KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs Perforce Puppet comparison

The compared Quest Software and Perforce solutions aren't in the same category. Quest Software is ranked #11 in RMM , with an average rating of 10.0, and holds a 1.1% mindshare in the category. Perforce is ranked #15 in CM , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Perforce users who would recommend it.

KACE Systems Management App...

Read 39 KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) reviews

2,568 Views
180 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Perforce Puppet

Read 14 Perforce Puppet reviews

897 Views
745 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

KACE Systems Management App...

Perforce Puppet

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

Perforce Puppet and KACE Systems Management Appliance are competing in systems management. Perforce Puppet excels in configuration management, while KACE SMA is noted for its comprehensive endpoint management features. Perforce Puppet leads in deployment flexibility; however, KACE SMA is favored for its integrated features and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Perforce Puppet offers robust automation and configuration management, integration with Bomgar, and real-time reporting features that improve system management. KACE SMA provides software distribution, patch management, and asset tracking, which serve as an all-in-one solution for endpoint management, enhancing organizational efficiency.

Room for Improvement: Perforce Puppet could benefit from simplifying its complex scripting requirements and expanding its compatibility with non-Windows systems. Documentation could be more user-friendly. KACE SMA could enhance its interface for greater user-intuitiveness, improve patch management efficiency, and offer better out-of-the-box reporting tools for broader usage scenarios.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Perforce Puppet supports integration with existing systems, providing a flexible deployment model. KACE SMA ensures a straightforward setup, praised for its smart service center and technical support, which facilitate complex task handling. Both offer reliable customer support, with KACE SMA noted for quick issue resolution.

Pricing and ROI: Perforce Puppet involves higher initial costs but promises a significant ROI through customizable, scalable solutions. KACE SMA's competitive pricing ensures quicker ROI by reducing the need for additional software, making it cost-effective in the long run.

To learn more, read our detailed KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 871,829 peers since 2012

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

KACE Systems Management App...

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Client Desktop Management (3rd), Endpoint Compliance (8th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (11th), Patch Management (10th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (9th)

Perforce Puppet

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (15th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 1.1%, up 0.8% compared to last year.
Perforce Puppet, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 1.9% mindshare, up 1.6% since last year.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)	1.1%
Kaseya VSA	18.2%
NinjaOne	13.5%
Other	67.2%

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

Configuration Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Perforce Puppet	1.9%
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform	16.0%
Microsoft Configuration Manager	11.5%
Other	70.6%

Configuration Management

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

Erik Ableson

Owner at Infrageeks

A stable solution that is more suited for larger companies with mature CI/CD structures and image management processes

Puppet Enterprise is more suitable for clients working up much more structured deployment images they manage internally. Before choosing Puppet Enterprise, users should think seriously about what they're trying to accomplish and ensure they put the right pieces in place. Overall, I rate Puppet Enterprise an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution provides us a single pane of glass with everything that we need for endpoint management of all devices. It definitely has made our endpoint management process much easier."

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

"The single pane of glass for managing devices is helpful because it allows me to perform updates and control things without having to disturb the doctors or nurses."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to monitor updates—the software versions—on machines so that we can keep everything compliant."

"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..."

"You don't have to be an advanced user. Rather, in terms of ease of use, this product is right where it needs to be."

"The most valuable feature of KACE is the mass package deployment. There are a lot of endpoint management solutions in the market. The way KACE responds is with the installation management feature, which is done in a very intelligent way, as well as scripting. It's wow. It's really wow. On top of that, there is a mass undeployment feature as well."

"We're able to deploy software and push out fixes to endpoints faster than ever."

More KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pros

"The versatility is great."

"The agent-based feature helps me by being stable."

"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."

"Puppet Enterprise has reduced the time of production changes or environment changes."

"Puppet Enterprise is a stable solution."

"Puppet Enterprise has good functionalities."

More Perforce Puppet pros

Cons

"I would like for there to be improvement when it comes to Microsoft and Windows updates. It has the ability to do it but the control of it is not there like I have in the Windows Server Update Services. The way KACE does it is still very granular. You don't really see the process like it is in the Windows Server Update Services. I think that would be one of the biggest things that I would like to see KACE really put some work into and really make that a big enhancement."

"There may be a good reason why some things are not easily able to be done, yet it needs work to compete with some of the other ticketing systems out there now."

"We had issues with the tool's support. We are a Dutch firm and everything has to be in Dutch. We were not able to do the alerts. You were required to tweak them a lot to get them in the language that you preferred. The solution's support depended on the person that you got online. Sometimes, the response was fast and other times you needed to wait a long time. The support also depended on the levels of support that you had requested."

"Scalability is my primary concern right now."

"The only pain point I have is with their salespeople. They call too often. They're too aggressive in trying to upsell. We know what we need, and we know if we want to expand. I don't mind quarterly calls from them, but sometimes, it is weekly. They need to get their sales team under control. The main goal of their support people and professional services is to make sure they deliver the service, and they deliver it well, whereas their salespeople are so interested in making a sale that they're wasting my time."

"I think it should have the ability to have the applications automatically update. It would be really helpful if this would override what the user might choose to do."

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

"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 university."

More KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) cons

"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."

"Puppet Enterprise is more complex and difficult to configure."

"At the beginning the initial setup was kind of complex."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"We would like Puppet to add more integration for applications."

"Puppet Enterprise should improve the general extensibility for places where they can't install it."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of KACE has been relatively low compared to other systems. Even if those systems have the same cost, they do not do as much of the third-party patching that KACE natively does."

"It may be more expensive, but you get what you pay for."

"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."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The pricing is great. It's billed annually and it's very 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."

"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 pay annually for technical support."

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

"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."

"Puppet Enterprise’s pricing is competitive."

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

871,829 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

12%

Government

10%

Non Profit

Computer Software Company

Government

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Puppet Enterprise?

Puppet Enterprise is a stable solution.

See all answers

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 approximately.

See all answers

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 of anything for now, except maybe the price, which I consider high at 50%.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 20% of the time

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

Compared 7% of the time

BigFix vs KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus vs KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 6% of the time

More KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Competitors

AWS Systems Manager vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 24% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 22% of the time

Red Hat Satellite vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 16% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 11% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Perforce Puppet

Compared 10% of the time

More Perforce Puppet Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

October 2025

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) report

Download KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) product report

Buyer's Guide

Perforce Puppet

October 2025

Download Perforce Puppet product report

Also Known As

Dell KACE Systems Management

Puppet

Overview

KACE Systems Management Appliance offers integration capabilities, efficient image deployment, and comprehensive asset management. It supports centralized management across diverse devices and locations, simplifying IT processes and enhancing security.

KACE Systems Management Appliance provides single-pane visibility for endpoint management, mass software deployment, automated patch management, robust scripting, and detailed inventory tracking. It streamlines IT management and improves cyber-security compliance through remote software updates and centralized IT request handling. Despite struggles with scalability and the need for interface improvements, it enables efficient device imaging, script automation, and network management through detailed reporting. Organizations find it effective for software deployment, asset management, and endpoint monitoring, serving thousands of IoT devices and desktops.

What are the key features of KACE Systems Management Appliance?

Integration capabilities: Seamlessly connects with existing IT systems.
Efficient image deployment: Facilitates quick and effective distribution of system images.
Comprehensive asset management: Provides detailed tracking and management of IT assets.
User-friendly helpdesk: Simplifies handling IT requests and issues.
Automated patch management: Ensures devices are up-to-date with security patches.
Robust scripting: Allows for automation of complex IT tasks.
Detailed inventory tracking: Maintains accurate records of all IT assets.

What benefits should users expect from KACE Systems Management Appliance?

Simplified IT processes: Centralized management enhances operational efficiency.
Improved security: Streamlines cyber-security compliance through automated updates.
Flexibility in customizations: Adapts to specific IT environment needs.
Increased productivity: Efficient ticketing and reporting ease organizational operations.
Remote software updates: Ensures all devices are current, reducing security risks.

In healthcare, KACE Systems Management Appliance is used for maintaining device compliance and security standards. Educational institutions benefit from its capabilities to manage large numbers of endpoints across campuses. In finance, it aids in strict compliance requirements through automated patch management and detailed reporting. Retail sectors leverage its asset management features to streamline operations across numerous locations.

Quest Software

Perforce Puppet provides robust features for configuration management, compatible with Linux, Windows, and UNIX. It simplifies infrastructure management with automation and role-based access control, though it requires mastering command-line operations due to limited GUI.

Perforce Puppet utilizes a hub-spoke architecture to enhance automation across production environments, excelling in provisioning and configuration management for on-prem servers. Its infrastructure as code approach eases deployment and maintenance, supported by community resources for stabilization. Support for diverse devices makes it adaptable for complex configurations, but pricing and integration gaps, especially with Infosec tools, pose challenges for some.

What are the key features of Perforce Puppet?

Remote Package Installation: Centralized server management for remote installations
File Management: Streamlined file operations from a single point
Infrastructure as Code: Simplifies infrastructure maintenance
Scalability: Grows with organizational demands
Role-Based Access Control: Ensures secure user management
Device State Control: Efficient device integration and configuration

What benefits should users expect?

Automation Efficiency: Reduces manual tasks with hub-spoke architecture
Versatility: Supports multiple operating systems
Community Support: Backed by a stable and organized community
Configuration Simplicity: Simplifies and streamlines setup processes

Puppet is implemented across industries for managing production servers, especially in regulated environments. Its security compliance checks ensure adherence to required standards, while public configurations assist in device network integration. Industries benefit from its ability to streamline Linux server automation and explore expansion into Windows systems to meet cross-platform requirements.

Perforce

Sample Customers

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

Los Alamos National Laboratory, GitHub, IP Commerce, Cedexis, Spiceworks, Server Density, Swisstopo, Chockstone, Constant Contact, NICS, Citrix

Buyer's Guide

KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet

January 2025

Free Report: KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet

Find out what your peers are saying about KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

871,829 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Perforce Puppet report.

We monitor all Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.