The three options at a glance
Once a company outgrows the stage where IT is looked after by "whoever knows computers", the question of how to organise IT support comes up. In practice you choose between three models. They differ in who does the work, who carries the risk of absence and who pays for the tools.
| Model | Who does the work | Tools and licences | Cover and availability | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house IT team | Your employees | Bought and maintained by you | Your responsibility | Salaries and tools |
| Managed IT partner (MSP) | The managed service provider's team | Usually included in the price | The partner's responsibility under the contract (SLA) | Monthly fee |
| Hybrid (co-managed IT) | Your employee and the partner | Usually the partner's | The partner covers absences and out-of-hours | Salary plus a lower fee |
None of the models is always the cheapest. The size of your environment, the coverage you need, specialist skills and how quickly you must react to a problem all decide the outcome. Use the calculator for an indicative comparison based on your own figures.
How many people you really need
The most common mistake in the comparison is the equation "one IT administrator = one salary". One employee cannot be available all year. The EU Working Time Directive guarantees every worker at least four weeks of paid annual leave, and on top of that come public holidays, sick leave and training.
- Full-time work means roughly 2,080 hours a year (52 weeks of 40 hours).
- After leave, public holidays, sick leave and training, around 1,600 to 1,700 productive hours remain.
- To cover business hours all year round you therefore need about 1.3 people, not one.
- 24/7 coverage means 8,736 hours a year, which corresponds to roughly five to six people for a single continuously staffed seat.
The Directive also requires a minimum daily rest of 11 consecutive hours, so two or three people cannot sustain 24/7 coverage over time, even if they are willing to work nights. If you need night-time on-call duty, also budget for the premiums set by national law and collective agreements.
What the cost of an in-house team includes
Gross salary is only part of the cost. For a realistic comparison, add up:
- employer cost: gross salary, employer social contributions, bonuses, benefits and allowances,
- tools: remote monitoring and management (RMM), endpoint security (EDR), backup, a ticketing system, network monitoring,
- skills: training, certifications and the time an administrator spends learning new systems,
- recruitment and turnover: hiring, onboarding and the knowledge that leaves with a departing colleague,
- premiums: on-call, night and holiday work if you require extended coverage.
The biggest risk of an in-house team, however, is not cost but dependence on one person. If passwords, configurations and knowledge of the systems exist only in one administrator's head, every holiday or resignation becomes a business risk.
How managed IT services pricing works
Managed service providers (MSPs) most often charge a monthly price per user or per device, with servers and network equipment priced separately. Market prices vary widely, so compare quotes only once you know what they include:
- remote user support and on-site visits,
- tools (RMM, EDR, backup) and their licences,
- response and resolution times per priority, written into the SLA,
- out-of-hours coverage and the price of call-outs at night and on holidays,
- projects such as migrations, new sites or hardware refreshes, which are often billed separately,
- one-off onboarding: inventory, documentation and tool rollout.
A managed IT partner brings a team with several specialists, built-in cover and established tooling. In return you give up some direct control and first-hand knowledge of your environment, so the contract and documentation must be clear.
The hybrid model: when it is the best choice
With co-managed IT, one employee or a small team stays in-house, while the partner takes over monitoring, servers, security, backup and out-of-hours coverage. The model works well when:
- you need someone on site who knows the people and your business applications,
- you already have a good administrator who cannot cover every area and every hour,
- you want out-of-hours coverage without running your own shift rota.
The key to a hybrid model is a clear split of responsibilities. Put in writing who takes tickets, who approves changes, who handles updates and who responds to a security incident. Without that, tasks on the boundary between the teams fall through the cracks.
Risks no calculation shows
- Exit from the contract: documentation, passwords and admin access must belong to you, and the contract must define the handover on termination.
- Supply-chain security: if you fall under NIS2, your managed service provider is a supplier whose security measures you must assess and manage. NIS2 also brings managed service providers themselves into its scope.
- Responsiveness: check in the SLA whether response time means time to first reply or time until work on the issue begins.
- Incident readiness: who responds to ransomware on a Sunday? Check your readiness in the cyber attack readiness guide.
Checklist before you decide
- How many users, devices, servers and locations do you actually manage?
- What coverage do you really need: business hours, extended or 24/7?
- Who covers for your administrator today during holidays?
- Are the documentation and the list of access rights up to date and owned by the company?
- Do the MSP quotes include tools, on-site visits and out-of-hours work?
- What are the response times per priority, and what happens if they are missed?
- How will you exit the contract or switch partners?
Humanfrog provides managed IT services either as a fully outsourced model or as co-management alongside your team, together with cloud infrastructure and security. If you would like to check the calculation against your own environment, talk to us.
