What Does Managed IT Actually Cost?

It's the first question every business owner asks — and the one most IT companies dodge. "How much does managed IT cost?"

The honest answer is it depends on your business, but that doesn't mean pricing should be a mystery. Here's a transparent look at how managed IT pricing works, what you should expect to pay, and how to tell whether you're getting real value or just a monthly bill.

The Three Common Pricing Models

Per-User Pricing

You pay a flat monthly fee for each employee. This covers all the devices, accounts, and support that person needs. If an employee uses a laptop, a monitor, a phone, and cloud apps — all covered under one price.

Typical range: $100–$250 per user per month

Best for: Businesses where most employees use multiple devices and cloud-based tools. It's simple to budget because headcount is predictable.

Per-Device Pricing

You pay for each device under management — desktops, laptops, servers, network equipment, mobile devices.

Typical range: $30–$100 per device per month

Best for: Businesses with a high device-to-employee ratio or environments with shared workstations (manufacturing floors, retail counters, healthcare stations).

Flat-Rate / All-Inclusive

A single monthly fee covers your entire environment regardless of user or device count. Pricing is based on an assessment of your infrastructure complexity.

Best for: Businesses that want budget predictability with no surprises. The provider takes on the risk of scope, which means they're incentivized to keep things running smoothly.

What Should Be Included

Not all managed IT agreements are created equal. A solid managed IT plan should cover these fundamentals at minimum:

• 24/7 monitoring and alerting — Your systems are watched around the clock. Issues get caught before they become outages.
• Help desk support — Your team has someone to call when something breaks, won't connect, or doesn't make sense. Response times should be defined in your agreement.
• Patch management — Operating systems, applications, and firmware stay up to date with security patches applied on a regular schedule.
• Antivirus and endpoint protection — Every device has active threat protection that's centrally managed and monitored.
• Backup management — Your data is backed up, verified, and recoverable. This should include regular test restores.
• Vendor management — Your IT provider coordinates with your internet provider, software vendors, and hardware manufacturers so you don't have to play middleman.
• User onboarding and offboarding — New employees get set up on day one. Departing employees have access removed immediately.
• Basic reporting — Monthly or quarterly reports showing system health, ticket volume, and security status.

If any of these are listed as add-ons, you're looking at a bare-bones agreement that will nickel-and-dime you.

The Hidden Costs of Not Having Managed IT

The real question isn't "what does managed IT cost?" — it's "what is the alternative costing you?"

Break-fix support charges you by the hour, but only after something is already broken. There's no monitoring, no prevention, no proactive maintenance. You're paying emergency rates to fix problems that proper management would have prevented.

The math usually looks like this:

• Average break-fix hourly rate: $150–$250/hour
• Average downtime cost for a small business: $427 per minute
• Average time to resolve an issue without monitoring: 3–5x longer than with proactive management

One server failure, one ransomware incident, or one extended outage costs more than a full year of managed IT. Most businesses that switch to managed IT spend less annually than they were spending on reactive repairs.

What Drives the Price Up (and Down)

Several factors influence where your business falls on the pricing spectrum:

Complexity of your environment — A business running a single cloud platform is simpler to manage than one with on-premises servers, legacy applications, VPNs, and multiple office locations.

Compliance requirements — If you're in healthcare, finance, or any regulated industry, your IT provider needs to maintain compliance documentation, run audits, and implement stricter controls. That's additional work.

Number of locations — Multi-site businesses need site-to-site networking, local hardware management, and potentially on-site support at each location.

Age of infrastructure — Older equipment requires more maintenance, more troubleshooting, and more babysitting. Modernizing your infrastructure often reduces your ongoing managed IT costs.

Level of support — Basic monitoring and help desk costs less than a full virtual CIO engagement that includes strategic planning, budgeting, and technology roadmapping.

How to Evaluate a Managed IT Proposal

When you're comparing providers, look beyond the monthly number:

1. Read the scope of work carefully. What's included? What's excluded? Where are the add-on charges hiding?
2. Ask about response time guarantees. A low price means nothing if you're waiting 48 hours for a callback.
3. Check for exit clauses. Long-term contracts with steep termination fees are a red flag. A confident provider doesn't need to lock you in.
4. Ask what tools they use. Professional-grade RMM (remote monitoring and management), PSA (professional services automation), and security platforms cost real money. Providers cutting corners on tooling are cutting corners on your protection.
5. Request references from similar businesses. Not just any references — businesses your size, in your industry, with similar complexity.

The cheapest option is rarely the best value. The goal is predictable spend that keeps your business running, your data safe, and your team productive.

Get a Straight Answer

At Pivvr, we don't hide behind vague pricing or bloated proposals. We assess your environment, understand your needs, and give you a clear number with a clear scope — no surprises, no hidden fees.

Whether you're currently paying for break-fix support and want something better, or you're comparing managed IT providers and want an honest second opinion, we'll give you a straight answer.

Want to know what managed IT would cost for your business? Contact us for a free assessment — we'll give you a number you can actually budget around.