“You’re the superheroes of the global economy. You deserve more profit,” Miles Walker, Kaseya’s channel development manager, told managed service providers (MSPs) at The Channel Company’s XChange March conference in Orlando. His 10% margin figure was a vendor executive’s pitch—not an independently established industry average—and Kaseya’s own 2026 survey describes a mixed picture of profitability and pressure.
What Walker said—and what the comparison establishes
CRN reported that Walker compared MSP margins with figures he cited for other industries: legal firms at 40%, financial firms at 37%, marketing firms at 25%, and MSPs at 10%. He argued that MSPs’ margins should be higher and connected that goal to Kaseya’s platform, its acquisition of Inky, and investment in AI-powered workflows. CRN’s account does not provide the methodology or definitions behind those percentages, so they should be read as Walker’s comparison, not as a verified like-for-like industry benchmark.
Walker also pointed to a security roadmap for MSPs that includes endpoint detection and response, patch management, managed detection and response, zero-day protection, and advanced email security. Those are areas he highlighted in support of Kaseya’s pitch; the remarks do not establish that one vendor platform is the best choice for every provider.
What Kaseya’s 2026 survey says about MSP finances
Kaseya’s April 14, 2026 press release says its 2026 State of the MSP Report surveyed more than 1,000 MSPs worldwide. The findings provide vendor-published context for Walker’s remarks, but they are not independently verified estimates of the entire MSP market.
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| Survey finding | What Kaseya reported |
|---|---|
| Profitability | 10% said their managed-services business was not yet profitable, and 6% said it was breaking even in 2026. |
| Customer acquisition | 71% identified acquiring new customers as their top challenge. |
| Customer spending | 41% said typical customer spending was at least $25,000 a year in 2025, down from 75% the prior year. |
| Operating costs | 30% cited rising labor, tool, and infrastructure expenses as a direct constraint on growth. |
| AI and automation | 48% ranked AI and automation as a top client need for 2026; 53% said they were already using AI to automate ticketing, patching, and monitoring. |
| AI as revenue | 13% identified AI and automation as a meaningful revenue source. |
The survey’s combination of AI demand and low reported AI revenue contribution matters: adoption or customer interest does not automatically translate into profitable sales. In a statement accompanying the release, Kaseya executive vice president of channel Dan Tomaszewski said strong MSPs are tightening operations, prioritizing efficiency, and using data to demonstrate value to customers. That is Kaseya’s interpretation of the business response, rather than a separate survey finding about which actions cause higher margins.
Kaseya has also published an older comparison saying MSPs average 8% to 12% margins while legal and financial services firms average 30% to 35%. That is a separate Kaseya-published comparison, with different figures from Walker’s CRN-reported remarks; the measures and sources should not be combined as though they were one dataset. Kaseya’s margin discussion likewise represents the vendor’s account.
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What MSPs can take from the pitch
The available figures do not establish a universal MSP margin or prescribe a single route to higher profit. They do highlight practical questions providers can evaluate within their own businesses:
- Check profitability by service and customer. Compare revenue with the labor, licensing, infrastructure, and support costs required to deliver each contract. A business-wide margin can conceal unprofitable services or accounts.
- Price around workload and outcomes. If customers are buying smaller engagements, review whether scope, service levels, and response expectations still match the recurring fee. Make the value delivered visible rather than relying on tool descriptions alone.
- Assess automation by its operating effect. Ticketing, patching, and monitoring automation may reduce repetitive work, but providers need to account for implementation, integration, and ongoing oversight when judging its financial value.
- Build security coverage deliberately. Evaluate whether endpoint protection, patching, detection and response, zero-day defenses, and email security fit the risks and obligations of the customers served.
- Test tool choices against total cost and fit. Consider security coverage, integration with the existing stack, operational workload, contract flexibility, total cost, and outcomes that can be demonstrated to clients. Walker’s remarks and Kaseya’s survey do not independently establish which platform is best.
Bottom line on Walker’s 10% figure
Walker’s message was an argument for stronger MSP profitability tied to Kaseya’s products and investments. His 10% comparison is not accompanied by methodology in CRN’s report. Kaseya’s later survey offers a more varied vendor-reported picture: some surveyed providers were not profitable or were breaking even, while others faced customer-acquisition, deal-size, and cost pressures. Treat both the margin comparison and survey results as attributed claims, not as a definitive measure of every MSP’s finances.
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