They come from the same company, install on the same console and are often mentioned in one breath — but PDQ Inventory and PDQ Deploy do opposite jobs. Confusing them leads to buying the wrong tool first. Here is the honest split.
The one-sentence version: PDQ Inventory sees, PDQ Deploy changes. Inventory scans your Windows PCs and builds a living database of hardware, software, updates and configuration. Deploy uses administrator access to install, update and remove software and run commands across those PCs on a schedule. Neither is a lesser version of the other — they are two halves of one workflow, and understanding the seam between them tells you which half your office is missing.
Agentless network scanning with an admin account; hardware, operating system, installed applications and versions, Windows updates, services, startup programs and user information; Collections and the Collection Library for live filtered answers; reports and scheduled reporting. It also carries a few small remote tools — run a command, wake a PC with Wake-on-LAN, launch remote desktop, uninstall a program from one machine — helpful courtesies, not a deployment system.
Software deployment: build or import a package once, then install, update or uninstall it on tens or hundreds of PCs, on a schedule or on demand. Deploy maintains a library of ready-made packages for common applications, supports multi-step packages with scripts and reboots, and can automatically keep standard software updated. This is the tool that ends the USB-stick tour of the office.
Install both on the same console and they link up: Deploy can target the collections Inventory maintains. That gives you the clean loop — Inventory's scan finds the nine PCs with outdated Chrome, a collection holds them, Deploy pushes the update to exactly that collection, and the next Inventory scan proves the versions moved. Scan, group, deploy, rescan to prove it.
They are separate products with separate licences, historically priced per admin (per technician who uses the console) rather than per PC managed — which is why small teams find the pair affordable and why the price is not the headline on the box. Trials are available for both, in the same 14-day pattern as the video shows for Inventory. Always confirm the current price and edition split on pdq.com, because packaging changes over time.
Both tools are Windows tools, agentless, and happiest on a LAN or VPN where the console can reach the PCs. A fleet of laptops that rarely connects is the weak spot of the agentless design. PDQ's own answer is PDQ Connect, its cloud-based, agent-driven product — same company, different architecture, worth evaluating if "reachable from the office network" no longer describes your computers.
Start with the Inventory tutorial video on this channel; when manual installs start eating your week, that is the signal for the Deploy half of the pair.
▶️ Watch Full VideoYes. Deploy is a complete standalone product — you can type or import target computers directly. Inventory simply makes it smarter: collections keep the target lists current automatically, so deployments follow live data instead of a hand-maintained list.
Only in small ways. Inventory includes basic remote tools — it can uninstall a program from a machine, run a command, reboot or wake a PC. Building packages, scheduling installs and automatically keeping applications patched is PDQ Deploy's job, and it needs its own licence.
Broadly yes — both connect to target PCs with an account that has local administrator rights, and both can use LAPS-managed accounts. Securing that account matters even more with Deploy in the picture, because it can push software, not just read data.