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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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
8.2
Qualys CyberSecurity improved efficiency, reduced costs, and drove 150% growth with better vulnerability management and simplified asset tagging.
Sentiment score
7.2
Quest KACE SMA boosts ROI by enhancing productivity, reducing manual work, and simplifying IT management for rapid adaptation.
Improvements to our security infrastructure contributed to overall business growth of approximately 150 percent over the past year.
By automating tasks, it significantly reduces the human resources required, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.
It has reduced the number of development and scripting hours along with maintenance hours.
The return on investment is seen in the quick access to information, good inventory management, and efficient systems management.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management customer service is praised for prompt, knowledgeable support, effective ticket handling, and proactive communication.
Sentiment score
7.9
Quest KACE provides excellent, responsive customer support with quick solutions, appreciated for multilingual assistance including Spanish, and professional service.
The support team was knowledgeable and offered a variety of quick resolution options.
Their SMEs have sufficient knowledge, and if they are not the right contact, they quickly redirect us to someone who can help resolve issues.
I would rate their customer support a ten out of ten.
I would rate the customer support for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) as a 10.
The customer service is very good, providing quick customer support in Spanish.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.8
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management excels in scalability, integration, and ease of use, receiving high ratings from global users.
Sentiment score
7.1
Quest KACE SMA efficiently scales across organizational sizes, supporting various networks and expansion needs without sacrificing performance.
We have about 300,000 assets installed with agents worldwide.
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.
Qualys Cybersecurity Asset Management has proven to be a highly scalable solution for us over the past couple of years.
The product is very scalable as it supports 10,000 thousand endpoints with just one appliance.
We have outgrown the size of one KACE appliance and are now running two.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is stable and reliable, with occasional delays, excellent support, and enhanced update capabilities.
Sentiment score
8.1
Quest KACE SMA is stable and reliable, offering quick recovery, responsive support, and effective updates with minimal downtime.
I would rate the stability of Qualys CSAM a ten out of ten.
They are constantly adding capabilities.
This platform demonstrates excellent stability with consistent 100 percent uptime and no glitches observed.
 

Room For Improvement

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management seeks improvements in integration, customization, performance, user interface, access control, and support resources.
KACE struggles with scalability, automation, user interface, integration, and support, affecting imaging, patch management, and asset management.
Qualys is currently not able to identify assets lacking DNS information.
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.
We would prefer more options, such as 'approved only for pilot' or 'approved for this line of business,' allowing for better granularity in categorizing software.
Currently, we have to go into each org to deploy applications when we need them all across the university.
The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SMA-based interface.
 

Setup Cost

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management offers transparent, flexible pricing, ideal for large enterprises, but may be costly for smaller firms.
Quest KACE SMA offers cost-effective per-device pricing, ideal for large enterprises, though potentially costly for smaller businesses.
A cost-effective solution.
A monthly subscription starting at approximately $72 per month, depending on the specific package and features included.
Though the solution is considered expensive, if bundled with other services such as VMDR or cloud agents, its value would significantly increase.
The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management offers dynamic tagging, real-time visibility, vulnerability prioritization, and automated scanning for comprehensive security management.
Quest KACE SMA simplifies IT management with efficient deployment, inventory, automation, and integration, boosting productivity and resource allocation.
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.
The most valuable feature is the real-time visibility Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management provides into all assets across our development and operational environments.
It also performs scans to identify any vulnerabilities, which helps to take proactive measures before those vulnerabilities are identified by any attacker.
Scripting has saved us hundreds of hours over the years when patching these vulnerabilities compared to how we did it before.
The most valuable features include simplicity, which makes systems management easier and faster, especially for device management.
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset ...
Ranking in Patch Management
6th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (8th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (3rd), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (3rd), Software Supply Chain Security (4th)
Quest KACE Systems Manageme...
Ranking in Patch Management
12th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (12th), Endpoint Compliance (8th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (17th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 5.0%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Scott Frederick - PeerSpot reviewer
Well-integrated with our vulnerability scanning utilities and efficient in asset tagging and identification
Our favorite features are the tagging and the ability to quickly find assets in the portal. Additionally, I do like the fact that Qualys CSAM is integrated with the rest of our vulnerability scanning utilities. We use the full suite from Qualys. The fact that it is integrated makes it very easy to understand. It shares tagging information with VMDR. That is very nice. Qualys CSAM has discovered assets not previously covered by our vulnerability management program. Primarily, if we have assets without vulnerabilities, they become less visible, but Qualys CSAM alerts us to them because they have IP addresses and are attached to our network. It could discover everything from printers to servers to endpoints. It could discover UPSs, network devices, and across all operating systems. It discovers our security badge readers and digital signage. We have to feed that the IP address ranges, but beyond that, it finds everything in our internal network. We were able to realize its benefits within the first quarter of installing it. We did have to take some time to learn it and understand how to operationally leverage what it was telling us, but it was very quick. In addition to vulnerabilities, Qualys CSAM helps identify other risk factors to a degree. For instance, we can see if servers or assets have incorrect naming standards. We have our network segmented into development model, test, and production, and we have server naming standards that identify which management they should be in. If a production server has the naming standard of a development model server, we can find that. That is one area we have used it for. We are not fully using TruRisk, but we are using the Qualys detection score that is central to our corporate risk prioritization approach. It has completely replaced our homegrown one.
Scott Tweed - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
University
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
The pricing is reasonable relative to the features provided, as it collects all module data and operates as a main, centralized inventory, making it a cost-effective solution.
What needs improvement with Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management helps us prioritize assets according to operating system, kernel version, installed software, and current version information. The ASM assists with attack surf...
What is your primary use case for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
We are using Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management for daily activities such as identifying new assets through network scanning and agent-based scanning for newly provisioned assets. When any new a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest KACE Systems Management?
The pricing is in the middle range of the market, not too expensive but not the cheapest either.
What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?
The user interface needs improvement as customers have mentioned they do not like the interface since it is not an SMA-based interface and lacks a manual configuration option.
What is your primary use case for Quest KACE Systems Management?
The main use cases for Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance are touch management, software and hardware inventory, and software delivery.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell KACE Systems Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.