In 2026, most UK small businesses pay between £40 and £80 per user per month for a proper managed IT contract. Basic remote-only cover starts around £25. Premium tiers with onsite engineering and a vCIO run £80–£150. Below £40 you're usually missing endpoint security, Microsoft 365 management or tested backup.
The three price bands you'll see in the UK
UK managed IT pricing has settled into three fairly predictable bands. The names change, but the numbers don't.
- £25–£40 per user per month — remote helpdesk, operating-system patching, antivirus, a monthly report. Cheap to buy, thin on prevention.
- £40–£80 per user per month — the standard "proactive managed" tier. Microsoft 365 management, endpoint detection and response (Defender for Business or similar), backup for 365 data, phishing defence, a named account manager.
- £80–£150 per user per month — onsite engineering days, quarterly vCIO reviews, Cyber Essentials Plus support, co-managed security operations.
Our own managed IT support plan starts at £49 per user per month and sits in the middle band. It's priced so the things that stop incidents — MFA, EDR, patching, backup, monitoring — are already in the box, not sold as extras.
Per user, per device, or fixed fee?
Three charging models dominate:
- Per user — one invoice line per employee. Works well when staff use a laptop plus a phone plus maybe a desktop. Fair and easy to forecast.
- Per device — cheaper for shift-workers sharing a single terminal, more expensive for hybrid workers with two laptops.
- Fixed fee — one monthly price for the whole company. Usually a wrapper for a per-user number the provider worked out in the quote.
Hourly break-fix still exists at £75–£150 per hour, but it's mostly a legacy model. If your provider only charges when something breaks, they make money when you have a bad week — the incentives point the wrong way.
What's usually included — and what isn't
At mid-tier prices, expect unlimited remote support, 24/7 monitoring, monthly patching, endpoint protection, Microsoft 365 licence management, SaaS backup, and a written service-level agreement. Ask specifically about these, because they often cost extra:
- Onsite visits (usually a set number of days per year, or billed at £95–£150/hr beyond)
- Microsoft 365 licences themselves (a managed contract covers management, not the Microsoft bill)
- Hardware refresh, procurement and delivery
- Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials Plus certification fees
- Project work — migrations, new server builds, office moves
- Third-line or vendor-engineering hours with Microsoft, Sage, etc.
Our Microsoft 365 and cyber security service pages list exactly what's bundled and what's a project line item, so there's no sleight of hand.
What drives the number up or down
Three factors move your quote more than anything else:
- Response-time SLA. A 30-minute priority response costs more than "we'll get back to you by end of day". Ours is 30 minutes to logged priority tickets.
- Sector rules. Accountants, solicitors and clinics carry regulatory overhead — DSP Toolkit, Lexcel, Cyber Essentials renewal — that drags the baseline up 10–15%.
- Tech debt. Old servers, unsupported operating systems (Windows 10 reached end-of-life on 14 October 2025), mixed cloud tenants — all add onboarding time. A clean estate is cheaper to run.
A worked example: a 15-person accountancy practice
Fifteen users, all on Microsoft 365 Business Standard, laptops only, one small file server retired last year. A sensible 2026 quote looks like this:
- Managed IT support, 15 users at £55/user/month — £825/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium upgrade, 15 licences — roughly £330/month (paid direct to Microsoft or via the MSP)
- One-off onboarding and Cyber Essentials gap check — £1,500
- Cyber Essentials certification (small tier) — around £400+VAT annually
Total first-year run cost: about £15,330 + Microsoft licensing, for a firm billing well into six or seven figures. For context, the NCSC's own Cyber Essentials guidance is a sensible free starting point before you quote anyone.
How to sense-check a quote
Three quick tests. If a quote fails any of them, ask for more detail:
- Is the price published or hidden? If you had to book a call to get a number, the number is probably higher than it needs to be.
- Is MFA included by default? From 27 April 2026, Cyber Essentials v3.3 auto-fails anyone who hasn't switched on MFA where a cloud service offers it. If it's a paid add-on, walk away.
- Is there a written SLA? Not "we aim to respond promptly" — actual minutes, tied to ticket priority.
FAQs
What's the cheapest real IT support price in the UK?
Around £25 per user per month gets you basic remote helpdesk, patching and antivirus. It won't include endpoint detection, Microsoft 365 management or Cyber Essentials readiness, so you'll pay for those separately when you need them.
Per user or per device — which is better?
Per user is simpler and fairer when staff carry two or three devices. Per device can be cheaper when you've got shared terminals — reception desks, shopfloor kiosks — but it gets expensive the moment people start working hybrid.
Are onsite visits included?
At mid-tier prices, remote support is unlimited and onsite is either a fixed number of days per year or billed hourly beyond. Check exactly how onsite is handled before you sign — it's the most common surprise line on an invoice.
What should I be paying in 2026?
Most West Sussex SMEs pay £40–£80 per user per month for a proactive managed contract with Microsoft 365 management, endpoint security and backup bundled. Under £40 usually means something is missing; over £80 usually means onsite days or vCIO time is priced in.
Should the MSP also resell Microsoft licences?
Not necessarily. Some clients prefer to buy Microsoft direct and pay the MSP only for management. Either way, the management fee and the Microsoft licence are two different things — don't let them get bundled into one opaque number.