Helios vs Atera
Helios vs Atera: the honest version
Atera earned its reputation by breaking per-endpoint pricing, and in 2026 it is betting the company on autonomous AI. If you are choosing between Atera and Helios, the real differences are what the AI actually covers, and how the bill grows as your team does.
What Atera does well
Credit where it is due. Atera's per-technician, unlimited-endpoint pricing changed the market, and MSPs who migrated from per-endpoint vendors often report their tooling bill dropping by more than half. It is a mature product with a broad integration catalogue, and since June 2026 its AI Copilot is bundled into every plan rather than sold as an add-on.
Its headline act is Robin, an autonomous AI agent that detects, diagnoses and remediates issues on endpoints. In May 2026 Atera backed it with a bold guarantee: if Robin does not resolve half of your tickets within 90 days, fees are waived. That is a serious commitment and it deserves to be taken seriously.
What to look at closely before you buy
- What Robin covers. Coverage reported at launch centres on device and cloud incidents. A user emailing "I cannot log in" or "Teams keeps freezing" is a service desk ticket, and it is worth asking Atera directly how much of that queue Robin handles before counting it toward the 50%.
- What Robin costs. The Copilot is now bundled, but Robin itself is a separately billed add-on on top of the per-tech subscription. Get the all-in number for your team size.
- Per-tech maths. Atera MSP plans start around $129 per technician per month billed annually (last verified July 2026). Five technicians is roughly $645 a month before add-ons.
How Helios is different
Helio, the AI inside Helios, works both sides of the job. On devices it investigates alerts, reads the machine's own logs, writes a fix when no playbook covers the case, and asks a technician for approval before running anything novel. On the service desk it triages every inbound ticket, replies to clients in seconds, and on device tickets carries the fix through end to end. The guardrails are visible: you choose per client whether Helio suggests, acts with approval, or acts autonomously.
And the pricing is flatter than flat: not per endpoint, not per technician, but per MSP. Your sixth hire does not raise your tooling bill.
| Helios | Atera | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat per MSP: £99, £199 or £399/month by device count (50 / 250 / unlimited). Every feature on every plan, monthly billing, cancel any time. | MSP plans from ~$129/tech/month billed annually; unlimited endpoints; Robin AI billed separately (verified July 2026) |
| AI on devices | Investigates, writes and verifies fixes, approval guardrails per client | Robin: autonomous detection and remediation, 50%-in-90-days guarantee |
| AI on the service desk | Triages, replies to clients, resolves device tickets end to end | Copilot assists technicians; ask what Robin covers for user-submitted tickets |
| Microsoft 365 + Defender | Built in on every plan | Available via integrations |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel any time | Monthly or annual; annual pricing is the advertised rate |
| Maturity | Young platform, moving fast, built by a working MSP | Established vendor, large customer base |
Where Atera is the better pick
If you want a large established vendor with a long integration list and a big community, Atera is a strong choice and its bundled Copilot is genuinely useful. If you want the AI to run your whole desk rather than just your alerts, and a bill that does not scale with headcount, that is the gap Helios was built to fill, whether you are an MSP or an internal IT team running your own estate.
See it on your own fleet
Helios is the AI-native platform for MSPs: monitoring, patching, security, Microsoft 365, backup monitoring, remote access and an AI service desk in one product, at one flat price per MSP. Every feature is on every plan. 14-day free trial, card-free, set up in minutes, cancel any time.
Start freeCompetitor details on this page were last verified in July 2026 from public pricing pages, announcements and review sites, and may have changed since. They are provided in good faith for comparison; always confirm current pricing and features with the vendor. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@heliosmip.com and we will fix it.