Per-user vs. per-admin pricing: the math for MSPs

An MSP has far more monitored employees than console users, often by two orders of magnitude. Any model billed on the larger number costs more, except a single-company buyer with a large management team, where the numbers invert.

The ratio is the whole argument

Three realistic portfolios, at 45 employees per client and the technicians who need a dashboard:

Monitored employees quadruple. Dashboard logins double. A technician supporting four clients can usually support six.

The part that is easy to miss

The comparison above is a snapshot. Per-user billing rises with every client's hiring and lands on margin. Per-login billing does not move when a client doubles. It also changes which clients get offered monitoring: a per-head cost on a small client often exceeds the return, so the service goes unoffered.

What actually counts as billable

Read the definition, not the headline number. SnitchOS bills per enabled Admin or Manager login, counted on the billing date. Monitored employees, devices, and clients are included. Deactivating a login removes it from the next invoice. For per-user tools, check whether the count is users, seats, or devices, peak or average: these produce very different invoices.

When per-user pricing is genuinely cheaper

A business with 25 employees and eight managers needing reports will likely pay less under per-user pricing: the ratio is close to 3 : 1, not 90 : 1. The same holds for a small MSP with one client and several technicians who each want their own console.

Limits

A pricing model is not a product. Cheaper cost does not help if the tool cannot produce the report your client expects, deploy through your RMM, or scope a manager to one client. Compare price only after both clear that bar in a pilot.