Kaseya Just Put a Number on the MSP Proof Gap | Assurix

Kaseya's 2026 State of the MSP report found the share of MSPs struggling to demonstrate value nearly doubled in a single year, from 10% to 19%. Here is what that number means for your pipeline.

We have argued for two years that the hard part of winning MSP business is no longer demand, it is proof. This week Kaseya published a number that says the same thing, and they have no reason to push our line.

In Kaseya's 2026 State of the MSP report, which surveyed 1,061 MSPs in November 2025, the share of MSPs who say they struggle to demonstrate value to clients nearly doubled in a single year, from 10% to 19%. Difficulty keeping consistent client documentation rose from 10% to 17% over the same period. Kaseya's own one-line summary: winning new business now depends on proving value, not just offering more services.

Why this number matters more than it looks

A doubling in a year is not noise. It is a market re-pricing what it takes to win a client. The same report puts acquiring new customers at the top of the MSP issue list at 71%, ahead of cybersecurity, revenue and profitability. So the thing MSPs say is hardest is also the thing the market has just made harder, and the reason it got harder is proof.

Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya's EVP of Channel, put it plainly in the report's foreword: winning new clients now requires clearer differentiation, stronger proof of value and tighter operational discipline than in prior years.

The buyer changed, and most MSPs have not

Here is the part that should land. Kaseya found only 12% of new MSP clients are first-time buyers. The rest already have a provider. Almost every deal you win in 2026 is a client switching away from another MSP, which means the buyer is sitting across two providers making the same claims and choosing the one who can prove them.

When both sides say "we are on top of it, we are secure, we are responsive," the buyer does not pick the better adjective. They pick the one who showed a current report instead of describing one.

What we would do with this if we ran an MSP tomorrow

Stop adding services to the proposal. The data says that is not what moves the decision any more. Spend that energy making three things true:

• Every claim in your pitch has a current artefact behind it, dated this month.
• An independent party verifies your security and operational controls are met now, so the buyer is not taking your word for it.
• That proof is ready before the buyer asks, not assembled in a panic the night before the QBR.

We wrote the full method for the first one in a separate playbook on building an evidence library that wins MSP deals. Start there if your proposal is still mostly claims.

The uncomfortable read

If demonstrating value just got twice as hard and acquiring customers is already your number one problem, the MSPs that treat proof as a marketing afterthought are going to feel this in their pipeline within a year. The ones that make proof the product of the sales conversation will quietly take their clients.

One caveat on the data. Kaseya's sample is global and weighted toward North America, so read the trend as directionally solid rather than a precise UK figure. The direction is the part that matters, and it is not ambiguous.

What this means for your pipeline math

Run the numbers on your own funnel. If acquiring customers is your top problem and the buyer pool is roughly 88% people already on a competitor, your win rate now turns almost entirely on out-proving an incumbent in the room. A 5-point swing in close rate on competitive deals is worth more than any new service line you could bolt on this year, and it costs far less to build.

Picture two MSPs pitching the same 30-seat firm. One presents a deck that says it is on top of things and secure. The other opens a current, independently verified status and a posture report dated that week. Same price band, same promises on paper. The second one wins, and it wins on something the first could have built in a fortnight if it had treated proof as the product instead of an afterthought.

The market just told MSPs what wins now. It is not more services. It is proof, ready before anyone asks. That is what Assurix is for.