Action1 - Honest thoughts

[TheRobins]

Morning all.,

 

 

I have seen Action1 mention in this forum and other on EG. 

 

I wasnt actively looking but reading some of the comments on its uses it looks like it may tick some boxes and save me time, and help with some recommendations from our very recent cyber audit. 

 

A couple of questions I couldnt see on their website.

-Will it allow you to deploy apps that are not in its repository.

-How does it interact with Windows Update policies from Intune, take over the policy or would any windows update policies need removing.

-Can it be deployed by Intune for deployment to machines

-Can it automate complicance reports?

-Any bad interactions with Sophos InterceptX

 

If you have any experience of this would be great. I have over 200 endpoints so requested a quote, be interesting to see the pricing structure.

 

Any pro's and con's greatly received.

 

 

Thanks, 

[TheHyperTechie]

Just now, TheRobins said:

Morning all.,

 

 

I have seen Action1 mention in this forum and other on EG. 

 

I wasnt actively looking but reading some of the comments on its uses it looks like it may tick some boxes and save me time, and help with some recommendations from our very recent cyber audit. 

 

A couple of questions I couldnt see on their website.

-Will it allow you to deploy apps that are not in its repository.

-How does it interact with Windows Update policies from Intune, take over the policy or would any windows update policies need removing.

-Can it be deployed by Intune for deployment to machines

-Can it automate complicance reports?

-Any bad interactions with Sophos InterceptX

 

If you have any experience of this would be great. I have over 200 endpoints so requested a quote, be interesting to see the pricing structure.

 

Any pro's and con's greatly received.

 

 

Thanks, 

I have used Action1 for a few years now. Only recently moved away from it as we joined a new Trust and the MSP they use, must use their RMM tool instead (NinjaOne). Overall I really liked it, and they were constantly updating it and adding more useful features. I wouldn't have changed.

 

Will it allow you to deploy apps that are not in its repository?

 

Yes, you can create custom scripts to deploy apps not in the repository. I used it for Sophos, Office 365, GCPW etc.

 

How does it interact with Windows Update policies from Intune, take over the policy or would any windows update policies need removing?

 

You choose, it gives you an option to allow Action1 to completely handle the updates, or you can leave that to your MDM (Intune etc) personally I didn't let it manage updates, as we had a good update policy inside of GCPW that worked well for us. I just used Action1 for emergency updates, including apps.

 

Can it be deployed by Intune for deployment to machines?

 

Yes it can - https://www.action1.com/documentation/deploy-with-intune/

 

Can it automate complicance reports?

 

I know for a fact that it can generate them, unsure about automatically though. Someone else may be able to advise.

 

Any bad interactions with Sophos Intercept X?

 

We used this exact AV alongside Action1, no issues on our end.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheRobins]

Thanks so much for that. I have looked at NinjaOne before, I can see as a large school or MAT that could come into its own. 

 

I will do some more research into Action1

[TheHyperTechie]

3 minutes ago, TheRobins said:

Thanks so much for that. I have looked at NinjaOne before, I can see as a large school or MAT that could come into its own. 

 

I will do some more research into Action1

Personally, I preferred the UI and layout of Action1. It can also be deployed well for MATs as it allows you to add different sites to a single dashboard. 

 

Here is there roadmap which might be of use to you for comparing features etc: https://roadmap.action1.com/ 

Edited March 4 by HyperTech

[TheRobins]

Its not often I look into something, without actively looking for it and then switch into Iris to see whats in the budget

[TwistedHelixis]

I use Action1 for updates and deploying scripts. I did have issues with the yearly feature updates, but they fixed that for me. Apart from that, its been rock solid and a massive help.

[altecsole]

We use the Action 1 free licenses for servers and some admin computers. This gives us a good insight to any security updates that we may want to consider for our curriculum computers. For those, we use WuFB along with PDQ. Inventory does a great job of reporting Windows Update status, and we have schedules in place to automatically update software. 

 

We have Sophos Endpoint installed on servers and computers, and no problems at all with Action 1.

 

I did get a quote for Action 1, but it was very expensive.

[ITGuyNW]

We use it to fill the gaps PDQ can't do or doesn't do as well, such as identifying driver updates and some reports.

Obviously its an agent too, so we can schedule updates even when their device is away from school.

[TheRobins]

13 minutes ago, altecsole said:

I did get a quote for Action 1, but it was very expensive.

Usually the way with anything handy

[browolf]

On 04/03/2026 at 10:58, altecsole said:

I did get a quote for Action 1, but it was very expensive.

 

How much per device was it?

[altecsole]

1 hour ago, browolf said:

 

How much per device was it?

Sorry, I can't comment - the quote I had was confidential.

 

[LeMarchand]

On the free version. I think @TheHyperTechie covered all the technical aspects I know about. I love it. Unfortunately the staff at my main site didn't like the "reboot" reminder which halves the timer at each snooze and insisted it wasn't used. Guess which site has teachers that rarely reboot and so the worst compliance?

 

My only niggles would be that said reminder is kinda ugly and sometimes the service hangs (usually on servers). We did have a problem with some PCs not completing the updates but this was a local problem.

[TwistedHelixis]

Quote

service hangs (usually on servers)

Currently running on about 20 servers for the past 2 years and never had a service hang. perhaps its virus software or something causing it to hang.

[LeMarchand]

1 hour ago, TwistedHelixis said:

Currently running on about 20 servers for the past 2 years and never had a service hang. perhaps its virus software or something causing it to hang.

 

Could be the server OS needs upgrading, I guess.