The transparent, no-lock-in Kaseya VSA alternative
Kaseya VSA is a powerful, mature RMM, and that is not in question. It sits inside Kaseya’s IT Complete portfolio - PSA, documentation, backup, security - with a deep automation engine and years of MSP-grade features behind it. If you’re a large MSP that wants one vendor for monitoring, tickets, docs, and backup, and you have the team to run it, VSA is built for exactly that.
The friction usually isn’t the feature list. It’s everything around it: pricing is quote-only (you talk to sales to see a number), quotes are typically annual contracts rather than month-to-month, and standing the platform up commonly comes with a one-time onboarding or services fee that reseller and review-site reports put anywhere from about $1,000 to $10,000+ depending on fleet size. For a lot of teams, that’s a heavy on-ramp for “manage our Windows machines.”
RFF is the opposite on-ramp. The pricing is published - Free, Starter, Pro, MSP, right on the site. There’s no sales call, no onboarding fee, and no annual lock-in (month-to-month, cancel anytime). Your first 100 endpoints are free forever. And instead of an everything-suite, RFF goes deep on managing Windows fleets - deploy, patch, monitor, remediate, remote-manage, and Group Policy you can actually read.
Start free → · Published pricing · No onboarding fee · Cancel anytime
Why a Windows team picks RFF over Kaseya VSA
- You can see the price without a phone call. RFF publishes its tiers - Free (100 endpoints), Starter ($149/mo including 100, then $2.00/endpoint, no cap), MSP ($149 base + $1.75/endpoint, 150 minimum). Kaseya VSA is quote-only. Both bill per endpoint; only one of them lets you do the math before you commit.
- No annual lock-in, no onboarding fee. RFF is month-to-month, cancel anytime, and you’re live in minutes with no paid implementation. VSA quotes are typically annual, and a services or onboarding fee is common. That’s a very different commitment for the same job.
- A real free tier. 100 endpoints, forever - enough to run production, not a countdown trial.
- Config baselines you can actually read. Capture a golden box’s effective Group Policy - or seed from a CIS Windows L1 template - edit it as a versioned desired-state document, and let RFF detect drift in plain English (down to which GPO set each value) and enforce it with one-click rollback.
- Focus over a suite. VSA is one product inside a large IT-management portfolio you’re meant to buy into. RFF is a Windows-focused RMM - deploy, patch, monitor, remote tools, and config conformance - and stops short of the broader suite: less to stand up, less to learn, faster to a first deploy.
What Kaseya VSA does that RFF doesn’t
We’d rather you know this before you sign up than after. If these matter most, VSA is the better fit:
- The IT Complete suite. PSA and billing, IT Glue documentation, Datto backup, and a stack of security modules all integrate with VSA. RFF is not a suite - no PSA, no docs platform, no backup.
- Network monitoring, and cross-platform mileage. VSA covers SNMP and network devices, and it’s managed Windows, macOS, and Linux for years. RFF manages endpoints running its agent, not network gear, and its Mac and Linux agents are new as of October 2026.
- Scale and maturity. VSA is built for large MSPs with big, complex fleets and dedicated operators. RFF is younger, narrower, and aimed at teams that want a focused tool without a professional-services engagement.
RFF vs Kaseya VSA, honestly
| RFF | Kaseya VSA | |
|---|---|---|
| Product shape | Windows-focused RMM: deploy, patch, monitor, remote + config conformance | Broad RMM inside the IT Complete suite |
| Pricing | Published tiers, self-serve | Quote-only (talk to sales) |
| Billing unit | Per endpoint | Per endpoint |
| Contract | Month-to-month, cancel anytime | Typically annual |
| Onboarding fee | None - live in minutes | Services/onboarding fee common ($1k-$10k+) |
| Free tier | 100 endpoints, forever | Trial / quote |
| Software deployment | Yes - MSI/EXE/PowerShell/any script, CDN-parallel | Yes |
| Patch management | Yes - ring rollout, health-gate + auto-halt | Yes |
| Monitoring, alerting & auto-remediation | Yes - checks, email/webhook alerts, self-heal, workflows | Yes |
| Remote tools (console / files / registry / live processes) | Yes - browser, no screen takeover | Yes |
| GPO baselines + drift detection | Yes - capture or CIS template, versioned, plain-English drift, enforce + rollback | Not the same readable-GPO focus |
| PSA / documentation / backup | No | Yes (IT Complete suite) |
| Network / SNMP monitoring | No | Yes |
| Remote control | Attended, unattended and UAC-elevated browser control (beta), every plan | Yes (mature) |
| Platforms | Windows + macOS + Linux (Windows-first) | Windows + macOS + Linux |
| Server to stand up | None (outbound 443; agentless SMB+WMI option) | Cloud or on-prem |
Where Kaseya VSA wins: breadth and scale - if you want one vendor for RMM, PSA, documentation, backup, and security across a large, mixed fleet, and you have the team to operate it, that’s the whole point of IT Complete. Where RFF wins: if your fleet is Windows and you want deployment plus readable, drift-checked Group Policy at a published price with no contract and no onboarding fee, RFF gets you there today.
The rest of what RFF ships
Beyond deploy and baselines:
- Compliance dashboard. EOL Windows, machines missing AV/EDR, expiring certificates, and unlocked screens at a glance.
- Shadow-AI visibility. Content-blind detection of AI tools, local model runners, and browser extensions - what’s installed, not what anyone typed. Detection is free.
- Remote desktop (beta). Attended browser control that can drive the Windows logon screen as SYSTEM - outbound 443, consent prompt, full audit. On every plan including Free; unattended and UAC-elevated control stay off until an admin opts the tenant in. Free caps the hours, not the capability.
- Patch Tuesday automation. Ring rollout with a health-gate and auto-halt.
See a number without a sales call
That’s the whole pitch, honestly. RFF’s pricing is right on the pricing page, the free tier is $0 for 100 endpoints, and you can be running a real deployment before a VSA quote would land in your inbox. Point RFF at one well-configured Windows box, capture its effective Group Policy as a baseline, and watch it flag drift on a machine you thought matched.
Switching from something else?
Honest comparisons if you’re weighing options:
- Atera alternative - per-endpoint instead of per-technician
- NinjaOne alternative
- Action1 alternative
- ManageEngine alternative
- PDQ alternative
- Automox alternative
- Tactical RMM alternative
- Intune alternative
FAQ
How much does Kaseya VSA cost? Kaseya doesn’t publish VSA pricing - it’s quote-only through their sales team, typically on an annual contract, and often with a one-time onboarding or services fee. Community and review-site reports put the per-endpoint rate in the low single digits per month, but your number depends on fleet size, modules, and negotiation. RFF’s pricing is published: Free (100 endpoints), Starter ($149/mo including 100, then $2.00/endpoint with no cap), MSP ($149 base + $1.75/endpoint, 150-endpoint minimum).
Is RFF month-to-month? Yes - cancel anytime, no annual lock-in. VSA quotes are typically annual.
Does RFF manage Macs and Linux? Yes, since October 2026, alongside Windows in one console. VSA has more years on all three and covers network devices too; RFF goes deepest on Windows. What runs where.
Can RFF replace the whole IT Complete suite? No. VSA comes with PSA, documentation, backup, and security modules. RFF is a Windows-focused RMM - deployment, patch, monitoring, remote tools, and config conformance. If you need the full suite from one vendor, Kaseya is the broader platform.
Who’s behind RFF? A solo founder, Brian Vitko - so support is direct and honest, not a ticket queue.