How Much Do Managed IT Services Cost? A Straightforward Pricing Guide

Why We Don't Use a Single Flat Rate

Many managed service providers charge a single flat fee per user, per month, and call it a day. It is simple to quote, but it is not always fair to the client. A flat per-user rate assumes every business looks the same: same number of servers, same network complexity, same specialized equipment. In practice, that is almost never true.

Think about two businesses that both have 30 employees. The first is a professional services firm with 30 laptops, one small server closet, and nothing unusual to support. The second is a manufacturer with 30 employees, three shop floor systems, a surveillance system, an access control system, and a much more complex network with heavier firewall requirements. Under a flat per-user model, both businesses would pay the same rate, even though the manufacturer's environment requires significantly more infrastructure management.

INFORTECH's three-part structure solves this by separating what you pay for your infrastructure from what you pay for your people from what you pay for your specialized systems. That way, a business with a disproportionate number of workstations and servers relative to its headcount is not stuck paying for infrastructure it does not have, and a business with heavier infrastructure needs is not underpaying relative to the actual work involved in supporting it. You pay for what you need, and nothing you don't.

Fee 1: Base Infrastructure Management Fee

Also called the Site Management Fee, this is the foundation of your Managed IT engagement. It covers the ongoing management, monitoring, and support of everything that keeps your physical location connected and secure: your internet connection, firewall, servers, network infrastructure, phone systems, surveillance systems, and access control systems.

This fee ranges from $500 to $2,000 per month, and unlike the other two fees, it is charged per location rather than per user. Where your specific site lands in that range depends on a handful of factors:

Infrastructure size. A single small office with one server and a straightforward network setup sits toward the lower end. A larger facility with multiple servers, several network segments, and more complex switching equipment sits toward the higher end.

Firewall complexity. A basic firewall configuration with standard rules costs less to manage than an advanced setup with multiple VLANs, site-to-site VPNs, or strict compliance-driven segmentation requirements.

Number of employees at the location. More employees generally means more network traffic, more devices connecting to Wi-Fi, and a larger overall footprint to monitor and secure.

Physical security systems on-site. Locations with surveillance systems and access control systems in addition to standard networking equipment require more ongoing monitoring and support, which is reflected in where the fee lands within the range.

Because this fee is tied to your physical site rather than your headcount, a company with two locations pays this fee twice, once for each site's infrastructure, while a single-location company with the exact same number of employees pays it only once.

Fee 3: Ancillary System Support Fee

Not every piece of technology in your business is a laptop or a server. Many businesses, manufacturers especially, rely on specialized, user-assigned systems that fall outside standard IT support: shop floor systems, engineering workstations, proprietary line-of-business applications, specialized diagnostic equipment, and similar tools.

The Ancillary System Support Fee covers exactly these systems, at $75 to $100 per system, per month. This fee only applies to systems you actually have. A business with no specialized shop floor systems or niche applications simply does not pay this fee at all, while a manufacturer running three distinct shop floor systems pays for each one individually.

This is where the itemized model shows its biggest advantage. Under a flat per-user rate, a manufacturer with multiple specialized systems would either be stuck paying above-market rates baked into an inflated flat fee, or would find that its specialized systems are quietly excluded from support altogether, discovered only when something breaks. With the Ancillary System Support Fee, that coverage is explicit, priced fairly, and scaled to exactly what you have.

Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Before committing to a provider, whether it is INFORTECH or someone else, it is worth asking a few pointed questions to make sure the pricing structure reflects the value you will actually receive:

• Is your pricing itemized by infrastructure, user support, and specialized systems, or bundled into one flat rate?
• What specifically is included in the Base Infrastructure fee, and does it cover physical security systems like surveillance and access control?
• How is the Operational Support Services Fee affected by compliance requirements specific to my industry?
• What counts as an "ancillary system," and how is that fee determined for systems unique to my business?
• What are your guaranteed response times, and are they backed by a written SLA?

A provider who can answer these clearly, with real numbers rather than vague ranges, is signaling that their pricing reflects genuine operational structure, not just a sales number.

Is This Pricing Model Right for Every Business?

This structure tends to benefit growing and mid-sized businesses most clearly, especially those with uneven ratios between headcount, infrastructure, and specialized equipment, which describes a large share of manufacturers, healthcare practices, and multi-location businesses in the South Bay and East Bay.

The best way to know your actual number is a real assessment of your environment: your location's infrastructure, your team's support and compliance needs, and any specialized systems that need coverage. From there, we can walk you through exactly where each of the three fees lands for your business, with nothing left vague.