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Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs Scalefusion comparison

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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

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
277
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Remote Access (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Quest KACE Systems Manageme...
Ranking in Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)
8th
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), Patch Management (10th)
Scalefusion
Ranking in Unified Endpoint Management (UEM)
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Web Content Filtering (10th), Mobile Device Management (MDM) (10th), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (11th), Patch Management (19th)
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
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.
Jijin Joseph - PeerSpot reviewer
An MDM solution for controlling and restricting data on devices
Everyone is using high-end devices, such as mobile devices. If they lose their devices, how about the data copied to other devices? Once the device is lost, you can remotely delete all of the data and block the device, preventing anyone from using or reusing it. This will keep your devices secure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like most about Intune is its seamless enrollment process, particularly the Autopilot method."
"A valuable feature is user enrollment, where users can enroll their devices in their organizations themselves."
"The most useful features in Microsoft Intune are the policy enforcement and conditional access. These features make our operations easier from a company perspective."
"I would recommend Microsoft Intune to others; it is a very good and scalable solution."
"I like the group policy management feature, which performs application monitoring and device enrollment."
"The solution is scalable. We currently have tens of thousands of users within our organization using the solution."
"The initial setup is not complex."
"Previously, we used on-prem SCCM to deploy applications we built manually. After migrating to Intune, we automated and streamlined the process of deploying applications with autopilot. I can do more with my day. I can manage more applications and ensure that they're updated without monitoring and manually starting that process all over again."
"The software asset management has been a big help, even when it comes to license true-ups. I can use it to find out how many Tivoli we have, and boom, there's the number... And you can actually click on the information about the software and it shows, for example, that these five servers are where it's being reported. If you really want, you can log in to them and validate."
"Overall, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"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."
"We're able to deploy software and push out fixes to endpoints faster than ever."
"It is excellent in terms of updating and configuring everything the way we need. For anything more complex, we do professional service engagements, and they're exceptional. For anything less complex, we just need to ask questions. Their support division is extremely good too."
"This product made the job easy to do without having to go put hands on the machines."
"This solution makes it easy to control assets and upgrade all types of software."
"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."
"Scalefusion is easy to use, and they have a broad knowledge base, so you can quickly find answers if you're unsure how to do something. The articles on the knowledge base are well-written, with clear steps on what to do for a specific scenario. That part is well documented."
"Its enhanced support for iOS and Windows devices has been particularly beneficial, expanding our service offerings to customers with diverse device environments."
 

Cons

"Intune does not provide real-time visibility."
"Microsoft Intune has potential for improvement; I would like to see a lot more customization in the reporting tools."
"I find the price for Microsoft Intune too high, which represents an area for improvement in Microsoft's pricing model."
"When pushing anything from Microsoft Intune, the sync timing is 48 hours. While sometimes it takes 5 to 10 minutes, the official period given by Microsoft is within 48 hours, which can be time-consuming for policies, applications, or patches."
"It needs certificate provisioning for S/MIME purposes."
"Historically, Group Policy has simplified the management of various items, such as printer and drive mappings and while Intune offers workarounds, it lacks native support for these functionalities. This is an area I believe needs improvement."
"Due to the abundance of features, there's a lot to organize, which makes managing and setting up the solution challenging. The setup is immense, and it would be good to see improvement in this area."
"In terms of what can be improved, I am looking for better enhancements regarding Apple management, not only on the mobile device, but also on the laptop."
"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."
"I wish Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) would have a top-down approach since we use orgs; currently, we have to go into each org to deploy applications when we need them all across the university."
"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."
"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."
"There may be a good reason why some things are not easily able to be done, yet it needs work to compete with some of the other ticketing systems out there now."
"I think it should have the ability to have the applications automatically update. It would be really helpful if this would override what the user might choose to do."
"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."
"I would sure like them to be able to copy and paste out of OneNote. That drives me nuts. You can't copy from OneNote into KACE."
"One area for improvement could be streamlining permissions during initial device setup, especially for corporate-owned devices, to reduce manual user interaction and expedite deployment."
"It could be easier to put devices on the blocklist. I would like the ability to block a device with a click of a button. Currently, we have to sift through different groups to block a device. It would be nice if Scalefusion allowed me to block without moving the device to a different profile. Another helpful feature they could add is the ability to migrate from one MDM to another. I'd also appreciate more extensive cloud storage. They give you 1 GB by default, but sometimes that's not enough."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is reasonable, but they should lower it a bit to make it more competitive. It's cheaper than AirWatch and other products, but I still feel like Microsoft can make a base version or with Exchange online or a la carte only Intune version which will be useful. A customer who doesn't want to go full-fledged E3 or E5 can take out or consume an Intune solution only for their purpose, and we want to target that customer."
"Microsoft Intune's pricing is reasonable."
"Microsoft offers some licensing where it's included at no extra cost when customers are already using the licenses. In such a case, it's a really good value. If you have to buy the licensing for it, it's probably on par with other solutions. It isn't substantially more or less expensive. The great thing is that it is included in some of Microsoft's licensed packages. So, some customers don't have to spend additional money for it. Typically, most providers that support Intune do charge a management fee of some sort or some fee. Certainly, we're no exception."
"The product is expensive."
"Microsoft licenses are costly."
"I have no comment on pricing of the solution."
"I recently got to know that the AD P1 license is compulsory to use Intune Autopilot, which was surprising for me. Earlier, this was not the case. It is the wrong thing to do. We now need to purchase AD P1 licenses for us and for our customers. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."
"Microsoft Intune is included in the E5 license at no additional cost."
"The pricing is fair."
"Licensing is very straightforward. They don't overcomplicate it. This is not a Cisco product where you have to have 30 different licenses just to open the box. It's pretty much set-and-forget. You pay an annual license... The cost is in the mid to upper range, but the ROI exceeds the outside cost, especially once you've had the system for a while."
"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."
"Its pricing model is good for what it offers. Nobody here gives me a hard time about renewing the contract every year. It might be a little cost prohibitive for a smaller company who has to stand up a virtual environment as well as have virtual environment licensing and the hardware. If you have a smaller environment, it might be cost prohibitive. If you only have a couple of hundred computers, you might be more willing to do those manually. In our environment, the cost savings of having KACE far outweigh the licensing costs. We are okay with its pricing model."
"We pay annually for technical support."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"It may be more expensive, but you get what you pay for."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
University
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
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 SM...
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,...
What needs improvement with Scalefusion?
One area for improvement could be streamlining permissions during initial device setup, especially for corporate-owne...
What is your primary use case for Scalefusion?
Our typical use cases for the product involve auto-enrollment, zero-touch deployment, location tracking, application ...
What advice do you have for others considering Scalefusion?
In terms of device management, the platform is particularly effective for managing Android devices, especially Samsun...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Dell KACE Systems Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Waypoint, Mattos Filho, Meetic, Gems Education, Green Clinic HealthSystem, Service King
Magna, Scania, Darya - Varia, Radisson Blu, Slice, Veezu
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. Scalefusion and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.