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IT Support Helpdesk vs Hiring In-House IT
For growing UK SMEs weighing up their first IT hire. We'll be honest: there are situations where a dedicated in-house person is the right answer. But for most businesses under 50 people on cloud-first infrastructure, outsourcing works out significantly cheaper and more resilient.
Quick verdict
A first IT hire typically costs £55,000–£70,000 per year once you factor in salary, employer NI, pension, and recruitment. At 20 users, our service costs £2,400 per year. The maths are stark. Where in-house wins is depth: one person who genuinely knows your systems, is on-site when needed, and can lead IT strategy. Where we win is cost, coverage, and resilience. If you're growing past 70 users or building complex on-site infrastructure, hire someone. Under 50 users with mostly cloud and endpoint support? Outsource.
Side-by-side at 20 users
| IT Support Helpdesk | In-House IT Manager | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost (20 users) | £2,400 | £55,000–£70,000 loaded |
| Sick leave cover | No gap — AI never sick | ~8 days/year gap, ~£2k+ cost |
| Holiday cover | Continuous coverage | 25 + 8 days off = 6+ weeks uncovered |
| Support scope | Unlimited tickets, all users | Support + strategy + vendor mgmt + projects |
| After-hours response | AI available 24/7 | Depends on individual — often nothing |
| Knowledge retention | Full chat history always available | Leaves with them if they resign |
| Hiring time | Sign up today, running in minutes | 6–12 weeks to hire, onboard, and settle |
The true cost of an in-house IT hire
A competent IT manager in the UK earns £40,000–£55,000 per year. But salary is only part of the picture. Once you add employer National Insurance (roughly 13.8%), employer pension contributions (3–5%), and any training budget, the loaded cost reaches £55,000–£70,000 per year before a single ticket is resolved.
Then there are the hidden costs that don't appear in the job ad:
- Sick leave. The UK average is around 8 days per year. For a sole IT person, that's eight days where your team has no support. At a £50k salary, that's roughly £1,500 in wages paid for no output — and an unquantifiable cost in productivity lost across the business.
- Annual leave. The statutory minimum is 28 days (including bank holidays). Most IT staff expect 25 days plus bank holidays, meaning 33+ days off per year — over six weeks where your single point of cover is absent.
- Recruitment fees. A specialist IT recruiter typically charges 15–20% of first-year salary. On a £45,000 hire, that's £6,750–£9,000 upfront, before the person has started.
- Turnover. The median tenure for an IT support role in a small business is 2–3 years. That means a recruitment cycle every few years — plus a period of reduced productivity while the new hire gets up to speed.
- Training. Security awareness, certification maintenance, and new tooling add £1,000–£3,000 per year for a conscientious hire.
What one in-house person actually covers
An IT manager in a 20–30 person business wears a lot of hats. On any given week they're fielding helpdesk tickets, managing vendor relationships (Microsoft, ISP, hardware supplier), overseeing device procurement, planning the next office move, and responding to the MD's latest "can we look at X?" The breadth is the appeal — and the problem.
When a critical ticket lands the same day as a switch upgrade, something waits. There's no escalation path, no second opinion, and no colleague to cover while they're out. For a cloud-first business where most IT problems are software and connectivity issues, a significant portion of that person's time is spent on things an AI resolves in seconds.
Where in-house wins
- Complex hands-on projects. Office moves, server room builds, physical network installs, and hardware refresh programmes benefit enormously from someone who's physically present, knows the layout, and can coordinate with contractors.
- Deep company-specific knowledge. An in-house person who's been with you for three years knows exactly how your finance team uses your ERP, why the third-floor access point always drops, and what the MD's laptop quirks are. That context takes years to build.
- IT leadership and strategy. If you need someone to own your IT roadmap, present to the board, manage vendor negotiations, and make technology decisions, you need a person — not a support service.
- Culture and organisational fit. A full-time team member attends the all-hands, understands the business direction, and can spot IT implications of decisions before they cause problems. A support service reacts; a good IT manager anticipates.
Where we win
- Cost at 10–50 users. At 20 users, our annual cost is £2,400. Against a £60,000 loaded in-house hire, that's a £57,600 annual saving — enough to fund a significant IT project or simply stay in the business. Even at 50 users (£6,000/year), the gap is enormous.
- Never sick, never on holiday. The AI handles first-line responses around the clock, every day of the year. UK engineers cover escalations during business hours. There's no single point of failure.
- Immediate scalability. Hiring from 20 users to 40 is £240 more per month, not a new hire. You don't need to recruit, onboard, or manage anyone — you just add seats.
- Institutional memory via chat history. Every ticket, every resolution, every workaround is logged. When someone asks "why is the VPN set up this way?", the answer is in the history — not in the head of someone who left 18 months ago.
- Speed on routine tickets. AI resolves common issues — password resets, M365 sign-in errors, software crashes, connectivity checks — in seconds. No queue, no call, no waiting for someone to finish what they were doing.
When to hire instead
If you're growing past 70 users, building or maintaining on-site server infrastructure, running regular hands-on IT projects, or you need someone to own your IT strategy and attend leadership meetings, an in-house person will serve you better than we will. We're a support service, not a strategic IT partner. We're also honest that some businesses simply want a human face on their IT — and that's a valid reason to hire. We won't try to talk you out of it if that's genuinely what you need.
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