Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs SUSE Manager comparison

The compared Quest Software and SUSE solutions aren't in the same category. Quest Software is ranked #17 in RMM , and holds a 1.6% mindshare in the category. SUSE is ranked #12 in CM , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SUSE users who would recommend it.

Quest KACE Systems Manageme...

Read 39 Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) reviews

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98 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SUSE Manager

Read 6 SUSE Manager reviews

1,412 Views
968 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Quest KACE Systems Manageme...

SUSE Manager

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and SUSE Manager compete in systems management, with Quest KACE standing out due to pricing and support while SUSE Manager, favored for its comprehensive features, is considered a better long-term investment.

Features: Quest KACE SMA provides efficient patch management, inventory management, and asset tracking. SUSE Manager offers advanced configuration management, automation, and robust Linux system focus, making it highly suitable for Linux environments.

Room for Improvement: Quest KACE could enhance its advanced configuration management and automation capabilities, which lag behind SUSE Manager. SUSE Manager might improve by simplifying its deployment process and providing more generalized operating system support, akin to Quest KACE.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Quest KACE is notable for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, offering easy integration into existing IT infrastructures. SUSE Manager, however, requires more intricate deployment, needing specialized support, yet allows extensive post-deployment customization.

Pricing and ROI: Quest KACE SMA is recognized for being cost-effective with lower initial setup costs, offering a quick ROI. In contrast, SUSE Manager demands a higher upfront investment but potentially delivers greater long-term value for organizations focused on Linux infrastructures.

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

Buyer's Guide

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. SUSE Manager

January 2025

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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

Quest KACE Systems Manageme...

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Client Desktop Management (12th), Endpoint Compliance (8th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (17th), Patch Management (12th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (18th)

SUSE Manager

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Configuration Management (12th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 1.6%, up 0.9% compared to last year.
SUSE Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 3.4% mindshare, up 3.3% since last year.

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)

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.

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Victor Estival

Developer Product Marketing Manager at Parity Technologies

Easy to deploy, offers embedded monitoring, and is very stable

I am a SUSE partner. I have a central server and then I'm connected to the VPN. That way, I can connect to all different customers. I'd advise new users to certainly read the documentation, as that's what I tend to skip. However, it's an important step. Try to automate as much as you can. One of the most powerful things that I noticed when I arrived, was that it was underutilized, and there are all of these automation capabilities that SUSE Manager has. It's saved just so much time for me. I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There is ease of use, and its pricing was a driving factor."

"With KACE, we were able to have a simplification of the software deployment management with more granularity and flexibility."

"It also does patch management. At the moment, I'm rolling out a new feature update, 20.8.2, and it's a great challenge because we have to deploy it to 1,200 computers in the home office. We want to do it without interrupting production, but KACE is reliable and it's easy to adapt it to my needs for how and when to deploy the feature update."

"Using Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), we have been able to manage three times the amount of machines as other groups while having half the staff, which has positively impacted our organization."

"Pretty much all of the features are valuable. The inventory is very helpful to be able to keep track of our devices. The deployments make it easy to deploy new software packages or upgrade packages. The help desk is also a great tool for tracking problems and problem tickets."

"KACE’s knowledge-based articles are very good."

"This product made the job easy to do without having to go put hands on the machines."

"The most valuable feature is the imaging of computers through the SDA... Being able to do that so quickly with the SDA, and to then use the SMA for reinstalling software, has been huge for our productivity."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) pros

"SUSE Manager is the best solution for maintaining the Linux environment"

"What I appreciate best about SUSE Manager is that it supports most of the Linux flavors."

"SUSE Manager is valuable for managing systems, patching, and utilizing SaltStack connectivity for various installations and other routines."

"SUSE Manager helps to optimize operations at a reduced cost."

"When it comes to managing both Red Hat and SUSE environments, it provides the support for live patching, which is something I really, really appreciate."

"The setup is straightforward."

Cons

"The solution needs to have the ability to push out managed feature updates from Microsoft in a more seamless way."

"They could make the booting solution easier for different things, e.g., easier to insert drivers. They could make it easier to create a new image and put it onto the server. Those would be some nice solutions. They could make it so that somebody who has no knowledge at all can do it. That would be really nice. Because every time, until I get it memorized, I still need to go back to the training, the manual, or Google it to figure it out again. If they would make it a lot easier, to where a nine-year-old could do it, that would be really cool. If they made it easier, I could have more people managing the images on the server, instead of just one or two people."

"I would like them to implement VBScript language in KACE Systems Management. Currently, we can only use PowerShell."

"The problem is that it's harder to directly emulate a lot of the stuff that the group policies do, using the KACE solution. With regular group policies, you just specify the various settings you want to change on the workstations, and then you specify the workstations and—while it's kind of an ugly mess—it does it. Whereas on KACE, you really have to know what you're doing with scripting to effectively script those exact same changes."

"Its dashboard needs improvement. Currently, there is no way to modify the dashboard. There should be more flexibility so that we can create views according to our use case."

"Paying for the product should come with full and extended training anytime it is needed."

"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."

"The K1000 doesn't communicate well with some clients without SMB. There are some issues with getting things to image correctly because they rely on SMB, and SMB is a protocol that is being removed due to security reasons. Organizations are trying to rely less and less on SMB. I know Quest is aware of it. They've talked about having a new version that wouldn't rely on SMB for connection to the clients, but they haven't gotten there yet."

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) cons

"It can be complex and difficult for users who are new to Linux and don't have any technical expertise."

"From an integration perspective, it is difficult to integrate with Jira or any ticketing tool, which is challenging."

"The initial setup of SUSE Manager is quite complex."

"The initial stage is a bit complex, but after that, everything runs seamlessly."

"I really would like to have a broader library of VCP's or playbooks that I can deploy."

"We sometimes have server issues and need to restart the service."

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."

"Based on other solutions that we had implemented, its pricing seems to be quite competitive. It is not inexpensive, but it is also not more expensive than any other solution. They have the standard licensing fees and support fees."

"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."

"The pricing is fair."

"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."

"We pay annually for technical support."

"Licensing is done on a per device basis, so it's dependent on how many agents you've got installed."

"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."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about SUSE Manager?

SUSE Manager helps to optimize operations at a reduced cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SUSE Manager?

From an integration perspective, it is difficult to integrate with Jira or any ticketing tool, which is challenging. We didn't try that, but we opened a case with SUSE support, and they said that i...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SUSE Manager?

My use cases include using SUSE Manager for patching the Linux operating system. I used to use SUSE Manager in my previous company. Currently, in my company, we are not using SUSE Manager.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

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Compared 25% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

BigFix vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Windows Server Update Services vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

Compared 6% of the time

More Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Competitors

Red Hat Satellite vs SUSE Manager

Compared 74% of the time

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs SUSE Manager

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs SUSE Manager

Compared 4% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs SUSE Manager

Compared 4% of the time

More SUSE Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

June 2025

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) report

Download Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) product report

Buyer's Guide

Configuration Management

June 2025

Download SUSE Manager product report

Also Known As

Dell KACE Systems Management

No data available

Overview

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is a comprehensive tool for managing IT endpoints. It facilitates asset management, software distribution, and endpoint tracking while offering remote access capabilities and a centralized help desk.

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is designed for organizations that need efficient endpoint management. It offers a range of features like inventory tracking, automated patch management, and ticketing. By integrating with remote access tools such as Bomgar, Quest KACE helps reduce manual tasks involved in managing software updates and system deployments. Although it faces challenges in scalability and requires improvements in integration and reporting, it remains a versatile choice for asset tracking and endpoint administration.

What are Quest KACE SMA's key features?

Asset Management: Streamline the organization and tracking of physical and virtual assets.
Remote Access: Integrates with Bomgar for secure, remote troubleshooting and management.
Software Distribution: Deploy applications across devices efficiently without physical intervention.
Centralized Endpoint Management: Manage endpoints from a centralized console to ensure compliance and optimization.
Automated Patch Management: Schedule and deploy patches to maintain system security and performance.
Help Desk: Integrated ticketing system for tracking and resolving user issues.
Scripting and Reporting: Enhance administrative tasks through automated scripts and detailed reports.

What benefits should users consider?

Improved Productivity: Reduces manual interference with automated deployments and updates.
Labor Savings: Minimizes labor requirements with efficient remote management tools.
Integrated Reporting: Provides actionable insights through comprehensive reports to optimize IT operation.
User-Friendly Interface: Boosts effectiveness due to its intuitive, easy-to-navigate design.

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is implemented across industries for managing IT assets and endpoints, particularly where remote management and compliance are critical. It's employed in healthcare, education, and government sectors for efficient patch management, inventory control, and software deployment, aiding organizations in managing security accreditations and centralizing help desk operations.

Quest Software

SUSE Manager was designed to help your enterprise DevOps and IT Operations teams reduce complexity and regain control of your IT assets with a single tool to manage Linux systems across a variety of hardware architectures, hypervisors as well as container, IoT and cloud platforms. It automates Linux server and IoT device provisioning, patching and configuration for faster, consistent and repeatable server deployment helping to optimize operations and reduce costs. And with automated monitoring, tracking, auditing and reporting of your systems, VMs, and containers across your development, test and production environments, you can ensure compliance with internal security policies and external regulations.

SUSE

Sample Customers

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

Day & Zimmermann, Cisco, CEMEX, L.B. Foster, Adient, Istanbul Technical University, 7Pixel, University of Maine System, Guerbet

Buyer's Guide

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. SUSE Manager

January 2025

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