Coke vs. Pepsi. iPhone vs. Android. McDonald’s vs. Burger King.
In the channel, add Kaseya vs. ConnectWise to these iconic product rivalries.
Both market leaders competed for headlines last week, with Kaseya announcing its new CEO Rania Succar on the opening day of ConnectWise’s IT Nation Secure conference, where the vendor made several major announcements, including a potentially rival offering to Kaseya 365.
Coincidence, or strategic timing?
“While it’s difficult to say definitively whether the timing was strategic, the announcement’s dominance in the news cycle suggests Kaseya was keenly aware of the competitive optics,” says Jessica Davis, principal analyst, MSPs, at market research firm Canalys.
Now that some of the “dustup” has settled, MSP Success asked MSPs to weigh in on the two market leaders’ moves and what impact they think it will have on the channel and what they’d like to see from these vendors moving forward.
New Kaseya CEO Has an SMB Track Record
Succar’s appointment to replace former CEO Fred Voccola was somewhat of a surprise to some, as she is not a channel insider. However, she’s a fast-rising software executive who also has experience with the SMB market. She most recently headed up Intuit Mailchimp, a leading email marketing automation platform.
“Succar’s lack of MSP experience could be seen as a gap, but her SMB track record is highly relevant to the MSP space,” Davis says. “With former MSP owners like Jim Lippie, Gary Pica, and Frank DeBenedetto around her on her executive team, she’s well-positioned to quickly gain credibility in the ecosystem.”
Matt Rose, co-founder and chief experience officer at Tech Rage IT, an MSP in Winter Springs, Florida, echoes Davis. “I’m cautiously optimistic about Kaseya’s new CEO, even if from outside the channel,” he says. “Their leadership team is almost completely former channel or current channel products, so hopefully she can work on things like customer service and building the company to support more MSPs.”
Coming from outside the channel has both pros and cons, according to Tito Huynh, vice president of Business Data Services, an MSP in Overland Park, Kansas On the pro side, he says, “she can bring her experience and expertise for growing departments of other very successful businesses.” On the con side, when it comes to answering to private equity or going public, he says, “there might be too much focus on revenue or bottom line, which would undo some of the work in the past year but we don’t know until some changes are announced.”
Scott Beck, president and CEO of BeckTek, an MSP in New Brunswick, Canada, adds, “She’s moved into a very male dominated industry, and I wish her well. We need different perspectives in the channel, so hopefully she’ll do well for the company and for the channel in general in helping to modernize some of our thinking.”
For Mike Bloomfield, CEO of Tekie Geek, an MSP in Staten Island, New York, says he’s “genuinely excited to see what Rania brings to Kaseya. Coming from a company like Intuit, especially working with a product as big as Mailchimp, she clearly understands the power of marketing, brand awareness, and AI-driven engagement. Those are areas where I think the MSP community has so much room to grow, and with her experience, she can help bridge that gap.”
Corey Kirkendoll, president and CEO of 5K Technical Services, sees the move as strategic, but he also has some concerns. “Kaseya’s recent hire of a major player in the SMB and SaaS space is a strategic move that will likely have a significant impact going forward. This addition aligns with growing speculation about a potential IPO. Her background is not only a strong asset for the MSP and SMB communities, but it also raises questions about whether Kaseya may eventually position itself to compete within the MSP space—a move I hope doesn’t materialize, but time will tell.”
Top Priorities for Kaseya’s New CEO
What should Succar’s first order of business be?
Davis says her “immediate priorities should include: 1) accelerating integration across Kaseya’s expanding portfolio, 2) reinforcing the company’s commitment to partner-centric values, and 3) articulating a compelling MSP narrative for Wall Street as the company prepares for a potential IPO.”
Beck would like to see her “soften the way Kaseya is viewed within the industry.”
For his part, Bloomfield, would like her first order of business to be “listening to the channel. We’re a passionate, vocal, and tight-knit group—so understanding the needs of MSPs, not just from a corporate lens but from the trenches, will be key. If she leads with that mindset and continues to push forward with innovation—especially in AI—I think she can take Kaseya, and the channel with it, to the next level.”
Did ConnectWise Move the Needle?
As the MSP community digested the Kaseya news, ConnectWise executives were on stage at IT Nation Secure rolling out PSA on Asio; the ConnectWise Pro, an all-in-one bundle with two different pricing options; ConnectWise Endpoint Management & Security for M365, a turnkey solution created in partnership with Microsoft and Pax8; and a new SIEM.
Do those developments move the needle for ConnectWise?
“ConnectWise continues to focus on its Asio platform and shared some roadmap details with MSPs during the conference,” Davis says. “The next step is to better connect these platform updates to what matters most to MSPs by clearly articulating how the changes will improve their day-to-day operations and bottom line.”
Says Rose, “I feel like they’ve been talking about Asio for so long. While the model of Kaseya to buy companies has its faults, they have moved faster and I wonder if they’ve spent similar or even less money, but were able to grab market share quicker because of that?”
Beck has a healthy skepticism for vendor roadmaps. “I just expect there’s going to be a large timeline from the time a vendor tells me, ‘Hey, we have these new features coming,’ to when the new features actually arrive. I feel it’s been industry wide across many companies.”
As for the ConnectWise Pro bundled offering, Kirkendoll says, “ConnectWise seems to be responding strategically by leaning into a consolidated bundle approach. This makes sense given the evolving MSP landscape, where consolidation and creating stickier customer relationships are becoming increasingly important.”
Rose feels they may have waited too long after Kaseya’s rollout of Kaseya 365.
Beck is more wait and see. “I think they’re playing catch-up to the industry where we do want to see things bundled the same as we bundle things for our clients, to mitigate the risks and to increase their efficiencies and their profitability. We’re seeing this from vendors, which is a good thing.”
As for if they’ll move to ConnectWise Pro, Beck says it depends on the pricing, which ConnectWise did not reveal at IT Nation Secure, and did not respond to repeated requests from MSP Success.
“We have most of the stack already, so it will depend on how they price it as to whether it would make sense for us to move to it,” Beck says.
Did ConnectWise wait too long to roll out a competitive bundled offering?
Says Davis, “Kaseya has grown its market share at a faster rate than ConnectWise has over the last year. [CEO Manny] Rivelo’s mention of ‘unit economics’ on stage mirrors how Kaseya has marketed its Kaseya 365 bundle. But without transparency on ConnectWise Pro pricing, it’s hard to assess whether it’s a viable counterpunch or still a work in progress.”
Kaseya vs. ConnectWise vs. the Rest of the Market
Meanwhile, as the two market leaders are duking it out for the hearts and minds of MSPs, are they creating space for up and comers?
According to Davis, “ConnectWise leads in RMM/PSA market share, but vendors like NinjaOne, Syncro, and HaloPSA and even Kaseya, are outpacing it in terms of growth. This could potentially reshape the competitive field.”
However, she does not expect MSPs to plant their flagpole in just one camp, despite the bundling and platform pushes. “Plenty of MSPs are reluctant to put all their eggs in one basket, and I don’t see that changing,” Davis says. “MSPs value flexibility and often hedge their bets across vendors. Unless one platform proves undeniably superior in economics, performance, and integration, I don’t see a forced either/or choice becoming the norm anytime soon.
Kirkendoll agrees. “There’s clearly a competitive battle brewing among the major players, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it all unfolds. I anticipate a wave of acquisitions and strategic shifts across the channel in the near future.”
