--- title: "31% of breaches start at an unpatched flaw; RMM to close it costs US$1–3.75 a device" summary: "What Verizon’s 2026 breach data and TechBag’s count of 20 RMM and patch products say a 200-device Indian company should expect to pay, as of September 2026." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/remote-monitoring-management-rmm-important format: Note desk: "Endpoints & devices" published: 2024-11-19 facts_checked: 2026-09-30 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["RMM","patch management","Verizon DBIR","NinjaOne","Atera","Action1","SuperOps","CERT-In","DPDP","pricing"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/remote-monitoring-management-rmm-important.png --- # 31% of breaches start at an unpatched flaw; RMM to close it costs US$1–3.75 a device *What Verizon’s 2026 breach data and TechBag’s count of 20 RMM and patch products say a 200-device Indian company should expect to pay, as of September 2026.* Note · Endpoints & devices · By TechBag · Published 2024-11-19 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/remote-monitoring-management-rmm-important The short version - An exploited software vulnerability now starts 31% of breaches, ahead of stolen credentials for the first time in the Verizon report’s history. An RMM is the tool that patches every device from one console.[1] - Of the 20 RMM and patch products TechBag tracks, 7 print a price. Published per-device rates run from US$1 to US$3.75 a month, and two products are free for a small estate.[3] - In India the same agent is the inventory CERT-In’s 2022 Directions assume you have when they ask for 180 days of logs kept in the country.[5] The original version of this piece answered “why RMM?” with a list of features: alerts, scripts, patch windows, reports. The buyer’s question is narrower. A company with 200 laptops and two IT people wants to know whether an agent on every device is worth a budget line, and what that line is. ## The case for RMM is now a breach statistic Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report, covering incidents from 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025, found that 31% of breaches began with the exploitation of a vulnerability, while credential abuse fell to 13% as the way in.[1] [2] It also measured how slowly holes close: only 26% of the critical flaws on CISA’s known-exploited list were fully remediated in 2025, down from 38% a year earlier, and the median time to fix stretched to 43 days.[2] That is the whole argument. An RMM is an agent on every device, a console that sees them all, and a scheduler that installs operating-system and third-party patches in rings without a technician visiting a desk. Monitoring and remote control ride on the same agent, but the patch loop is what moves the 43-day figure. ## What it costs: 7 of 20 products print a price TechBag’s RMM and patch guide carries 20 product records across 12 vendors, verified against vendor documentation on 22 August 2026. Twelve are quote-only, including every product from N-able, ConnectWise and Datto; LogMeIn Resolve prices per endpoint without printing the figure; seven publish one.[3] Per-device rates run from Splashtop AEM’s stated ceiling of US$1 a month to NinjaOne’s US$3.75 at 50 or fewer endpoints, falling to US$1.50 at 10,000. SuperOps prints US$1.50 at its 100-endpoint minimum. Atera prices per technician instead (US$149 a month, unlimited devices).[3] [4] **Figure: One statistic makes the case, and the tool that answers it costs US$1 to US$3.75 a device a month** *Verizon DBIR 2026 breach share and remediation time; published RMM and patch list prices, September 2026* 31% Breaches that began with an exploited vulnerability Verizon DBIR 2026 43 days Median time to fully remediate a vulnerability Verizon DBIR 2026 US$1 to 3.75 Published per-device monthly price, priced products TechBag count, Aug 2026 200 free Endpoints Action1 manages at no charge; ManageEngine is free to 25 Vendor pages via TechBag guide Source: Verizon 2026 DBIR via Help Net Security; TechBag RMM & patch guide (20 product records, verified 22 August 2026); vendor pricing pages · as of 30 September 2026 · Published figures only; quote-only products are excluded, not estimated TechBag countTechBag count The 20 records are the rows of the guide’s comparison instrument. “Prints a price” means a figure a buyer can multiply appears on the vendor’s own page. Action1’s four records are free to 200 endpoints and quote-only beyond, so they count as quote.[3] Two of the five products the original recommended were never RMMs: Hexnode manages phones and laptops, and Auvik monitors network gear. The honest shortlist for a 200-device company is Action1 at no charge, Atera if the team is two people and the fleet is growing, or NinjaOne and SuperOps if the third-party patch catalogue matters more than the invoice. ## In India the agent is also the evidence CERT-In’s Directions of 28 April 2022 require every body corporate to synchronise clocks to the NIC or NPL time source, report a listed incident within 6 hours, and keep logs of all ICT systems for a rolling 180 days within Indian jurisdiction.[5] An RMM does not store those logs, but it is the only live inventory most small IT teams have, which is the first thing CERT-In asks for after an incident. The DPDP Rules, notified on 13 November 2025, add a duty of reasonable security safeguards from 13 May 2027.[6] Our view The guide records all seven prices in US dollars: expect a USD list, an INR invoice through a reseller, and 18% GST on top. At its indicative ₹83 to the dollar, 200 devices at NinjaOne’s top rate is at most ₹62,250 a month before GST; Atera with two technicians is about ₹24,700; Action1 is ₹0. Ask for the hosting region in writing: of the seven, only ManageEngine documents an India data centre, and its priced edition is on-premises.[3] How we did this Figures as of 30 September 2026 Breach figures are Verizon’s 2026 DBIR as stated on its report page and in Help Net Security’s 25 May 2026 account; the PDF was not read. The product count is TechBag’s: the 20 rows of the RMM and patch guide, verified 22 August 2026, counted as the Callout says. Rupee figures are arithmetic at ₹83, not quotes. No vendor was contacted and nothing was tested. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [Verizon, 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report (report page; incidents 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025)](https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/) — May 2026 2. [Help Net Security, Lessons for organizations from the Verizon 2026 DBIR (31% exploitation, 13% credential abuse, 26% KEV remediated vs 38%, 43 days)](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/05/25/lessons-from-verizon-dbir-2026-findings/) — 25 May 2026 3. [TechBag, RMM & patch management decision guide (20 product records; price, minimum, free-tier and hosting fields)](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/rmm-patch) — verified 22 August 2026 4. [NinjaOne pricing (US$3.75 at 50 or fewer endpoints to US$1.50 at 10,000) and Atera pricing (US$149 per technician, Professional, annual)](https://www.ninjaone.com/pricing/) — undated page Atera: atera.com/pricing, same check. 5. [CERT-In, Directions under section 70B(6) of the IT Act, 2000 (clock sync; 6-hour reporting; 180 days of logs within Indian jurisdiction)](https://www.cert-in.org.in/PDF/CERT-In_Directions_70B_28.04.2022.pdf) — 28 April 2022 6. [Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025: notification and phased commencement (reasonable security safeguards from 13 May 2027)](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — notified 13 November 2025 **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. Go deeper on TechBag - [RMM & patch management guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/endpoint-management/rmm-patch) — the 20 product records counted here, with per-technician vs per-device pricing worked at three fleet sizes - [Action1 hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/action1) — the free-to-200-endpoints tier and what sits beyond it - [NinjaOne hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/ninjaone) — the US$1.50–3.75 per-device band, quoted in INR