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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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 Appliance boosts productivity and reduces costs by streamlining system management, cutting labor needs, and simplifying processes.
Sentiment score
7.1
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform improved efficiency by automating tasks, reducing provisioning time, and minimizing resource hours despite initial costs.
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
The work that previously took two months now takes 10 to 15 minutes.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
KACE Systems Management Appliance users praise the responsive, professional support and ITNinja for high satisfaction despite mixed experiences.
Sentiment score
7.2
Red Hat Ansible's support is valued for online resources and expertise, with mixed reviews on resolution speed.
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
I have not escalated any questions to the Red Hat support team regarding Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, as their modules are professional and complete.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has a large community with many written blogs and resources available, making it easy to maintain.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
KACE SMA efficiently manages endpoints, easily scales, integrates well with virtual environments, and accommodates growth with minimal setbacks.
Sentiment score
7.3
Red Hat Ansible scales well to thousands of servers but may face performance issues beyond 500 servers with occasional challenges.
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
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easily maintainable and highly scalable.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
KACE SMA is stable and reliable, with quick support for issues and minimal downtime, appreciated for its resilience.
Sentiment score
8.0
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is stable and reliable, receiving high user ratings for its robustness and frequent updates.
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is stable and secure;
Security Administrator at EbixCash
The stability of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is excellent, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

KACE SMA users seek enhanced scalability, reporting, UI design, easier remote management, and better integration with reduced resource consumption.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform needs improvements in scalability, UI, documentation, integration, Windows support, dashboard, and pricing.
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 dashboard could be more interactive; for example, it should provide alerts if an endpoint is vulnerable to viruses.
Security Administrator at EbixCash
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
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very easy to use with Jinja templating capabilities that make it really straightforward.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform could improve by creating modules for upcoming AI and ML tech stacks.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Both Event-Driven Ansible and cloud management platform features are crucial improvements needed.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

KACE SMA's per-device licensing offers cost-effective scalability and comprehensive management, providing value across various organization sizes.
Enterprise costs for Red Hat Ansible vary; advanced features and support require licensing, while basic use remains free.
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
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
In terms of cost-effectiveness, considering a situation where I want to deploy KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) for just pushing updates, it is completely fine.
Security Administrator at EbixCash
There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is always free to use.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
The pricing is high, and since I'm not using all functionalities, it would be better if the price depended on the functionalities used.
IT Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost of combining Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible is extremely high, which presents a significant challenge with the Red Hat product.
Cognitive Business Operation at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

KACE SMA enhances productivity with off-hours deployment, automation, and streamlined asset and license management through a single interface.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers efficient, scalable automation with simplicity, agentless architecture, easy integration, and robust community support.
Overall, KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) helps streamline my processes by allowing me to check the uptime and downtime of machines, whether they are connected to the internet or not, and how long a machine has been switched off.
Security Administrator at EbixCash
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
The agentless architecture of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, using the SSH key, makes it passwordless and allows us to push configurations with one click, creating a major advantage.
DevOps Engineer at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task.
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
Associate Software Test Solution Architect at AFour Technologies
 

Categories and Ranking

KACE Systems Management App...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (3rd), Endpoint Compliance (7th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (13th), Patch Management (10th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (10th)
Red Hat Ansible Automation ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (3rd), Configuration Management (1st), Network Automation (1st), AWS Pro Service Providers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Lifecycle Management solutions, they serve different purposes. KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is designed for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) and holds a mindshare of 1.7%, up 1.5% compared to last year.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Configuration Management, holds 10.9% mindshare, down 17.8% since last year.
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)1.7%
Kaseya VSA14.3%
NinjaOne11.4%
Other72.6%
Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform10.9%
Microsoft Configuration Manager8.0%
Red Hat Satellite6.6%
Other74.5%
Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

AdityaJain - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Administrator at EbixCash
Centralized software deployment has simplified endpoint control but needs stronger security alerts
What I like best about KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is that it allows pushing custom-made applications to all computers that have KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) endpoint installed. This makes it easier for the organization to push patches and updates. If I need to push EDR updates, I can use KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), as it automatically updates the EDR on that endpoint, and that is a great feature. Overall, KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) helps streamline my processes by allowing me to check the uptime and downtime of machines, whether they are connected to the internet or not, and how long a machine has been switched off. I can also gather hardware details and software inventory from it. I can show a live demonstration if a video conference can be arranged. Incident resolution capabilities with KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) have improved operational efficiency for system administrators, as it makes it easier to track machines with KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), gather their IP addresses, and push several updates, patches, or software deployments at once. I can design compliances as per my requirements, such as ensuring passwords are reset after 45 days.
Manas Kashyap - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Elevenxcapital
Automation has transformed server patching and has reduced months of work to minutes
The best features that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers is that it does not require any additional resources inside the servers. Python is the only requirement, and since Python is already present inside the servers, we can run it from our location and it automatically deploys things and does the work for us. The minimal requirements and easy deployment have definitely impacted my daily work and my team's efficiency. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is one of the best features that we depend on. We have evaluated other options, but Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was the best choice because it has saved us a tremendous amount of time. We do not need to manually intervene in the servers or install third-party software to maintain these things. It is very easy to write playbooks for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Ansible Galaxy contains many playbooks that are readily available and ready to be used. It is highly configurable with Jinja templating, making it easy to maintain. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has positively impacted my organization. Previously, we needed to go into the servers and maintain them manually, which used to take a lot of time. For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task. We write a playbook, maintain an inventory, and roll out the updates and it starts working for us. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses conditional clauses and has rollback options, functioning like a standard coding language that is simple to use. There is definitely a reduction in errors with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform because we have playbooks written with all the necessary clauses and rollback options. Manual work automatically creates more errors, whereas in automation, we have written sets that we do not forget every time we run it. We have protected written sets that we execute consistently.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
11%
Non Profit
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise48
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Quest KACE Systems Management?
In terms of cost-effectiveness, considering a situation where I want to deploy KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) for just pushing updates, it is completely fine. However, apart from that, I d...
What needs improvement with Quest KACE Systems Management?
For improvements in KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA), I would want to see it become a standalone software agent. I am curious about why it does not offer EDR functionality. Additionally, the...
What is your primary use case for Quest KACE Systems Management?
I have deployed KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) around 230 plus PCs, and I use it to push Windows updates and scripts. I have designed various scripts for tasks such as password resets afte...
What is the difference between Red Hat Satellite and Ansible?
Red Hat Satellite has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. Both its patch management and license management have been outstanding. If you have a large environment, patching systems is much ...
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was very simple. There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform ...
 

Also Known As

Dell KACE Systems Management
Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Subscription on AWS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
HootSuite Media, Inc., Cloud Physics, Narrative, BinckBank
Find out what your peers are saying about KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
889,855 professionals have used our research since 2012.