PDQ Deploy & Inventory Reviews

PDQ Deploy has been a great time saver for us. The wide range of deploying software makes installing, updating or patching quick and efficient without having to babysit each step of the process.

Understanding the layout of how the application packages are created and stacking multiple steps can be a bit confusing until you walk through a few different ones.

Block programming approach to defining the deployments and inventory. Really in-depth access to the OS that can read whatever you can think of with an ease. Visualisation of the results is not possible though.

No mobility support, no cloud, no dashboards, nothing. Users cannot interact with any deployment in any other way than by pressing OK. UX level cca when Greenday lead the hitparades.

Simplify server management
Saves on me sign in multiple times
Repeat task on remote machines

These features seem inconsistent:
- Say you want to run a number on commands on a number of servers you cannot get a combined report of the output of all the commands. Often this is needed as the report may be input into further tools
- You should be able to set default credentials for each computer you add manually which can be overridden from 'deploy one'
- You should be able to group a group of computers like a tree structure eg. directory structure in Windows or UNIX
- Computers should be able to be a member of more than one group. When you add a known computer to another group it should copy all these properties as default starting point
- In new package, you should have the ability to not have to choose a step type but the commands the user types in most cases tell you what type of step it is

As a small IT shop PDQ helps me stay on top of updates and schedule them where it does not inconvenience the user.

Sometimes confusing creating an inventory collection.

Most of all, we use PDQ deployment, easy way to deploy software and patches. PDQ deployment is good for script automation, easy to set up any scheduled task to meet your requirements.

Devices outside the local network are not manageable.

Number of options and flexibility of any PDQ product is amazing. Systems are super easy to deploy and work with. There is no better product on the market, and I've been tested multiple and still use some as addition to PDQ.

There is none, but it will be great if PDQ could work without having clients on VPN in the future. (And I think they are working on it)

Super easy to use, works wonderfully with PDQ Deploy.

Windows only, if there was a cross platform component it would be perfect.

The easy way to configure the deployments and schedule that to run automatically on time to time.

Do not have a client to install and not be able to monitor or deploy to clients outside of the network what nowadays is very normal with remote work.

This product is super easy to use. Most standard packages are already build for you (and every new update there is more) what can be super easy rolled out to a test machine and then production. If you want custom installation it is so easy to install/copy - install/ create little batch files or full on powershell scripts. This is super easy comparing to SCCM or even WSUS.

I had to think long and hard about what could be improved and even asked my co-workers.... and really there is nothing at this moment what needs to be improved. It does what needs to be done and is super easy.
(edit: Perhaps the only thing is that the log files with errors could be more detailed to directly been viewed)

- mostly easy to use
- lots of templates to use and edit
- provides a wide range of information and details about a specific device
- grouping devices into collections according to different combinations of parameters

sometimes it is not easy to debug some more complex reports, but this is not directly a defect of the application itself

What made me look at PDQ was the cost. What made me keep using it was how flexible I could get with deployments when used in conjunction with their inventory product. You really want both of these to take full advantage and the cost still remains reasonable. It is easy to setup something like monthly patching using the packages that PDQ maintains and updates have it auto update these packages on your system after a delay period such as 7 days then push it out to all systems as they come online. We even use it to deploy out base packages on new PC builds as they come online.

There can be some quirks with a system being detected online and it is very important your DNS is accurate. My biggest con would really be that it does not do a great job with remote users because there is no agent on the device. This is being addressed though in a cloud version of the product.

PDQ is an amazing tool that I could not live without, it provides the helpdesk with one click installation of custom MSI packages, pre-built MSI packages to make software deployment a breeze. It has built in scheduling to ensure all machines across our entire network have all the right software and are always up to date. It was an absolute breeze to set up and we were up and running within a couple of hours. Support has always been next level with detailed responses about almost any question we throw at them.

I don't like how vague some of the error messages can be on deployment when it fails but these are usually Windows errors that PDQ is simply feeding back.

Ability to pull reports on any piece of information that is collected about any of my computers. This allows our team to make decisions that are much more informed. I've used it for targeting software that needs to be removed from our network. One particularly interesting case was to track down a specific printer attached with USB by serial number. We wrote a custom WMI query scanner and located the computer the printer was attached to.

I wish the capability of this software extended beyond the local network. Always-On VPN is not a feasible option in our environment. An agent-based option is something I would be willing to pay extra for.

You can setup automated scheduled tasks to patch systems at any time during the week or weekends. Allows patches to automatically be pushed out afterhours to avoid any system downtime.

It is mainly intended to only inventory and patch Windows products. It would be great to have more integration where it could go out and inventory printers and linux type devices.

Being able to have PDQ automatically scan and monitor our devices allows patches, new software and vulnerability fixes to be deployed in a set and forget method.

We've had some technical issues that have been hard to get support with as there is no support provided in our time zone, allowing only one question/response a day.

easy to use and no prior experience needed and no need of agent

not all features that sccm offers available in this deployment tool ..no full reporting available