Guides for people
choosing MSP software
What the categories mean, how the major products differ, and which numbers are actually knowable, written by people who have run an MSP on most of them.
We have used most of the products in these guides ourselves, and we like and respect them. Most buying guides in this market are published by a vendor that puts itself first; ours name a rival wherever a rival is the better choice, and list our own gaps too.
Explanations and comparisons written as reference material first: what the categories mean, how the major products differ, and which numbers are actually knowable. We ran an MSP on several of the products covered here, and these are the guides we wish someone had handed us.
The best RMM for small MSPs and IT teams in 2026
Ten products judged on the same six criteria, with the best pick for each kind of team and the gap in each named plainly.
Read the guideWhat is RMM?
RMM (remote monitoring and management) software lets one technician watch, maintain and fix a whole fleet of computers remotely. What it does, what it does not do, and how it differs from PSA, MDM and EDR.
Read the guideNinjaOne vs Atera: the fleet-shape decision
NinjaOne and Atera are both excellent and price in opposite ways. The real decision is fleet shape: how many devices each technician manages. The crossover maths, the add-on meters and the contract terms, dated and sourced.
Read the guideNinjaOne alternatives in 2026
Considering alternatives to NinjaOne? Seven credible options compared by pricing model, strengths and trade-offs, including where staying with NinjaOne is the right call. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideMigrating off Atera
What Atera actually lets you export, the API-only cases that catch people out, the documented route into Syncro, and the things that never transfer whatever tool you use. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideTools
Free, no sign-up, nothing stored.
RMM cost calculator
Enter your technicians and devices and see what eleven RMMs cost a month and a year, from published prices and dated buyer data.
Open the calculatorMSP pricing calculator
What to charge a client per device or per user, from your own tool costs, technician time and target margin.
Open the calculatorChoosing and switching
Straight answers to the questions MSPs ask before they change platform, priced from the vendors' own pages.
The cheapest RMM for a small MSP
Ten RMMs priced for the same two-technician, 40-device MSP, from published and reported figures. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideConnectWise alternatives
What to replace Manage, Automate and ScreenConnect with, what each costs, and the 60-day notice to diarise first.
Read the guideDatto RMM vs HaloITSM
One runs the machines, the other runs the tickets. What each does and costs, and how Halo's integration joins them.
Read the guideAtera vs SuperOps
Both price per technician. How they count endpoints, what the AI costs, and which suits which MSP. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideHaloPSA alternatives
Like-for-like PSAs and combined PSA-and-RMM products, with prices, and what a ten-person team pays. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideFree and open-source RMM
Tactical RMM, MeshCentral and the free tiers of Level and Action1: what each gives you and when it stops being free. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideHead to head
The pairs MSPs shortlist most, compared on the things that decide the bill.
NinjaOne vs Datto RMM
Pricing model, minimums, contract terms and what is included, side by side. Dated and sourced.
Read the comparisonNinjaOne vs N-able N-central
Pricing model, minimums, contract terms and what is included, side by side. Dated and sourced.
Read the comparisonConnectWise Automate vs NinjaOne
Pricing model, minimums, contract terms and what is included, side by side. Dated and sourced.
Read the comparisonDatto RMM vs N-able N-central
Pricing model, minimums, contract terms and what is included, side by side. Dated and sourced.
Read the comparisonIT Glue vs Hudu
Both publish prices; the difference is a 36-month term against cancel any time. What a five- and ten-person MSP pays.
Read the comparisonSyncro vs Atera
Pricing model, minimums, contract terms and what is included, side by side. Dated and sourced.
Read the comparisonExporting from your RMM
What each platform actually lets you take with you, checked against its own documentation, and how to bring the file into Helios.
Exporting from NinjaOne
Devices and tickets to CSV, which of the three device exports to pick, and what stays behind. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from Datto RMM
Devices and sites to CSV, the 500-row limit, and where the site IDs hide. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideHow to move from Atera to Syncro
Syncro's Atera Importer step by step: what it moves, the status mapping people skip, and what you rebuild. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from Syncro
Customers, assets and tickets to CSV, and the part that needs a support request. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from N-able N-central
The Detailed Asset report, one customer at a time, or every device through the API. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from ConnectWise Automate
Dataviews to Excel, why the file is XML, and how to get a CSV. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from SuperOps
Asset Views and clients to CSV, and where each export arrives. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from Level
Every device and column to CSV, from the web app or the command line. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideExporting from Action1
Endpoints through custom reports or PowerShell, and what never moves. Dated and sourced.
Read the guideThe parts that rarely make a feature grid
Comparisons and price lists tend to stop at monitoring, patching and tickets. Helios has kept shipping, every feature lands on every plan, and this is the part that usually gets left out:
- Client billing that closes the loop. Recurring contracts (flat, per-device or per-seat), an included-hours retainer that nets against logged time, and the finished invoice pushed into Xero or QuickBooks or exported as CSV.
- The kit that will never take an agent. Nominate a machine already running the agent as a site relay and act on the switches, firewalls, NAS boxes and printers around it over SSH. A target only appears if that relay is what discovered it, every command waits for a human, and the password is fetched at the moment it runs and written to the audit trail.
- Network discovery that names things. Agents map each client's network and identify what they find by vendor and type, so new hardware on a client site is flagged the day it appears.
- Replacement dates without a spreadsheet. Machines report their own age from the BIOS date, so Helios can tell you what is due for replacement against a service-life policy you set, per client.
- Reporting built for the review, not the dashboard. A custom report builder, SLA reporting, Microsoft 365 licence-cost reporting, and a day-one baseline per client that stores the numbers, so a quarterly review can prove what actually moved.
- Everything is addressable. A published REST API, a credential vault with an audit trail, custom fields on clients and devices, and standing rules that limit what Helio may do on its own: block an action or require a human to approve it, scoped to one client, a device group, a device type or a single machine, and to a class of action or one named fix.
Why MSPs choose Helios
One platform that does the work, at a price that stays put
Helio fixes, not just flags
When an alert fires, Helio, the AI technician built into Helios, investigates it, writes the fix and runs it once you approve. It keeps what works, so the next one is quicker.
Everything in one product
RMM, a service desk with SLAs, patching including third-party apps, remote access, Microsoft 365 and Defender checks, backup monitoring, a client portal and billing into Xero or QuickBooks.
Priced by fleet, not by people
£4 a device on Launch up to 25 devices, from £20 a month, then £99, £199 or £399 a month by fleet size, with any number of technicians and every feature on every plan.
A price that stays put
Your price is locked for as long as you stay subscribed, and that is written into our terms. Monthly billing, cancel any time.
Bring your clients across
Import your clients and machines from another RMM's CSV export, then roll the Helios agent out at your own pace, with a count of how many have arrived.
14 days free, no card
The full platform from the first minute, on your own machines. No sales call, no feature held back for the trial.
See it on your own fleet
Helios is the AI-native platform for MSPs: monitoring, patching, security, Microsoft 365, backup monitoring, remote access, client billing and an AI service desk in one product, at one flat price per MSP. Contracts and logged time become invoices in Xero or QuickBooks without leaving the platform. Every feature is on every plan. 14-day free trial, card-free, set up in minutes, cancel any time.
Start freeCompetitor details on this page were last verified in July 2026 from public pricing pages, announcements and review sites, and may have changed since. They are provided in good faith for comparison; always confirm current pricing and features with the vendor. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@heliosmsp.io and we will fix it.