How Much Does IT Support Cost?

IT support costs in the UK vary a huge amount. This is down to a number of factors. Your business has an impact. Your location, and the number of locations you work from will be a factor. The complexity of your IT systems could have an impact, the number of devices or IT users will almost certainly come into it.

The price of Managed IT Services in the UK is rising. One of the most significant factors is labour costs, which have been rising due to both a competitive tech talent market and inflationary pressures. Rises in national minimum wage and National Insurance in 2025 were a double whammy to many MSP’s. MSPs must pay competitive wages to attract and retain skilled engineers, particularly with the increasing complexity of cybersecurity and cloud-based services. Additionally, licensing and vendor costs, especially for Microsoft 365, security platforms, and remote monitoring tools, continue to rise – costs which are often passed through or factored into service pricing. The shift to more security-focused offerings, such as managed detection and response (MDR), also adds to service complexity and cost.

On the demand side, client expectations have evolved, with businesses now expecting 24/7 support, proactive monitoring, and faster resolution times, particularly in sectors reliant on uptime. This has pushed MSPs to invest in automation, self-service portals, and higher staffing levels. Moreover, service scope greatly influences pricing: for example, SMEs with hybrid working setups and cloud-first infrastructure typically require more sophisticated support than those with basic on-prem setups. Finally, market positioning plays a role. Premium MSPs offering dedicated account management, compliance support (e.g., Cyber Essentials), and strategic IT advice price higher than those focused purely on reactive support. The result is a wide pricing band, typically starting from £30–£70 per user/month at the lower end, rising to £100+ for more comprehensive, security-driven packages.

Then there is what is offered.

Two quotes might say ‘IT support’ but what’s offered might be quite different.

Ad-hoc IT Support 

Ad-hoc support is pretty much dying out because it doesn’t offer value for the client or stability and profitability for the provider. If something breaks then the provider gets paid, this doesn’t exactly encourage preventative maintenance or monitoring. This method may seem cost effective as you only pay when something breaks down, but guess what; without maintenance things are going to break down a lot more often! 

Being skeptical, some less scrupulous suppliers may drag out work, or simply put a ‘sticky plaster’ on the problem so they get another call out. There’s no account management, no alignment with business goals, no technical consultancy. In short its the bottom rung of the ladder.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn we don’t offer Ad-hoc support at Your IT!

Pre-paid IT Support

Similar to ad-hoc support in that it is a purely reactive service. You’re still paying by the hour, but in this model your paying up front. Typically you’ll be paying £85-120 per hour and buying a block of hours upfront. This might be a minimum of 10 or 20 hours depending on the provider. In some cases the hours sit until you use them, but in many they expire. This might be within the month, or quarter. Sometimes it’s a year but you’ll generally have bought a larger block in those kind of cases.

Whilst there’s still no maintenance or monitoring generally included there is a incentive to fix things properly as the less hours you use each month the more profit the provider makes, however they don’t share any risk. If it takes longer to fix, or more things go wrong you pay for more. And this often means another block of hours.

Although these types of agreement can work very well for the provider, we don’t offer these either. We want to become an IT partner and we believe that means prevention rather than cure, and sharing risk.

Managed IT Support

The only thing we offer. A partnership between client and IT company with a fixed price each month. In our opinion the only option you should be considering.

But, just to make things even more confusing under the headline of ‘Managed IT Support’ are a myriad of offerings. Sometimes several from a single provider.

Good, Better, Best

You’ll often see a provider with 3 packages – these might Gold, Silver and Bronze or something slightly more original but they all amount to the same thing. Good, Better, Best. 

There is some interesting psychology behind this. It’s designed to make you think your getting three prices when you’ve only gone to one supplier so you don’t need to get any other quotes. Done to the letter it will have a cheap option, the option the provider wants you to have, and an outlandishly priced offering with all the bells and whistles you can think of (and don’t need).

Again at Your IT we do it slightly differently. We have a complete offering that gives you everything you need. Then we can add other services if you need them. Notice the word ‘need’. We add services you actually need. Not the latest shiny IT bauble, but stuff that helps your business achieve it’s business goals and stay safe. 

Because businesses change the complete offering changes – we might add things to that offering because they become the standard you need. We might swap tools to an improved version. But you get what you need. Not what we want to sell you.

So what does Managed IT support typically include?

Lets start with the basics…..

Included within pretty much every IT Support offering will be:

• Unlimited Helpdesk Support
• Remote Monitoring and Maintenance
• Some level of Account Management
• Some sort of reporting

And then some or all of the following:

• Unlimited Onsite Support
• Anti-Virus
• Some kind of email filtering
• 3^rd Party Software Management
• Regular Technology Reviews and an IT Strategy
• Workshop repairs where economically viable
• Minor installs

Generally, the less in the package the cheaper it will be. Say Onsite Support is not included. If the provider then needs to come to site for any reason you get charged. This will be something in the region of £75-125 per hour typically. If Antivirus isn’t included, you’ll have to get it elsewhere or you’ll pay the provider for that separately and so on. This is the way the lowest priced quotes have a low ‘basic’.

As well as what’s included and what’s not included, there is also the less tangible ‘Quality’ to think about.

Let’s not put too finer a point on it; if your support cost is very low there are likely to be less people solving problems and/or they are less likely to be quite as good at it.

The bigger IT support providers will have the most staff, they will have some of the best qualified staff and so you’ll pay more for their service.