Pace Suite Discontinued! What Alternative Do You Have?
In May 2025, Pace Suite announced it would suspend license sales effective June 30, 2025. Maintenance subscriptions expiring before that date can be renewed as usual, while those expiring afterward may still be renewed at a discount, until June 30, 2026, with uninterrupted service for all current clients.
If you are an application packager or software developer who uses Pace Suite and will be affected by the license changes, or you had planned to adopt it, you may be exploring other tools to continue your work. One competitor option worth evaluating is Advanced Installer.
In this article, I’ll cover Pace Suite’s capabilities, then look at how Advanced Installer addresses similar tasks, along with some features that differ.
Key Capabilities of Pace Suite
Pace Suite targets two main audiences: application packages and software developers.
Here’s a breakdown of its key features:
Pace Suite for Developers:
- Create MSI, MST, MSIX, App-V, AppX, ThinApp, and IntuneWin installer formats from scratch via GUI and command lines from CI/CD tools (limited functionality).
- Perform Package ICE validation.
Pace Suite for Packagers:
- Repackage any installer into a single project file and build multiple formats from it.
- Create and edit MSI, MST, MSP, and MSM packages using a visual UI or direct table editing, with features such as change tracking, undo/redo, digital signing, validation, and documentation.
- Create, convert, and edit MSIX, APPX, BUNDLE, and App Attach packages, PSF fixups.
- Create and convert installers into App-V and ThinApp packages with full control over virtualization settings, streaming, isolation modes, entry points, and application configurations.
- Publish packages to MECM (SCCM) or Intune.
Advanced Installer as an Alternative: Similarities and Differences
With over 20 years of continuous improvements and feature developments, Advanced Installer covers many of the same features as Pace Suite and also offers certain additional options.
Below is a high-level, side-by-side overview. If you’d like to explore Advanced Installer’s capabilities firsthand, you can try the full-featured version free for 30 days.
Feature | Pace Suite | Advanced Installer |
|---|---|---|
Updater and Patching | Paces Suites doesn’t include an update mechanism. | Advanced Installer’s Auto Updater feature allows you to release new versions and control how to update software on already installed devices. |
CI/CD Integration | REST API, CLI, and scripting | Native support with Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CLI, and PSADT. |
Installer Wizard GUI Design | Not available | Predefined themes and full branding customization. |
User Interface | More technical | Intuitive, drag-and-drop interface, with plenty of predefined custom actions and integrated features with a click of a button (e.g., Active Setup). |
Templates and Teamwork | Not available | Create project templates that can be applied to other projects. This can be helpful when you have multiple clients who each require unique customizations or branding. |
MST Support | Limited | Advanced Installer offers full support for creating transforms and response transforms. |
Pricing | Single tier | Multiple licensing tiers are available, starting with a free version. Each tier adds more features, making it a cost-effective option for different needs. The Architect edition includes 1 year of PacKit Plus for free. Learn more. |
Conclusion
Pace Suite’s license sales suspension means many application packagers will eventually need to plan for a transition. For those evaluating alternatives, Advanced Installer offers a similar set of capabilities alongside some different and expanded options.
Whether it’s the right fit will depend on your packaging requirements and workflow preferences.
By reviewing the high-level feature sets side-by-side, you can determine the most suitable path forward, whether that means adopting Advanced Installer or exploring other packaging tools.
I hope this article has given you some useful insights into alternatives to Pace Suite.
If you’d like to see how Advanced Installer works in practice, you can try the full-featured version free for 30 days.
Any affiliation between Pace Suite and Advanced Installer?
No. Pace Suite and Advanced Installer are completely separate and unrelated products developed by different companies.
Written by
Radu Popescu
Technical Writer at Advanced Installer, Technical Engineer on various enterprise client projects. Experienced in Software Packaging, SCCM infrastructure and System Administrating. Tech enthusiast and music producer in his spare time.