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KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 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
4.9
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management improved efficiency, reduced costs, saved time, and boosted contracts, enhancing overall security management.
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
Improvements to our security infrastructure contributed to overall business growth of approximately 150 percent over the past year.
Android Developer at Droidforge
By automating tasks, it significantly reduces the human resources required, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.
Senior Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It has reduced the number of development and scripting hours along with maintenance hours.
Security Operations Manager at Solventum
 

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
7.7
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is praised for responsive support, effective ticket resolutions, and knowledgeable Technical Account Managers.
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
The support team was knowledgeable and offered a variety of quick resolution options.
Android Developer at Droidforge
Their SMEs have sufficient knowledge, and if they are not the right contact, they quickly redirect us to someone who can help resolve issues.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate their customer support a ten out of ten.
Information Security Lead 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
7.9
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management excels in scalability, efficiently supporting vast environments and numerous endpoints with seamless cloud-based operations.
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
We have about 300,000 assets installed with agents worldwide.
Information Security Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The scalability is excellent as we manage more than one hundred thousand assets, including over one hundred thousand endpoints, approximately 2,600 servers, and more than 1,200 network devices.
Cyber Security Specialist at UBS Financial
Qualys Cybersecurity Asset Management has proven to be a highly scalable solution for us over the past couple of years.
Manager Information Security at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

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
7.4
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is reliable, stable, with minor syncing issues; users appreciate its performance and automation.
I would rate the stability of Qualys CSAM a ten out of ten.
IT Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The product stability has notably declined over the last two months, and the performance to fulfill a page request is very slow compared to its previous performance.
SENIOR MANAGER, CYBERSECURITY THREAT, RISK & ARCHITECTURE at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
They are constantly adding capabilities.
Director of Vulnerability Management at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

KACE Systems Management Appliance struggles with scalability, usability, customization, integration, image deployment, and technical support responsiveness.
Users seek enhanced integrations, improved UI, flexible configuration, efficient scanning, and better support in Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management.
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
Qualys is currently not able to identify assets lacking DNS information.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Features enhancing the interaction with IT or security teams should be added, such as a ticketing feature that, if an issue arises in the CSAM module, enables direct ticket creation in systems like ServiceNow.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
If there's one key aspect to focus on, it's discovery—the ability to identify assets that you are not aware of, even when you can see they are present.
Information Security Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

KACE Systems Management Appliance offers cost-effective enterprise solutions, although potentially expensive for small businesses, with no additional feature costs.
Qualys CyberSecurity pricing is comprehensive but costly, especially for smaller businesses, with calls for more flexible options.
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
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
A cost-effective solution.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
I believe that the stability and reliability of Qualys offer great value for the money.
Information Security Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
A monthly subscription starting at approximately $72 per month, depending on the specific package and features included.
Android Developer at Droidforge
 

Valuable Features

KACE SMA offers integrated, centralized IT management for efficient software deployment, asset management, and security with customizable inventories.
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management enhances risk identification, vulnerability prioritization, and asset management with user-friendly tools and third-party integration.
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
By correlating this with QDS scores, we can accurately assess the risk level of high or low QDS scores associated with each asset and monitor them accordingly.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature is the real-time visibility Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management provides into all assets across our development and operational environments.
Android Developer at Droidforge
It also performs scans to identify any vulnerabilities, which helps to take proactive measures before those vulnerabilities are identified by any attacker.
Information Security Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

KACE Systems Management App...
Ranking in Patch Management
9th
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), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (10th)
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset ...
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (7th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (3rd), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (2nd), Software Supply Chain Security (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 3.9%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is 1.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management1.8%
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)3.9%
Other94.3%
Patch 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.
Nicki Møller - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Enables automation and quick access to necessary information
One of the significant challenges Qualys is discovery, which I know Microsoft excels at. I can't recall how well Qualys performs this function; it seems I might be missing some details. However, if there's one key aspect to focus on, it's discovery—the ability to identify assets that you are not aware of, even when you can see they are present. Understanding what those assets are is crucial. With Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management, it was very difficult to extract detections from the system. The features within Qualys are limited to what they have developed. Sometimes a complete overview is needed to push to a Power BI dashboard, Splunk, ServiceNow, or other platforms. The export process is incredibly challenging. We needed a developer to write a hundred-line Python script that would loop over certain assets due to export limitations. Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management could improve its integration capabilities. While it generates substantial data, correlating it with other data sources can be challenging. The export process is difficult, and pre-built integrations with other tools could be enhanced for better process implementation.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Non Profit
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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 Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise23
 

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 your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
We purchased it through a reseller and the pricing was reasonable. We received Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management included in our licensing at no cost for the first year.
What needs improvement with Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
The TruRisk feature could help prioritize vulnerabilities and assets, but our issue currently is that we weren't provided with adequate information to set things up correctly. We have many configur...
What is your primary use case for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
My use cases involve using Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management to detect vulnerabilities and then passing on the information to our IT team that has to fix the vulnerabilities. The External Attac...
 

Also Known As

Dell KACE Systems Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Information Not Available
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879,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.