Managed IT Services Cost for Small Business: 2026 Guide

Most managed IT providers charge per user or per device each month, or by the hour for one-off work. In Kaseya’s 2024 survey of 984 providers, the most common per-user band was $50 to $100 per user per month, about half of all respondents charged $150 or less, and 63% billed $101 to $200 per hour for break-fix work. For a 10-person office, that points to roughly $500 to $1,500 a month in support fees, before software licenses, hardware, backup, and security tools.

Important: every figure in this guide is a market range from the cited source. None of them are Coastal Growth Co.’s prices. We quote after understanding your setup, and the last section explains how.

Where do these numbers come from?

Reliable public data on managed IT pricing is thin. Most figures online are one provider’s opinion. The best open source we found is the annual benchmark survey run by Kaseya, a company that sells software to IT providers, which asks providers what they charge:

• The 2024 MSP Benchmark Survey Report (984 respondents from over 35 countries, 70% from the Americas).
• Kaseya’s MSP pricing guide, which publishes the 2023 survey’s per-user and per-device figures.

Keep the limits in mind. The answers are self-reported by providers, the sample is global and not specific to Southern California, and the survey does not record what each price includes. For labor costs and license prices we use the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and vendor list prices, linked where they appear.

What are the pricing models, and what does each cost?

Pricing model	How it is billed	Published range	Source
Per user, per month	A recurring fee for each person covered	Most common band: $50 to $100 (21% of providers). 15% charge under $50, 15% charge $101 to $150, 9% charge $151 to $200, and 6% charge more than $200. 34% do not offer per-user pricing.	Kaseya 2024 survey
Per device, per month	A recurring fee for each computer, server, or network device covered	24% charge under $50, 22% charge $51 to $100, 12% charge $101 to $150, 6% charge $151 to $200, and 2% charge more. 34% do not offer per-device pricing.	Kaseya 2024 survey
Hourly (break-fix)	Time billed when something needs fixing	63% charge $101 to $200 per hour. 21% charge $51 to $100, 6% charge $201 to $250, 2% charge $50 or less, and 1% charge more than $250.	Kaseya 2024 survey
Block hours	Hours bought in advance and drawn down	No separate published range. Priced from the provider’s hourly rate.	Not surveyed
Project	A fixed or estimated price for defined work	No published range we could verify. Usually built from estimated hours at the hourly rate, plus equipment.	Not surveyed

The 2023 figures are similar: 22% of providers charged $50 to $100 per user, 17% charged $101 to $150, 11% charged $151 to $200, and 56% billed $101 to $200 per hour. Prices did not move much between the two surveys.

If the models themselves are unfamiliar, our explainer on what managed IT is defines each one.

A note on Southern California

Providers’ biggest cost is skilled labor, and labor costs more here. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a mean annual wage of $77,820 for computer user support specialists in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim metro area (May 2025), which includes Orange County, compared with $67,330 nationally. That is about 16% higher. It is reasonable to expect local quotes to sit in the middle or upper part of the survey bands, though the survey itself does not break prices out by region.

Worked example: what would a 10-person office pay?

Picture a hypothetical office with 10 staff, 10 computers, one firewall, and one shared storage device. That is 10 users and 12 managed devices. Applying the survey bands:

Approach	Calculation	Monthly support fee
Per user, $50 to $100 band	10 users x $50 to $100	$500 to $1,000
Per user, $101 to $150 band	10 users x $101 to $150	$1,010 to $1,500
Per user, $151 to $200 band	10 users x $151 to $200	$1,510 to $2,000
Per device, $51 to $100 band	12 devices x $51 to $100	$612 to $1,200
Hourly, assuming 5 hours of help in a month	5 hours x $101 to $200	$505 to $1,000

The hourly row rests on an assumption of five hours. A quiet month could be zero and a bad month could be twenty, which is the main trade-off of paying by the hour: a lower average cost in exchange for less predictability, and nobody paid to do preventive work.

These are support fees only. The same office also pays for the items below.

What extra costs do people forget?

Software licenses

Your email and office software is a separate subscription, whether the provider bills it or the vendor does.

• Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s list prices as of July 1, 2026 are $7 per user per month for Business Basic, $14 for Business Standard, and $22 for Business Premium, with an annual commitment. For 10 people that is $70 to $220 a month.
• Google Workspace. As of September 2026, Google lists $7 for Business Starter, $14 for Business Standard, and $22 for Business Plus per user per month on an annual commitment.

Our comparison of Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Standard explains what the higher tier adds.

Security tools

Endpoint protection, email filtering, and password management are sometimes bundled into a per-user fee and sometimes itemized. As one reference point, Microsoft Defender for Business is listed at $3 per user per month as a standalone product as of September 2026, and it is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Ask which tools a quote includes and who holds the license.

Backup

Backup software and storage are normally charged by the amount of data or the number of computers and mailboxes protected. The cost depends heavily on how much data you keep and for how long, so ask for it as a separate line. Our business data backup guide covers what to protect.

Hardware

Computers, firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi access points, and battery backups are purchased separately and wear out. A replacement plan spreads the cost so it does not arrive all at once.

Onboarding and projects

Many providers charge a one-time fee to document and clean up a new customer’s setup. Migrations, office moves, and new installs are quoted as projects. Ask whether either applies before you compare monthly totals.

Out-of-scope and after-hours work

Find out what happens when something falls outside the agreement: the hourly rate, any minimum charge, travel time, and whether work outside agreed hours is available and how it is billed.

What drives the price up or down?

Tends to increase the price:

• Local servers or specialist line-of-business software that needs coordination with a vendor
• Regulated data, such as patient records or payment card details, and the documentation that goes with it
• Several locations, or staff who need on-site visits often
• Extended support hours
• A bundled security stack (endpoint protection, email filtering, training, monitoring)
• An environment that has not been maintained and needs cleanup first
• Older equipment, including computers still on Windows 10, which reached end of support on October 14, 2025

Tends to reduce the price:

• Everything in the cloud, with no on-premises server
• Standardized, recent computers
• A narrower scope, such as remote support only, or you holding your own licenses
• An internal person who handles first-line requests (a co-managed arrangement)
• A well-documented setup

How does this compare with hiring someone?

Using the BLS figure above, a support specialist in this metro area averages $77,820 in wages. BLS’s Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026 reports that benefits average 30.0% of total compensation in private industry. Applied to that wage, total compensation comes to roughly $111,000 a year, before equipment, software tools, training, and cover for vacations.

For the 10-person office above, even the $151 to $200 per-user band totals $18,120 to $24,000 a year. The two are different products, though: an employee is present full time, and an outside provider is not. Our guide to outsourced IT versus an in-house hire works through the comparison.

How should you compare quotes?

Put each quote into the same grid before looking at the total:

1. Which users, devices, and systems are covered by name or count?
2. What recurring work is included: updates, backup checks, account changes, network firmware?
3. Which security tools are included, and who owns the licenses?
4. What are the support hours, and how are requests made?
5. Are on-site visits included, limited, or billed separately?
6. What is the out-of-scope hourly rate?
7. Is there an onboarding fee?
8. What are the term, renewal, and cancellation notice?
9. How are documentation and admin access handed back if you leave?

Our checklist for choosing an IT company goes further into the non-price questions.

When do you not need a monthly plan?

If you have a handful of people on cloud apps, recent computers with automatic updates, working backups, and multi-factor authentication turned on, paying hourly for the occasional problem is often the cheaper and perfectly sensible choice. A one-time review to confirm those basics, followed by help as needed, may be all you require.

Common mistakes

• Comparing the monthly total only. Scope differences explain most price differences.
• Forgetting licenses and backup. They can add a meaningful amount per user and are easy to leave out of a budget.
• Treating hourly as free when nothing breaks. Preventive work still needs doing by someone.
• Counting users loosely. Decide whether part-time staff, shared mailboxes, and contractors count before asking for a per-user quote.

Common questions

Is per-user or per-device pricing better?

Neither is inherently cheaper. Per-user pricing is simpler when each person has a computer and a phone, because adding a device does not change the bill. Per-device pricing can suit a business with shared workstations or more equipment than people. Ask for the quote both ways if you are unsure.

Why do quotes for the same office vary so much?

Because they rarely cover the same work. One may be remote support only, while another includes security tools, backup checks, on-site visits, and network upkeep. The Kaseya survey shows providers spread across every band from under $50 to over $250 per user, which reflects scope as much as price.

Are there setup fees?

Often. Onboarding involves documenting your systems, installing management and security tools, and fixing urgent gaps. Some providers charge for it separately and some build it into the recurring fee. Ask which applies and what the onboarding work includes.

What does a one-time IT project cost?

We could not find a credible published range for projects. Most are priced from the estimated hours at the provider’s hourly rate plus equipment. As arithmetic only, a 20-hour project at the survey’s most common $101 to $200 hourly band would be $2,020 to $4,000 in labor. A written scope is the only way to get a real number.

How Coastal Growth Co. quotes

We do not publish a rate card, because the right number depends on your people, devices, systems, and the coverage you want. We start with a conversation about your setup, then provide a written scope and price before any paid investigation, site visit, or implementation begins. Hardware, software subscriptions, and ongoing support are listed separately so you can see each cost. The pricing page explains what a quote contains, the managed IT and support page describes the work, and you can send us your details to get started.