Built by someone who ran an MSP
MSP Zero is Dewey Straughn’s set of free, open-source tools for MSPs, built from 24 years of running one.
The background
I’ve worked in IT since 1994. In 1999 I co-founded an MSP with a business partner, with no investors, no clients and no office. We ran it together for 24 years and sold it in 2023.
Over that time we moved from break/fix to managed services, built and operated our own data center with redundant power, cooling and a fiber ring to multiple carriers, and delivered hosting, networking, security and support for clients. Our stack was a mix of commercial software, open source and tools we wrote ourselves.
Since the sale I’ve worked with other MSPs through MSP Reboot, my consulting practice.
Why these projects exist
They are tools for problems that come up in ordinary MSP work: keeping documentation, credentials and tickets together; looking after a fleet of firewalls; seeing Proxmox and the hardware under it in one place; answering backup questions quickly; and giving technicians controlled remote access to customer machines.
I publish them as open source so other MSPs can use them, check how they work, and change them to suit their own business. Use one, several or none, alongside whatever else you run. There is more on that on why open source.
What you can check
The evidence is the software. Each project page links the repository, the latest release, the changelog, the installation guide and the issue tracker. The capabilities listed come from each project’s own documentation, the screenshots are the real interface running demo data, and each page lists the limitations the project states about itself.
How each of the open-source projects was built is written up in my engineering portfolio on MyAppDone.
More about my background is on mspreboot.com.