IT AI Index
Index › IT operations and endpoint › RMM › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Remote monitoring and management for small business buyers

Asked as “RMM platform”, and as “remote monitoring and management tool for managed service providers”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 53 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Atera
Contested
30% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessAtera30%ContestedThis pageMid-marketNinjaOne50%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseNinjaOne61%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Atera30%3%59endorsed leader
02NinjaOne26%3%60accepted challenger
03Syncro19%4%55accepted challenger
04Action115%3%29accepted challenger
05Pulseway2%8%13accepted challenger
06N-able N-sight2%9%11accepted challenger
07Datto RMM2%39%23criticized challenger
08ConnectWise RMM2%50%12criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10ConnectWise Automate0%60%10criticized challenger
09SuperOps0%0%20accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
NinjaOne vs SyncroNinjaOne vs Action1Syncro vs Action1

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Atera30%
02NinjaOne26%
03Syncro19%
04Action115%
05Pulseway2%
06N-able N-sight2%
07Datto RMM2%
08ConnectWise RMM2%
09SuperOps0%
10ConnectWise Automate0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Datto RMM
39%
9 of 23 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Datto's RMM has been flagged for security concerns and is often cited as something to steer clear of” Mistral Small, negative prompt
ConnectWise Automate
60%
6 of 10 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“What to Avoid — ConnectWise Automate - While powerful, it's better suited for larger, more technically mature MSPs.” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
Kaseya VSA
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid or Approach with Caution ... Kaseya VSA - Major concerns: Multiple security breaches” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
ConnectWise RMM
50%
6 of 12 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“powerful, but heavier to run and costlier implementation; only if you're already committed to the ConnectWise ecosystem” DeepSeek V4 Flash, scale prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

68 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 820 links across 160 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

syncrosecure.com
43 answers · 62 citations · 10 models
superops.com
vendor site · SuperOps32 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
ninjaone.com
vendor site · NinjaOne29 answers · 41 citations · 11 models
blog.domotz.com
vendor site · Domotz28 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
mspcompared.com
27 answers · 34 citations · 9 models
connectwise.com
vendor site · ConnectWise25 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
comparitech.com
25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
reddit.com
23 answers · 55 citations · 9 models
ittoolsguide.com
22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
learn.g2.com
21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
aimultiple.com
18 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
atera.com
vendor site · Atera18 answers · 21 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

syncrosecure.com/blog/best-rmm-software
42 answers · 10 models
superops.com/best-rmm-software-and-tools
28 answers · 10 models
blog.domotz.com/all/best-rmm-tools-small-business
25 answers · 10 models
comparitech.com/net-admin/rmm-software-and-tools
24 answers · 10 models
mspcompared.com/best/rmm
24 answers · 9 models
ittoolsguide.com/best-rmm-software-for-small-business
22 answers · 9 models
connectwise.com/blog/best-msp-rmm-software
21 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-rmm-software
21 answers · 9 models
ninjaone.com/blog/best-rmm-software
19 answers · 10 models
expertinsights.com/it-management/the-top-rmm-solutions-for-msps
17 answers · 9 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best RMM platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which remote monitoring and management tool for managed service providers would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top RMM platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best RMM platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a RMM platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which RMM platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Atera
Three alternativesN-able, NinjaOne, Syncro
Atera, NinjaOneChanged
One alternativeSyncro
NinjaOne
Two alternativesAtera, Syncro
Tactical RMM
Three alternativesN-able N-sight, SuperOps, Syncro
no first choiceagainst: Datto RMM, Kaseya, ManageEngine Endpoint Central, N-able, NinjaOne, SimpleHelp
GPT-5.4 miniNinjaOne
Three alternativesConnectWise RMM, Datto RMM, Syncro
NinjaOneHeld
Three alternativesAtera, ConnectWise RMM, N-able N-central
NinjaOne
Three alternativesN-able N-sight, Pulseway, Syncro
against: ConnectWise RMMAtera
One alternativeNinjaOne
no first choiceagainst: ConnectWise Automate, ConnectWise RMM, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, N-able, Pulseway
Gemini 3.5 FlashAction1
Five alternativesAtera, Level.io, NinjaOne, SuperOps, Syncro
AteraChanged
Three alternativesNinjaOne, SuperOps, Syncro
NinjaOne
Four alternativesAction1, Atera, Pulseway, Syncro
Action1
Five alternativesAtera, Level.io, MeshCentral, Syncro, Tactical RMM
Action1, NinjaOne
Two alternativesAtera, Syncro
against: ConnectWise Automate, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, MeshCentral, N-able N-central, SolarWinds, Tactical RMM, TeamViewer
Perplexity SonarNinjaOne
Four alternativesAction1, Atera, N-able N-sight, Syncro
NinjaOneHeld
Two alternativesAtera, Syncro
NinjaOne
Four alternativesAction1, Atera, SuperOps, Syncro
Atera
Two alternativesAction1, Syncro
no first choiceagainst: Atera, ConnectWise Automate / ConnectWise RMM, Datto RMM / Kaseya-related platforms, Tactical RMM
Grok 4.1 FastAtera, Syncro
Two alternativesN-able N-sight, NinjaOne
AteraChanged
Three alternativesNinjaOne, SuperOps, Syncro
Atera, NinjaOne
Two alternativesN-able N-sight, Syncro
against: ConnectWise RMMAction1
Four alternativesAtera, Pulseway, SuperOps, Syncro
NinjaOne
Three alternativesAtera, ConnectWise Automate, N-able N-central/N-sight
against: Kaseya VSA or Datto RMMagainst: ConnectWise, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, N-able N-central
Mistral SmallAtera
Two alternativesNinjaOne, Syncro
Datto RMM, SyncroChanged
Two alternativesAtera, N-able N-sight
NinjaOne
Two alternativesAtera, Syncro
against: ConnectWise RMM, Datto RMMSyncro
Three alternativesAtera, NinjaOne, Tactical RMM
no first choiceagainst: Action1, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Datto RMM, GoRelo, ITAgent, Itarian, Kaseya, SimpleHelp
DeepSeek V4 FlashAtera, NinjaOne
Three alternativesAction1, SuperOps, Syncro
AteraChanged
Two alternativesNinjaOne, Syncro
NinjaOne
Three alternativesAction1, Atera, Syncro
against: Datto RMMAtera, Syncro
Three alternativesAction1, NinjaOne, Pulseway
NinjaOne
Two alternativesDatto RMM, Syncro
against: ConnectWise RMMagainst: AnyDesk, ConnectWise, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Kaseya VSA, MeshCentral / MeshAgent, N-able N-central, Syncro, VNC/UltraVNC
Llama 4 MaverickAction1, Atera, Pulseway, SyncroConnectWise RMMChanged
Two alternativesDatto RMM, NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Three alternativesAtera, ConnectWise RMM, Syncro
Syncro
Three alternativesAtera, NinjaOne, Tactical RMM
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashNinjaOne
Four alternativesAction1, Atera, Pulseway, Syncro
AteraChanged
Two alternativesNinjaOne, Syncro
NinjaOne
Two alternativesAtera, Syncro
against: Datto RMM, N-ableSyncro
One alternativeAtera
against: ConnectWise Automate, N-able, NinjaOne, SolarWindsNinjaOne
Two alternativesAction1, Atera
against: AnyDesk, Kaseya, Lansweeper, Legacy NetBox, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, SolarWinds, TeamViewer
Kimi K2Atera, Syncro
Two alternativesAction1, NinjaOne
NinjaOneChanged
Two alternativesAtera, Datto RMM
against: ConnectWise AutomateAtera
Three alternativesAction1, NinjaOne, Syncro
Action1
Three alternativesAtera, SuperOps, Syncro
NinjaOne
Three alternativesAtera, SuperOps, Syncro
against: AnyDesk, ConnectWise, Kaseya VSA, MeshCentral / MeshAgent, SolarWinds, TeamViewer
GLM 4.7 FlashXAtera
Four alternativesN-able N-sight, NinjaOne, Pulseway, Syncro
against: ManageEngine Endpoint CentralAteraHeld
Two alternativesNinjaOne, Syncro
Atera, NinjaOne
Five alternativesAction1, ManageEngine RMM Central, N-able N-sight, SuperOps, Syncro
against: ConnectWise AutomateAction1
Five alternativesLevel.io, NinjaOne, Pulseway, SuperOps, Techs Together
against: Atera, Syncrono first choiceagainst: ConnectWise, MeshCentral, N-able, PDQ Connect, SimpleHelp
MiniMax M2.5N-able N-sight
One alternativeSyncro
NinjaOne, SyncroChangedagainst: ConnectWise RMMAtera, Syncro
Two alternativesAction1, NinjaOne
Action1, Syncro
One alternativeNinjaOne
no first choiceagainst: ConnectWise Automate, Datto RMM, Kaseya VSA, N-able N-sight, SimpleHelp
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:33yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:03yes49 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:13yes1925 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:00yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:01yes3115 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:21yes76 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:09yes1519 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:35yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:50yes521 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:28yes1354 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:08yes1930 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:49yes513 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:18yes188 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:07yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:44yes1725 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:43yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:52yes2112 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:00yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:11yes1720 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:45yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:01yes561 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:01yes1016 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:26yes2425 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:57yes936 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:04yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:44yes88 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:38yes1926 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:37yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:20yes2212 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:51yes913 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:40yes914 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:42yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:54yes526 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:19yes927 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:44yes1988 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:49yes2533 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:00yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:23yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:26yes1727 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:23yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:50yes3113 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:56yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:59yes912 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:05yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:54yes528 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:22yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:10yes1395 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:20yes513 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:07no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:11no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:34yes2027 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:05yes188 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:51yes1910 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:55no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:39yes1220 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:41yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:27yes1476 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:44yes1425 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:31yes1469 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:00no017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:01yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:46yes38 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:58yes2019 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:05yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 14:13yes4118 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:47yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:56yes2831 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:08yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:37yes1555 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:25yes2966 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:22yes2263 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:09yes1536 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Datto read as Datto RMM
Unresolved, counted raw
Datto RMM / Kaseya-related platforms
Kaseya VSA or Datto RMM
Legacy NetBox
Techs Together
VNC/UltraVNC
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in it operations and endpoint

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← PatchingUEM →