Managed IT services in the US cost $100 to $200 per user per month for full coverage, or $50 to $150 per device where the provider prices that way. The number only means something alongside the service level: response and resolution times by severity, who declares an incident critical, and what sits outside the scope. Two providers quoting the same monthly fee frequently cover very different ground.
Basic support
$50 – $100 / user / month
Helpdesk during business hours, patching, antivirus, basic monitoring.
Full coverage
$100 – $200 / user / month
Round-the-clock monitoring, security tooling, backup management, vendor coordination, defined response times.
Co-managed with internal IT
Variable
The provider covers nights, weekends, and specialisms while your internal team keeps the day-to-day.
The cheaper option
For a company under about 25 people with cloud-only systems, a part-time contractor plus well-configured tooling often costs less than a full MSP contract. The calculus changes once you need genuine 24/7 coverage, which one person cannot provide.
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One person cannot cover nights, weekends, and holidays, so the honest comparison is against two or three people plus tooling. Below a few hundred employees, the MSP arithmetic usually works.
Response and resolution times by severity, who declares severity, and what happens when targets are missed. Vague SLAs are the main source of MSP disappointment.
Ask explicitly. Data, documentation, and licence transfer should be defined in the contract, because that is the moment leverage matters most.
Other cost guides
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