Nosdesk vs Autotask PSA
Where Autotask runs your whole MSP business, and where its contracts aren’t worth the lock-in.
Autotask is a full professional services automation platform: ticketing, CRM, contracts, time tracking, billing, and project management for the MSPs that run their entire business on it. Kaseya picked it up in the 2022 Datto acquisition, and a lot of that breadth is genuinely useful. What technicians tend to dislike is the terms more than the feature list: a cloud-only product with your data in Kaseya’s tenancy, no published pricing, an interface reviewers regularly call dated, and committed contracts that auto-renew for the same length unless you opt out in time. Here’s a straight, sourced comparison, including the places Autotask is the better pick.
Hosting & data ownership
Self-host it yourself: it’s source-available and ships as a single binary, so your ticket and customer data never leaves your infrastructure.
Cloud SaaS only, “born in the cloud” and hosted by Kaseya. There’s no self-managed or on-premises edition, so your data lives in Kaseya’s tenancy.
Datto: Autotask PSAContracts, renewal & exit
Hosted Nosdesk is the same source-available product you can run yourself, so you’re never locked in: one command moves your whole workspace, data and all, from our cloud onto your own infrastructure whenever you want. Your data is always yours to take.
Cloud-only, with no way to take the product in-house. Subscriptions run for a “Committed Service Term” and auto-renew for another term of equal length unless you opt out at least 30 days before it ends. License counts can be increased mid-term but not decreased, and renewals can rise up to 5% plus CPI.
Kaseya Master AgreementPricing transparency
One flat per-agent price you can read on the pricing page, with customers and requesters always free. Self-hosting is free.
No public pricing; every deal is a custom sales quote. As of December 2025 billing moved to a Committed Minimum Quantity model: you’re billed for a minimum license count that can flex up but never drop below the commitment.
Kaseya Master AgreementBusiness scope
A focused helpdesk and IT management tool: tickets, knowledge base, SLAs, assets, and automation. It deliberately doesn’t do CRM, contracts, invoicing, or billing.
A full PSA that runs an MSP’s whole business: CRM, contract administration, time tracking, billing and invoicing, and project management, with accounting integrations like QuickBooks.
Datto: Autotask PSAEndpoint & RMM stack
Imports devices and users from Microsoft Intune and Entra and links them to tickets, but it isn’t an RMM and doesn’t turn endpoint alerts into tickets.
Ties directly into the Datto and Kaseya endpoint and RMM tooling, turning device alerts into tickets automatically as part of one integrated MSP stack.
Datto: Autotask PSAEach specific Autotask PSA claim above links to Autotask PSA’s own documentation, and everything was verified as of June 2026. Software changes, so if anything’s out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.
Why pay for hosted Nosdesk?
- Audit logs, SLA tracking, automation, and custom branding live on the base plan, not gated behind a premium tier or sold as a paid add-on the way other helpdesks do it.
- You only pay for agents. Your customers and requesters are always free, however many you support, with no per-contact metering.
- No lock-in. Hosted Nosdesk is the same product you can run yourself, and one command moves your whole workspace to self-hosting whenever you want. We keep your business by being worth it, not by trapping it.
Autotask is the right call if you run an MSP and need one system for quote-to-cash: CRM, contracts, time, billing, and procurement tied to your ticketing and RMM stack. Nosdesk doesn’t try to be a PSA. If what you want is a fast, modern helpdesk you can always move on your own terms, hosted by us or self-hosted by you, that whole business-management layer is weight, and lock-in, you’ll pay for and largely won’t use.
See if Nosdesk fits the way you work
Self-host the v1 image today, or see exactly what hosting costs.