For most Irish businesses with 20 to 50 staff, a managed IT provider costs less than one full-time IT hire and covers more ground: helpdesk, security, networks, cloud and backup, with cover for holidays and sick days. An in-house person makes sense when you need someone physically on site every day. Many firms do both, keeping an internal IT person and adding a provider behind them. ERS IT Solutions, based in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 since 1983, supports all three setups.
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house IT person or outsource IT?
For a 20 to 50 person company, outsourcing is usually cheaper than one in-house hire once employer costs are counted. A mid-level Dublin support engineer earns €38,000 to €42,000, and employer PRSI adds 11.40% on top. Published Irish managed IT prices start from around €50 per user per month, so a 30 person firm starts near €18,000 a year.
Here is the arithmetic, using sourced figures only:
| Cost line | In-house (one person) | Managed IT (30 users) |
|---|---|---|
| Base cost | €38,000 to €42,000 salary (Morgan McKinley 2026) | From €50 per user per month (VBT via Guaranteed Irish) |
| Employer PRSI | 11.40% from 1 October 2026 (gov.ie) | None |
| Year one total | About €42,300 to €46,800 before pension, training and tools | From about €18,000, before licences and projects |
| Cover for leave | None unless you pay someone else | Built in |
| Monitoring and security tools | Bought separately | Usually included |
The managed figure is an entry-level published rate. A fuller package with 24/7 cover and a bigger security stack costs more, so get real quotes. The in-house figure also leaves out recruitment, the tools that person needs (monitoring, backup, endpoint protection) and the cost of the gap when they leave.
What does an in-house IT person actually cost in Dublin?
Salary depends on experience. Morgan McKinley's 2026 Dublin figures put a Technical Support Engineer Level 1 at €30,000 to €35,000, Level 2 at €38,000 to €42,000, and a Systems Engineer at €65,000 to €75,000. Add employer PRSI, pension and training.
The level matters because the jobs are different. A junior support engineer resets passwords, sets up laptops and logs faults. A systems engineer designs and secures servers, networks and Microsoft 365. A 30 person company often needs a bit of both, which is where one hire struggles.
Managed IT services vs an in-house IT person: which is better for a 30-person Irish company?
For most 30 person companies, managed IT is the better fit unless someone must be physically on site all day. You get a team with networking, security, cloud and Microsoft skills, cover every working day, and monitoring outside office hours. An in-house person gives you a familiar face at the desk, but one person cannot cover every skill or every hour.
| Question | In-house IT person | Managed IT provider |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers when they are on holiday? | Nobody, unless you arrange it | The provider's helpdesk |
| Out-of-hours monitoring | Rarely | Usually part of the service |
| Range of skills | One person's experience | A team of specialists |
| Knowledge of your business | Deep, day to day | Built up over onboarding and time |
| On-site presence | Every day | Scheduled visits and call-outs |
| Cost predictability | Salary plus tools and surprises | Fixed monthly fee plus agreed projects |
| Risk if they leave | Knowledge walks out the door | Documented systems, a team that stays |
What are the risks of relying on one IT person?
The biggest risk is that everything sits in one head. Passwords, network settings and the history of every workaround go with that person when they leave, fall ill or take a fortnight off. The second risk is skill gaps: one generalist is unlikely to be strong on firewalls, Microsoft 365 security, backup testing and cloud at once.
Ireland's National Cyber Security Centre advises businesses to keep an updated list of all IT assets and third-party suppliers, because you cannot secure what you do not know exists. In a one person IT setup, that list often does not exist on paper.
When does an in-house IT team make more sense?
In-house IT makes sense when you need hands on site all day, every day: a busy warehouse, a lab, a factory floor or a large office where devices break often. It also suits firms with specialist in-house systems that one person knows deeply. Even then, most internal teams benefit from outside help for security, monitoring and cover.
Larger organisations often reach a point where an internal IT manager is needed to own strategy and suppliers. That person then decides what to keep in-house and what to hand to a provider.
What is the middle option between in-house and outsourced IT?
Co-managed IT. You keep your internal IT person or team, and a managed service provider adds what they cannot do alone: out-of-hours monitoring, specialist networking, cloud and security skills, backup and disaster recovery, and escalation for hard problems. Your team stays in control. ERS calls this co-managed IT.
This is often the right answer for a 40 to 100 person firm that already has one IT person who is stretched. Instead of hiring a second person, the provider covers the gaps.
How do you decide? A simple test
Answer these five questions honestly:
- Do you need someone physically in the building every working day?
- Could one person cover helpdesk, security, networks, backups and Microsoft 365 well?
- What happens on the day your IT person is off sick?
- Who watches your systems at night and at weekends?
- If your IT person left tomorrow, would anyone know the admin passwords?
If you answered no to question 1 and worried about 2 to 5, managed IT is likely the better fit. If you answered yes to question 1, look at co-managed IT so your internal person has backup.
How ERS works with both models
ERS IT Solutions supports businesses with no IT department through fully outsourced IT support, and businesses with internal IT staff through co-managed IT. Our managed IT clients get an average call response of 15 minutes, 98% of issues solved within 30 minutes, an average on-site response of 2 hours, and 24/7 monitoring, 365 days a year.
For Fórsa, Ireland's largest public and services union, ERS virtualised and live-migrated 120 users, and the recovery time after a disaster went from 3 days to 4 hours. Read the Fórsa case study. For a full view of pricing, see how much managed IT services cost in Ireland.