PDQ Deploy Review for IT Teams: Pricing, Connect and Where It Stops

Updated: November 2026. Prices, features and the roadmap checked on PDQ's own pages on 10 November 2026.

PDQ sells two deployment products under one name, and the right one depends on whether your PCs ever leave the office network. Pick the wrong one and you either pay per admin for laptops the console can't reach, or pay per device for a fleet that never leaves the LAN. This PDQ Deploy review covers both products, what each costs at list price, where the break-even sits and where each one stops.

TL;DR

• Two products. Deploy & Inventory is on-prem and Windows-only, while Connect is a per-device cloud agent for Windows and macOS.
• Break-even. At list prices, Connect Plus costs less while each admin manages fewer than about 108 devices.
• Free mode. Deploy runs free with no time limit, but only single-step packages and no schedules.
• Where both stop. No Linux, iPhone, iPad, uptime alerts or built-in ticketing.
• Who it fits. Windows fleets on a LAN or VPN that want installs done fast.

What Is PDQ Deploy?

PDQ Deploy is a Windows software deployment tool that pushes installers, Windows updates and scripts from an on-prem console to computers on the same network. It ships as one license with PDQ Inventory, which scans those computers and groups them by what's installed, so Deploy knows where to send what.

PDQ Connect is the company's second product, and PDQ's website increasingly calls it just "PDQ". It does deployment, patching and inventory through an agent that reports to PDQ's cloud, so a laptop on hotel Wi-Fi gets the same package as a desktop in the office. Both sit in a wider family of software deployment tools that solve the same job in different ways.

PDQ Deploy and Inventory vs PDQ Connect

The two products share a name and the idea of a package library, and not much else.

PDQ's own comparison page says Connect doesn't integrate with Deploy & Inventory. A team running both keeps two package lists, two device lists and two sets of reports.

PDQ's comparison video from February 2025 lays out the split. It predates Connect's macOS support and the 2026 features, so trust the architecture part and check the feature list against the table above.

Moving across goes through PDQ Migrate, a free tool that copies custom Deploy packages and Inventory collections into Connect. Since version 20.1.28.0 (30 September 2026) it's a right-click option in both consoles. Library packages don't migrate, because Connect has its own copies, and PDQ's migration pages don't mention schedules or deployment history, so plan to rebuild those.

One long-time Deploy & Inventory admin asked r/sysadmin what the move is like. Replies cover the good (no VPN for remote staff, remote desktop built in) and the friction: reimaged PCs come back as new devices without history, there's no Wake-on-LAN, and automations get rebuilt rather than ported.

How PDQ Deploy Works

A deployment in PDQ Deploy is a package made of steps. A step can run an installer with silent switches, a PowerShell script, a file copy, a reboot or a nested package, and steps run in order with their own conditions. If you're unsure which installer format to use, our guide to MSI vs EXE covers the silent install switches for each.

PDQ's library ships prebuilt packages for common apps. The Deploy product page says "more than 200 common apps", and Connect's library passed 700 Windows packages plus 15 macOS apps in July 2026, per PDQ's blog. PDQ says every library package comes from the publisher, gets scanned, and is checked by a sysadmin before release.

Targets are computers in Active Directory or collections from PDQ Inventory. The console connects to each one and runs the install as a service, so each target needs File and Printer Sharing open in the firewall, so the ADMIN$ and IPC$ shares are reachable, plus an account with admin rights on it. That's why remote laptops need a VPN.

Scheduling is where paid Deploy earns its keep. A deployment can run on a timer or on Heartbeat, which fires when Inventory sees a computer come back online. The Retry Queue retries devices that were off, by default 72 times at one-hour intervals, and a Wake-on-LAN packet can power them on first. Central Server lets more than one admin share packages, schedules and history.

PDQ Inventory is the other half. It scans hardware, software, services and registry values, and builds dynamic collections such as "Chrome older than the current version". Its PowerShell Scanner adds any value a script can read. The default scan profile rescans a computer once its data is 7 days old, so trigger a scan after a deployment if you need the report the same day.

Microsoft 365 Apps go through the Office Deployment Tool rather than a single installer, and our Office Deployment Tool guide covers the XML that PDQ runs for you.

What PDQ Does Well

Speed on a Windows LAN. Deploy pushes a prebuilt package straight to every desktop on the network, with no agent to install first. For an office fleet, that's the whole pitch.

The package library. Silent switches, detection and update logic for common apps are already written and kept current by PDQ. That's the packaging work that eats hours in Group Policy, which can only assign MSI packages.

Air-gapped and on-prem networks. Deploy & Inventory needs no cloud connection. PDQ positions it for air-gapped sites, and its own April 2026 comparison says Connect's internet dependency can rule Connect out there.

Price per admin. One license covers unlimited devices. A single admin running 2,000 desktops pays the same $1,950 as one running 150.

A tool sysadmins like using. The console is plain, the docs are clear, and the ratings are high on both products (more on that below).

Where PDQ Stops

Both products leave gaps that an IT team usually fills with a second tool. This is what PDQ's own pages show on 10 November 2026.

The monitoring gap hits a small team hardest. PDQ tells you what's installed and whether a deployment worked. It doesn't page anyone when a disk fills up or a service stops, which is the job of an RMM tool.

Linux is the gap people raise next. Neither Deploy & Inventory nor Connect manages Linux today, and "Linux device support" sits in the Planned column of the Connect roadmap without a date. PDQ Detect, a separate PDQ product, does list a Linux agent.

PDQ Deploy Pricing in 2026

PDQ publishes its prices, so these come straight from pdq.com on 10 November 2026.

Deploy & Inventory licenses can't be shared between admins, and volume pricing starts at 15 licenses. Without a current subscription, updates and Package Library access stop. PDQ takes 15% off for businesses under 50 employees, nonprofits and schools.

Connect has a 100-device minimum on every tier, and the pricing card offers volume pricing from 250 devices. Terms are annual and renew automatically, and devices added mid-term are billed pro rata once a month. Audit logs are kept 14 days on Basic, 30 on Plus and 12 months on Premium. Nonprofits and schools get 10% off.

Macs cost the same per device as Windows. The free-Mac offer from Connect's macOS launch ran until 1 August 2026, and the pricing page now lists macOS in every tier with no separate rate. Third-party listings still quote older Deploy prices of $1,575 and $1,650, so check the date on any price you find outside pdq.com.

Both products have a 14-day trial. Connect's covers up to 250 devices with no card.

Is PDQ Deploy Free?

Partly. PDQ Deploy's current documentation (version 20.1.28.0) describes a Free mode with no time limit and no cap on target computers, in commercial, government and education use. It deploys single-step packages and the Free-level packages from the library. Schedules, multi-step packages, the Retry Queue, Central Server and email notifications need the paid Enterprise mode. PDQ's pricing page doesn't mention Free mode, so use it to test single-step installs before you buy.

What PDQ Costs at 100, 250 and 500 Devices

The per-admin and per-device models cross at a point you can work out on a napkin. Divide the Deploy & Inventory price by the Connect rate and multiply by the number of admins: $1,950 / $18 gives about 108 devices per admin against Connect Plus, the cheapest tier with automated deployments.

List prices per year, before Connect's volume pricing.

The license is only part of the bill. Deploy & Inventory needs a Windows machine for the console, a VPN for anything off-site, and a second tool for Macs. Connect removes the VPN and the console host. Neither product monitors devices or handles tickets, so budget for those either way. PDQ's own post from 28 October 2026 walks through the same per-admin vs per-device math, with example prices rather than its list prices.

What Changed in 2026

Connect added macOS in November 2025 and kept shipping through 2026. Deploy & Inventory got steadier updates, the latest being version 20.1.28.0 on 30 September 2026, with the migrate-to-Connect options, a firewall test and a performance analyzer.

1. 28 April 2026. PowerShell Scanner in Connect, plus Zapier, Freshworks and Jira integrations.
2. 24 June 2026. An AI-assisted package builder that drafts a package from a plain-English description for an admin to review. It's in early access.
3. 8 July 2026. Missing Windows updates shown per device, the first 15 macOS apps in the library, and one-click reboots.
4. 5 August 2026. Zendesk, ServiceNow and Halo ticketing integrations, and vulnerability management for Macs.
5. 12 August 2026. An MCP server in early access, so AI clients such as Claude or Copilot can query and act on Connect within each user's permissions.
6. 16 September 2026. The API and prebuilt integrations moved to every Connect tier.

Next on the Connect roadmap is a Windows update policies item covering Patch Tuesday scheduling, update rings and reboot deferrals, plus Windows imaging. If you plan updates around Patch Tuesday, that's the item to watch.

What Sysadmins Say

Ratings are high for both products. On 10 November 2026, PDQ Deploy & Inventory had 4.8 out of 5 from 341 reviews on Capterra, and PDQ Connect had 4.6 from about 400 reviews on G2.

The r/sysadmin threads are more mixed, and more useful. In July 2026, one admin argued Connect wasn't finished, pointing at its status page. Replies split between admins who'd seen problems and admins who'd run it for two years without downtime, and a PDQ staff member replied that Connect had "earned that criticism as it matures".

Treat that thread as reports from individual admins. PDQ doesn't publish an uptime figure, and we didn't find an independent measurement.

PDQ Deploy Alternatives

If you need Linux, monitoring or one console for everything, these are the tools IT teams compare PDQ against. Prices are as each vendor published them on 10 November 2026.

If Intune is on your shortlist, our Intune review covers where it runs out for third-party apps.

OpenFrame takes a different route. It's open, AI-native infrastructure for IT and security, with RMM, remote access, patching, PSA and MDM in one place. Patching runs as scripts (Windows Update commands, winget, Chocolatey, softwareupdate and brew), and Linux hosts show up in inventory. It has no package catalog and no approval rings, so it doesn't replace PDQ's library. It costs $1 per device per month, with a 14-day free trial. Flamingo builds OpenFrame, which competes with the tools in this section.

PDQ vs NinjaOne

These two answer different questions. PDQ is a deployment and patching tool with a deep Windows package library. NinjaOne is an RMM: monitoring, alerting, remote access, scripting and patching for Windows, macOS and Linux in one agent, priced per device on a quote.

Pick PDQ when the job is getting software onto Windows machines fast and monitoring lives elsewhere. Pick NinjaOne when you need to know a server is down before a user calls, and patching is only one of its jobs. Our NinjaOne review covers its pricing and limits.

Who PDQ Fits and Who Should Skip It

Deploy & Inventory fits a Windows fleet on a LAN or a VPN, an admin who writes PowerShell, and sites that can't send data to a vendor cloud. It's also the cheaper option once one admin manages more than about 108 devices.

Connect fits a Windows and Mac fleet that works from home and on the road, a team that wants deployments without a VPN or a console server, and fleets small enough that per-device pricing stays under the per-admin license.

Skip both if you need Linux management, phone management, or uptime alerts from the same tool. You'd end up running a second product anyway, and an RMM may cover all three.

The Short Version

PDQ is two tools that share a name. Deploy & Inventory is fast, cheap per device and tied to the network it sits on. Connect follows the laptop and charges per device for it. Neither one monitors, tickets or manages Linux, so plan the rest of the stack before you sign. For PDQ next to other patching tools, read our patch management software roundup next.