A managed IT service (an MSP) charges a fixed monthly fee per staff member or per device to look after your IT, usually on a 12 to 36 month contract. Pay-as-you-go IT support charges only for the time you use, when you need it. A managed plan makes sense once a business has around 15 or more staff, its own servers, or compliance obligations. Most small offices, sole traders and home businesses are better served by pay-as-you-go, as long as a few basics are set up properly.
What does a managed IT service actually include?
Plans vary, but most managed IT contracts bundle some mix of these:
- Helpdesk. Phone, email or ticket support for staff, usually with a promised response time.
- Monitoring. Software on every computer that reports problems (full disks, failed backups, offline devices) back to the provider.
- Patching. Windows, Mac and software updates pushed and checked centrally.
- Security tools. Antivirus or endpoint protection, email filtering, sometimes a firewall.
- Backups. For computers, servers and often Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- Account admin. New starters, leavers, password resets and licence management.
- Supplier wrangling. Dealing with your internet provider, phone system or software vendors for you.
What's often not included matters just as much. Projects (a new office, a server replacement, a migration) are usually quoted on top. Hardware is extra. On-site visits may be limited or charged separately. Read the exclusions page before the inclusions page.
How is a managed IT plan priced?
Almost always per user or per device, per month, whether or not anything goes wrong that month. That's the deal: you pay a steady amount for the provider to keep things running and to answer the phone when they don't. For a business that would otherwise be calling for help every week, that can be good value. For a business that needs help four or five times a year, you're mostly paying for availability you don't use.
Contracts commonly run 12, 24 or 36 months, with notice periods and sometimes exit or offboarding fees. Ask about those before you sign, not when you want to leave.
Who genuinely needs a managed IT service?
A managed plan earns its money when several of these are true:
- You have 15 or more staff, so there's a steady stream of password resets, new starters and "my laptop's playing up" every week.
- You run your own servers or on-site systems that need watching around the clock.
- You have compliance requirements, such as health records, legal files, financial data or government contracts that ask for documented security controls.
- An hour of downtime costs serious money, and you need a guaranteed response time in writing.
- Nobody in the business wants to be "the IT person", even for small things.
If that's you, a good managed provider is worth it. Pick one that's open about what's in and out of the plan, and that hands you full admin access to your own systems.
Who is better off with pay-as-you-go IT support?
Most small businesses we work with look more like this:
- A handful of staff, or a sole trader working from home.
- Everything already in the cloud: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email and files, Xero or MYOB for accounts, a booking or point-of-sale system that the vendor looks after.
- A modem, a Wi-Fi network, a printer and some laptops.
- Something goes wrong a few times a year, not a few times a week.
For a setup like that, a per-seat monthly fee is mostly paying for monitoring tools watching computers that are already updating themselves, and a helpdesk you rarely ring. Paying for the visits you actually need usually works out cheaper, and you're not locked in if your needs change.
What's the catch with pay-as-you-go?
It's reactive by default. Nobody is watching your systems between visits, so a few things need to be set up once and left running. These are the basics we'd want in place for any small business without a managed plan:
- Automatic updates switched on for Windows, macOS and your browsers. Modern systems handle this well on their own if you let them.
- Multi-factor authentication on every email account. Most business break-ins we see start with a stolen email password. Our email and Microsoft 365 help covers setting this up across a team.
- A backup you've actually tested. Including Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which don't keep deleted files forever. A backup nobody has tried restoring from is a hope, not a backup.
- Admin passwords held by the business, not only by whoever set things up. Write down where they are.
- Notes on your setup. What's on the network, which accounts exist, who has access to what. This is what makes the next call quick instead of starting from scratch.
- A check-in once or twice a year to look for expiring licences, old accounts that should be off, failing hardware and backups that quietly stopped.
Do those six things and you get most of the protection a managed plan offers, without the monthly bill.
Questions to ask before signing any IT contract
Whichever way you go, these questions sort good providers from the rest:
- Who owns the admin accounts for our email, domain and Microsoft 365? Will we have full access?
- What's excluded from the monthly fee, and how are those jobs charged?
- What's the minimum term, the notice period, and is there an exit fee?
- If we leave, what do we get handed over? Passwords, documentation, backups?
- What response time is guaranteed, and is on-site support included or extra?
- Do we have to buy hardware or software licences through you?
If a provider is cagey about the first or fourth question, that tells you a lot.
How HeyTech works
We're not a managed service provider, and we don't sell plans. HeyTech does pay-as-you-go IT support for small businesses across Greater Hobart: you call when something's wrong, we sort it on-site or remotely, and you pay for the time. Every visit ends with notes on your file, so the next one picks up where the last left off, even months later. If a half-yearly check-in or a bigger project would help, we quote that separately.
And if your business grows to the point where a managed provider or a full-time IT person makes more sense, we'll say so, and hand over everything we've documented. No exit fees, because there's no contract to exit.
Common questions
What is the difference between managed IT services and break-fix IT support?
Managed IT services charge a fixed monthly fee to look after your systems continuously, including monitoring, updates and a helpdesk. Break-fix (or pay-as-you-go) support charges only when you need help, for the time spent fixing the problem.
Is managed IT worth it for a small business?
It depends on size and risk. With 15 or more staff, your own servers, or compliance obligations, usually yes. For a small team running on cloud services that needs help a few times a year, pay-as-you-go plus a few basics done properly is usually better value.
Can I get proactive IT support without a monthly contract?
Yes. Turn on automatic updates and multi-factor authentication, set up a tested backup, keep notes on your setup, and book a check-in once or twice a year. That covers most of what a managed plan's monitoring would catch.
What should I check before signing a managed IT contract?
Make sure the business keeps full admin access to its own email, domain and Microsoft 365. Then check the minimum term, notice period, exit fees, what's excluded from the monthly fee, and what gets handed over if you leave.
Does HeyTech offer managed IT plans?
No. HeyTech is pay-as-you-go only, with no monthly plans or lock-in contracts. We document every visit and can quote periodic check-ins or projects separately if they'd help.
Running a small business in Hobart and not sure you need a monthly IT plan? Talk to us about pay-as-you-go business IT support, no lock-in. Get in touch →