 machines all up to the exact same image for every semester. This has saved our team hundreds of man hours and reduced it down to just a few people doing the deployment compared to how things were done before SDA.
reviewer2284542 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Development Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Automated configuration management ensures consistent server setups
The strength of Puppet is in automated configuration management. We can configure a server once and set rules with Puppet so that future server configurations are automatic and consistent with company requests. Puppet is declarative, meaning it finds the best state for itself and corrects any deviations in the configuration.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Intune does a great job of helping protect our environment."
"Configuration profiles, remediation, scripts, and auto-pilot features are very good."
"The interface is user-friendly, and the reporting tool works in real-time."
"Microsoft Intune is a cost-saving solution, reducing IT department workload and allowing for faster device provisioning compared to traditional methods."
"The stability of Microsoft Intune is good."
"The stability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten."
"The device profiling which uses the official Outlook email enabled us to control the screenshot feature and prevent copying outside of the organization's application."
"The most valuable feature of Intune is the ability to reset a lost device and remove all the data."
"Its ticketing is pretty good."
"KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to keep labs with over 300 machines all up to the exact same image for every semester, saving our team hundreds of man hours and reducing it down to just a few people doing the deployment compared to how things were done before SDA."
"Anything that we manage through Puppet always runs perfectly."
"The main purpose for this automation tool would be: deploying, controlling, ordering change for the system and IT Infrastructure."
"The most valuable features are the agent, high load balancing, and overall robustness and features."
"The agent-based feature helps me by being stable."
"The versatility is great."
"Puppet Enterprise has good functionalities."
"Puppet Enterprise is a stable solution."
"Puppet Enterprise has reduced the time of production changes or environment changes."
 

Cons

"Intune has limited integration with non-Microsoft solutions."
"The most important thing is reporting. They should improve their reporting. They should give a free hand to users. In SCCM, I can create my own reports. For example, in SCCM, I can create an inventory report for my PC or for all PCs, but in Intune, we don't have an option to create any report. Microsoft claims that Intune is a successor of SCCM, but SCCM is more powerful than Intune. So, they should develop Intune more and make it equivalent to SCCM. Then, their product will be great in the market."
"They should improve its compatibility with other operating systems such as iOS and Linux. It supports Linux but they still need to work on the iOS part."
"The product needs to upgrade itself when the server is overloaded."
"The biggest problem we ever have is when something goes out of date after 30 days when nobody has logged into it. We do have a problem trying to get those back online. We've been working with Microsoft to resolve that problem, but that's been the only issue that we've had in the last few years."
"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."
"We've faced significant pushback with Copilot as our clients aren't seeing a favorable cost-benefit analysis."
"Intune's areas for improvement revolve around security and certificate management."
"I have heard feedback that the imaging is slow. It takes somewhere around an hour to image one PC."
"KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) works well, but it would be nice if it were org based like the SMA, allowing one SDA to service several different departments."
"The solution has really complex code, you have to understand the Ruby language. However, once you know the code then you can move ahead without any problems."
"It's a bit of a pain point to make sure that everything works once we've upgraded it because Puppet has been evolving pretty fast."
"Puppet Enterprise should improve the general extensibility for places where they can't install it."
"Clients with less technical expertise may find Puppet complex to configure. Our team may struggle if technical team members leave the organization, leaving others uncertain about using the tool."
"There's a lot of scope for enhancement on the DevSecOps side. They should definitely include features for compliance, for both the Linux and Windows side of the devices, as well as for network devices. Compliance is something they need to work on."
"At the beginning the initial setup was kind of complex."
"We would like Puppet to add more integration for applications."
"Puppet Enterprise is more complex and difficult to configure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The purchase of the product was handled by someone else."
"I would rate the price a four out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"Intune is cost-effective as it is included in some of the Office 365 packages."
"It is reasonable. When you have Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license, it is already licensed in that license. So, you could say it is free."
"There is a license needed to use the solution and we are on an annual license."
"The licensing costs we leave up to the customer and these vary from one to another."
"While Microsoft Intune boasts a wide range of features, its user-friendliness and bundled licensing cost are key considerations for me."
"No one can compete with Microsoft when it comes to price, and the features it is offering."
Information not available
"Depending on the size of the organization there is a point when the price of Puppet Enterprise should be lower. However, they provide really good functionality, features, and capabilities."
"Puppet Enterprise can be an expensive solution for smaller businesses."
"The main thing that we noticed when we switched from the enterprise version to the community version was the difference in cost — the infrastructure is pretty expensive."
"Puppet Enterprise’s pricing is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
No data available
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business119
Midsize Enterprise47
Large Enterprise153
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kace Systems Deployment Appliance?
The pricing for KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) is straightforward, and the setup was easy.
What needs improvement with Kace Systems Deployment Appliance?
KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) works well, but it would be nice if it were org based like the SMA, allowing ...
What is your primary use case for Kace Systems Deployment Appliance?
Our main use case for KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) is to deploy workstations as well as lab machines. We u...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Puppet Enterprise?
Regarding the cost, I find it expensive, always. I don't know how much the license would cost per year or per user ap...
What needs improvement with Puppet Enterprise?
I don't know what could be improved in Perforce Puppet to make this tool better for the next release. I can't think o...
What is your primary use case for Puppet Enterprise?
My main use case for Perforce Puppet is for configuration management.
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
No data available
Puppet
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Information Not Available
Los Alamos National Laboratory, GitHub, IP Commerce, Cedexis, Spiceworks, Server Density, Swisstopo, Chockstone, Constant Contact, NICS, Citrix
Find out what your peers are saying about KACE Systems Deployment Appliance (SDA) vs. Perforce Puppet and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.