Ask ten Australian MSPs what managed IT support costs and nine will say “it depends, book a call.” We think that’s a cop-out. We publish our pricing, so here’s the straight version — including the market context most providers won’t give you.
The short answer
For small and mid-sized Australian businesses, fully managed IT support typically runs somewhere between $100 and $250 per user per month depending on inclusions, industry compliance needs and response expectations. Our own IT management plans run from $89 to $149 per seat per month with unlimited tickets — we can sit under the typical range because we’re engineering-led and based in Western Sydney rather than a CBD tower.
The three pricing models you’ll meet
1. Per user (per seat), flat monthly
The dominant model, and the one we use. Every staff member is a “seat”; the fee covers help desk, monitoring, maintenance and management of your environment. Predictable, scales with headcount, easy to budget. Watch for: what counts as “unlimited” — some providers cap tickets or bill after-hours separately.
2. Per device
Priced per server, workstation and network device. Can suit businesses with few staff but lots of machines (labs, workshops). Gets expensive fast in office environments where everyone has a laptop, a phone and a tablet.
3. Break-fix (hourly)
No monthly fee; you pay when something breaks — typically $150–$250+ per hour. It looks cheap until you notice the incentive problem: the provider earns more when your systems fail more. For any business where downtime costs real money, break-fix is usually the most expensive option measured per year, not per invoice.
What moves the price up or down
- Compliance load — medical, legal and finance firms need privacy-compliant systems, audit evidence and tested backups, which adds discipline (and sometimes dollars)
- Response expectations — a published 12-minute median response costs the provider more to staff than a next-business-day promise
- What’s actually included — backups, disaster recovery drills, UPS maintenance and project work are extras at many providers
- Onshore vs offshore help desk — offshore triage is cheaper to run; you feel the difference at 8:55am on invoice day
- Contract length — long lock-ins usually buy the provider security, not you savings. We run 30-day terms instead.
The hidden costs to ask about
Onboarding fees, per-ticket charges above a cap, after-hours multipliers, “project” reclassification of routine work, and charges to leave (data handover fees) — every one of these should be answered in writing before you sign. If a provider won’t publish or commit to numbers, treat that as data.
What we charge, exactly
IT management from $89/seat/month (unlimited tickets, 24/7 monitoring, preventative maintenance). Australian-hosted email from $14/mailbox/month. Infrastructure projects at fixed quotes — 42 delivered so far. Business continuity with recovery targets from 4 hours. All of it on 30-day terms, all published on this site. If your current provider’s pricing needs a meeting to explain, ours doesn’t.
Frequently asked questions
Is cheap managed IT worth it?
Below roughly $80/seat, something is being cut — usually monitoring depth, backup testing or engineer seniority. Ask exactly what’s excluded.
How many seats do we need to be “worth taking on”?
For us, businesses from about 5 seats are viable; our sweet spot is 5–100. Smaller than that, honest providers should tell you rather than overcharge you.
Should we compare quotes per seat?
Compare per seat AND per inclusion. A $95 plan without tested backups is more expensive than a $120 plan with them the day a server dies.