Across the UK market, managed IT support typically costs £10–£30 per user per month for basic helpdesk cover and £60–£120 per user per month for comprehensive packages with 24/7 monitoring, advanced security and backup. Break-fix support is charged by the hour instead. The right figure depends on your users, systems, security needs and on-site requirements. Compare what's included and what's charged as extra, not the headline monthly price.
What does IT support cost in the UK right now?
There's no official price list for IT support, and providers package their services in very different ways. So treat the figures below as general UK market ranges, based on how providers commonly price their services in 2026. They are not Indigo's prices. Indigo doesn't publish package prices, because every quote depends on your number of users and your setup.
| Type of support | Typical UK market range | What you usually get |
|---|---|---|
| Break-fix (pay as you go) | Charged per hour when something goes wrong, typically £70–£150 an hour, with out-of-hours work higher | A fix when you ask for one. No monitoring, no prevention |
| Basic managed helpdesk | £10–£30 per user per month | Remote helpdesk in office hours, basic monitoring and patching. Security tools and on-site visits often extra |
| Comprehensive managed IT | £60–£120 per user per month | Helpdesk, 24/7 monitoring, endpoint detection and response, email security, backup, Microsoft 365 management, security training, reviews and some on-site time |
Two things push a quote towards the top of a range more than anything else: how much security is included, and how much on-site work is included. A provider quoting £25 per user and one quoting £90 per user may both call their service "managed IT support". They are rarely selling the same thing.
What pushes the price up or down?
Most providers price per user, per device, or both. Beyond headcount, five factors move the number.
Complexity. A business running everything in Microsoft 365 with laptops and no servers is simpler to support than one with an on-premises server, line-of-business software, a phone system and three sites. Specialist software, such as construction estimating or ticketing and EPOS in a venue, adds work.
Security. Protection against viruses and ransomware on every device (endpoint detection and response), email security, a dedicated security team watching your systems 24/7 (a security operations centre, or SOC) and help with Cyber Essentials all cost money to run. They also do the most to reduce risk. The government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 found 43% of UK businesses reported a breach or attack in the previous 12 months, with phishing the most common type (38%).
Hours of cover. Office-hours helpdesk costs less than extended hours. Round-the-clock monitoring of systems is different from a round-the-clock helpdesk: check which you're being quoted.
On-site support. Remote support is the fastest and cheapest way to fix most issues. Guaranteed engineer visits, especially to sites outside the Central Belt, cost more. In Scotland, travel time to a site in the Highlands or the islands is a real part of the price.
Microsoft 365 licences. Some providers bundle licences into the per-user fee, others bill them separately. Always compare like for like, with licences in or out of both quotes.
Worked example: what would a 20-user business pay?
This is an illustration, not a quote and not Indigo pricing. Take a 20-person professional services firm in Glasgow with laptops, Microsoft 365, one small server and one office. All figures use the market assumptions stated in the table, and Microsoft 365 licences are left out of all three columns so they compare fairly.
| Illustrative annual cost, 20 users | Break-fix | Basic managed helpdesk | Comprehensive managed IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assumed support fee | None | £20 per user per month = £4,800 | £80 per user per month = £19,200 |
| Reactive labour | 8 hours a month at an assumed £90 an hour = £8,640 | Mostly included | Included |
| Projects and on-site work outside scope | Charged hourly (included above) | Assumed 20 hours at £90 = £1,800 | Some on-site time included |
| Security tools bought separately (EDR, email security, Microsoft 365 backup) | Assumed £8 per user per month = £1,920 | Often extra: £1,920 | Included |
| 24/7 monitoring and security operations | None | None | Included |
| Illustrative total | About £10,560 | About £8,520 | About £19,200 |
What the example shows is more useful than the totals. Break-fix looks cheapest in a quiet month and often isn't over a year, because every hour is billable and nobody is paid to prevent the next problem. Basic helpdesk is usually the lowest total cost, but you're buying reaction, not protection. Comprehensive managed IT costs the most in cash, and it's the only column that includes continuous monitoring and security operations. That's the part that stops a bad day becoming a bad month.
What are the hidden costs of cheap IT support?
The price on the quote is rarely the price you pay. These are the costs that turn up later.
Downtime. If 20 staff lose half a day to a failed update or being locked out of Microsoft 365, that's 80 working hours. At an illustrative £25 an hour in wages and overheads, that's £2,000 in one afternoon, before any lost sales.
"Out of scope" charges. New starters, leavers, a new printer, moving a desk. On cheap contracts these are often billed by the hour. Ask for the list of what's excluded, not just what's included.
Security gaps. A breach is the most expensive hidden cost. The same government survey found that only 47% of businesses use two-factor authentication, one of the simplest controls available. Cheap support rarely includes the time to set up and check controls like this.
Slow responses. A "four-hour response" in a service level agreement (SLA) may just mean an automated email. Ask for last month's actual average first response and resolution figures.
Leaving costs. If passwords, documentation and admin access sit with the provider, not you, switching becomes slow and expensive. Make sure your contract says they're yours.
Why price IT, connectivity and phones together?
Phone systems now run over your internet connection and IT network, and the UK's copper phone network (PSTN) is being switched off by 31 January 2027. When the phones, broadband and IT are with three different suppliers, a fault can bounce between them while nobody fixes it. Pricing them together doesn't always reduce the total, but it removes the gaps and makes one team responsible for the fix. If you're not sure where you stand, our free PSTN switch-off check is a quick way to find out.
What we see when businesses compare quotes
At Indigo Unified Communications, most of the businesses we speak to are between 10 and 500 staff, and the quotes they bring us rarely compare like with like. One includes a 24/7 security operations centre; another includes "security" that turns out to be antivirus. One includes on-site visits; another charges for every trip. Our own packages set this out in writing: on Silver, engineer visits and PC builds are chargeable, while Gold includes two engineer visits plus six PC builds per quarter, and Platinum and Charity include four visits and unlimited builds. Whoever you choose, ask for that level of detail.
How Indigo does this. Indigo offers four managed IT support packages, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Charity, priced per user per month: from £25 for Silver, £35 for Gold, £45 for Platinum and £27.50 for Charity, excluding VAT. A free technology assessment then gives you a fixed monthly quote for your business. Every ticket gets a first response in under 30 minutes (13 minutes on average in September 2026), and our experienced engineering team works from Glasgow Business Park and Livingston. Compare our packages →
What to do next
- Count your users, devices, servers and sites, and list any specialist software. That's what every quote is built on.
- Ask each provider for a written list of what's included and what's charged extra, including on-site visits, new starters and projects.
- Put Microsoft 365 licences either in or out of every quote so you're comparing like for like.
- Ask for last month's actual response and resolution figures, not just the SLA.
- Book a free technology assessment to get a fixed quote for your business.
Frequently asked questions
How much does IT support cost per user in the UK?
As a general UK market range, basic managed helpdesk support costs about £10–£30 per user per month, and comprehensive managed IT with 24/7 monitoring, advanced security and backup costs about £60–£120. These aren't fixed prices. The number depends on your systems, security needs, hours of cover and how much on-site work is included, so compare inclusions rather than the headline figure.
Is break-fix IT support cheaper than managed IT support?
Sometimes, in a quiet month. Over a year it often isn't, because every hour is billable and the provider has no reason to prevent problems. Break-fix also rarely includes monitoring, patching or security tools, so you pay for those separately or go without. For businesses with more than a handful of staff, a fixed monthly fee is usually more predictable.
Are Microsoft 365 licences included in IT support prices?
It depends on the provider. Some bundle licences into the per-user fee, and others bill them separately. At Indigo, Gold includes Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Platinum includes Business Premium, while Silver doesn't include a licence. When you compare quotes, make sure licences are treated the same way in each.
Why doesn't Indigo publish its prices?
Because every quote depends on your number of users, your systems and the package you choose. A 15-person office and a 200-person multi-site business need very different things. We give you a fixed monthly quote after a free technology assessment, so you know exactly what you'll pay and what it covers.
Sources: DSIT, Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026, 30 April 2026 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-20252026/cyber-security-breaches-survey-20252026) · Openreach, PSTN switch-off date 31 January 2027 · Market price ranges: Indigo's general reading of the UK market, confirmed by Kenny Stevenson, 24 September 2026 (not Indigo prices) · Break-fix hourly range: UK provider pricing guides, including Red Eagle Tech, How much does IT support cost UK? (2026 guide), updated 17 July 2026 (https://redeagle.tech/blog/how-much-does-it-support-cost-uk), Computer Centric, Small business IT support costs UK: 2026 pricing guide, 21 June 2026 (https://computercentric.com/blog/small-business-it-support-costs/) and AIS Tech, IT support cost UK 2026, 24 August 2026 (https://www.aistech.co.uk/post/it-support-cost-uk).
Related: What does managed IT support include? · IT support vs in-house IT · Managed IT support packages · How to choose an IT support company in Scotland
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