Residential managed services software

[Dane Newman]

Hi,
I have decided to branch out on my own and start my own computer repair business. I am currently researching software tools for use in my business. One of the things I am looking into is providing managed services to residential clients and as such I need appropriate RMM software. I am considering Kabuto and Solarwinds MSP (am I correct in thinking that Solarwinds used to be called Maxfocus?). (I'm also open to other options.)
Kabuto provides remote monitoring, patch management, AV, and can be use with Kabuto Live for remote management.
Solarwinds MSP seems to provide these options and more.
I have been leaning towards using Repairshopr as my business management software and Kabuto integrates with it as well as their addon 'Recur' for automated billing and syncronisations with Repairshopr.
The Kabuto/Kabuto Live/Recur stack cost varying amounts for the different pieces depending on you number of clients etc. I'm not sure as to the cost of Solarwinds yet, it wasn't clear on their website so I have emailed them.
I was after opinions as to how the Kabuto stack and Solarwinds compare in regards to applying them towards a residential MSP client base? Maxfocus seems popular here, not as much info about Kabuto though.

Cheers,
Dane.

 

[Porthos]

Don't want to sound like a stick in the mud but good luck getting and keeping RESIDENTAL clients on a MSP plan. Lots of discussions going on here already about it.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

There seems to have been a falling out with techs here and Kabuto. I've never used it. Solarwinds MSP is the company with two products. One is Solarwinds RMM which used to be MaxFocus. The other is N-Able/N-Central. I would go with Solarwinds RMM in your case. We have over 100 machines on our sudo residential MSP plan, which is AV/monitoring/tune ups/etc. But no support out of malware. We sell it for $9.95 per machine and do decently with it. Oy had a couple people drop it in almost 6 years. We don't offer residential support formally anymore or we would have more. We did keep the clients we already had on the plan though.

 

[Dane Newman]

Thanks Porthos, I'll do a bit more research on the Technibble forums about residential MSP before taking the plung. I can imagine there are lots of factors involved in the success of a residential MSP.
Dane.

 

[Dane Newman]

Thanks for your response Slater, I have signed up for a trial of Solarwinds RMM so I can give it a try.
Cheers,
Dane.

 

[nerd2u]

You will be competing against big companies who offer residential tech support for next to nothing.

Also be mindful to look at the minimum requirements for the rmm software you decide on some have high entry points 100+ endpoints

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[Porthos]

If you are just starting look at https://www.syspectr.com/en/ it is free and is just monitoring and has a simple remote desktop feature that is not bad considering the price(free). I am montoring 70 home computers at this time. I am just trying it and see if I can justify/work up to a small recurring fee for the future.

All computers are Win 10 using Defender and Malwarebytes Premium.

 

[GTP]

Kabuto provides remote monitoring, patch management, AV, and can be use with Kabuto Live for remote management.
Solarwinds MSP seems to provide these options and more.

Kabuto is very basic but was designed for techs to get a foot in the door with RMM.
Kabuto Live sux! It costs about AU$3~4 more than my Teamviewer subscription for a buggy, slow-as -cold-treacle remote program with less than half the features of Teamviewer.

Solarwinds is a full featured RMM so obviously it has more features. It also costs a lot more which makes it harder to sell to "residential" clients. they have minimum entry levels as well.

not as much info about Kabuto though.

Your kidding right?
These forums are awash with info about Kabuto! Do some searching!

 

[cypress]

Kabuto I would recommend if you are starting out. It offers a great AV in Emsisoft but right now the Monitoring and Patch management don't work as intended. I would also recommend Solar Winds or maybe even Ninja MSP if you are looking for something more robust.

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Kabuto works, but one major flaw is it doesn't monitor hard drive smart info. Considering monitoring gets charged for, a hard drive is probably the number 1 spot I would want monitored.

Residential is hard, especially getting them to stick with a direct debit. Check out my recent thread.

 

[glennd]

If you are just starting look at https://www.syspectr.com/en/ it is free and is just monitoring and has a simple remote desktop feature that is not bad considering the price(free). I am montoring 70 home computers at this time. I am just trying it and see if I can justify/work up to a small recurring fee for the future.

All computers are Win 10 using Defender and Malwarebytes Premium.

I'm much interested in your thoughts on that tool as you test it. My only question is, why is it free?

 

[Porthos]

I get emails as issues are detected. I can send messages to clients. The remote desktop works pretty decent.
I attached a pdf report from my laptop.

 

[glennd]

I get emails as issues are detected. I can send messages to clients. The remote desktop works pretty decent.
I attached a pdf report from my laptop.

It seems to represent a snapshot of basic information. To be complete I would think it would want to include hdd smart stats, cpu temperature, up time, ram usage and a few other things that escape me right now...

Edit: I think what I'm thinking is that that doesn't really represent monitoring as I understand it. It missing the vital running metrics that tell me how the machine is and has been performing.

 

[Porthos]

@glennd

 

[GTP]

I get emails as issues are detected. I can send messages to clients. The remote desktop works pretty decent.
I attached a pdf report from my laptop.

Kabuto sends emails about "New Alerts" but they are not very detailed. One of the biggest issues with Kabuto at the moment is reporting..any reporting...would be nice!
I agree with @glennd as well. Reporting should be actual reporting!

Hey @Porthos , just my curiosity but why do you have 2 versions of Firefox installed?

 

[glennd]

View attachment 9408@glennd

nice! what else?

You're about to tell me to try if for myself

 

[Porthos]

You're about to tell me to try if for myself

Your ESP is strong.

 

[Porthos]

Hey @Porthos , just my curiosity but why do you have 2 versions of Firefox installed?

Looks like the 32 bit was originally installed and then I installed Quantum x64. I will have to correct that the next time I go out to the garage work area. It is not the main computer. I just use it to print work orders for the most part.

 

[Dane Newman]

Kabuto Live sux! It costs about AU$3~4 more than my Teamviewer subscription

Looking up the websites a single user subscription to Teamviewer is AU$47. 90/ month and Kabuto Live is US$19/month. You must have gotten a good deal. At this stage I'm not in a position to spend nearly $50/month on Teamviewer even though it seems to a superior product. I think Kabuto Live has a free trial, I might give it a try, the Repair tech team seems pretty proactive on taking user feedback and releasing updates from what I have read, so the performance may have improved.
Thanks for your feedback.
Dane.

 

[Dane Newman]

Your kidding right?
These forums are awash with info about Kabuto! Do some searching!

Yes your right. I am a new member and I have had limited access but now I have passed my minimum 5 post I now have full access and I can see there are lots of post to research.
Cheers,
Dane.