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Ivanti Patch for Configuration Manager [EOL] vs KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 4, 2026

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

Ivanti Patch for Configurat...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
KACE Systems Management App...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (2nd), Endpoint Compliance (6th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (11th), Patch Management (10th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2019633 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides detection logic that tells us which customer will record an update and is less expensive than other solutions
I haven't had experience with customer service and support, however, we did have an advisory case with one of their technical support staff. We were publishing and getting the full metadata for the patch. We were getting the full updates for the patch release. There was confusion as to why we were seeing that in the SCCM, instead of in the full metadata patch. The support person was able to help us in understanding what we were doing wrong, highlighting it could be a certificate issue. We generated a new certificate, and after they were applied, the issue was fixed. Overall, I would rate their customer service and support a five out of five.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature of Ivanti Patch for SCCM is the detection logic."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to monitor updates—the software versions—on machines so that we can keep everything compliant."
"I haven't come up against anything that I can't use it as a solution for, whether it's deploying imaging, managing, upgrading, or reporting."
"Asset management is most valuable. It is essential for all customers. The other features are also useful, but asset management is most important."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to have an overview of all devices that are accessing our environment."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Every year, the system becomes so much more valuable for us; maybe the quality of our service is much better now, the students at our university can use more software, so the knowledge of students using state-of-the-art software is much better than in the past."
 

Cons

"In future releases, I would like to see improvements with the feature upgrade for the SCCM, which Microsoft has already integrated. Currently, Ivanti does not give us information about the enablement package."
"We have some problems with patches not installing successfully."
"Imaging becomes a problem when you start to try to go beyond doing more than thirty or forty machines at a time. We initially tried to do that virtually and it just, it wouldn't work."
"The software asset management functionality is an area that needs to be improved. It could be more automated because when connections need to be made, such as when I connected Adobe and my malware removed, the process was pretty much manual."
"KACE implemented the possibility of reducing the network speed of the KACE agent. You can set it so that it takes whatever network speed you want or you can set it to 5 Mb, to save network speed. You set it for all the computers, but it would be preferable to separate between VPN connections in our home office and the local area. It would be great to be able to set separate speeds for different VLANs."
"Sometimes the information is not as real time as it's supposed to be."
"The solution needs to have the ability to push out managed feature updates from Microsoft in a more seamless way."
"The customization of the interface needs improvement for things like end user tickets. While the functionality is good, some of that UI stuff does need improvement."
"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 are some of the patching solutions that it doesn't take care of for us, so we have to do those manually on the devices, and that's really the biggest thing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We do not have a license with Ivanti, instead we buy just the plugins for the consoles, making it a much less expensive option versus other solutions."
"Licensing is done on a per device basis, so it's dependent on how many agents you've got installed."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"We pay annually for technical support."
"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 are also saving on the licensing fee, compared to other endpoint management solutions."
"It may be more expensive, but you get what you pay for."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Legal Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
Construction Company
10%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
 

Also Known As

Patch for SCCM, Shavlik Patch for SCCM, Ivanti Patch for MEM
Dell KACE Systems Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Pittsburgh
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Find out what your peers are saying about Ivanti Patch for Configuration Manager [EOL] vs. KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.