Managed IT pricing depends on what the provider operates, how complex the environment is, and which responsibilities stay with your team. A per-user figure alone cannot tell you whether two proposals cover the same work.
This guide gives you a comparison worksheet and a budgeting example. The numbers below are deliberately hypothetical—not Monster MSP pricing, a quote, or a market-rate benchmark. A meaningful estimate requires your environment and scope.
Identify the inputs that change cost
Before requesting proposals, prepare a short inventory:
- Active employees, contractors, shared accounts, and expected headcount changes.
- Supported laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, and shared equipment.
- Sites, remote-working arrangements, cloud platforms, and business applications.
- Coverage hours, escalation needs, and any specific recovery requirements.
- Current licenses, renewal commitments, tool ownership, and existing vendor contracts.
- Known cleanup work: unsupported devices, missing documentation, inconsistent identity or device controls.
- Internal responsibilities that remain outside the provider's scope.
Two businesses with the same headcount can have different support demands. A single-office company using a standard application set is not the same operating problem as a multi-site business with legacy systems and specialized equipment.
Compare the same operating scope
Use this worksheet for each proposal. Enter the actual scope and a price or exclusion; a blank means “unresolved,” not “included.”
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns.
| Comparison item | What to record for each provider |
|---|---|
| Billing basis | Per user, device, site, fixed scope, usage, or a combination; minimum commitments |
| User support | Supported applications, channels, locations, hours, and escalation ownership |
| Administration | Identity lifecycle, device policies, Microsoft tenant changes, vendor coordination |
| Security | Included products, active review responsibilities, coverage hours, response boundaries |
| Recovery | Protected workloads, storage assumptions, retention, restore testing |
| Subscriptions | Included licenses versus separately billed licenses; renewal and transfer conditions |
| Onboarding | One-time fee, cleanup assumptions, dependencies, and acceptance criteria |
| Projects | Included allowance, exclusions, approval process, and unused-allowance treatment |
| On-site work | Included visits, travel, installation work, and after-hours charges |
| Exit terms | Notice, data/documentation export, tool removal, license commitments, transition charges |
Ask providers to resolve material gaps before comparing totals. A low recurring figure that excludes required security operations is not an equivalent alternative to one that includes them.
Build the first-year budget
Use four buckets: recurring services, recurring technology costs, one-time work, and capital purchases. Keep retained internal labor visible alongside them; it may not appear on the provider's invoice.
The following invented example represents a 60-person business. All amounts are USD and are calculation inputs only.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns.
| Budget item | Monthly | One-time in year one |
|---|---|---|
| Managed operations | $3,600 | — |
| User subscriptions | $1,320 | — |
| Network/cloud operating charges | $450 | — |
| Backup service and storage | $380 | — |
| Onboarding | — | $2,400 |
| Approved improvement projects | — | $9,600 |
| Hardware replacement | — | $6,000 |
| Total | $5,750 | $18,000 |
First-year external budget: 12 × $5,750 + $18,000 = $87,000. The recurring component alone is $69,000 annually. Dividing $87,000 by 60 people and 12 months gives approximately $120.83 per person per month as a blended budgeting view—not a recurring per-user service rate.
This model excludes taxes, financing, internal labor, unplanned incidents, and any other costs not listed. Add those separately where applicable. Do not add a subscription twice if it is already included in the service fee. Do not assume the first year's project or hardware amount repeats unchanged in year two.
Test the budget against change
Ask for a written explanation of what happens when you add employees, open a site, change applications, or need out-of-hours work. Identify which costs are fixed, which vary with usage, and which require an approved scope change.
In the fictional model, a $500 increase in recurring monthly costs adds $6,000 to the annual budget. A one-time $500 onboarding adjustment adds only $500. Treating both as equivalent price differences would distort the decision.
If a cheaper proposal shifts work to internal staff, estimate that time separately. Record hours per month and an agreed loaded hourly cost, but distinguish an allocation of existing employee capacity from actual incremental cash spending.
Questions to settle before signing
- What exact conditions permit additional charges?
- Which tools and licenses remain your responsibility at termination?
- Who approves project work before it starts?
- What evidence shows the included operational work is being performed?
- Which assumptions could change the onboarding estimate?
- How are annual increases, minimum quantities, and multi-year commitments handled?
Common questions
Can you give us a reliable price from employee count alone?
Employee count helps, but supported assets, hours, current condition, and retained responsibilities also matter. A quick number without those assumptions is not a dependable scope comparison.
Should we choose the lowest total?
First determine whether each proposal meets your required scope. Then compare equivalent costs, exclusions, ownership, and the evidence available to validate delivery. A higher fee does not prove quality either.
Bring a scope, not just a seat count
Contact Us About Your IT Scope with your approximate team size, platforms, locations, and priorities. Do not send credentials or confidential proposals through the public form. Use the managed IT scope checklist to organize the conversation.