ORelay vs Atera

Atera is remote monitoring and management with a help desk, billing and an AI copilot, sold per technician with unlimited endpoints, in one set of plans for managed service providers and another for IT departments; its remote control comes through Splashtop, or AnyDesk on the higher plans.

Per-technician pricing is Atera’s pitch: add as many computers as you like for one fee. That fee is $129 a month per technician on the MSP plans and $149 for an IT department, so it pays off once you have a few hundred endpoints and a help desk to run. Below that, ORelay is the smaller number: $20 for 50 computers and 3 people, or $150 for an MSP’s 10 people and unlimited computers. And its screen, terminal and phone app are its own, not another vendor’s.

The ORelay dashboard: six computers in two groups with their status, processor and memory, the latest alerts and activity.

Side by side

Atera’s column is what its own pages said on October 28, 2026; the sources are at the end.

What	ORelay	Atera
Free use	Yes: Free for up to 5 computers, no time limit, personal or commercial	No: No free plan; a 30-day trial without API access or SSO
Cheapest paid plan	Yes: Pro, $20 a month: 3 people and 50 computers included	Yes: Pro (MSP), $129 a month per technician billed annually, $139 monthly: unlimited endpoints, Windows only
A plan for 50 computers	Yes: Pro, $20 a month	Yes: The same $129 per technician: the count does not matter
Computers it reaches	Yes: Windows, Mac, Linux	Partly: Windows on Pro; Mac and Linux from Growth ($159)
From a phone	Yes: Android and iPhone apps: see the screen and take control	Yes: iOS and Android app
From a browser	Yes: Yes, any browser, nothing to install on your side	Yes: Web console
Unattended access	Yes: Yes: the agent connects out, and stays connected	Yes: Through Splashtop (2 concurrent sessions on Pro) or AnyDesk from Growth
Files	Yes: Browse, upload, download, send from your phone	Partly: File view on Pro; upload and download from Growth, 100 MB a file and 15 GB a month
Terminal	Yes: bash, sh, PowerShell or cmd, or one command with its output	Yes: CMD, PowerShell, Terminal and SSH from the device page, and scripting
Health readings and alerts	Yes: Processor, memory, disk, network; alerts by e-mail, webhook, ntfy or app	Yes: Yes: its core, with threshold profiles
Scheduled tasks, software inventory	Yes: Scheduled tasks; software inventory with CSV export	Yes: Automation profiles on a schedule; a software inventory report
Patch management	No: No: ORelay does not patch	Yes: Yes, on every plan
Nothing opens on the computer	Yes: Nothing opens on the computer: it only connects out	Yes: Outbound too
Self-hosted option	No: No: ORelay runs the service	No: No (cloud service)
Open source	No: No	No: No

Show the full comparison53 rows in 10 groups: signing in, people and permissions, directory, the screen, beyond the screen, files, monitoring, deployment, security, business

Both columns were last checked on October 28, 2026: Atera’s is what its own pages say, 44 of 53 rows answered there and the rest marked “not stated on its pages” rather than guessed. Each of its answers carries a footnote to the page it was read from, with the sentence as its tooltip.

Signing in

What	ORelay	Atera
Single sign-on (SAML or OIDC)	No: No SAML or OIDC yet	Partly: Azure AD or OIDC sign-in for technicians, top plan only (Superpower); SAML not listed there¹
Sign in with Google, Microsoft, Apple or GitHub	Yes: Yes: Google, Apple, Microsoft and GitHub, once added under Account	Partly: Not stated on its pages
Two-step sign-in with an authenticator app	Yes: Yes, with recovery codes	Yes: Authenticator-app 2FA, required for every user after the first day and cannot be turned off²
Passkeys	Yes: Yes, on the web and in the apps	Yes: Passkeys on top of 2FA: Windows Hello, Touch ID, Face ID, phone or USB security key³
Require the company sign-in	Partly: With Microsoft Entra ID only; MSP and Enterprise	Partly: Not stated on its pages

People and permissions

What	ORelay	Atera
Roles	Yes: Yes: owner, admin, support and viewer; admin, support or viewer on a single computer	Yes: Preset Admin and view-only Beginner roles, plus unlimited custom roles⁴
Access per computer or group	Yes: Yes, per computer or by group; support and viewers see only what they are given	Partly: Roles can be limited to customers and to excluded folders; a single computer is not mentioned⁴
Access that expires by itself	Yes: Yes: a day, a week, a month or always; share codes expire	Partly: Not stated on its pages
Share one computer with someone outside	Yes: Yes, with a share code made at the computer, which stays in its owner’s account	Partly: Work From Home gives a customer's contact a link to reach their own assigned computer (paid add-on, through Splashtop)⁵
Several organizations under one login	Yes: Yes, each with its own database	Yes: Many customers under one account, with roles that can be limited to chosen customers⁴
Audit log	Yes: Yes: every session, command, file, power and settings change, with who did it	Yes: Logins, remote sessions, file transfers, scripts and settings; CSV export; kept longer on higher plans⁶

What	ORelay	Atera
Active Directory	Partly: Read-only: users, computers and groups through a domain controller you allow; MSP and Enterprise	Partly: Network Discovery add-on scans a domain through a domain controller to list its devices; no user management stated⁷
Microsoft Entra ID sync	No: No: Entra ID is used for sign-in only	Yes: One-way sync of contacts from Entra ID; continuous sync on the top plan⁸
LDAP	No: No	Partly: Not stated on its pages

The screen

What	ORelay	Atera
Multiple monitors	Yes: Yes: switch between monitors in the session	Partly: Yes with AnyDesk (Growth and up) or the Splashtop Premium add-on; standard Splashtop shows one monitor at a time⁹
Ctrl+Alt+Del	Yes: Yes, on Windows	Yes: A Windows action in the Splashtop and AnyDesk sessions⁹
The Windows sign-in screen	Yes: Yes, with nobody signed in	Partly: Splashtop's attended-access setting can connect at the login screen; unattended use there is not stated¹⁰
Clipboard	Partly: Text pasted into the computer through a box; no two-way clipboard	Partly: Copy and paste is a Splashtop Premium setting (paid add-on); Splashtop SOS shares text; plain Splashtop and AnyDesk not stated¹⁰
Remote printing	No: No	Partly: Remote print is in Splashtop Premium, a paid add-on¹⁰
Session recording	No: No, by design: the screen is never stored	Partly: AnyDesk has screen recording; Splashtop only with the Premium add-on⁹
Sessions start view-only	Yes: Yes: taking control is a separate, logged step	Partly: Not stated on its pages
The person at the computer can switch it off	Yes: Yes: the ORelay window on the computer shows what remote users may do, and any of it can be switched off	Partly: Technician can require the user to accept (AnyDesk on servers is always unattended); no user-side permission switch is stated⁹
Blank the physical screen	Yes: Yes, on Windows and Mac; the blanked screen says who is connected	Partly: Not stated on its pages

Beyond the screen

What	ORelay	Atera
Terminal, or one command with its output	Yes: Yes: bash, sh, PowerShell or cmd, or one command with its output, in the browser and the apps	Yes: CMD, PowerShell, Terminal and SSH on devices, by role permission⁴
Scripts across many computers	Partly: Quick fixes run on one computer or several at once; no script library yet	Yes: Script library and shared script library; PowerShell, BAT and SH, run on one or many devices¹¹
Scheduled tasks	Yes: Yes: timer or cron, with every run’s output; Pro and above	Yes: Automation profiles run scripts, patching and installs on a schedule¹²
Software inventory	Yes: Yes: every installed program, searchable, with a CSV export; refresh on Pro and above	Yes: Software inventory report: search what is installed on one or more devices¹³
Patch management	No: No	Yes: Manual and automated patching on Windows, macOS and Linux; an 'Update all via WinGet' option is mentioned¹¹
Power actions	Yes: Yes: shut down, restart, sleep, hibernate, lock, sign out; now or up to an hour later	Partly: Log out, restart and shut down, can be scheduled for later; sleep, hibernate and lock are not stated¹⁴
Wake-on-LAN	No: No	Yes: Yes, Windows only, sent by another agent on the same subnet¹⁵

Files

What	ORelay	Atera
Browse folders without a session	Yes: Yes, from the browser and the phone	Yes: Remote file explorer in the device's Manage menu: search, upload, download, rename, delete; Pro plan can view and search only¹⁶
Upload and download	Yes: Yes, from the browser or the phone, over the agent’s own connection	Partly: Upload and download on Growth, Power and Superpower; Pro can only view and search; one device at a time, no folders¹⁶
Files kept in the service	Yes: Yes: copies kept in ORelay per plan; the vault encrypts files into your own Google Drive or OneDrive	Partly: Not stated on its pages
Size limits	Partly: 10 GB per file sent to a computer; stored files 1 GB on Free, 25 GB on Pro, 100 GB on MSP	Yes: 100 MB per file; transfer cap per account a month: 15 GB Growth, 50 GB Power, 100 GB Superpower¹⁶

Monitoring

What	ORelay	Atera
Processor, memory, disk, network	Yes: Yes, live, and buffered on the computer while the service is unreachable	Partly: Tracks CPU, RAM, disk and temperatures; historical trend dashboards and capacity reports are on higher plans¹⁷
Alerts on a reading, or a computer going quiet	Yes: Yes: a reading over a threshold for a duration, or a computer offline; severity, acknowledge, history	Yes: Threshold profiles with Information, Warning and Critical severity, per customer, folder or device¹⁸
Where alerts go	Yes: Yes: e-mail, webhook (Discord, Slack or JSON), ntfy and the app; no SMS	Partly: E-mail, mobile app and console sound alerts, and tickets; no built-in SMS; webhooks only on ticket events, top plan¹⁸
Network devices (SNMP)	No: No	Yes: SNMP, HTTP, TCP and generic devices, through a designated Windows monitoring agent on the same network¹⁷

Deployment

What	ORelay	Atera
Silent installers	Yes: Yes: Windows MSI, Mac pkg, Debian and RPM packages	Partly: Silent on Windows (MSI as SYSTEM) and macOS (pkg); Linux silent install not stated¹⁹
Many computers at once	Yes: Yes: enrolment keys, each computer with its own certificate; Pro and above	Yes: Installer assigned to a customer; roll out with Group Policy, Intune or another tool²⁰
Intune, Jamf, Group Policy, Ansible	Yes: Yes: Intune, Configuration Manager, Group Policy, Jamf Pro, Kandji and Ansible kits, made in the browser	Yes: Group Policy and Intune (Windows) and Jamf or Intune (macOS) are named; Configuration Manager and Ansible are not named¹⁹
The agent updates itself	Yes: Yes, signed updates	Yes: Agents update automatically²⁰
Signed installers	Yes: Yes: Windows signed, Mac notarized, Linux packages signed	Partly: Not stated on its pages
Linux desktops, including Wayland	Yes: Yes: X11 and Wayland; under GNOME the person at the computer approves the first session	Partly: Linux desktops can be reached from Windows or Mac on X11; Wayland is not supported⁹

Security

What	ORelay	Atera
Encryption	Yes: Yes: mutual TLS 1.3 between each computer and the service; HTTPS for the browser and the apps	Yes: TLS 1.2+ agent to servers; Splashtop sessions TLS and 256-bit AES, called end-to-end in its Work From Home FAQ²⁰
The screen never stored, keys never logged	Yes: Yes: the screen is never recorded and what you type is never logged	Partly: Not stated on its pages
SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA	No: None yet	Yes: SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified; its security page also names HIPAA compliance options²¹
Where data is held	Partly: United States; no choice of region	Partly: Held in United States and EU data centres, built on Azure; choosing a region is not stated²²

Business

What	ORelay	Atera
Pricing model	Yes: A flat price per plan: Free, Pro $20, MSP $150, Enterprise $500 a month	Yes: Per technician, unlimited endpoints: IT teams $149 to $219 a month, MSPs $129 to $209 a month; monthly or annual billing²³
Trial or free plan	Yes: Yes: a free plan of 5 computers, with no time limit	Yes: 30 days, no card; most features, but API access and SSO only after upgrading to a paid plan¹¹
Monthly or annual	Yes: Yes: monthly, or yearly at ten months’ worth; cancel any time	Yes: Monthly plans cancel at any time; annual plans end with the subscription period²⁴
Support	Yes: Yes: e-mail and phone, by the people who build it	Yes: 24/7 chat and e-mail for every customer; phone not stated¹¹
API and webhooks	Partly: Webhooks for alerts; the viewers’ REST API is not yet documented for others	Yes: API with tokens over HTTPS (not in the trial); webhooks on ticket events on the top plan (Superpower)²⁵

Atera’s pages, as read on October 28, 2026

www.atera.com answers scripts 403, so its five pages (/it-department-pricing/, /msp-pricing/, /blog/atera-vs-ninjaone/, /features/, /products/rmm/) were read in a browser on 2026-10-28 and served from the script's cache; /pricing/ redirects to /it-department-pricing/ and /security/ to /ai/security/. The plan cards' prices are drawn by script and are not in the page text, so prices come from Atera's comparison post. Atera's own post claims for itself: transparent pay-per-technician pricing from $129 a month, unlimited endpoints, a 30-day free trial, 24/7 chat and e-mail support, and agentic AI. trust.atera.com renders by script and showed no text. Remote desktop is other products' (Splashtop and AnyDesk built in, TeamViewer and ScreenConnect by integration), so screen rows say which one. Several rows depend on a plan (Growth/Power/Superpower for AnyDesk, file transfer and SSO), or on the Splashtop Premium and Network Discovery add-ons.

Where Atera is the better choice

Unlimited endpoints per technician: past a few hundred computers the price stops growing.
The help desk, ticketing, contracts and invoicing an MSP runs its business on, in the same product.
Patching, automation profiles and the AI copilot for a technician’s day.
A 30-day trial of a full plan.

Where ORelay is the better choice

Price for a small team: $20 a month for 50 computers and 3 people, where Atera starts at $129 for one technician.
An MSP plan with 10 people and unlimited computers for $150 a month, against $129 per technician.
The screen, terminal and files are ORelay’s own, with the phone app part of the product, rather than Splashtop or AnyDesk under another console.
Mac and Linux on every plan, and a free plan for 5 computers.

What each costs

ORelay

Free: $0: 1 person, 5 computers, no time limit
Pro: $20 a month, or $200 a year: 3 people, 50 computers, scheduled tasks, inventory, webhooks, the cloud vault, enrolment keys
MSP: $150 a month, or $1,500 a year: 10 people, unlimited computers, Active Directory, company sign-in

Yearly plans are ten months’ worth. Everything is on the pricing page.

Atera, as shown on October 28, 2026

Pro (MSP): $129 a month per technician, billed annually ($139 monthly): Unlimited endpoints, Windows; monitoring, patching, Splashtop with 2 concurrent sessions, help desk, contracts and invoicing, mobile app
Growth (MSP): $159 a month per technician, billed annually ($189 monthly): Mac and Linux, unlimited Splashtop sessions, AnyDesk, file transfer 15 GB a month, QuickBooks and Xero
Power (MSP): $209 a month per technician, billed annually ($249 monthly): Custom reports, file transfer 50 GB a month, 12-month audit log
IT departments: $149, $189 and $219 a month per technician, billed annually: Professional, Expert and Master: the same shape with a service portal instead of invoicing; Mac and Linux on every plan
Add-ons: Network Discovery $29 a month per technician; Work from Home $5 a month per end user: Security, backup and MDM from partners at per-device prices on top

Prices change; the sources below are the pages to check.

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Sources

Atera pricing for MSPs
Atera pricing for IT departments
Read on October 28, 2026. Atera is a trademark of its owner, which has no connection with ORelay Studios LLC.