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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Autotask PSA

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AAutotask PSA is designed as a complete IT Business Management Platform for MSPs, now from Datto (resulting from the Autotask merger with Datto in 2017).N/A

    SolarWinds Service Desk

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service catalog, knowledge base, and SLA management tool. The integrated agent-based asset management solution collects contracts and licensing data from Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix systems.N/A
    Pricing
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Considered Both Products
    Kaseya
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    90%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    86 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    85 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    86 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    75%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    78 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    75%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    84 Answers
    Features
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Datto Autotask PSA and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Datto Autotask PSA
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.0
    97 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings6.057 Ratings
    Service restoration00 Ratings6.058 Ratings
    Self-service tools00 Ratings7.086 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.967 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings6.077 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.087 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Datto Autotask PSA and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Datto Autotask PSA
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.3
    82 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Configuration mangement00 Ratings8.074 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard00 Ratings6.980 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings7.064 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of Datto Autotask PSA and SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    Feature
    Datto Autotask PSA
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)
    7.0
    80 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Change requests repository00 Ratings7.064 Ratings
    Change calendar00 Ratings7.044 Ratings
    Service-level management00 Ratings7.072 Ratings
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    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
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    HaloPSA
    Score9.3 out of 10
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    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score7.4 out of 10
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score7.4 out of 10
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    Score4.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (30 ratings)
    8.0
    (119 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.5
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (7 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (92 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Autotask PSASolarWinds Service Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Kaseya
    In my opinion, Datto Autotask is exceptionally complicated to set up, manage, and use on a daily basis. I would think the target market for this product would be someone managing a team of 20 - 50 people, possibly more. In my experience, for it to run properly you will need to dedicate at least half an FTE to running this product in an organization of that size per month. I would not recommend it for companies with less than 10 people or for companies that value quick communication with their clients. I would not recommend it for companies using Datto's RMM product. The integration exists, but it is clearly a bolt-on. They were not developed together and they are slow to talk to each other. Frequently you cannot add details from RMM sessions into the PSA without manually copying the ticket number, and if the ticket is more than a week old, then you can't even find it with the ticket number.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    If you are looking for a way to support a company and bill based on the outcome this software works really well. If it's a quick password change there was no charge, but if it's troubleshooting things you click the box to charge. It works really well for this. Also bringing all your assets into this and associating them to a client works well. I can't think of anything that this software would not be less appropriate for. It works well for what we use it for.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Kaseya
    • The graphical calculations on time spent on requests, how long they were open for, who worked on a ticket last.
    • Grouping by priority so you can determine easier what needs to be addressed sooner rather then later. This also helps if Account Management has conversations a technician is not aware of so they can prioritize efficiently.
    • The email updates that are sent out to the technicians so they are aware of upcoming or stale tickets.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • Approval flows: You can have multiple layers of approval required for the tickets and service requests you design. This helps us show auditors that access to privileged systems and data was formerly reviewed and approved by the appropriate managers.
    • Easy to design forms: You don't need to spend hours reading the documentation to figure out how to create forms. It's simple enough that you can just jump right in and start creating them with minimal training.
    • Lots of options and features are available for you to include in your forms.
    • Integrates well with SAML-based SSO and has capabilities for MFA.
    • Easy and useful search function. Need to find that ticket from last year that you worked for a particular user or issue? Just search by keyword or username, and it'll quickly find the ticket.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Kaseya
    • The GUI is a little dated.
    • Some integrations are limited for not being a Datto product.
    • While not as complex to set up as Connectwise, it definitely requires some serious thought during the initial setup.
    • Email processing could offer more options for parsing keywords and allow for more automation.
    • The mobile app is just not worth using in my experience.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • There is potential to greatly improve the capacity for cascading attributes. Currently, categories are limited to a top-level category and one subcategory. This leaves a fairly shallow decision tree.
    • Greater flexibility to modify the layout of incident request forms.
    • More integration options for cloud file-sharing platforms. Solarwinds Service Desk has tie-ins to Dropbox but not other vendors.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Kaseya
    After using multiple products on the market, Autotask was intuitive and easy to manage.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    My renewal is soon coming up, it is fairly likely I will renew again for the 5th year. I may consider evaluating what else is out there, It was requested by my staff to not make a change. They feel that SSD fits our needs, is easy to use and should keep it.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Kaseya
    Datto Autotask PSA is a full featured product that can do almost anything you need. There is a significant learning curve to get started which requires several hours spent in product training. Additionally, several hours / days are needed to get clients imported, contracts configured, and integrations implemented. Once the setup and user training is complete, the product is very functional, but it's imperative to not get overwhelmed when starting out.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    Solarwinds Service Desk has a very "user friendly" interface. Everything looks nice and neat. And, learning how to use the system is very easy. It provides multiple services that are easy for most people to grasp, and allows for great organization of incidents and assets. Support for Solarwinds Service Desk has a good response and resolution time and are easy to work with.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Kaseya
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Because the data is stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) there are very rarely any outages. There have been some times when the product has been slow to load, but because the interface is web based it could be anything between my computer and AWS that was causing the issue. But also, because the application is web based it can be access from anywhere which makes it very convenient
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Kaseya
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    When the system is working, the pages load very quickly. We run reports all the time in the system. The reporting can be extremely complex or very simple. Either way, we have not had any issues with the reports. We do not currently integrate Solarwinds Service Desk with any other software.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Kaseya
    They are fairly quick at returning a response to a problem and have been able to fix all issues for the most part.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds support department will respond to you quickly from the time of purchase to after-purchase instructions & supporting, and the company is great in customers support. In buying a software, our organization always has a priority for the seller and support and accountability is very important to us, and the manufacturer or seller must be responsible and supportive.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Kaseya
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    When we first purchased Samanage (now Solarwinds) they provided us with an informational training session to show us all of the basics on how the service works and showed us everything we were interested in using. There are still some areas of Solarwinds that we do not yet utilize but I know if we choose to use them in the future we would be able to schedule another session with our representative to have them show us what we need to know.
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    Implementation Rating
    Kaseya
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    The implementation process for our organization was fairly simple. We set up an email address to receive the emails from the system (for incident creation), and we allowed the system to spoof our IT email to respond to requests. Solarwinds helped us with the rest of the implementation, and it took less than a week to get the system fully operational.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Kaseya
    The portion of Autotask that we've used other companies for prior to using Autotask is the Endpoint Management. The Autotask Endpoint Management (AEM) portal integrates perfectly with their PSA/CRM tools. It's alerting features are much better than the above software as there aren't a bunch of superfluous and unneeded alerts. Instead, it only alerts for things that you specify that you want. Alerts aside, for the PSA/CRM, I don't have much to compare it to as Autotask was the first PSA we tried. It's hard to imagine a PSA having more features or doing a better job than Autotask.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    We chose SolarWinds Service Desk for its user friendly platform compared to what we had. Its was easier for requestors to submit tickets, provide feedback, merge tickets, build a suitable approval process. Our organization had a hard time going back and forth with the end user on providing a status on their request or issue, where most users just didn't follow through or lost interest in their issue. We would have to send multiple emails to get any type of feedback and that's something we did not want to keep on doing.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Kaseya
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    We have over 500 computers and tablets across our organization and this has helped us greatly in keeping track of where computers are and who is currently using it. I can see this product being useful to groups both larger and smaller than us and I really appreciate this product.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Kaseya
    • We were able to identify the profitability of our entire client base.
    • We identified a loss of over 1 million dollars for time unbilled consultancy fees using metrics derived from Autotask.
    • Autotask helped us serve our client base in a professional manner, it's like having an entire department at your finger tips.
    • Autotask is the heartbeat of our operation.
    Incentivized
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    SolarWinds
    • We are more easily able to quantify user satisfaction with support.
    • We are able to develop SLAs that quantify and define the obligation of our support teams.
    • The actual cost of Solarwinds Service Desk per agent user is high in our estimation. The more you implement this platform across your organization, the more tightly tethered you are to this solution.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Service Desk Screenshots

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