What are the real options for IT support for a small business?
There are four, they cost very different amounts, and most owners never see them laid out side by side. Here they are.
| Option | What it costs | What you get | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hire in-house | Salary + 25–30% payroll taxes and benefits + tools. A $70,000 hire really costs ~$87,500–$91,000 a year | Someone who knows your business and is in the building | One person, business hours, holidays off, and they hold every password |
| Break/fix | Hourly, quoted per visit. No rate card, no monthly bill | Cheap when nothing is wrong | You pay most when things are worst, and nobody is preventing anything |
| IT platform (DIY) | ~$9–$25 per user per month published (see the table below) | Device management, identity, onboarding automation | Software, not people — someone in-house still has to run it |
| Managed IT (MSP) | ~$100–$400 per user per month; $150–$200 typical for small business | A team, monitoring, patching, security, backup, helpdesk | Costs more than a platform, because a platform is not a team |
| eTollFree | $0 assessment, then a fixed monthly figure quoted per user and per device | Managed or co-managed, with documentation you own | We quote after we look — you will not get a number in five minutes |
What do national IT support providers actually charge?
Most managed service providers do not publish prices at all, which makes shopping unusually hard. Here is what is genuinely published as of September 2026 — and who will only quote.
| Provider | Published price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| eTollFree | $0 IT assessment, then a fixed monthly quote | Managed and co-managed IT, quoted per user and per device |
| Electric | Free $0/user/mo · Essentials $10/user/mo · Pro $25/user/mo | IT platform with support layered on; volume pricing on request |
| JumpCloud | $9/user/mo device management · $11/user/mo SSO, MFA and password manager · $13/user/mo device + identity (annual; monthly is $11, $13 and $15) | Directory and device platform — software you administer yourself |
| Ntiva | Quote only | National MSP |
| CMIT Solutions | Quote only | Franchise MSP network |
| Dataprise | Quote only | National MSP |
| All Covered | Quote only | National MSP (Konica Minolta) |
| TeamLogic IT | Quote only | Franchise MSP network |
Prices read from each provider's own pricing page in September 2026. "Quote only" means the provider publishes no rate card — not that they are expensive. Check before you buy; published prices change.
The honest read: the two companies with published per-user prices are selling platforms. At $10 or $25 per user per month nobody is monitoring your server at 2am or restoring your file share on a Sunday. Full managed IT sits at $100–$400 per user per month for a reason, and the detail is on our managed IT services pricing page.
Managed IT services for small business — what is actually included?
A real agreement covers all of this. If any line is missing, ask why before you sign:
- 24/7 monitoring of endpoints, servers and network, with someone acting on the alerts.
- Patch management across operating systems and third-party software — the unpatched PDF reader is how most small businesses actually get hit.
- Endpoint security and a written response process for when something gets through anyway.
- Backup with tested recovery. Ask to see the last restore test. An untested backup is a hope, not a backup.
- Helpdesk with a published response time your staff can actually reach.
- Onboarding and offboarding — accounts created on day one, and killed the hour someone leaves.
- Asset inventory and documentation that belongs to you and leaves with you.
- A named contact plus quarterly reviews of what is aging or at risk.
Not sure which option fits your business?
The free assessment gives you a documented inventory, a ranked risk list and a fixed monthly figure — costs $0 and the documentation is yours either way.
Book a Free IT Assessment →Is outsourced IT support cheaper than hiring?
Under roughly 25 staff, almost always — and the salary is the smallest part of the sum. Use the loaded-cost formula with your own figure: take the salary you would offer, add 25–30% for payroll taxes and benefits, then add licences, ticketing, backup and security tooling on top. A $70,000 hire is really $87,500–$91,000 before tools, which is about $7,300–$7,600 a month for one person covering business hours.
Against that, outsourced IT support at small-business headcounts costs roughly $500–$1,000 a month at five people, $1,000–$2,000 at ten and $2,000–$5,000 at twenty — for a team rather than a person. Above 25 or so, the answer usually stops being either/or: one internal person for day-to-day, a provider for security, infrastructure and after-hours. That hybrid is called co-managed IT and it is the fastest-growing shape of the market.
What does small business IT support cost per month?
| Your team | Managed IT (typical) | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| 5 people | ~$500–$1,000/mo | ~$6,000–$12,000 |
| 10 people | ~$1,000–$2,000/mo | ~$12,000–$24,000 |
| 20 people | ~$2,000–$5,000/mo | ~$24,000–$60,000 |
| 50 people | ~$5,000–$12,000/mo | ~$60,000–$144,000 |
Billed per device instead, budget roughly $25–$50/mo for a desktop, $30–$60/mo for a laptop and $100–$250/mo for each server on top. Ask for both numbers — the cheaper model depends entirely on how many devices your people carry.
How do you choose an IT support provider?
- Make them quote both ways. Per user and per device. A provider who will not is hiding which one suits them, not you.
- Get the response time in writing, with what happens at 9pm on a Sunday spelled out.
- Ask who owns the documentation and passwords if you part ways. The answer tells you almost everything.
- Ask for the last restore test. Not the backup policy — the test.
- Check what counts as a project. Migrations and hardware refreshes are nearly always billed separately; know that before, not after.
- Ask about the first 60 days. Honest providers tell you up front that inherited cleanup costs more.
- Talk to a customer your size. A provider whose smallest client has 200 seats will not prioritise your 12.
Why small businesses work with us
We built our business on the same principle as our phone service: enterprise-grade features without corporate headaches. Plans for our toll-free and business phone service start at $6.95/mo, and we approach IT the same way — tell you what it costs, document what you have, and skip the theatre.
The free IT assessment costs $0 and gives you a documented inventory of what you run, the risks worth fixing first in order, and a fixed monthly figure you can put in a budget. The documentation is yours whether or not you hire us. If you are in DFW, our Fort Worth managed IT pricing covers local rates and on-site cover.
Still working out the vocabulary? What is an MSP explains the model in plain language. Want the numbers first? Managed IT services pricing has the full breakdown. Want the service itself? That is managed IT services.
