Why Teams Switched RMM in 2025: Lessons From Level Clients

2025 marked a turning point in IT operations. Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) platforms, once considered stable long-term investments, became the subject of widespread reevaluation. Across industries, IT leaders concluded that their legacy RMMs were no longer fit for purpose.

At Level, we saw this shift firsthand. Dozens of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and internal IT teams migrated to our platform this year. Their reasons varied, but common themes emerged: cost inefficiency, automation failures, compliance risk, and scalability challenges. These organizations were not abandoning RMM as a category; they were demanding RMM built for today’s IT landscape.

This blog unpacks those journeys. We will explore the triggers that pushed teams to act, the time and cost of migration, how they prepared, and the measurable outcomes they achieved. Most importantly, we will highlight why Level became the platform of choice for teams that switched in 2025.

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Why Teams Decided to Switch in 2025

When we analyzed client migrations this year, five recurring drivers stood out:

1. Unpredictable Costs

Renewal rates climbed sharply in 2025. Several clients reported 10–20% annual price increases tied to technician-based licensing. This was not simple inflation; it reflected vendor lock-in tactics that finance leaders were unwilling to tolerate. Teams found themselves spending more on licensing than on strategic IT projects, and predictable cost modeling became impossible.

2. Automation Failures

For both MSPs and internal IT teams, failed patch jobs and brittle scripting engines created daily disruptions. One client described their prior RMM as “a tool we had to babysit, not one that automated for us.” Repeated job failures forced technicians into manual remediation, eliminating the efficiency gains RMM was supposed to deliver.

3. Compliance Gaps

Regulatory demands intensified this year. Healthcare systems faced stricter HIPAA audits, financial institutions faced PCI-DSS scrutiny, and universities had to produce FERPA-compliant reports. RMMs that lacked audit-ready reporting or could not prove patch integrity placed organizations at risk of penalties and lost client trust.

4. Scalability Limits

Teams managing more than 2,000 endpoints found their legacy RMMs buckling. Agent crashes, delayed updates, and slow dashboards were common. Hybrid workforces magnified the challenge, with devices appearing and disappearing from networks across regions and time zones. Legacy tools could not scale gracefully.

5. Technician Burnout

Poor UI design, unreliable agents, and manual rework created frustration. An MSP leader told us: “Our turnover was directly tied to the fact that techs hated the tools we gave them.” When technicians distrust automation, they double-check everything manually, leading to burnout and attrition.

These challenges formed a systemic pattern that made 2025 the year of switching.

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The Primary Trigger in 2025

While cost increases drew attention, the main trigger for migration was cost inefficiency caused by weak automation.

For MSPs, automation failures directly translated into lost revenue:

• A 30-technician MSP estimated that automation failures cost them $180,000 annually in billable hours.
• Another calculated that five wasted minutes per ticket equated to 600 lost engineer hours per quarter.

For internal IT teams, the impact was compliance and downtime:

• A university client said failed patch jobs forced them to assign one engineer full-time to remediation tasks.
• A healthcare provider failed two HIPAA audits due to incomplete endpoint reporting, an issue directly linked to their RMM.

These were not abstract inconveniences; they were measurable risks to profitability and regulatory standing. Once leadership quantified those costs, switching became a strategic imperative.

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Time and Cost of Switching in 2025

From Level migrations this year, timelines ranged from weeks to months depending on scale:

• Small MSPs (under 1,000 endpoints): ~5 weeks to full cutover.
• Mid-sized IT teams (1,000–5,000 endpoints): 7–9 weeks.
• Large enterprises (10,000+ endpoints): 3–4 months using phased deployment.

Level’s lightweight agents and zero-touch deployment consistently shortened migration times compared to previous RMM transitions.

On cost, clients reported three categories of investment:

1. Overlap Licensing: Most paid for both tools for 1–2 months.
2. Staff Training: With Level’s intuitive UI, training costs were minimal. One MSP cut technician onboarding time by 70%.
3. Script Rebuilding: Larger teams allocated engineering resources to rebuild automation libraries.

Despite these short-term costs, long-term savings were immediate:

• A healthcare system saved $86,000 annually after eliminating technician-based licensing.
• A 50-seat MSP reduced RMM spend by 42% while gaining more reliable automation.

The conclusion was consistent: migration costs were dwarfed by operational and financial benefits.

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How Teams Prepared Before Migration

Preparation separated smooth transitions from chaotic ones. Clients who switched successfully in 2025 consistently followed these best practices:

• Endpoint Inventory: Auditing every device ensured no system was overlooked.
• Automation Audit: Teams identified critical scripts, ported stable ones, and rebuilt brittle code into event-driven policies.
• Compliance Mapping: Healthcare and finance clients worked with auditors in advance to ensure reporting requirements were built into their new platform.
• Stakeholder Alignment: IT, finance, and compliance leaders signed off on budgets and timelines before the first agent was deployed.
• Phased Rollouts: Rather than cut over everything at once, teams started with low-risk systems, validated workflows, and expanded.

One CTO summed it up: “Preparation looked like overhead, but once the switch happened, our staff went from fighting the tool to trusting it. The payoff came fast.”

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Technical Migration Framework

Based on dozens of client projects this year, the following framework proved effective:

Phase 1: Discovery (Week 1–2)

• Inventory endpoints and existing agents.
• Catalog current scripts, policies, and reports.

Phase 2: Pilot (Week 2–4)

• Deploy Level agents on 5–10% of endpoints.
• Test patching reliability, remote access, and basic automation.

Phase 3: Workflow Mapping (Week 3–6)

• Rebuild automation libraries using Level’s triggers.
• Configure compliance monitors/alerts for HIPAA, PCI, or SOX needs.

Phase 4: Cutover (Week 5–9)

• Remove legacy agents in phases.
• Train technicians and support teams.

Phase 5: Optimization (Week 7–12)

• Fine-tune thresholds, patch policies, and alerting.
• Integrate with PSA, SIEM, or ticketing systems.

This phased approach reduced downtime, avoided compliance gaps, and allowed teams to validate each stage before scaling.

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How Clients Chose Level

When evaluating alternatives, clients consistently cited these factors for selecting Level:

• Transparent Pricing: Flat $2 per endpoint with no hidden fees.
• Automation Reliability: Event-driven triggers with built-in retries.
• Ease of Use: A UI that reduces training time from weeks to days.
• Scalability: Proven capability to support environments from 50 to 50,000 endpoints.
• Remote Access: Peer-to-peer sessions that reduced latency and eliminated dependence on third-party relays.

An MSP founder put it simply: “Level gave us cost clarity and automation we could trust. That combination won the decision.”

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Real Stories From 2025

Regional Healthcare Provider

• Endpoints: 4,200 across six hospitals.
• Trigger: 20% patch failure rate, HIPAA reporting gaps.
• Timeline: 9 weeks to full migration.
• Outcome: Patch compliance improved to 97%, audit reporting passed on first submission, and costs dropped by $86,000 annually. The IT staff reported reduced overtime, which improved retention.

University IT Department

• Endpoints: 3,100 faculty and student devices.
• Trigger: Legacy RMM agents crashing during hybrid learning expansion.
• Timeline: 7 weeks phased migration.
• Outcome: Compliance-ready FERPA reporting, improved uptime during remote exams, and a 25% reduction in support tickets. The CIO noted: “Level stabilized our learning infrastructure when students needed it most.”

MSP With 50 Technicians

• Endpoints Managed: 7,800 across 200 SMB clients.
• Trigger: Renewal included an 18% price hike tied to technician licensing.
• Timeline: 5 weeks with zero-touch deployment.
• Outcome: Licensing costs cut by 42%, $180,000 recaptured in billable hours, and client onboarding time reduced from 14 days to 6.

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The Risk of Delaying a Switch

Several organizations postponed migration until 2025 and regretted the delay:

• A financial services firm incurred $250,000 in penalties after failing a compliance audit.
• An MSP lost two clients when their RMM outages caused downtime for SMBs.
• A manufacturer faced a ransomware breach due to missed patches.

Industry forecasts suggest that 2026 will bring even sharper renewal hikes and more stringent cyber insurance requirements. Teams that delay migration risk compounding costs and operational vulnerabilities.

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Advantages of Level Highlighted by 2025 Clients

Clients who switched highlighted consistent themes:

• Cost Transparency: Predictable $2 per endpoint.
• Operational Efficiency: Automation reduced manual tasks by up to 80%.
• Scalability: Seamless performance at tens of thousands of endpoints.
• Security and Compliance: Audit-ready templates improved outcomes across regulated industries.
• Technician Experience: Simplified workflows improved retention and morale.

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Conclusion

2025 proved that switching RMMs is not just a matter of frustration with legacy vendors. It is a strategic necessity to regain control of cost, automation, compliance, and scalability.

Level’s clients consistently cited lower costs, stronger automation, improved compliance, and reduced burnout as the outcomes of their migration. For MSPs and IT teams, the decision to switch was driven by necessity, but the result was transformation.

As we look toward 2026, the lesson is clear: the longer teams delay migration, the more expensive and risky their IT operations become. For those who have made the switch, Level has become the trusted platform to manage IT at scale.‍