Hey all looking for some real-world input from folks who’ve been down this road.

Long story short: our org was with an MSP for close to a decade. About 2 years ago we brought IT back in-house, but due to contract terms we’ve still been tied to their toolset. That contract finally ends this October, and we’re planning a full break. I'm was a sys admin for a year and a half but got promoted to IT Manager 2 months. Using MSP toolset was hard because we never really had comoplete ownership, so I could maybe do 70% but always had to reach out to them.

We’re a Microsoft 365 E3 shop with \~350 active users and a small internal IT team (4). Right now the MSP stack includes:

• N-able RMM- Great tool, robust and we didnt have ownership or admin rights for basic things liek repositories
• Dropsuite (M365 backups – Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive)
• Axcient (local + cloud backup) 11Tb but only using 5tb
• Avanan (email security — which I actually like a lot)
• Field Effect (security/SOC)- mostly helps with uaps/vpn notis
• ConnectWise Manage- used for tickets..hate it
• IT Glue - data is mostly outdated in it
• Security awareness training platform- Infirma- sucks so bad
• Quick PASS- really like product

We’re paying $120K+ annually just for the toolset + 20k access to Datto for cloud licensing for switches/aps (not even heavy support anymore), which feels pretty steep given we’re doing most of the work internally at this point.

What we’re evaluating:

• NinjaOne → \~$48K/year (12-month term)
• Kaseya 360 → \~$65K/year (36-month term)
• ManageEngine → meeting with them this week

Context that might matter:

• We’re already a Kaseya/Datto shop on the networking side ( inherited 60 switches, 100 APs, plus Spanning for Salesforce backup)
• I’ve used Kaseya (VSA 9) + ConnectWise in the past from my MSP days
• We’re trying to fully bring everything in-house, not just swap MSPs
• I do like a layered security approach (Defender + Avanan vs relying on a single tool)

Where I’m at right now:

I’m leaning slightly toward Kaseya just because:

• We already have some of their ecosystem in place
• “Single pane of glass” is appealing

…but the 36-month contract makes me nervous, and I’ve seen enough to know lock-in can hurt later.

NinjaOne seems:

• Way more flexible
• Cleaner pricing
• Easier to scale

…but obviously doesn’t have the same “all-in-one ecosystem” approach.

What I’m trying to figure out:

• Has anyone here fully exited an MSP and rebuilt their stack internally?
• How do NinjaOne / Kaseya / ManageEngine actually compare in day-to-day use?
• Any gotchas with Kaseya contracts or pricing creep over time?
• For those using NinjaOne — what are you pairing it with for:
• Backup
• Security (MDR/SOC)
• Documentation
• Is the “single pane of glass” from Kaseya actually worth it… or more marketing than reality?
• Also none of these have email security, is it ok to have defender only. I like the added Layer of 2 filters bc it's prevent quite a few things from entering out enviroment.

Goal:

We’re trying to replace what we have today without overbuying, keep flexibility, and avoid getting locked into something we regret in 2–3 years.

Would really appreciate any pros/cons, frustrations, or “wish I knew this earlier” advice.

Thanks in advance 🙏