Short answer: at Information Systems of Maine, fully managed IT for a small business runs $100 to $150 per user per month, and that includes remote support, monitored security software and data backup. For offices with a few computers, see IT support for small business. Pricing guides published by managed IT providers around the country put the wider market at roughly $100 to $250 per user per month, and help billed as needed at roughly $100 to $175 per hour. The right number for you depends on four things, and this post walks through each one so you can read any quote line by line.
We publish this because IT pricing is hard to find online, and because cost is a fair question to ask before you call anyone. Our first conversation, the discovery visit, is always free.
The two ways IT support is priced
1. Hourly, or “break/fix”. You call when something breaks and pay for the time it takes to fix it. Published rates from IT providers around the country commonly run roughly $100 to $175 an hour for a technician, and some providers charge a minimum for on-site visits. Some providers sell a discounted block of hours in advance.
2. Managed, per user or per device. You pay a fixed monthly fee and the provider monitors, patches, backs up and supports everything covered by the agreement. Most providers price per user (one person, their computer, their email) or per device.
Hourly is cheaper in a quiet month and far more expensive in a bad one. Managed is predictable. Managed IT versus break/fix covers which model fits which business; this post is about the numbers.
What managed IT costs: the ranges
Published pricing guides from managed service providers around the country put small business managed IT in these bands. They are vendor-published figures, not an independent survey.
| Plan level | Typical published range, per user per month | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Basic monitoring and help desk | $50 to $100 | Remote monitoring, patching, help desk hours, antivirus |
| Standard managed IT | $100 to $200 | Everything above plus backup, Microsoft 365 management, security stack, on-site visits |
| Comprehensive or compliance-grade | $200 to $250+ | Everything above plus advanced security, compliance reporting, after-hours coverage, vCIO planning |
Ranges from national pricing guides published by managed IT providers; not a quote.
Team size moves the number. Per-user prices tend to come down as headcount grows, because the fixed cost of onboarding and tooling spreads across more seats.
At Information Systems of Maine, our managed plans run $100 to $150 per user per month, covering remote support, monitored security software and data backup. On-site visits and project work outside the scope of network monitoring are billed separately, so you always know what the monthly fee covers. We set your exact fee after a free on-site evaluation, because the evaluation changes the number more than any price list does. What managed IT includes is tailored to each business, so you pay only for what you need; the price depends on the four factors below.
The four things that move the price
1. How many users and devices. The obvious one. Note that a server, a point-of-sale terminal and a shared shop computer each count as a device even though nobody “owns” them.
2. What you need to protect. A landscaping company with five laptops and Microsoft 365 needs the basics. A dental practice, a CPA firm or a manufacturer supplying a defense contractor has compliance obligations (HIPAA, IRS Publication 4557, CMMC) that require logging, encryption, documented policies and sometimes a third-party assessment. That is a large part of the difference between the low and high ends of those ranges.
3. What is already broken. If your computers are eight years old, your server is out of warranty and nobody has a backup, the first three months cost more than the next thirty-three. A good provider will separate the clean-up project from the monthly fee so you can see both.
4. Response time and hours. Help desk 8 to 5 on weekdays is standard. 24/7 coverage, a guaranteed one-hour response, or a technician on call for a Saturday retail floor all cost more and are worth it for some businesses and not others.
What should be in the monthly fee
When you compare quotes, check that each of these is included rather than billed extra:
- Monitoring and alerting on every covered device
- Operating system and application patching
- Managed antivirus / endpoint protection
- Email security (spam filtering, MFA setup)
- Backup of servers and Microsoft 365, with periodic test restores
- Help desk, with a stated response target
- On-site visits (how many, or unlimited)
- Vendor management (internet, phones, printers, software support)
- A regular review meeting
Common extras that are fair to bill separately: new hardware, major projects (migrations, office moves), software licences, and work caused by something outside the agreement.
What you are really paying for
For example, at $150 per user, a 10-person office pays $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year. Even one full-time IT employee brings salary, benefits and training costs, and is off sick, on vacation or asleep when the server fails at 2 AM. The honest comparison is not “managed IT versus nothing”; it is managed IT versus the cost of a day without email, a week rebuilding after ransomware, or a part-time employee quietly doing IT instead of the job you hired them for.
A real example. A Maine nonprofit came to us because they would contact their IT support person and not hear back. When we looked, there was no security protection on the network, the firewall was out of date, and no email spam filter was in place. Our quote to fix that and keep it managed came in at about half of the other quotes they received.
How to get a real number
Ask for a written quote that lists users, devices, what is included, what is excluded, the response target, and the contract term. Then ask what the first 90 days will cost on top, because that is where surprises live.
We do this for Portland-area businesses as a free on-site evaluation. Request IT help or call 207-653-4143, and we will tell you which plan you need, including when the answer is “you do not need managed IT yet”.
