How much do managed IT services cost?
Fully managed IT in the US runs $100 to $400 per user per month. Most small businesses land at $150 to $200, and the national midpoint sits near $142 per user. Metro matters: the cheapest markets run roughly $85–$165 and New York runs $175–$350 for the same scope of work.
That is the whole answer in three sentences. The rest of this page is about where inside that range you land, because a $100 quote and a $400 quote are rarely for the same thing.
| Your team | Typical monthly range | Typical annual |
|---|---|---|
| 5 people | ~$500–$1,000 | ~$6,000–$12,000 |
| 10 people | ~$1,000–$2,000 | ~$12,000–$24,000 |
| 20 people | ~$2,000–$5,000 | ~$24,000–$60,000 |
| 50 people | ~$5,000–$12,000 | ~$60,000–$144,000 |
Those upper figures normally include heavier security, compliance work or after-hours coverage. If you are being quoted near the top of a band, the fair question is which of those three you are actually buying.
Per user or per device — which pricing model is cheaper for you?
Two models dominate the market, and which one is cheaper depends entirely on your hardware-to-headcount ratio. Nobody can tell you which wins without counting both.
| Model | Typical 2026 rate | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Per user | ~$100–$400/user/mo — budget ~$100–$125, standard ~$150–$200, premium ~$200–$300 | People carry several devices each — laptop, desktop, phone |
| Per device — desktop | ~$25–$50/mo | Shared machines, shift work, one device per seat |
| Per device — laptop | ~$30–$60/mo | Same |
| Per device — server | ~$100–$250/mo | Billed on top of either model |
| Block hours | Prepaid bundle, drawn down as used | Stable environments needing occasional help |
| Break/fix hourly | Hourly, unpredictable | Almost nobody — you pay the most when things are worst |
Do the math both ways. Take a 12-person company. Twelve people with one laptop each: per device at ~$40/mo is about $480 a month, while per user at ~$150 is $1,800 — per device wins by a mile on paper. Now the same 12 people with 30 devices between them: per device is $1,200 and climbing every time someone gets a tablet, while per user stays at $1,800 flat and covers every device they touch. Add one server at ~$150/mo either way.
Ask any provider to quote you both ways. A good one will do it without being pushed, and the gap between the two numbers tells you a lot about how they think about your environment.
What moves the price up?
- Security depth. Basic antivirus and patching sits at the bottom of the range. Managed detection and response, email security and phishing training push toward the top — and are the single biggest reason one $150 quote and one $300 quote look identical on the cover page.
- After-hours coverage. 8×5 versus 24×7 is one of the largest line items in any agreement. Be honest about which you need: a dental practice does not need 3am cover; a logistics firm does.
- Compliance. HIPAA, PCI or CMMC obligations add documentation, controls and audit support that a general small-business plan does not carry. This is a real cost, not an upsell.
- Servers and infrastructure. Each server adds roughly $100–$250/mo on top of user or device pricing, whether it sits in your closet or a data centre.
- Onboarding cleanup. If the last provider left undocumented systems, unpatched machines and shared admin passwords, the first 60 days cost more. Reputable providers say so up front instead of discovering it in month three.
- Project work. Migrations, office moves and hardware refreshes are quoted separately from the monthly agreement almost everywhere. Ask what counts as a project before you sign.
What should be included at any price?
If these are not in the agreement, you are not buying managed IT — you are buying monitoring software with an invoice attached:
- 24/7 monitoring of endpoints, servers and network, with alerts a human actually acts on.
- Patch management across operating systems and third-party software, not just Windows Update.
- Endpoint security and a written response process for when something gets through anyway.
- Backup with tested recovery — tested being the operative word. An untested backup is a hope.
- A helpdesk with a published response time, not "we'll get to it".
- Asset inventory and documentation that belongs to you and leaves with you if you change providers.
- A named person who knows your business, plus quarterly reviews of what is aging or at risk.
Want a real number instead of a range?
A free IT assessment gives you a documented inventory, a ranked risk list and a fixed monthly figure you can put in a budget.
See what managed IT covers →Managed IT vs hiring someone in-house — what does each really cost?
This is the comparison most owners are actually making, and the salary is the smallest part of it.
| In-house IT hire | Managed IT provider | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Salary + payroll taxes + benefits + tools + training | Monthly fee, typically ~$100–$400/user |
| Coverage | One person, business hours, holidays off, gets sick | A team, with after-hours options |
| Breadth | Strong where they happen to be strong | Network, security, cloud and compliance specialists |
| Scaling | Hire again | Adjust the agreement |
| Risk | Single point of failure with the passwords | Documented, covered by the team |
Run the loaded-cost formula with your own figures. Take the salary you would actually offer — call it $70,000 for a mid-level support hire — and add 25–30% for payroll taxes and benefits. That is $87,500 to $91,000 before you buy a single licence, ticketing tool, backup platform or security stack, and before anyone covers the week they are on holiday. Divide by twelve and you are at roughly $7,300–$7,600 a month for one person, business hours only.
Against that, a 20-person company buying managed IT at $2,000–$5,000 a month gets a whole team, after-hours options and documented systems. Under roughly 25 staff a provider almost always wins on both cost and coverage. Above that, plenty of companies run a hybrid: one internal person for day-to-day, a provider for security, infrastructure and nights.
What does it cost not to have managed IT?
Do this sum with your own numbers rather than taking anyone's word for it. Take your revenue per working hour, multiply by a realistic number of downtime hours, and add the cost of the day nobody could work. A 20-person company doing $5,000,000 a year is producing roughly $2,400 an hour across a 2,080-hour year — two days offline is close to $38,000 in lost production alone, before recovery costs or a single lost customer.
Set that against $24,000–$60,000 a year for managed IT at that headcount and the arithmetic makes itself. This is a continuity argument, not a scare story: the point is that the fix is boring, budgetable and priced above.
How our pricing works
We quote after we look, not before — and the assessment costs $0. Every environment differs in device count, server load, security obligations and how much cleanup the last provider left behind, and a number given before anyone has seen those is a number that changes later. We would rather be accurate than fast.
What the free IT assessment gives you: a documented inventory of what you actually run, the risks worth fixing first in priority order, and a fixed monthly figure you can put in a budget. No obligation, and the documentation is yours whether or not you hire us. That is enterprise-grade IT without corporate headaches — the same principle behind our phone plans, which start at $6.95/mo.
If you are in DFW, our Fort Worth managed IT pricing page covers local rates and on-site cover from 777 Main Street. For what is actually in the service, see managed IT services. If you are still working out whether you need an MSP at all, start with what an MSP is or the practical options in IT support for small business.
Questions to ask before you sign anything
- Is this quoted per user or per device — and what does the other model cost?
- What is included in the monthly fee, and what gets billed as a project?
- What is the guaranteed response time, and what happens at 9pm on a Sunday?
- Are backups tested, how often, and can you show me the last restore test?
- Who owns the documentation and the passwords if we part ways?
- Is there an onboarding fee, and what does the first 60 days include?
- What is the contract term, and what is the exit process?
- Does the price change when we add people, devices or a server?
The short version
Managed IT in 2026 costs $100–$400 per user per month, with $150–$200 typical for small business and a national midpoint near $142. Per device it is roughly $25–$50 for a desktop, $30–$60 for a laptop and $100–$250 for a server. Budget $500–$1,000 a month at five people, $2,000–$5,000 at twenty and $5,000–$12,000 at fifty.
Where you land inside those bands is decided by security depth, after-hours cover, compliance and how much cleanup your environment needs. We will tell you which of those apply to you before quoting a number — that is what the free assessment is for.
