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Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac vs Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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 Linux, UNI...
Ranking in Patch Management
16th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Quest KACE Systems Manageme...
Ranking in Patch Management
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Client Desktop Management (3rd), Endpoint Compliance (8th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (12th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) is 4.4%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Mario Del Toro - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps to manage the accesses for the users, provide specific permissions, and verify identities
I use the solution to manage the accesses for the users, provide specific permissions, and verify identities.  The tool is a stable product.  The tool needs to improve its visual system.  I would rate the product's stability a ten out of ten.  I would rate the solution's scalability a nine out…
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The website development section is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, and Mac helps to ensure that everything is up to date."
"The solution is easy to implement."
"The tool is a stable product."
"The service desk can be configured and customized to better serve our environment."
"My company had bought some new machines. We used the tool to do some basic settings to ship every machine the same way and undertake the Windows deployment. We did the scripted installation. The tool helped us deploy custom software for specific departments. We also did Windows updates with the product."
"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."
"I can reach people now that I couldn't have reached previously. We are saving about 25 percent in time."
"When vulnerabilities are exploited so much, it is nice to be able to quickly detect or deploy what is needed within our off-work hours or during work hours without a reboot."
"KACE has made our life much easier since we got off the Microsoft solution. The Microsoft solution was a lot harder to image over different ports and stuff. They would only have this one place where we could do all the imaging. Now, we have a whole building where we can image from. This means that we can image from our storage area, where we have a place to do our imaging. We can also image right at our desks, which is a lot easier."
"There is one place for a lot of different things. If somebody has a problem with their computer, they will put in a ticket. From there, we will know who it is and the assets assigned to them, because there is one place to go look for what we are talking about and with whom we are talking. Just having one place for everything is really convenient. For example, we are able to deploy software to hundreds of computers. We don't need to go to each individual device."
 

Cons

"The solution can be quite expensive, compared to other options on the market."
"The tool needs to improve its visual system."
"The better way to improve the solution is by working on an area where it lacks, which includes the migration part."
"When we have to do a rebuild on these machines, although it is rare, I would like to be able to do more than 10 at a time. With the current limit, it slows me down because I have to set up 10, then the next 10, and so forth."
"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."
"It could be designed a little bit more intuitively in terms of administration."
"I have complaints about smart label adaptation and because of this, I recommend a 24 to 48 hour bake-in period."
"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."
"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."
"My biggest complaint is that almost every time they send out a new version, it fixes something and breaks another. Something that wasn't working in the last version now works, but something else stops; or they'll remove some dashboard that I really found to be nice and replace it with something totally different that I could care less about."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open-source, so we do not need any licensing."
"It may be more expensive, but you get what you pay for."
"The pricing and licensing are good. It's worth it."
"The pricing and licensing are absolutely fair."
"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 buy consulting fees from Software Factory, then we pay extra for it."
"We are also saving on the licensing fee, compared to other endpoint management solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
University
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac?
Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, and Mac helps to ensure that everything is up to date.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac?
The solution is not expensive. It is cheaper than other solutions. The solution is open-source, so we do not need any licensing.
What needs improvement with Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac?
The better way to improve the solution is by working on an area where it lacks, which includes the migration part. Currently, on Amazon AWS, we have hosted all the websites. It is fine to migrate f...
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

HEAT Patch, PatchLink
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 Ivanti Patch for Linux, UNIX, Mac vs. Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.