RMM software compared

An IT team of two looks after 60 laptops and a handful of servers, and Windows updates are landing on some machines and not others. Remote monitoring and management software, usually shortened to RMM, fixes that by putting a small agent on each device and giving technicians one console to watch, patch and script them. The eight products on this page each run endpoint monitoring agents, remote scripting and patching, and alerting. We checked every price and claim on the vendor's own website, and each product page links to the pages we used.

What RMM software does

The agent is the core of the product. It sits on a Windows, Mac or Linux machine, reports health data to the vendor's cloud or to a server you run, and takes instructions back. Those instructions are usually scripts and patch jobs. Level describes its scripting as PowerShell, Shell, Python, Go, Ansible and osquery, run against one device, a group or a tag. Tactical RMM lists bash, batch, PowerShell, Python, nushell and deno.

Alerting turns the monitoring data into work. A good alert fires on a condition that matters, waits long enough to avoid noise, and closes itself when the problem clears. Level says an alert opens only after a condition persists for a set time and can auto-resolve. Kaseya VSA sets thresholds by policy and can trigger a ticket, a webhook or an automated response.

Remote control, ticketing, documentation and backup are often sold next to RMM, but they are not what this category tests. Our inclusion test covers only the three basics, so a product that does the extras well and the basics poorly would not earn a place here.

Who buys it

Two groups buy RMM, and their needs differ. Managed service providers, known as MSPs, manage endpoints for many client companies and need to separate those clients, bill them and report to them. In-house IT teams manage one company and care more about patch coverage and the price per device.

Syncro is aimed at MSPs and bundles a ticketing and billing system with its RMM. Datto RMM is built for MSPs too, and its page describes integrations with Autotask PSA. An in-house team with a modest fleet may find that an MSP-style bundle charges for features it never opens.

How the eight products price

Pricing in this category falls into four models, and they cannot be compared on one axis without doing arithmetic first.

Per device pricing is the most common. Level charges $2 per device per month after the first 10 devices, billed on the peak device count in the month, with no annual commitment. Its pricing page gives two examples: 11 devices cost $22 a month and 50 devices cost $100 a month.

Per technician pricing charges for the people using the tool, not the machines. Syncro's Core plan costs $129 per user per month on annual billing or $159 on monthly billing, and its Team plan costs $179 or $209. Endpoints are unlimited on both plans. A three-person MSP on the annual Team plan pays $6,444 a year, which is the figure Syncro itself gives.

The third model is the quote. NinjaOne, Pulseway, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA and ConnectWise RMM do not publish a full price list. NinjaOne prints a range. Rates start as low as $1.50 per device per month at 10,000 endpoints and rise to $3.75 at 50 or fewer, and they vary by region and products purchased. The others publish nothing, so any number you read on a third-party site was not checked against them.

The fourth model is free self-hosting. Tactical RMM's license grants use free of charge, and you pay only for your own server and your own time.

Comparing cost at one fleet size

A 50 device fleet is a useful test. On Level it costs $100 a month by the vendor's own example. On NinjaOne, a fleet at that size falls at the top of the published range, so the per-device rate would be about $3.75 or less. We did not multiply that out as a quote, because NinjaOne says pricing varies and full pricing is by request.

Syncro behaves differently. Because it charges per technician, a 50 device fleet managed by one person on the annual Core plan costs $129 a month, and the same person managing 500 devices costs the same. The break-even against Level's $2 rate arrives at 65 devices, since 65 devices at $2 is $130, though that ignores everything Syncro bundles that Level does not. Check the arithmetic against the current pages before relying on it.

Cost traps

Several costs sit outside the headline price. Syncro lists Microsoft 365 Cloud Backup at $1.90 per user per month as an add-on, and its Team plan, not the Core plan, includes Microsoft 365 management. Its AI features are free through January 2027 and then move to usage-based credits, for which the page gives no price.

Pulseway lists antivirus, ransomware detection, phishing defense, ticketing, IT documentation and backup as separate add-ons, and none of them carries a published price. Level says above 2,000 devices you must contact it, so the $2 rate is not a guarantee at scale.

NinjaOne's page says implementation is not charged and support is free and unlimited, which removes two common line items. It also says partners without a promotional commitment can cancel with 60 days' notice, so a month-to-month plan is not literally a 30 day exit. Ask whether a promotional commitment applies before you sign.

Tactical RMM has costs of another kind. You run and secure the server yourself, and the documentation lists the Mac and Linux agents and code-signed Windows agents as sponsorship features. The license also requires AmidaWare's prior written approval for commercial or for-profit service use, and it bars offering the software as part of a SaaS product without permission. An MSP that bills clients for managed services should settle that point in writing first.

Trials and demos

Trial terms vary more than prices do. NinjaOne offers a 14-day trial and Syncro offers 14 days with no credit card. ConnectWise RMM and Datto RMM both show a trial option on their product pages, but neither states a length. Kaseya VSA and Pulseway show a demo request and no trial. Level states no trial, because the first 10 devices are free instead, which lets you test on real machines for as long as you like.

Free tiers and trials do not test the same things. A trial of a quote-based product usually runs with the vendor's help, while a free tier lets you find the rough edges alone. Neither shows what the product costs at 500 devices.

Security of the tool itself

An RMM agent can run commands on every machine a company owns, so the tool is a target. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published advisory AA23-025A in January 2023 on criminals abusing legitimate RMM software. It said such tools can be used as a backdoor for persistence and that their use generally does not trigger antivirus defenses.

The advisory recommends that defenders inventory remote access tools, allowlist approved ones and block unauthorized portable versions. It follows that the tool you buy should sit inside that inventory, with a known list of administrators.

Vendors state different levels of assurance. NinjaOne lists SOC 2 Type II attestation, ISO/IEC 27001 certification, GDPR compliance and FedRAMP Class C certification, with a HIPAA business associate agreement available. Level states an audited SOC 2 Type II report available under NDA and ISO certification in progress, and says it offers a business associate agreement and a data processing agreement. Level also signs users in through Okta, Google or Authentik.

The pages we read for ConnectWise RMM, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, Pulseway, Syncro and Tactical RMM did not name SOC 2 or ISO 27001. ConnectWise links to a Trust Center, which may hold more, and Datto cites a BSIMM assessment of its RMM. Treat a missing statement as a question for the vendor, not as proof that a certification is absent.

Operating system coverage

Check the operating systems you actually run before you compare anything else. Kaseya VSA lists Windows, macOS and Linux devices, plus network devices, printers and ESXi hosts. ConnectWise RMM says it covers Windows, macOS, Linux, network and cloud devices. Pulseway names Windows, Mac, Linux, network devices and IoT.

Coverage differs inside each operating system too. Level says most monitors work on Windows, macOS and Linux, but its antivirus and event log monitors are Windows only. Patching also differs by platform. Level patches Linux through Apt, Yum or DNF, Pacman, Snap and Flatpak, and installs Mac software through Homebrew. Kaseya handles Windows through policies and macOS and Linux through reusable components. NinjaOne cites more than 200 third-party applications.

Patching controls worth testing

Patching is where RMM earns its keep, and the controls vary. Level offers staged rings for test, pilot and production, an approval step between waves, and a way to block a known-bad update across the whole fleet. Kaseya describes policy-based Windows patching with scheduling and reporting.

A tool that installs updates is easy to find. A tool that lets you hold a bad update from reaching 200 machines is rarer, so ask each vendor to show that control rather than describe it.

Choosing between the eight

A small in-house team with a few dozen devices and a limited budget can start with Level's free tier or self-host Tactical RMM, provided the license fits its situation. An MSP that wants billing and ticketing in the same tool should look at Syncro, whose per technician price stays flat as the device count grows.

Larger MSPs and enterprises will end up in quote conversations with NinjaOne, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, ConnectWise RMM or Pulseway. Ask each for the price at your device count in writing, with the add-ons you need itemized. Ask also what happens to the price at renewal, and how an exit works.

What to test during a trial

• Install the agent on one Windows, one Mac and one Linux machine and note how long each takes to report in.
• Write one script and run it against a group of five devices, then read the output on the console.
• Hold back one test update and check that the patch policy skips it.
• Raise a disk space alert on a test machine and time how long it takes to open, and to close after you clear the space.
• Ask for the written price at your device count, including every add-on.