ConnectWise vs HaloPSA: which PSA is right for your MSP in 2026?

TL;DR

ConnectWise PSA is the enterprise incumbent - powerful, deeply integrated with the MSP ecosystem, no public pricing, and an average 2-month implementation according to G2's aggregated review data. Best fit for larger shops that can invest time and an admin into setup. HaloPSA is the modern challenger - £69 per agent per month, billed annually, 4.6/5 on G2, and a reputation for an API that developers actually like. Better fit for growing MSPs who want transparent pricing and less overhead.

The non-obvious thing: your PSA tracks tickets. It doesn't resolve them. Whichever one you pick, someone still has to do the work. If you're spending L2 time on password resets and account unlocks, that's a separate problem neither product touches - and it's where Rallied comes in.

PSA decisions in MSPs follow a depressingly familiar pattern. You evaluate two or three options, pick the one that the salesperson or peer on Reddit is most enthusiastic about, spend six months configuring it, and emerge with a very organised list of tickets that are still taking the same amount of time to resolve as before.

We've talked to enough MSP owners to know this isn't a PSA problem. The PSA is doing its job. The question is what sits inside it.

But before we get there: ConnectWise or HaloPSA? Let's actually look at both.

ConnectWise PSA: the enterprise incumbent

ConnectWise PSA - also marketed as ConnectWise Manage, which you'll still see everywhere - is the PSA that a large chunk of the MSP industry has been running on for decades. ConnectWise has been in the technology services space for more than 40 years. That history is both the product's greatest strength and, in some corners of r/msp, its greatest liability.

The platform covers the full MSP service delivery loop: help desk and ticketing, time tracking, project management, billing and agreements, CRM and sales pipeline, and reporting. It's comprehensive in the way that platforms built over many years tend to be - feature-complete, sometimes inconsistent in UI age across modules.

Two tiers exist: Essentials and Pro. The core service delivery functionality (ticketing, time tracking, project management, basic reporting) lives in Essentials. Pro adds billing and finance, GL integrations, accounting sync with QuickBooks Online and Office 365, CRM and sales management, and RPA Bot Automation. Both tiers get what ConnectWise calls Platform Workflow Automation; only Pro gets the deeper billing and procurement tooling.

Pricing

ConnectWise does not publish list prices for PSA. Both Essentials and Pro require you to request a personalised quote. Third-party estimates from MSP forums and resellers suggest ranges in the $65-90 per technician per month ballpark, but these figures are unverified and dated - don't quote them as current pricing in a real evaluation.

What G2's aggregated data does give us: the average implementation takes 2 months, buyers see an average 9% discount from list, and ROI typically lands around the 15-month mark. None of this is official ConnectWise data, but it reflects what several hundred buyers reported.

The opacity is a real friction point. If you want to model costs before getting on a call, you can't. That's a deliberate sales motion, and it works fine for enterprise buyers - but it can be annoying if you're a growing MSP trying to plan a stack.

What the community says

ConnectWise has 4.0 out of 5 on G2 from 582 reviews - 80% of reviewers give it 4 stars or higher, and about 7% give it 2 stars or lower. The size of that review pool is significant: ConnectWise's G2 presence reflects a genuinely large installed base. Common themes in reviews centre on the depth of features, strong integrations with tools like IT Glue, NinjaOne, and QuickBooks, and a learning curve that's steep enough to require dedicated admin time.

The most common complaint we see in MSP circles: price increases at renewal. ConnectWise contracts are multi-year and tend to escalate. Several Reddit threads from the past few years reference 10%+ annual increases. That's not unique to ConnectWise - it's true of most enterprise software - but it's worth building into the cost model.

Verdict: ConnectWise PSA is a serious platform for MSPs that can support it - dedicated admin, proper onboarding budget, multi-year commitment. It's the safe choice if your peers are already on it. It's a frustrating choice if you value pricing transparency or want to be live quickly.

HaloPSA: the modern challenger

HaloPSA comes from the Halo family of ITSM products and positions itself as a fully configurable PSA for managed service providers. The UK-headquartered company has built a product that feels more modern than ConnectWise in several respects: cleaner UI, an API developers actually enjoy using, and transparent pricing.

The platform covers similar ground: ticketing, time tracking, project management, billing, CRM, and reporting. Halo also offers Enterprise Service Management (ESM), Customer Service Management (CSM), and ITSM editions beyond the PSA product - but for MSPs, the PSA tier is the relevant one.

The integrations story is strong: 285+ integrations at no extra cost, across security, asset management, alert management, communications, documentation, RMM, and accounting. The category breadth is wider than what ConnectWise publishes on G2's integrations page (which shows 14 verified integrations).

Pricing

HaloPSA publishes its pricing: £69 per agent per month, billed annually. This is the only verified public figure. USD pricing is not published on the main pricing page.

A 10-licence minimum has been mentioned in MSP community threads, though this is based on user-reported anecdotal data rather than the HaloPSA pricing page itself. If you're a very small shop, it's worth confirming minimum seat requirements with HaloPSA directly before signing up.

What you get for the price: the full platform, all integrations included, no extra fees for integration access. The per-agent model is simple and predictable - you know what you'll pay as you scale.

What the community says

HaloPSA sits at 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 47 reviews. The higher score is notable, but the smaller sample matters: 47 reviews versus ConnectWise's 582 makes direct comparison tricky. Smaller G2 samples tend to skew higher because the early adopters who bother to leave reviews are usually enthusiastic. Use both as directional signals, not verdicts.

The themes in HaloPSA reviews are consistent: flexibility, a genuinely good API, and responsive support. The critical feedback we found on Reddit centres on enablement rather than the software itself - one thread, "Looking for HaloPSA alternatives, we've lost patience," was mostly about training gaps and the learning curve around configuration, not the product's core capabilities.

Verdict: HaloPSA is a strong choice for MSPs who want to understand what they're paying before they commit, want an API they can actually build on, and don't want to feel like they're running SAP. The configuration depth means it's not a plug-and-play experience, but it's more approachable than ConnectWise.

Head-to-head: ConnectWise vs HaloPSA

Which should you pick?

The honest answer: it depends on where you are as a business, not just which product has more features.

Pick ConnectWise PSA if:

• Your peers are already on it and the ecosystem matters to you (integrations, community, consultants who know it)
• You have an MSP admin who can own the configuration and ongoing management
• You're large enough that the pricing opacity isn't a blocker - you're going to negotiate anyway
• Deep agreement and billing complexity is a core requirement and you want it battle-tested

Pick HaloPSA if:

• You want to model costs before talking to anyone
• You're scaling and need a per-agent model that grows predictably
• API access matters to you - either for custom integrations or automation
• You're coming off something simpler and don't want to drop into a months-long implementation

One thing worth saying plainly: the gap between them on features is smaller than the marketing from either side would suggest. Both handle tickets, time, billing, and projects. The meaningful differences are pricing model, implementation burden, and API experience. If you can get a demo of both, do it - the UI feel matters more than the feature checklist.

The problem both leave on the table

Here's the thing neither product's website will tell you.

A PSA is a system of record, not a system of resolution. It tracks that a ticket exists, who owns it, how long it's been open, and whether the SLA is at risk. It doesn't fix the ticket. Someone still has to do that.

For the L1 and L2 work that fills most MSP queues - password resets, account unlocks, onboarding and offboarding steps, printer restarts, license assignments - the PSA is just the place the ticket lives while a technician gets paged and works through it manually. You're paying L2 rates for L1 work, and the ticket sits in the queue for 45 minutes before anyone touches it.

That's the actual throughput problem. And it exists equally on ConnectWise PSA and HaloPSA.

Rallied is an AI technician that lives inside whichever PSA you're on - ConnectWise PSA, HaloPSA, Autotask, SuperOps, or Jira Service Management. When a ticket comes in, Rallied takes first touch: it pulls context from your RMM, M365, identity provider, and documentation, then resolves what it can without paging anyone. A password reset is done before the technician opens the ticket. An account unlock is handled with the result logged to the PSA. For anything that needs human judgment, Rallied hands it off with the diagnosis already written.

The setup is a week, not a quarter. There's no workflow library to build. You write runbooks in plain English. And you only pay when Rallied actually resolves something: $150/month for 2,000 credits, 1 credit for simple ticket actions, 3 for standard cross-system work, 8 for complex multi-step resolutions.

"It figures out things we don't even have in documentation and solves issues without my team touching them. That to me is amazing." - Ryan Huneidi, Owner, Huneidi Services (via rallied.ai)

The PSA is still where everything lives. Rallied just means the technicians spend less time on the tickets that shouldn't need a technician.

Try Rallied

Rallied works inside ConnectWise PSA and HaloPSA today. It integrates with your RMM, M365, Entra ID, Okta, JumpCloud, Google Workspace, IT Glue, and Hudu - the full MSP stack - and starts resolving L1 and L2 tickets without displacing how your team works.

Most MSPs connect their PSA and go live in under a week. The first step is Plan Mode: Rallied posts what it would do on every ticket without changing anything, so you can see the resolution approach before you turn on execution. It's the try-before-you-trust path that most automation tools skip.

The pricing is $150/month. The 14-day trial is free. No credit card required. See how it works at rallied.ai.

For the wider picture, read Best MSP Software in 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HaloPSA cheaper than ConnectWise?

HaloPSA publishes its pricing at £69 per agent per month, billed annually. ConnectWise PSA does not publish list prices and requires a custom quote for both its Essentials and Pro tiers. That means HaloPSA is transparently priced where ConnectWise is not, but direct dollar-for-dollar comparison depends on your team size and what ConnectWise quotes you. For MSPs who want to model costs before talking to sales, HaloPSA has the practical advantage.

Can ConnectWise PSA and HaloPSA both work with Rallied?

Yes. Rallied integrates natively with both ConnectWise PSA and HaloPSA, along with Autotask, SuperOps, and Jira Service Management. Whichever PSA you're on, Rallied reads incoming tickets, diagnoses the issue, and resolves L1 and L2 requests autonomously inside the PSA - logging notes and time entries as it works.

How long does it take to implement ConnectWise PSA vs HaloPSA?

According to G2's aggregated review data, ConnectWise PSA takes an average of 2 months to implement. HaloPSA's own positioning emphasises faster setup, though independent implementation time data is harder to find. MSPs who have switched from ConnectWise to HaloPSA frequently cite setup speed as one of the reasons for moving.

Which PSA has better customer reviews?

HaloPSA scores 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 47 reviews. ConnectWise PSA scores 4.0 out of 5 from 582 reviews. HaloPSA's score is higher, but the sample is much smaller - smaller G2 samples tend to skew higher. Both are worth reading as signals, not verdicts.

What's the difference between ConnectWise PSA and ConnectWise Automate?

ConnectWise PSA (also known as ConnectWise Manage) is a professional services automation tool: it handles tickets, time tracking, billing, projects, and CRM. ConnectWise PSA is the record-keeping system. ConnectWise Automate is a separate RMM (remote monitoring and management) product that monitors endpoints and runs scripts. They're complementary but distinct products, and MSPs sometimes run both. When you see Reddit threads about 'ConnectWise,' double-check which product they mean.