How much should IT support cost for a UK SME in 2026?

The real numbers for UK IT support in 2026

If you've spoken to a few managed service providers recently, you'll have encountered a range of pricing models. Here's what the market actually looks like:

• Per-user pricing (fully managed): £40–£75 per user per month is the typical range for a traditional MSP offering full managed support — helpdesk access, monitoring, patch management, and an escalation path for serious problems. London-based providers often sit toward the higher end. Regional providers may undercut slightly, but £40 is rarely the floor for genuine fully managed cover.
• Per-device pricing: Some providers price by device rather than user — typically £20–£50 per device per month. This model benefits businesses where staff share devices or have multiple machines, but can get expensive quickly in a BYOD environment.
• Block-hours / ad-hoc: If you're not on a managed contract, you'll pay £80–£150 per hour for reactive support. This is the most expensive way to buy IT support and usually only makes sense for one-off projects. For day-to-day issues, the uncertainty of the bill is its own problem.
• Break-fix (no contract): Some very small businesses manage on break-fix — you call someone when something breaks, they fix it, you pay. Rates are similar to block-hours. This model provides no monitoring, no proactive patching, and no accountability.

What you actually get at each tier

The headline rate isn't the whole story. At £40–£50 per user, most MSPs offer:

• A helpdesk (usually 9–5 or 8–6, Mon–Fri)
• Remote support for common issues
• Basic monitoring and alerting
• Patch management (Windows updates, sometimes third-party software)
• Antivirus management

At £60–£75 per user, you typically add:

• Extended hours or 24/7 out-of-hours cover
• Named account manager
• More proactive monitoring and quarterly reviews
• Microsoft 365 licence management included (sometimes)
• Faster response SLAs

The jump from £50 to £70 per user is often justified by the account manager and extended hours — if your team works outside standard office hours or genuinely needs a named person who knows your setup, the premium can be worth it.

The hidden costs most providers don't lead with

Quoted rates are almost never the total cost. Watch for these:

• Onboarding / setup fees: Many MSPs charge £500–£3,000 upfront to onboard a new client — auditing your environment, deploying agents, documentation. Reasonable to charge, but it should be declared upfront, not mentioned after you've agreed in principle.
• Minimum contract lengths: 12-month contracts are standard; some MSPs require 24 or 36 months. If your business changes — headcount drops, you're acquired, you change direction — you're still paying.
• Out-of-hours surcharges: At the lower tiers, anything outside business hours is usually charged as an extra. This can easily add £75–£150 per incident on a Saturday afternoon.
• Minimum user counts: Some MSPs won't take on clients below 10 or 15 users, or will charge as if you have that many even if you don't.
• Licence costs excluded: Microsoft 365 licences are sometimes (not always) excluded from the per-user rate, adding another £8–£22 per user depending on the plan.

Internal IT: the comparison nobody makes honestly

A common alternative to an MSP is hiring in-house. It's worth running the numbers before you do.

A junior IT support engineer in the UK costs £28,000–£35,000 in salary. By the time you add employer's National Insurance (roughly 13.8% above the secondary threshold), pension contributions (3% minimum), recruitment costs, hardware, training, and the cost of cover when they're on holiday or sick, the real annual cost is closer to £40,000–£48,000.

For a 30-person business, that works out to roughly £110–£130 per user per month — significantly more expensive than even a premium MSP. And you still only have one person, who can be ill, go on paternity leave, or hand in their notice.

Internal IT starts to make economic sense at roughly 80–120 users, when you have enough volume to justify a small team and the overhead is spread across enough people.

Where £10 per user sits — and why it's possible

We charge £10 per user per month. That's not a promotional rate or a loss-leader — it reflects the economics of an AI-first model.

About 80% of the support tickets a typical SME generates — password resets, software freezes, connectivity issues, common error messages — don't require a human engineer. Our AI handles those immediately, 24/7, with access to endpoint diagnostics. UK engineers only deal with the 20% that actually need them.

The maths is straightforward: if human time accounts for 20% of your support volume, and human time is the primary cost driver, your costs drop significantly. We pass that saving on rather than pocketing the margin.

We're transparent about how this works. See the How it works page and the full pricing breakdown.

Plain checklist: questions to ask before you sign

If you're evaluating IT support providers, here are the questions that matter:

• What's the total monthly cost — including licences, monitoring tools, and any bundled software?
• Is there an onboarding or setup fee, and is it refundable if things don't work out?
• What's the minimum contract length? What are the exit terms?
• What does out-of-hours support cost? Is there a clear rate, or is it discretionary?
• What's the response time SLA for different priority levels? Is it contractually guaranteed?
• How is pricing affected if my headcount changes — up or down?
• What happens to my data, documentation, and tooling if I leave?

A good provider will answer these questions directly and in writing. Vague answers — "we're flexible", "we'll work something out" — are a warning sign.

Summary

• Traditional UK MSPs charge £40–£75/user/month for fully managed support. Per-device is £20–£50. Ad-hoc is £80–£150/hour.
• Internal IT costs £110–£130/user/month all-in at 30 people — more expensive than most MSPs, with single-person risk.
• AI-first support at £10/user is possible because AI handles ~80% of volume without human involvement.
• Always check for setup fees, minimum contract lengths, out-of-hours charges, and licence exclusions before signing.