Methodology
How we evaluate MSP software
A small MSP buys software differently from an enterprise. The platform has to pay for itself client by client, be learnable by a technician who also answers the phone, and be safe enough to hold the keys to every customer you have. These are the criteria that follow from that.
How we review each product
Every review walks through the same routine a small MSP would face in its first month: creating a tenant, enforcing MFA, setting up technician roles, enrolling machines with the agent package generated inside the tenant, running a patch cycle, scheduling a script, handling a ticket where the product has ticketing, and producing a client report. For each step we work from the vendor's public documentation, release notes, pricing pages and public trial or demo material where offered, and from how admins describe the product in MSP forums and communities. Free, open-source tools have no trial or price to assess, so for those we focus on project documentation, release notes, licensing and where each tool fits in an MSP's workflow. We note on the page when a statement comes from documentation rather than widely reported experience.
The six criteria
- Cost per client
- We model the price the way an MSP pays it: per technician, per device, per sensor or per asset, then express it as a monthly cost for a typical 25-seat client and a 150-seat client. We describe models rather than quote figures that go stale, and we point to the vendor pricing page for current numbers.
- Onboarding speed
- How long from a signed contract to a client that is monitored, patched and documented. We look at agent deployment options, discovery, policy templates and how much of the setup can be reused from the previous client.
- Patch evidence
- Coverage of operating-system and third-party updates, rollout control, reboot handling and, above all, whether the monthly compliance report is something you could send to a client or an insurer as it stands.
- Security of the platform
- Enforced MFA, SSO options, granular technician roles, session recording or logging for remote access, and a searchable audit trail. An RMM is privileged access to every customer at once, so weak controls here count heavily against a product.
- Day-to-day friction
- Console speed, alert noise, how many clicks common jobs take, and the quality of documentation and support when something breaks at an inconvenient hour.
- Switching cost
- How agents are removed at scale, what can be exported (scripts, policies, history, tickets) and what the contract says about term length and cancellation.
How tables are ordered
The comparison tables on our section pages list products by how often small MSPs shortlist them for that particular job, based on the questions readers send us and on what MSP communities commonly report. The order is not a score and it is never for sale. We have no commercial relationship with any vendor listed, and none could buy a better position; Lansweeper, for example, sits near the top of the network table because it is the right answer for inventory work.
What we will not do
- Publish star ratings or scores we cannot explain in a sentence.
- Invent prices, free plans or partnerships. When we are unsure of a figure we describe the pricing model instead.
- Use vendor screenshots without saying where they came from, or pass our own illustrations off as product screens.
- Leave out a weakness because a vendor asked us to.
Updates and corrections
Each page shows the date it was last reviewed. We revisit reviews when a vendor changes its pricing model, ships a major release or when readers report a change. If you spot something outdated, emaileditor@nettrace24.life with a link to the source and we will check and update it. Background on who writes the site is on the about page.