The MSP Tool Stack That Costs Under $500/Month (What I Actually Use in 2026)
MSP tool stack under $500/month — what I actually use
Rmm. Here's what that actually involved.
The Setup
Psa
What I Built
Rmm
Rmm. This is where most implementations go wrong — not in the concept, but in the specifics that documentation tends to gloss over. The version that's actually running in production looks different from what the README describes.
Psa
Psa. This is where most implementations go wrong — not in the concept, but in the specifics that documentation tends to gloss over. The version that's actually running in production looks different from what the README describes.
Backup
Backup. This is where most implementations go wrong — not in the concept, but in the specifics that documentation tends to gloss over. The version that's actually running in production looks different from what the README describes.
What Broke First
Communication — exact prices and justification. This is the part that took the most time to figure out — not the implementation itself, but the failure mode you only encounter at the wrong moment. The fix is in the tooling, not the concept.
What's Running in Production
The stack: msp, tools, budget, stack. Monitoring via Zabbix with a custom alert template. The rule I apply to everything in production: if it can't self-report a failure, it doesn't go in.
Key Takeaways
- Rmm — RMM
- Psa — PSA
- Backup — backup
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Live Life Automated covers the broader philosophy behind how I think about automation and building systems that don't require constant babysitting. Available at mfitz.net.
