Atera vs. BigTime Software

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Atera
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Atera is presented as an Agentic AI platform for IT management, that offers a digital workforce of AI agents that proactively and autonomously support entire IT operations. Atera’s all-in-one IT management platform consolidates RMM, helpdesk, ticketing, and automation, so IT teams and MSPs can manage and protect infrastructure, automate tasks, and boost service quality by reducing downtime and improving SLAs. Atera has shifted focus from automation to AI-powered autonomy in IT. With…
$129
per month (billed annually) per user
BigTime Software
Score 6.3 out of 10
N/A
BigTime IQ is time and expense tracking software from Chicago-based BigTime Software.
$20
User per Month
Pricing
AteraBigTime Software
Editions & Modules
MSP - Pro
$129
per month (billed annually) per user
IT Department - Professional
$149
per month (billed annually) per user
MSP - Growth
$179
per month (billed annually) per user
IT Department - Expert
$189
per month (billed annually) per user
MSP - Power
$209
per month (billed annually) per user
IT Department - Master
$219
per month (billed annually) per user
Essentials
$20
User per Month
Advanced
$35
User per Month
Premier
$45
User per Month
Projector
$60
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AteraBigTime Software
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsUnlimited devices.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AteraBigTime Software
Considered Both Products
Atera
Chose Atera
Atera is more affordable than Jira service management. Atera is more easier to use and implement.
Chose Atera
In terms of age Atera is a bit more mature than these younger competitors and it shows with its wider array of features. Pricing might be a bit higher depending on which features you want or deem to be most necessary but in our experience Atera was the cheapest one on the …
Chose Atera
Atera is well designed for remote monitoring and management purposes. The other tools, such as ManageEngine endpoint central, are more focused on managing the endpoints and applications, such as installation or removal of applications, and blocking or whitelisting applications.
A…
Chose Atera
We used Logmein for remote access and used another platform called Fresh Service for our ticketing. Logmein was okay but the ability for us to merge the two together, on top of all of the other features that Atera offers (reporting and monitoring!) has been game changing. We …
Chose Atera
I think Atera is the leader here. The aggressive pricing along with feature set is unparalleled in my opinion. They seem to be headed in the right direction and keep pushing the envelope in what the tool can do. The one thing lacking for me is the Apple integration into …
Chose Atera
Overall, the basic agent cost is better for a partially functional product.
Chose Atera
After trying out both Atera and NinjaOne, we found that Atera was generally easier to use, especially for non-tech people. Atera's learning curve has been much less steep than NinjaOne's and the team had a better response to using it. Atera's price point has also been more …
Chose Atera
Atera is very similar to Syncro in feature set and pricing, but we liked Atera just a bit better. (We switched from Atera to Syncro and then back to Atera, and have stuck with Atera for several years now.) Kaseya gave us bad vibes from their sales department and we ultimately …
Chose Atera
I also used other org suites, but Atera is the winner here. It offers services like IT service management, network monitoring, and billing. We get most of the service under one roof. Hence, Atera is the winner compared to other applications I have used.
Chose Atera
In my opinion, Datto is not a great company to partner with. In my experience, billing is crazy and when you call in for support you get sales.
Chose Atera
Atera Billing of per technician is a great way to save
Atera has 24/7 support that response in a matter of seconds
The Copilot that they have added recently is a game changer and will make anyone wants to associate themselves with Atera
Chose Atera
ManageEngine Endpoint Central and GoTo Resolve
Chose Atera
NinjaOne is a great tool for Remote management and patch management. However, Atera is more polished and gives better functionality for the end user side through things like work from home, and the support portal knowledge base. Also, when using NinjaOne, I don't remember there …
Chose Atera
Because Atera is a much more effective and efficient solution to manage all our IT operations, it automates each of our business processes. It offers us the best support to respond to any problem that may arise. I think Atera is much more cost-effective and reliable; its value …
Chose Atera
Comparison from ConnectWise and Autotask, Atera is more simplified, Cost effective and Integration RMM, PSA and automation features
Chose Atera
In my experience, Atera lured us in with the pricing per technician to try and save us money. They then proceeded to take features away and lock them behind higher-tiers. In addition, in my opinion, their customer support is atrocious. I think if you enjoy long times between …
Chose Atera
It is live in our organization and it works along with Atera in our organization, however I have more trust on Atera due to its stability and ruggedness, so Atera is the only choice most of the IT dept works on.
I would not comment on the ManageEngine PAM solution as I have less …
Chose Atera
The user interface is easier to navigate, and remote desktop capabilities for troubleshooting were the differentiating factor.
Chose Atera
Atera was very similar with Syncro but a bit more user friendly. There were a few features with Syncro I really liked that Atera does not have yet like custom reporting.
Chose Atera
Atera has so many features that are fully functional.
Atera is easy to use.
Chose Atera
Atera is way more user friendly , it has a smooth learning curve and the pricing is favorable. Atera also has a lot of features that make it superior. They even have additional features like the ticketing system that was a pleasant surprise to have. Overall Atera stands out at …
Chose Atera
Atera's pay-per-technician pricing just made sense for us. They don't nickel-and-dime either. NinjaOne, by contrast, was over twice as expensive to start out, but they wanted to charge extra just for a ticketing system and many other things.
BigTime Software
Chose BigTime Software
I think BigTime Software has better invoice tracking and payment options but Monday offers better project tracking
Chose BigTime Software
After all the research and demos I watched, I had narrowed it down to BQE CORE & BigTime Software. We actually started w/ BQE CORE, which is an incredibly robust software with a lot of great abilities. It ended up being way more robust than we needed or wanted. We switched …
Chose BigTime Software
Many of those other softwares did not provide the detailed reporting capabilities that Big Time does. It was harder to get the data we needed out of those systems, and some just did not have it all together...
Chose BigTime Software
I didn't use the reporting features much on ClickTime, so I can't compare that. The previous company where I was that used ClickTime may have had just a basic subscription for timekeeping.
Chose BigTime Software
I liked the client management, but it didn't do time tracking, billing or syncing with quickbooks. It was too robust for my needs. I tried it for the client management and thought I might use it along with bigtime, but it was too cumbersome and would involve too much double …
Chose BigTime Software
BigTime Software blows Zoho out of the water because it's all in one place and the customer service is 1000x better than Zoho. It's easy to get answers and understand where the problem is and how to fix it. Zoho was confusing, didn't communicate well between modules, and the …
Chose BigTime Software
We selected BigTime [Software] because it had the most features that we needed in our company. It is lacking some features but overall it is a good fit for us.
Chose BigTime Software
I have used several custom products at various consulting forms that were clunky and difficult to work with.
Chose BigTime Software
The main reason why we have decided to change services [...] is because we have carried out an internal analysis to determine which tool [is the best], with the [most] appropriate functionalities to fulfill our labor proposal. [We] came to the conclusion that BigTime [Software] …
Chose BigTime Software
Customer Support; Ease of Platform Use; Product can and will do what it promises it will do!
Chose BigTime Software
While they have similar capabilities, our main reason for switching to BigTime Software was that Harvest could not reconcile expenses and labor hours into one budget line item, which threw off entire project budgets. In this regard, BigTime Software is more accurate and a much …
Chose BigTime Software
Ajera is not as user friendly and seems to be designed for larger corporations Does not have integrations with other software like QB
Chose BigTime Software
We looked at several different options, but most of them charge a percentage of the profits to use their service. BigTime is a flat rate for access/use and that works better with our business.
Chose BigTime Software
It’s a great alternative to other invoice software since it's easy for a quick Excel invoice or other timesheet for contracting work. It was easy to enter time and upload receipts as well. I uploaded a receipt for a software purchase when I had to add that to my billing as …
Chose BigTime Software
BigTime was recommended by enough people in our circle that we didn't even consider any other options. All other options were outside our price point as well.
Chose BigTime Software
We've been using BigTime exclusively since needing to incorporate a timesheet tracking for employees.
Chose BigTime Software
BigTime is much easier to use and available online and on mobile.
Chose BigTime Software
I have not used any other products like BigTime, but I know that our office was careful in selecting it and has been very pleased.
Chose BigTime Software
BigTime allows more detailed breakdowns by project than this software (though I used Kronos several years ago).
Features
AteraBigTime Software
Application Performance Management
Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Atera
9.5
Ratings
32% above category average
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Virtualization monitoring10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
IT Asset Discovery9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring Tasks
Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of Product A and Product B
Atera
9.2
Ratings
23% above category average
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Remote monitoring9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Network device monitoring8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Activity Monitoring9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Management Tasks
Comparison of Management Tasks features of Product A and Product B
Atera
9.1
Ratings
27% above category average
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Patch Management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based automation8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Remote Access
Comparison of Remote Access features of Product A and Product B
Atera
7.8
Ratings
14% above category average
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Attended device access10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Unattended device access10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile device access1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Virtual device access10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple-display support7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple concurrent sessions9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AteraBigTime Software
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Score 7.3 out of 10
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Teamwork.com
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Action1
Action1
Score 9.5 out of 10
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
TeamViewer
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Score 8.6 out of 10
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User Ratings
AteraBigTime Software
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(0 ratings)
6.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(0 ratings)
6.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.4
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AteraBigTime Software
Likelihood to Recommend
Atera is doing well in the monitoring part as it is informing the real time ping of running devices and if any device goes down, it is informing us on the real time. It is helping us to monitor the last reboot status, current logged in users, time zone, IP addresses and other things so that we can track our end devices status. In the patching part Atera is pathing our all devices with the notification stating user to restart device at their convenient time. It is also patching our third party applications. It is good in installing and uninstalling of the third party application but limited to availability in the Atera inventory. Atera is not good in some parts such as in the patching part of applications, sometime it fails to update all 3rd party applications that were not installed via Atera. It is not good if you have to transfer a file to multiple systems at the same time.
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I believe it is well suited for our industry! We are professional services consulting firm and we need this! However if there is a smaller company who does not need to track these items, then they should not use this big of a platform
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Pros
  • Remoting in from anywhere, even on my phone or tablet, has enabled me to quickly diagnose, or even fully resolve, problems.
  • The ticketing, once users are set up, is a breeze. It also keeps everything in one place for them.
  • With Atera the need to travel on-site has been dramatically reduced.
Read full review
  • Invoice Style and detail..Bigtime allows the user the ability to choose more of what you need to appear on your invoice with its window options.
  • Phase/Percentage Billing; ease of adding additional phases to a project mid-project; clearly identifying Retainers
  • Support Team- In particular Melissa D and Lina Z...Par Excellent on the Teams
  • WHIP/Reports/Review of Invoices just make the entire billing process a BREEZE has cut my time frame in half, a Incredible help in this Season of Remote Work Environment that we are adapting to.
Read full review
Cons
  • Some basic functions need some extra work
  • Some basic things are behind paywalls
  • Feature board is not credible. Ideas taking very, very long to implement
  • Atera has no clear road map
  • SNMP monitoring needs a make over and needs more options
Read full review
  • For some types of projects, we are unable to use BigTime's invoicing feature. It would be nice if we could further customize invoices to fit our needs. We still have to use Quickbooks to complete certain invoices.
  • Being able to create Purchase Orders in BigTime would be extremely useful to us. We currently use Quickbooks for this.
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Likelihood to Renew
As of right now, we have found nothing that can offer as many features as Atera does along with the affordability. They are doing monthly releases each month and not just making small changes (shared scripting library, chocolatey support, Install packages, Splashtop SOS support, Scheduled tickets to name a few). The uptimes are great and accessibility to the dashboard has yet to be limited. We are a happy customer and bordering on fanboy status now
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Its been a huge help in saving time and making billing more efficient. Would like to see the product grow and be able to continue to use it.
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Usability
Atera has a user-friendly interface that improves navigation. Support staff can quickly access real-time alerts and remote devices and manage tickets without much training. ​Atera’s usability has positively impacted our organization by increasing operational efficiency and improving response times to resolve issues.
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Overall most areas of the software are easy to use. I tend to spend a lot of time in analytics and reports. Those are not as user friendly, in my opinion, and could use some improvements. I think it just takes time to get familiar with where items are stored in the program and what changes affect what.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
BigTime is available 99% of the time. At times there are bugs, but most are resolved quickly
Read full review
Performance
No answers on this topic
have not noticed a slow integration issue using QBO
Read full review
Support Rating
Atera support provides answers to my questions lightning fast. They have never left me feeling like I'm out there on my own. I can ask questions by email, or by chat, or by opening a ticket with them and they are always on it quickly. They also have a forum where other Atera users can help you if you need it, and you can also add feature requests via the forum.
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The support is amazing! They are always available through the chat interface in the program. Each support person has fully answered my questions the first time. I have had a positive experience with each inquiry. It is very important to me that I am able to get instant access to help so that I can make the most of the software and all of its capabilities.
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Implementation Rating
The implementation was performed by the system administrator so I don't have much insight into this
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I touched on this briefly, in another survey section, but my implementation manager, Kevin, was exceptional. The actual implementation process took 3 months, not 1 before I was comfortable rolling it out to staff. We also had to wait/schedule time and coordinate for our custom xml. invoice to be generated and in a place we felt comfortable sending it out to clients. In the end I was very satisfied, but during the first few months it was challenging.
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Alternatives Considered
Atera is well designed for remote monitoring and management purposes. The other tools, such as ManageEngine Endpoint Central, are more focused on managing the endpoints and applications, such as installation or removal of applications, and blocking or whitelisting applications. Atera is well structured for core monitoring and management purposes. It works like a well designed monitoring tool and at the same time works as a well designed management tool. Price point of Atera is very low as compared to other applications and the main part is that it does not cost you for the number of devices it covered, instead it will cost you on the basis of admin licenses you have. You can have one license and under that you can manage thousands of devices. Apart from this, Atera has a lot of tools that are integrated with it, and they are really useful.
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The main reason why we have decided to change services [...] is because we have carried out an internal analysis to determine which tool [is the best], with the [most] appropriate functionalities to fulfill our labor proposal. [We] came to the conclusion that BigTime [Software] is much more complete in terms of functionalities and even [at a] lower price.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
The product is useful for faster billing and efficient timesheet logs. I do like the report features however there are many options and can be overwhelming for the user. It is most helpful to set up reports speaking to an agent to ensure the right fields are set, etc.
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Return on Investment
  • It helped us considerably increase the pace of onboarding people.
  • Deployment of updates was easier and seamless compared to before the Atera phase.
  • It was easier to control employee laptops to troubleshoot issues remotely since most of our employees worked from home.
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  • Before BigTime, we were using Excel to track everything, creating invoices, and run reports. Getting on BigTime has saved us tons of time and effort which equates to dollars saved on labor.
  • From a legal standpoint, BigTime has allowed us to be organized and prepared in the event we would need to present financial details to anyone.
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ScreenShots

Atera Screenshots

Screenshot of Atera’s AI-powered solution.Screenshot of Atera's process automation.Screenshot of Atera's real-time monitoring, which gives visibility and control of the IT environment.Screenshot of Atera's ticketing, where users can deliver end-user support and issue resolution at scale.

BigTime Software Screenshots

Screenshot of BigTime Wallet provides clients with a personalized experience to pay on time from anywhere, in one click.Screenshot of A big-picture view into operational insights to make adjustments to how resources are managed.Screenshot of Real-time, actionable insights for professional services firms.Screenshot of The platform is designed to work within existing workflows and software stack, acting as a single source of truth for data.Screenshot of BigTime's invoicing engine supports dozens of industry-standard billing scenarios and enough options to satisfy exacting customer needs.