You've been searching for a straight answer. Most of what you've found is "it depends" followed by a contact form. Here are real numbers: what businesses your size actually pay, what the different pricing models mean, and what to watch out for.
Most small businesses with 10 to 200 employees pay between $125 and $300 per user per month for managed IT services. That range is wide because it depends on what's included. Some providers cover just monitoring and helpdesk, while others bundle cybersecurity, cloud backup, Microsoft 365 licensing, and compliance documentation into a single rate.
For a 25-person company, that translates to roughly $3,125 to $7,500 per month. Or $37,500 to $90,000 per year.
That's the honest range. The rest of this page explains why the number varies, what drives the price up or down, and how to tell whether you're getting real value or just paying for a name on a contract.
If you already understand the landscape and just want to see what a specific provider charges, our pricing page shows our exact rates: $125/user and $100/workstation per month, with a full breakdown of what's included.
Not all pricing models are created equal. Understanding how you're being billed matters as much as how much you're paying.
You pay a flat monthly rate for each person in your organization. The rate covers everything that person needs: email, security, helpdesk, cloud tools.
Typical range: $125 to $300/user/month
This is the most common model for managed services in 2026. It's predictable, easy to budget, and scales cleanly as you hire. The downside: if your provider bundles too little into the rate, you end up paying extra for things you assumed were included.
You pay based on the number of devices being managed (workstations, servers, network equipment). Each device type has a different rate.
Typical range: $50 to $150/workstation, $150 to $500/server
Per-device works well when you have a clear hardware footprint. It gets complicated when employees use multiple devices or when you have shared workstations. Some providers combine per-user and per-device into a hybrid model.
A fixed monthly fee covers an agreed-upon scope of services. The rate is negotiated based on your environment size and needs.
Typical range: $2,000 to $10,000+/month
Flat-rate pricing is simple to budget for, but the details matter. Make sure the scope is clearly defined. "All-inclusive" retainers sometimes exclude project work, after-hours support, and hardware procurement, which are the things that actually cost money when something goes wrong.
No monthly contract. You call when something breaks, and you pay by the hour. No ongoing monitoring, no proactive maintenance.
Typical range: $150 to $300/hour
Break-fix feels cheaper because you only pay when you need help. But the math tells a different story. A single server failure can cost thousands. And without proactive monitoring, failures happen more often and take longer to resolve.
These ranges reflect managed IT services that include monitoring, helpdesk, patch management, and basic security. Providers that bundle advanced cybersecurity, cloud backup, and compliance charge at the higher end.
| Business Size | Monthly Range | Annual Range |
|---|---|---|
| 10 employees | $1,250 to $3,000/mo | $15,000 to $36,000/yr |
| 25 employees | $3,125 to $7,500/mo | $37,500 to $90,000/yr |
| 50 employees | $6,250 to $15,000/mo | $75,000 to $180,000/yr |
| 100 employees | $12,500 to $30,000/mo | $150,000 to $360,000/yr |
| 200 employees | $25,000 to $60,000/mo | $300,000 to $720,000/yr |
Ranges based on 2025-2026 industry data from CompTIA, Datto, and managed service provider surveys. Actual cost depends on scope of services, compliance requirements, and infrastructure complexity.
The difference between $125/user and $300/user isn't random. These are the factors that move the number.
The biggest factor. A provider charging $125/user who includes Microsoft 365 licensing, endpoint security, cloud backup, and helpdesk is delivering more value than one charging $175 for monitoring and ticket response alone. Always compare what's included, not just the headline number.
Healthcare organizations subject to HIPAA typically pay 15-30% more than the baseline rate. Financial services with PCI-DSS requirements see similar premiums. The extra cost covers compliance documentation, audit support, and the specialized security controls regulators require.
Multiple office locations, on-premises servers, hybrid cloud environments, and legacy systems all increase cost. A company running entirely on cloud services with standard workstations is simpler to manage than one with aging servers, custom applications, and three branch offices.
Business-hours helpdesk is standard. 24/7 support with guaranteed response times costs more, sometimes significantly. If your business operates across time zones or can't tolerate downtime outside of 9-to-5, this matters.
Basic antivirus and a firewall cost less than a full security stack with endpoint detection and response (EDR), 24/7 security operations center (SOC) monitoring, DNS filtering, and managed detection and response (MDR). The question isn't whether you need it. The question is whether you can afford not to have it.
Not every provider delivers the same quality at the same price. Some invest in better tools, better-trained engineers, and proactive monitoring. Others cut costs by using cheaper software and reactive support. The cheapest option isn't always the most expensive, but it often is, once you factor in downtime.
The monthly rate your provider quotes isn't always the number you end up paying. Research shows that hidden costs can inflate your actual IT spend by 30-70% above the quoted price. Here's where the money hides.
Many providers charge a one-time setup fee equal to one to two months of service, plus 40% for initial configuration. This covers asset inventory, security baseline setup, user training, and documentation. Some providers include onboarding in the monthly rate. Others don't mention it until the first invoice. Ask before you sign.
Office moves, cloud migrations, server upgrades, and new site buildouts are almost always billed on top of your monthly managed services fee. This is reasonable; these are one-time projects, not ongoing operations. But some providers also charge separately for things you'd expect to be included, like setting up a new employee's workstation or configuring a new printer. Read the scope of services carefully.
Some IT providers mark up hardware by 10-25% above retail price. Laptops, monitors, network switches, firewalls, and anything else they procure on your behalf. A good provider helps you spec the right equipment and lets you purchase it directly or at cost. If you're paying a 20% premium on a $50,000 hardware refresh, that's $10,000 you didn't budget for.
Over-provisioned Microsoft 365 licenses are one of the most common hidden costs. Employees who left six months ago still have active licenses. Users who only need email are on Business Premium plans. Your provider should be auditing this regularly. If they're not, you're likely overpaying by 10-15% on licensing alone.
Not all "all-inclusive" contracts include after-hours support. Emergency and weekend rates can run 1.5x to 2x the standard hourly rate, ranging from $225 to $500 per hour. If your business operates evenings or weekends, confirm what "included support" actually means.
Many managed services contracts include automatic annual price increases of 3-5%. Over a three-year term, that turns a $150/user rate into $164/user without any change in service. Look for this clause before you sign. A provider who locks your rate for the contract term is betting on the relationship, not the fine print.
Break-fix sounds cheaper. You only pay when something breaks. No monthly fee, no contract, no commitment. But the math doesn't work in your favor.
One industry analysis modeled a 15-person business over five years. The result: a proactive managed services approach cost roughly $310,000 total. The same business under a reactive break-fix model cost $785,000, more than double, driven by unplanned emergencies, extended downtime, and security incidents that proactive monitoring would have prevented.
Break-fix can make sense for very small businesses (fewer than 10 employees, minimal technology reliance, and existing in-house IT knowledge). For everyone else, the predictability and prevention that come with managed services more than justify the monthly commitment.
There's a number that gets thrown around in every IT budgeting conversation: spend 4-7% of your revenue on technology. That number comes from Deloitte and Gartner research, and while it's a useful benchmark, context matters more than the percentage.
of revenue on IT
Small businesses under $50M
average tech spend
Deloitte 2024 CIO Survey
What does that mean in practice? For a business with $3 million in annual revenue, the benchmark suggests an IT budget of $120,000 to $210,000 per year. That covers managed services, software licensing, hardware, and any project work.
Companies that spend below 4% tend to accumulate what's called "technical debt": aging systems, unpatched software, inadequate security. The bill eventually comes due, usually in the form of a major failure or a breach. Companies that spend above 7% are often over-investing in tools they don't fully use.
The right number for your business isn't a percentage. It's the amount that keeps your people productive, your data protected, and your compliance documentation current. For most growing businesses, that lands somewhere between $150 and $250 per employee per month.
If you've renewed a cyber insurance policy recently, you already know the landscape has shifted. Carriers have gotten aggressive about requiring specific security controls before they'll underwrite a policy. And those controls cost money.
Here's the part most businesses don't expect: 41% of cyber insurance applications are denied on first submission, according to a 2024 Marsh McLennan report. The top two reasons? Missing MFA and inadequate endpoint protection. Both are standard inclusions in a good managed services agreement.
The average cyber insurance premium for a small business runs about $1,740 per year for $1 million in coverage. But that premium assumes you meet the carrier's technical requirements. If you don't, you either pay more, get less coverage, or get denied entirely.
The average data breach costs a small business between $120,000 and $1.24 million. SMB downtime alone averages $8,000 per hour. And 60% of small businesses that suffer a significant cyberattack close within six months. The IT investment that feels expensive this month is the one that keeps your doors open next year.
At some point, every growing business asks the same question: should we hire someone or keep outsourcing? The answer depends on your size, your needs, and your math.
| Factor | In-House IT Hire | Managed Services Provider |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost (25-person company) | $85,000 to $120,000+ Salary, benefits, training, tools | $37,500 to $90,000 Depending on scope of services |
| Coverage hours | Business hours (one person) | 24/7 monitoring and alerting |
| Cybersecurity expertise | Generalist knowledge | Dedicated security team and SOC |
| Vacation / sick coverage | Gaps in coverage | No gaps (team-based support) |
| Turnover risk | Knowledge walks out the door | Documented processes and continuity |
| Scalability | Need to hire again at ~75 users | Scales with per-user pricing |
A single IT generalist in the Pittsburgh area costs $65,000 to $85,000 in salary alone. Add benefits, training, tools, and recruiting costs and you're north of $100,000 per year. That person covers business hours, takes vacation, gets sick, and eventually leaves. When they do, your institutional knowledge goes with them.
Managed services make the most sense for businesses with 10 to 150 employees. Below 10, the per-user model can feel expensive. Above 150, you may want a hybrid model: a small internal IT team for day-to-day needs, with a managed provider handling security, monitoring, and compliance.
Price is important. But the cheapest provider isn't always the best value, and the most expensive isn't always the most capable. Here's what actually matters when you're evaluating managed IT companies.
A provider quoting $150/user who includes Microsoft 365 licensing, endpoint security, cloud backup, and 24/7 monitoring is a better deal than one quoting $120/user for basic helpdesk and patch management. Compare apples to apples. Request a line-by-line breakdown of what the monthly rate covers.
If the answer is "we run antivirus and manage your firewall," that's not measurement. Measurement means benchmarking your environment against a recognized standard, producing a score, and tracking that score over time. If a provider can't give you a number that represents your security posture, they're guessing, and so are you.
How a provider starts the relationship tells you how they'll run it. A good provider audits your environment before making changes. They document what exists, identify risks, build a remediation plan, and execute against it. A provider who deploys their tools on day one without assessing what's there first is cutting corners you'll pay for later.
A provider who's great for 500-person enterprises may not be the right fit for your 30-person company. You want someone who understands businesses your size, in your region, with your kind of challenges. Ask for three references from companies with similar employee counts.
This one reveals character. A confident provider will have a clear offboarding process and won't hold your data hostage. Ask about data portability, documentation handoffs, and contract exit terms before you sign. The best providers earn your renewal every year. They don't need a contract trap to keep you.
For managed IT services that include helpdesk, monitoring, security, and cloud tools, most small businesses pay between $125 and $300 per employee per month. The exact number depends on what's included in the rate. A provider bundling Microsoft 365 licensing, endpoint security, and cloud backup into their per-user price is delivering more value than one charging a similar rate for basic monitoring and ticket response.
For most businesses with 10 to 100 employees, yes. A single IT hire in the Pittsburgh area costs $85,000 to $120,000 per year when you include salary, benefits, training, and tools. That hire covers business hours only, has no backup when they're out, and is typically a generalist, not a security specialist. Managed services for a 25-person company runs $37,500 to $90,000 per year and includes 24/7 monitoring, a full security stack, and a team of specialists.
Industry benchmarks from Deloitte and Gartner suggest small businesses should spend 4-7% of revenue on IT, with the average hovering around 5.5%. For a company with $3 million in revenue, that's $120,000 to $210,000 per year covering managed services, software licensing, hardware, and project work.
Break-fix means you call an IT company when something goes wrong and pay by the hour, typically $150 to $300 per hour. There's no ongoing monitoring or maintenance. Managed IT means you pay a fixed monthly fee for proactive monitoring, maintenance, security, and helpdesk support. The provider watches your systems around the clock and fixes problems before they become outages. Managed services cost more per month but less per year, because preventing problems is cheaper than recovering from them.
It depends on the provider. Some managed IT providers include basic security (antivirus, firewall management, and patch updates) in their standard rate. Others charge separately for advanced security like endpoint detection and response (EDR), security operations center (SOC) monitoring, and managed detection and response (MDR). Always ask what's included. In 2026, with cyber insurance requirements tightening, basic antivirus alone isn't enough.
Three warning signs: you're paying more than $300/user/month without compliance or advanced security services, you're being charged separately for things that should be standard (patching, basic monitoring, user onboarding), or your provider can't clearly explain what your monthly fee covers. Ask for a line-by-line breakdown of services and compare it against two or three other providers.
The most common hidden costs are onboarding fees (1-2 months of service), hardware markups (10-25% above retail), after-hours support charges ($225-$500/hour), automatic annual price increases (3-5%), and project work billed outside the monthly rate. Before signing any agreement, ask specifically about each of these. A provider who's upfront about extras is more trustworthy than one who buries them in the contract.
We publish our pricing because we believe you deserve real numbers before you pick up the phone. If you want to see exactly what Baseline charges and what's included, start there. If you'd rather just talk, we're here for that too.