ORelay vs NinjaOne

NinjaOne is an endpoint management platform for IT departments and managed service providers: monitoring, patching, software deployment, scripting, backup and remote control (NinjaOne Remote) for Windows, Mac and Linux, priced per endpoint and sold by quote.

If you run an IT department or an MSP with hundreds of endpoints, NinjaOne is one of the products everyone shortlists, and ORelay is not one of them. If you look after a handful to a few dozen computers, NinjaOne’s quote, account manager and contract are more than you need: ORelay is $20 a month for 50 computers, free for 5, and you sign up on the page.

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

Side by side

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

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Free use	Yes: Free for up to 5 computers, no time limit, personal or commercial	No: No free plan; a 14-day trial
Cheapest paid plan	Yes: Pro, $20 a month: 3 people and 50 computers included	Partly: Per endpoint, by quote: its page says from $3.75 a month each at 50 endpoints or fewer, down to $1.50 at 10,000
A plan for 50 computers	Yes: Pro, $20 a month	Partly: About $187 a month at its page’s $3.75 an endpoint, by quote
Computers it reaches	Yes: Windows, Mac, Linux	Yes: Windows, Mac, Linux; phones and tablets with its MDM product
From a phone	Yes: Android and iPhone apps: see the screen and take control	Yes: iOS and Android app, remote sessions included
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: Yes (NinjaOne Remote, part of the platform)
Files	Yes: Browse, upload, download, send from your phone	Yes: File browser and transfer among its remote tools
Terminal	Yes: bash, sh, PowerShell or cmd, or one command with its output	Yes: Remote command line (PowerShell, CMD, shell) and scripting
Health readings and alerts	Yes: Processor, memory, disk, network; alerts by e-mail, webhook, ntfy or app	Yes: Yes: its core, with conditions and thresholds per policy
Scheduled tasks, software inventory	Yes: Scheduled tasks; software inventory with CSV export	Yes: Scheduled scripts and tasks; a software inventory report, with no export stated
Patch management	No: No: ORelay does not patch	Yes: Operating systems and third-party apps
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: NinjaOne’s is what its own pages say, 49 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	NinjaOne
Single sign-on (SAML or OIDC)	No: No SAML or OIDC yet	Yes: SAML 2.0 single sign-on, sign-in started from NinjaOne only; tested with Azure, OneLogin and Okta; OIDC not mentioned¹
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: Required for every user; authenticator-app codes, SMS and security keys²
Passkeys	Yes: Yes, on the web and in the apps	Partly: Security keys (U2F) are supported; passkeys and WebAuthn are not named on the page²
Require the company sign-in	Partly: With Microsoft Entra ID only; MSP and Enterprise	Partly: SSO is set per technician account; requiring it for the whole organization is not stated¹

People and permissions

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Roles	Yes: Yes: owner, admin, support and viewer; admin, support or viewer on a single computer	Yes: System Administrator, Technician and End User; technician permissions are set by role; no read-only role named³
Access per computer or group	Yes: Yes, per computer or by group; support and viewers see only what they are given	Partly: Roles limit a technician to chosen organizations and device types; per single device or group is not stated⁴
Access that expires by itself	Yes: Yes: a day, a week, a month or always; share codes expire	Partly: Quick Connect invitations give temporary access to unenrolled devices; expiry on technician accounts is not stated⁵
Share one computer with someone outside	Yes: Yes, with a share code made at the computer, which stays in its owner’s account	Partly: An end user can be assigned devices, across organizations if made a global end user; sharing outside the company is not described⁶
Several organizations under one login	Yes: Yes, each with its own database	Yes: Organizations under one console; a technician sees only the organizations they are given⁶
Audit log	Yes: Yes: every session, command, file, power and settings change, with who did it	Yes: Exportable audit logs of administrative activity; remote sessions are logged with the technician's name⁷

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Active Directory	Partly: Read-only: users, computers and groups through a domain controller you allow; MSP and Enterprise	Partly: Reads computers and OUs through a domain controller to deploy the agent; users and groups are not read⁸
Microsoft Entra ID sync	No: No: Entra ID is used for sign-in only	Partly: Creates technician and end-user accounts from Entra ID groups through SCIM⁹
LDAP	No: No	Partly: Not stated on its pages

The screen

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Multiple monitors	Yes: Yes: switch between monitors in the session	Yes: Multi-screen support in remote sessions (its Remote FAQ page does not mention it)¹⁰
Ctrl+Alt+Del	Yes: Yes, on Windows	Yes: A toolbar action in the remote session sends Ctrl+Alt+Del¹¹
The Windows sign-in screen	Yes: Yes, with nobody signed in	Partly: Not stated on its pages
Clipboard	Partly: Text pasted into the computer through a box; no two-way clipboard	Yes: Clipboard synchronized both ways; can be turned off, with a Paste as Keystrokes option⁵
Remote printing	No: No	Yes: Remote printing is listed among the technician's session actions⁵
Session recording	No: No, by design: the screen is never stored	Yes: Optional recording, with an automatic option; files are saved on the technician's own computer¹⁰
Sessions start view-only	Yes: Yes: taking control is a separate, logged step	Partly: A view-only setting blocks the technician's keyboard and mouse; that a session starts view-only is not stated⁵
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: Administrators can require the end user to approve a session; the person seeing and switching off remote rights is not described⁵
Blank the physical screen	Yes: Yes, on Windows and Mac; the blanked screen says who is connected	Yes: Blank screen option blanks connected monitors during a session (Windows 10 20H1 or later, administrator rights)¹²

Beyond the screen

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
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: Remote command line: PowerShell, CMD and shell on Windows, macOS and Linux¹³
Scripts across many computers	Partly: Quick fixes run on one computer or several at once; no script library yet	Yes: Script library (PowerShell, Batch, shell, JavaScript, VBScript) run across devices and organizations¹⁴
Scheduled tasks	Yes: Yes: timer or cron, with every run’s output; Pro and above	Yes: Scripts and tasks can be scheduled; a Create Scheduled Task device action runs at a set time or interval¹⁵
Software inventory	Yes: Yes: every installed program, searchable, with a CSV export; refresh on Pro and above	Partly: Software list per device and an organization report of name, version, publisher; export of it is not stated¹⁶
Patch management	No: No	Yes: Operating system and third-party application patching with custom scan and deployment schedules¹⁷
Power actions	Yes: Yes: shut down, restart, sleep, hibernate, lock, sign out; now or up to an hour later	Partly: Restart now or on a schedule; Lock System inside a remote session; shutdown, sleep and hibernate are not listed¹⁸
Wake-on-LAN	No: No	Partly: Wake-on-LAN from the console; the sleeping device must be Windows, on wired Ethernet, with a Windows agent on the same subnet¹⁹

Files

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Browse folders without a session	Yes: Yes, from the browser and the phone	Yes: A File Browser remote tool, beside Remote Registry and Task Manager¹⁸
Upload and download	Yes: Yes, from the browser or the phone, over the agent’s own connection	Yes: Upload and download files in a remote session¹¹
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	Partly: File Transfer Automation to devices is limited to 200 MB; no limit is stated for transfers inside a remote session²⁰

Monitoring

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Processor, memory, disk, network	Yes: Yes, live, and buffered on the computer while the service is unreachable	Partly: Processor, memory, disk and network indicators per device; graphs over time are not described²¹
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: Conditions on CPU, memory, disk and Device Down with thresholds and durations²²
Where alerts go	Yes: Yes: e-mail, webhook (Discord, Slack or JSON), ntfy and the app; no SMS	Yes: Slack, Microsoft Teams, PagerDuty, webhook, e-mail and SMS (SMS only where enabled)²³
Network devices (SNMP)	No: No	Yes: SNMP monitoring of firewalls, switches and routers through a collector on the network²⁴

Deployment

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Silent installers	Yes: Yes: Windows MSI, Mac pkg, Debian and RPM packages	Yes: MSI (silent by default), PKG and DEB commands in the deployment guide; RPM on its Linux install page²⁵
Many computers at once	Yes: Yes: enrolment keys, each computer with its own certificate; Pro and above	Yes: Installer Management makes a unique token for each machine in a bulk deployment²⁵
Intune, Jamf, Group Policy, Ansible	Yes: Yes: Intune, Configuration Manager, Group Policy, Jamf Pro, Kandji and Ansible kits, made in the browser	Partly: Guides for Intune and Group Policy; Jamf covers only a profile; Configuration Manager and Ansible not documented²⁶
The agent updates itself	Yes: Yes, signed updates	Yes: NinjaOne pushes agent updates itself²⁷
Signed installers	Yes: Yes: Windows signed, Mac notarized, Linux packages signed	Partly: Its deployment scripts check the installer's digital signature; Authenticode and Apple notarization are not named²⁶
Linux desktops, including Wayland	Yes: Yes: X11 and Wayland; under GNOME the person at the computer approves the first session	Partly: Linux remote control on desktop distributions, attended and unattended; Wayland not mentioned²⁸

Security

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Encryption	Yes: Yes: mutual TLS 1.3 between each computer and the service; HTTPS for the browser and the apps	Yes: TLS 1.2 or 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest; Remote sessions use X25519, XSalsa20 and Poly1305; mutual TLS not mentioned²⁹
The screen never stored, keys never logged	Yes: Yes: the screen is never recorded and what you type is never logged	Partly: Backend is kept out of session video and keystrokes; sessions can still be recorded, on the technician's computer²⁹
SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA	No: None yet	Yes: SOC 2 (report under NDA), ISO 27001:2022, FedRAMP, HIPAA and GDPR alignment through contract terms³⁰
Where data is held	Partly: United States; no choice of region	Yes: Held in AWS in a region the customer chooses; its sub-processor list names USA, Canada, Germany and Australia²⁹

Business

What	ORelay	NinjaOne
Pricing model	Yes: A flat price per plan: Free, Pro $20, MSP $150, Enterprise $500 a month	Yes: Per endpoint: from $1.50 a month at 10,000 endpoints to $3.75 at 50 or fewer, by region and products³¹
Trial or free plan	Yes: Yes: a free plan of 5 computers, with no time limit	Yes: 14-day free trial; no free plan stated³¹
Monthly or annual	Yes: Yes: monthly, or yearly at ten months’ worth; cancel any time	Partly: Monthly or annual billing; month-to-month on a case-by-case basis, discounted rates may need a commitment³¹
Support	Yes: Yes: e-mail and phone, by the people who build it	Yes: Free and unlimited support; help tickets by e-mail or in the console; phone and chat not stated³¹
API and webhooks	Partly: Webhooks for alerts; the viewers’ REST API is not yet documented for others	Yes: Public API with OAuth 2.0, and webhook resources³²

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

No page refused to load. https://www.ninjaone.com/compare/atera-alternatief (and /compare/atera-alternatief/) answers 404; the English page is /compare/atera-alternative/ and was read. Every page was read raw with check.mjs text. The Remote FAQ page lists no multi-monitor feature while /remote/ and the Datto comparison page list it (marketing pages used). lock_screen stays unknown: Unattended access and Background Mode (Windows SYSTEM, separate desktop) are described but reaching the sign-in screen is not. NinjaOne's comparison pages claim for itself: one console for endpoint management, patching of OS and 6,000+ third-party apps on Windows, macOS and Linux, remote control with printing and multi-monitor, scripting in PowerShell, shell and batch, SSO support, free unlimited support, a 14-day trial and pay-per-device billing; they do not claim any security, sign-in or file-transfer detail, so those rows rest on its documentation. Checked 2026-10-28.

Where NinjaOne is the better choice

Patching and automation at scale: policies, scheduled scripts and software deployment across hundreds of endpoints.
The rest of an IT shop’s stack from one vendor: backup, mobile device management, documentation, and the PSA and ticketing integrations.
A team: technician roles, policies by organization and device type, an account manager.
A name on every RMM shortlist, with the reviews and partner network that come with it.

Where ORelay is the better choice

A price on the page: $20 a month for 50 computers and 3 people, with no quote, contract or account manager.
A free plan for 5 computers, with no time limit.
Made for the home and the small office as well as the IT shop.
The person at the computer decides: they can switch remote access off, and every session starts view-only.

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.

NinjaOne, as shown on October 28, 2026

Endpoint management: Per endpoint, by quote: $3.75 a month each at 50 endpoints or fewer, down to $1.50 at 10,000: Monitoring, patching, scripting, software deployment and NinjaOne Remote; backup, MDM and others as products on top; monthly or annual, promotions with a commitment

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

Try ORelay

Free for up to 5 computers, no time limit, nothing to open on your network.

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Sources

NinjaOne pricing (per-endpoint range, trial, billing)
NinjaOne Remote (part of the platform, platforms, mobile app)
Read on October 28, 2026. NinjaOne is a trademark of its owner, which has no connection with ORelay Studios LLC.