Software Rankings
The tools MSPs and in-house teams buy, scored on one published 40-point rubric. Every ranking names the evidence behind its scores, vendors can dispute a fact but never a score, and every price carries the date we verified it.
Every ranking we have published
How we score| Ranking | Category | Top pick | Tools scored | Pricing verified | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Patch Management Software, and What Each One ReachesSeven tools, one 40 point rubric, every subscore published. Check the Windows Au... | Patch management |  ManageEngine Endpoint Central | 7 | Sep 11, 2026 | 8.1 |
| Best PSA Software, and Why a Ticketing System Is Not OneSeven platforms, one 40 point rubric, every subscore published. A ticketing syst... | PSA |  HaloPSA | 7 | Sep 10, 2026 | 8.8 |
| Best MDM Software, Starting With the One You May Already OwnSeven platforms, one 40 point rubric, every subscore published. Microsoft says t... | MDM and UEM |  Microsoft Intune | 7 | Sep 10, 2026 | 8.9 |
| Best Network Management Software, Ranked on What You Can VerifyTen tools, one 40 point rubric, and every price read at the vendor’s own page. T... | Network monitoring |  Zabbix | 10 | Sep 10, 2026 | 8.9 |
| Best MSP Software, Ranked on Where the PSA Comes FromSix platforms, one 40 point rubric, every subscore published. The decision is no... | RMM + PSA |  ConnectWise | 6 | Sep 10, 2026 | 8.5 |
This list is short on purpose. A ranking is published when every price in it has been read at the vendor's own page and dated, not when a category looks popular, so the table grows slowly and every row in it has been through the same work.
Categories in progress are not listed, because a category name with nothing behind it is an advertisement for work that has not been done.
Single product pricing
| Page | Product | Published price | Pricing verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDQ Connect Pricing, and When Per Admin Is CheaperPDQ prices the same job two ways: Connect in the cloud at $12 to $28 per device... | PDQ Connect | $12 / device / yr | Sep 11, 2026 |
| HaloPSA Pricing: $99 per Agent, Falling With VolumeHalo prices per agent with every module included, and the price falls as the tea... | HaloPSA | $85 to $99 / agent / mo | Sep 11, 2026 |
| Addigy Pricing: From $8.25 per Mac, If You Read the FAQThe plan cards say Request Custom Pricing; the FAQ says $8.25 per Mac for Apple... | Addigy | From $8.25 / Mac / mo | Sep 11, 2026 |
| Syncro Pricing, and What the $50 Between the Plans BuysSyncro publishes its whole price list: $129 or $179 per technician per month wit... | Syncro | $129 / user / mo | Sep 11, 2026 |
| Action1 Pricing: Free for 200 Endpoints, Quoted After ThatThe first 200 endpoints cost nothing and nothing above 200 has a published price... | Action1 | Free to 200 endpoints | Sep 11, 2026 |
| ManageEngine Endpoint Central Pricing, Edition by EditionManageEngine publishes the whole Endpoint Central price list, four editions from... | ManageEngine Endpoint Central | $795 / year for 50 endpoints | Sep 11, 2026 |
| Atera Pricing, and Why There Are Two Different ListsAtera bills the technician and leaves the endpoint count open, so the device est... | Atera | From $129 / technician | Sep 10, 2026 |
| Jamf Pricing, and Why Jamf Pro Has No Price of Its OwnJamf publishes its whole price list, and Jamf Pro is not on it. The figures are... | Jamf | $12.50 / Mac / mo | Sep 10, 2026 |
| JumpCloud Pricing, and the Per Feature List Nobody Else PublishesJumpCloud publishes two price lists: packages from $9 per user, and a price for... | JumpCloud | $9 / user / mo | Sep 10, 2026 |
| ConnectWise Pricing, and the One Product That Publishes ItConnectWise sells four things and prices one of them in public. Here is the whol... | ConnectWise | Quote only | Sep 10, 2026 |
| Microsoft Intune Pricing, and the Plan That Has No PriceMicrosoft publishes ten prices for Intune and not one of them is Intune Plan 1,... | Microsoft Intune | Included in M365 E3 and E5 | Sep 10, 2026 |
| NinjaOne Pricing, and the Part of It That Is Not PublishedNinjaOne publishes both ends of a range and nothing between them: $3.75 per endp... | NinjaOne | $1.50 to $3.75 / endpoint | Sep 10, 2026 |
A pricing page exists where a product is searched for by price more than by comparison. It carries what the vendor publishes, what moves the number, and what is not on the bill, each read at the source and dated.
If you are leaving a product
| Page | Product being replaced | Options weighed | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| JumpCloud Alternatives: Directory, SSO or Devices?JumpCloud is three products sold as one, identity, access and device management,... | JumpCloud | 5 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| Ivanti Alternatives, by Which Ivanti You Are LeavingIvanti is LANDESK, HEAT, MobileIron and Pulse Secure under one name, sold across... | Ivanti | 5 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| Atera Alternatives, and Why There Is No Half to KeepAtera is one product on one database, which is why people choose it and why leav... | Atera | 5 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| ConnectWise Competitors, and the Half You Can LeaveConnectWise tops its ranking at 8.5, so nobody leaves it because it cannot do th... | ConnectWise | 6 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| NinjaOne Competitors, and Why One of Them Is Not LeavingNinjaOne is the deepest endpoint management in its ranking, and its own site now... | NinjaOne | 6 | Sep 23, 2026 |
These rank by how well something replaces one named product, which is a different question from which is best in its category. They do not carry their own scores: each row shows the score that product already holds on the ranking it lives on, so the two never disagree by accident.
What the score means
Every tool in a category is scored out of 40, on the same six criteria, against what the vendor and the project publish. The weighting is the argument: nearly half the score sits in how well a product does the one job its category exists for, and the last fifteen points sit in the things buyers usually discover only after signing.
| Criterion | Points | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Core depth | 10 | The primary job the category exists for, judged on what the product does rather than on the length of a feature matrix |
| Secondary depth | 8 | The adjacent job most buyers also need, and whether the tool does it without a second product |
| Automation | 7 | Scripting, policies, scheduling and version control, where a tool either saves time or quietly costs it |
| Pricing clarity | 5 | List price, quote turnaround and contract terms, scored on what a buyer can establish before signing |
| Scale | 5 | Behavior at ten times the typical deployment, where the cheap option often stops being the cheap option |
| Support | 5 | Hours, channels and the response time the vendor commits to in public, and whether it commits to one at all |
Two of those criteria are worth singling out, because they are where published reviews and our scores tend to disagree.
Pricing clarity is scored on what a buyer can establish before signing. A vendor that publishes a list price scores above one that answers every question with a call booking, even when the eventual number turns out to be the same.
Getting a real figure out of a sales process is work, and a product that makes you do that work is worse to buy than one that does not.
Support is scored on what the vendor commits to in public: the hours, the channels, and whether a response time is stated anywhere a buyer can find it before signing.
A vendor that publishes a target can be held to it; one that publishes nothing has left the buyer to discover the answer during an incident. Support is the criterion buyers weight most heavily after a bad year and least heavily before one.
How to read the table
Top pick is the highest scorer in the category, not the right tool for everyone. Every ranking names the buyer each tool is wrong for, because a category winner that is wrong for a ten-seat shop is a useless recommendation to a ten-seat shop.
Tools scored is how many products were put through the rubric for that ranking. A product considered and left out is named in the ranking along with the reason, so the count reflects what was judged rather than what was mentioned.
Pricing verified is the date every price on that page was last read at the vendor's own source. Software pricing moves, and a price without a date is a claim about the past dressed as a claim about the present.
Where that date is more than six months old, treat the numbers as a starting point and ask the vendor for a current quote.
Score is the top pick's total out of 40. Scores are comparable within a category and not across categories, because the same six criteria measure genuinely different things in a backup product and in a remote access one.
The tool that scores highest is the one that does most on the rubric, read against what its vendor publishes. Your constraints, the products you already own and the skills on your team all move the answer, which is why every ranking ends with what would change it.
What this desk does not do
The rules below are the reason the list is short. They are worth stating on the page rather than burying in a disclosure.
- No placement is for sale. There is no sponsored slot inside a ranking, no priority listing, and no arrangement under which a vendor improves a position by paying for anything.
- Affiliate links are added after scoring. A tool with no affiliate program is scored on the same rubric and can win. The affiliate disclosure names every program we are in.
- Vendors can dispute facts, not scores. A factual error gets checked and corrected on the page, with a date. A score is our reading of what a vendor publishes, and it is not negotiable.
- We do not rank from other people's reviews. Every score is read off the vendor's own documentation, price list and support terms, at the source and with the date recorded. Summarizing a dozen review sites is most of what exists in this space and it is not this.
- We do not sell or resell any of these tools. There is no service of ours that a ranking could be steering you toward, because we do not provide IT services at all.
Common questions
How are these rankings scored?
On a 40-point rubric across six criteria, applied identically to every tool in a category. Core depth carries 10 points, secondary depth 8, automation 7, and pricing clarity, scale and support 5 each. Every ranking names its sources and dates its prices.
Can a vendor pay to be ranked higher?
No. There is no paid placement, no sponsored slot inside a ranking and no arrangement that changes an order. Affiliate links are added after the scoring is complete, and tools with no affiliate program are ranked the same way.
Why are there so few rankings?
Because one is only published after every price in it has been read at the vendor's own page and dated, and every capability checked against the vendor's own documentation. That takes real work per category, so the table grows slowly rather than covering many categories thinly.
Where do the prices come from?
From the vendor's own published price list where there is one, read at the source and archived with the date it was read. Where a vendor publishes nothing, the page says so rather than estimating, and the ranking scores it accordingly.
What does top pick mean?
The highest total score in that category. It is not a recommendation for every buyer, which is why every ranking also names who each tool is wrong for and what would change the answer.
Are scores comparable between categories?
No. The six criteria are applied consistently inside a category, but they measure different things across categories, so a 34 in one ranking is not equivalent to a 34 in another.
How often is a ranking updated?
Pricing is re-read at the source and the date on the page moves when it is. A ranking is re-scored when a product changes materially, and at least once a year. Corrections are noted on the page with their date.
Can I suggest a category or a tool?
Yes, through the contact page. A suggestion does not buy a place in a ranking, and a tool suggested by its own vendor is scored on the same rubric as everything else.
What are the scores based on?
What each vendor publishes: the documentation, the price list and the support terms, read at the source and dated. Where a vendor publishes nothing against a criterion, the page says so and the score reflects the absence rather than an estimate of what the answer might be.
Who writes the rankings?
A named editor, printed on every page with the date it was last reviewed. Corrections are made in public and logged on the about page.