NinjaOne vs Pulseway: Features, Capabilities, & Alternatives

Whatever the structure of your IT department looks like, choosing an IT management platform that aligns with your goals, needs, and budget is crucially important. But you have probably already realized how crowded the IT software market is these days. With so many options out there, how do you find the perfect match?

You may have heard of Pulseway and NinjaOne, two IT management platforms that many IT professionals consider in their search. With features and interfaces specifically designed for the needs of modern IT departments, you don’t want to disregard these two IT management software options.

To gain a better understanding of which platform best fits your specific needs, begin your research by creating a complete picture of your use cases, budget, and priorities — this will help you make an informed decision. Then, explore our side-by-side comparison of NinjaOne vs Pulseway to help illuminate the pros and cons of each. Read on!

User interface and usability

Both NinjaOne and Pulseway offer a host of essential IT management capabilities, including remote monitoring and management (RMM) for IT departments as well as for managed service providers (MSPs). While the two platforms have some features in common, their user interfaces (UI) are completely different.

NinjaOne dashboard (image via G2)

As you can see by comparing the image of NinjaOne’s dashboard above and the Pulseway dashboard below, the two are quite distinct. Many Pulseway users enjoy accessing the platform through a mobile app as well, providing increased flexibility in their day-to-day IT management workflow:

Pulseway dashboard (image via G2)

Both Pulseway and NinjaOne have received strong praise for their up-to-date and modern dashboards, and users enjoy their accessibility and ease of use. They have short learning curves as well, making adoption easy and smooth. The main complaint that these two platforms appear to receive is actually about the features and capabilities, with many users noting that some specialized use cases are not accounted for.

Compare Atera vs. NinjaOne here

Compare Atera vs. Pulseway here

Features and capabilities

Let’s talk about the features of NinjaOne and Pulseway. NinjaOne offers a fairly complete range of solutions for many IT providers. Its offerings include script deployment, flexible reporting, endpoint task automation, software management, real-time monitoring, and more.

NinjaOne is generally considered a comprehensive IT management platform that allows you to patch, manage, and support all of your endpoints. Within NinjaOne, you will find a lot of different products, such as patch management, mobile device management, endpoint management, remote control, endpoint backup, RMM, MSP backup, endpoint security, and more. NinjaOne also offers a number of native integrations, such as HaloPSA, IT Glue, Liongard, OneLogin, Slack, Splashtop, Webroot, and more. 

However, what might seem like a helpful all-in-one platform comes with a hefty price tag. We’ll talk more about price later, but it is worth noting here that NinjaOne does not offer transparent pricing on their site. The lack of cost transparency makes it difficult to gain an understanding of what is and isn’t included in their packages. Many IT decision makers find themselves wondering, are all of NinjaOne’s capabilities included in the base price? Or will I have to pay for additional capabilities? 

NinjaOne is also hindered by its per-device pricing. Some vendors on the market, like Atera, offer pay-per-technician pricing, which makes it much easier to grow and scale your business while still enjoying a complete suite of IT management offerings. With NinjaOne’s pay-per-endpoint pricing, many users have complained that the price tag is too steep for small and medium-sized businesses. Pulseway has seen some of the same complaints… but for now, let’s take a look at Pulseway’s capabilities.

Pulseway’s feature range is focused on device management, backup and disaster recovery, ransomware detection, and even PSA functions, such as ticketing. The platform is best known for its remote control offerings and network monitoring software, and users love the mobile app interface. It’s also worth noting that Pulseway is 100% owned by Kaseya and uses similar templates and visual features.

Pulseway, like NinjaOne and Atera, is built for both MSPs and IT departments. The recent introduction of the platform’s mobile app has been well-received by users. In addition, Pulseway offers features like backup, server application monitoring, robust reporting, and remote control.

Both NinjaOne and Pulseway have robust RMM offerings, yet unfortunately neither has made significant headway into AI automation. Some market competitors, like Atera, are already integrating AI and driving the industry towards smarter IT management.

The lack of AI advancements for Pulseway and NinjaOne has already been noticed by customers, with one Reddit user mentioning the following:

To conclude, the Reddit user currently uses NinjaOne but is demoing Atera and has been impressed by its AI features. As the reviewer says, you can ask Atera’s AI Copilot accounts-specific questions, such as “This PC is slow. How can I optimize it?”

Instead of performing device troubleshooting tasks manually, Atera’s AI helps automate them and generate the right scripts to fix issues.

Performance and reliability

Whether working in an organization’s IT department or in an MSP serving many clients, every IT professional knows just how important it is to choose reliable, high-performance IT management software.

If you are struggling with excessive downtime and facing increased security risks, then your IT management platform is not doing its job. Instead of compromising the data protection of your company or client, make sure to choose a platform with high scores in reliability.

Over the years, NinjaOne has gained a reputation for reliable service, and users rarely report invasive downtime. If there are issues that require troubleshooting, it seems that NinjaOne’s support team is typically reachable, and online resources can be a good substitute if you cannot get hold of the live support technicians.

Pulseway, on the other hand, appears to gain fewer positive reviews about reliability, and users seem to experience some issues with downtime and consistent performance. 

When you compare At Atera, performance and reliability are a top priority. That’s why we offer fully encrypted cloud-based data backup as well as the option of local backup at Atera.

Equally important is recovering your data — and with Atera, it’s never been easier.

Pricing and value for money

When evaluating IT management platforms like NinjaOne vs Pulseway, there is no avoiding the role that IT cost has to play. Both NinjaOne and Pulseway have common RMM pricing plans, which are pay-per-endpoint. NinjaOne doesn’t showcase it’s prices publicly and Pulseway has a pricing calculator on it’s website.

Here’s what we do know about NinjaOne’s pricing model: It is structured per endpoint, and many users have complained that it is inaccessible for small and midsize companies. For larger companies, paying per endpoint also proves to be a challenge – although some users have noted that NinjaOne can provide custom quotes for enterprise users.

If you search on the internet, you can find different threads discussing NinjaOne’s pricing. In one Reddit thread, users say the general price per endpoint is $3.60.

NinjaOne review via Reddit

As you can see, the user says the minimum cost for 50 endpoints is $180 per month with a 60-day termination notice. IT teams should keep in mind that this price doesn’t include key IT management features, such as patch management and ticketing. For these, you need to pay an extra add-on cost.

Without this information readily available, it is tough to know whether you are getting the best value for money compared to other IT management platforms. Previous user reviews have indicated that the per-endpoint pricing model can rack up very quickly, especially when an organization has 100+ endpoints.

At Pulseway, you can find pricing information online, and it also has a pay-per-endpoint cost structure. This can make it challenging to grow and scale without incurring major costs. The price begins at $44 per month per endpoint — which might sound appealing, but this type of payment model can become a hindrance for companies in the growth or enterprise stages. 

Pulseway also has different add-ons you need to pay for, such as patch management, mobile device management, and endpoint protection.

Pulseway pricing calculator

Atera, on the other hand, offers a scalable pay-per-technician model starting at $129 per month per technician. It includes all of the platform’s top features, including RMM and PSA, as well as unlimited endpoints. With this pricing model, Atera customers always know where they stand with no hidden ‘surprises’, no matter how much they scale up their endpoints.

At Atera, we are committed to pricing transparency 100% of the time, which makes it easy to compare different plans and evaluate the total cost.

Customer support and community

Effective customer support is an important piece of the performance and reliability equation for IT management software. After all, you want to have an ‘address’ to turn to when you have an issue or question. Both NinjaOne and Pulseway offer online resources like blog posts, guides, and a knowledge base, available for users on demand.

Both platforms, however, have received complaints from users about the lack of access to human support. Other IT management platforms in today’s market have features like live online community boards, making it easy to connect with fellow users to discuss common issues and network with others in the IT industry.

At Atera, our online community is active, helpful, and highly popular among our user base. While NinjaOne doesn’t have this feature, Pulseway does have a somewhat comparable online forum, although some customers say it does not get much use.

In addition, a few alternatives to Pulseway and NinjaOne, such as Atera, offer 24/7 customer support via live chat and email – which is a feature that Pulseway and NinjaOne lack. If strong customer support is a priority for you, you may want to consider alternatives to these two solutions.

Security and compliance

Security is a critical factor when considering the right RMM software for your team, to say the least! Whether working for an MSP or IT department, adhering to security and compliance protocols for all endpoints is a key part of your daily work demands. 

Pulseway’s security offerings include features like ransomware detection, phishing protection, security awareness training, patch management, vulnerability scanning, backup, and disaster recovery. At NinjaOne, you will find enterprise-grade RMM functionality as well as security controls focused on regulating authentication, authorization, and access in order to reduce malicious acts and keep your IT environment safer.

As you consider the differences between Pulseway and NinjaOne, take note that Pulseway lists “ransomware detection” as one of its top offerings, whereas NinjaOne does not say too much about security on its website. That said, both platforms have received positive user reviews regarding security and are said to perform frequent updates to ensure no security breaches can slip through the cracks. 

User feedback and reviews

Both NinjaOne and Pulseway have gained strong reviews on platforms such as G2 and Capterra. NinjaOne’s reviews often relate to the platform’s endpoint management, ticketing, remote access, and patch management capabilities.

NinjaOne offers patch management for Windows, Mac, and Linux but has received criticism for the Mac patching, which according to many users, isn’t working properly:

In the same Reddit thread, NinjaOne received some criticism for their customer support, which according to the reviewer, is ineffective:

NinjaOne review via Reddit

In comparison, Pulseway gets most of its positive feedback on the platform’s intuitiveness and easy-to-use interfaces. Generally, users also like the mobile app. As a criticism, many users don’t like the fact that Pulseway has been bought by Kaseya, which has come with changes in the pricing contracts:

Pulseway review via Reddit

Both NinjaOne and Pulseway are also often compared to their competitors, such as Atera. In the below review, the user said, “I have used both Ninja and Atera. I have been with Atera for over 4 years and have seen a lot of growth within the product.”

The reviewer continues by praising Atera’s fast and responsive support, continuous growth and incorporation, and AI features.

Compared to NinjaOne and Pulseway, Atera is the only one incorporating Agentic AI technology into its whole platform through AI agents.

Atera’s AI helps IT teams 10X the efficiency of their technicians and end-users. Whether it’s with responding to tickets, troubleshooting devices, generating scripts, or gaining insights into your IT environment, Atera’s AI Copilot is there to assist you in real time.

NinjaOne vs Pulseway, the bottom line

In the contest between NinjaOne vs Pulseway, there is a lot to consider. While both offer strong RMM capabilities and high-quality user interfaces, NinjaOne’s pricing is not transparent, and the cost structures of both options may make it challenging to understand the total investment. Also, their support offerings perhaps leave something to be desired.

Other competitors on the market, like Atera, offer affordable, scalable pricing models and online support communities, as well as automation and AI workflow automation. As an alternative NinjaOne and Pulseway competitor, these add up to significant benefits.

Before making a final call about your next IT software investment, be sure to request demos and sign up for free trials to get a first-hand feel for the product. Don’t be shy to approach the company representatives to gather more information about each platform’s capabilities. Atera is ready to chat with you today.