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.

[simpsonj]

Apologies for raising this thread, but I'm looking for an Asset Management piece of software, and patch compliance. I've had a quote for Action1, and it was well out of budget. Is NinjaOne a more reasonable proposition? If not, does anyone use a software platform that combines ITAM and Patch Management?

[TheRobins]

How many devices do you have?

 

I can only say Action 1 has been excellent, we have a small annual fee as we are over the 200 devices. I use it daily, plenty of automation and when rolling out devices it has saved me litterally 2 weeks in the summer. 

 

You can usually twist their arm, they seem to understand education over business  

 

EDIT - By the way, NinjaOne and also PDQ overall were more expensive than Action1 as well. 

[simpsonj]

No. Devices is dependent on cost! 

 

It could be I try to keep it to critical devices (Servers and particular staff devices) or try and roll it out across all devices across the Trust. As ever, trying to find the most cost effective solution, not necessarily the best solution.

[TheRobins]

Feel your pain.

 

Could you split subscriptions per site?

 

I had the same chats and coversation, but with how the world is evolving with older software being compromised its becoming one of those "must have" costs, like AV and MS Licencing is. 

[altecsole]

2 minutes ago, simpsonj said:

No. Devices is dependent on cost! 

 

It could be I try to keep it to critical devices (Servers and particular staff devices) or try and roll it out across all devices across the Trust. As ever, trying to find the most cost effective solution, not necessarily the best solution.

I have Action1 on servers and a number of workstations with different software, such as finance, admin, computing etc. I use this to pick up vulnerabilities that I can then use PDQ Deploy and Inventory to remediate. PDQ is our main method of keeping software up to date using the automatic features. 

[KK20]

we had some problems with Action1 holding onto local profiles and in some cases updating user hives of all profiles on the machine - irrespective of last logon time.  That meant that GPOs were not seeing these profiles as stale, so not deleting them in line with clearout policy.  I ended up going oldskool with delprof2 and the "alternative" local stale detection, not ideal but it worked.   Apart from that we pay for the extra machines in Action1 as it keeps other software up to date for us.  We let WUFB handle windows updates for feature and quality.

[synaesthesia]

I love it (well, I did until today, and I'm currently swearing at it). One bounced email appears to mean you get added to a blocklist and agents automatically uninstalled from your endpoints... Trying to liaise with support now, which is fun for the free tier!

[TwistedHelixis]

37 minutes ago, synaesthesia said:

I love it (well, I did until today, and I'm currently swearing at it). One bounced email appears to mean you get added to a blocklist and agents automatically uninstalled from your endpoints... Trying to liaise with support now, which is fun for the free tier!

Let us know how it goes please 👍

[synaesthesia]

17 minutes ago, TwistedHelixis said:

Let us know how it goes please 👍

Must hand it to their support, their replies have been quick and they've enabled me trial access for logging a ticket, fingers crossed!