Guide
IT support cost per user per month: how the number is built
Updated
Almost every UK managed support quote leads with a per-user, per-month figure. Two quotes with the same figure can still describe very different services, so the comparison has to go one level deeper.
What a per-user rate usually covers
- Helpdesk access for that user, within defined hours, through defined channels.
- Endpoint management: the monitoring and patching agent on their laptop or desktop, and its antivirus or endpoint protection.
- Account administration: starters, leavers, password resets, permissions and mailbox changes.
- A share of the service overhead: the ticketing system, documentation, account management and reporting.
What is usually charged on top
- Servers and network devices
- Typically a separate per-device monthly charge, because a server carries monitoring, patching and backup work that does not scale with headcount.
- Software licences
- Microsoft 365, security tooling and backup subscriptions are their own per-user costs, bought from the vendor or resold by the provider. They change independently of the support contract.
- Onboarding
- A one-off fee for documenting the estate, deploying agents and taking over from the previous provider. See the effect on year one in the calculator.
- Project work
- Migrations, office moves, hardware refreshes and anything the contract lists as out of scope, billed hourly or as a fixed price. See hourly rates.
Questions that make two quotes comparable
- Which hours are covered, and what happens outside them? Business hours, extended hours and 24/7 are different products at different prices.
- Is it unlimited, or capped? Some agreements cap tickets or hours per user per month and bill overflow at the project rate. That cap is the difference between a low headline rate and a predictable bill.
- What is the response and resolution commitment, by priority, and is there any consequence if it is missed?
- Which licences are included and which are rebilled? A rate that bundles endpoint security is not comparable with one that does not.
- Is on-site attendance included, and if so how many visits, or is every visit chargeable?
- What is the minimum term and the exit process? Ask specifically what you get on exit: administrator credentials, documentation and configuration are yours, and the time to hand them over should not be a surprise invoice.
Compare on effective cost, not headline rate
The useful comparison figure is the year-one total divided by users and months, because it absorbs onboarding, device charges and expected project work into one number. On the calculator's placeholder rates, a 25-user business with two servers pays a £45 headline rate but an effective £58 per user per month in year one once the £2,000 onboarding fee is included. A provider with a £50 headline and no onboarding fee would be cheaper on that basis. Run both quotes through the calculator with their own numbers and compare the effective figure.
We deliberately do not publish a UK average per-user rate. The spread between a helpdesk-only agreement and a fully managed agreement with security operations is wide enough that an average would be a misleading anchor in a negotiation. Use your own quotes.