Published Irish prices for managed IT support start at around €50 per user per month, and a fully managed package for a 10 to 20 person business generally runs €350 to €900 a month. Those are typical market figures from Irish providers, not ERS prices. The final number depends on how many people and devices you have, what security tools are included and what hours you need covered. ERS IT Solutions has supported Irish businesses from Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 since 1983, and we quote per business after a short call.
How much does managed IT services cost per user per month in Ireland?
Very few Irish providers publish prices, so the market range is built from the handful that do. VBT, writing on the Guaranteed Irish blog, advertises managed IT and cyber security from €50 per user per month. iPing, writing for Dublin Chamber, puts a fully managed package for a 10 to 20 person business at €350 to €900 per month, depending on cover, complexity and security tools.
UK figures are more widely published and give a useful cross-check. A 2026 UK guide from Inology, built from quotes its clients shared, puts small business managed IT at £45 to £95 per user per month, with three bands:
| UK band (per user per month) | What is usually in it |
|---|---|
| £45 to £60 | Helpdesk, patching, basic endpoint protection, Microsoft 365 admin, monthly reporting. Licences extra. |
| £60 to £80 | Adds 24/7 cover, stronger security tools, some project hours, quarterly reviews. |
| £80 to £95+ | Adds Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences, a fuller security stack, named engineers. |
Treat all of these as typical market ranges from vendors, not a price list. Two quotes with the same headline figure can cover very different things.
What is the average cost of IT support for a small business?
For a small Irish business of 10 to 20 people, the iPing figure of €350 to €900 a month is the most direct published benchmark, which works out at roughly €4,200 to €10,800 a year. A five person office will usually pay a minimum monthly fee rather than a pure per-user rate, because the provider still has to onboard, monitor and document the setup.
The cost of IT support for a small business rises with:
- the number of users and devices (laptops, phones, servers, printers)
- any on-premise servers or line-of-business software that needs looking after
- the security stack (endpoint detection, email filtering, Microsoft 365 monitoring)
- support hours: business hours, extended hours or 24/7
- how often you need someone on-site
- compliance requirements in your sector
What is a fair monthly price for outsourced IT support for a 25-person office in Dublin?
Using the published Irish figures, a 25 person office would start at around €1,250 a month at €50 per user, before licences and projects. A higher-spec package with 24/7 monitoring and a fuller security stack will sit above that. The fair price is the one where scope, response times and exclusions are written down and match what your office actually needs.
When you compare quotes for a Dublin office of this size, put them side by side on the same lines: users and devices covered, response targets, on-site visits, security tools, backup, and what triggers an extra charge.
What is included in a managed IT services fee, and what costs extra?
A managed IT fee normally includes the day-to-day running of your IT: helpdesk for staff, monitoring, patching, endpoint protection, Microsoft 365 administration and reporting. Project work, licences, hardware and some out-of-hours work are usually billed separately. Always ask for the exclusions list in writing.
A UK provider, Leap IT, lists the items most often excluded from the monthly fee at any tier: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licences, hardware, project work such as migrations, office moves and server upgrades, some third-party software licences, out-of-hours emergencies on lower tiers, and setup fees for new users. The same pattern holds in Ireland.
At ERS, fully outsourced IT support includes unlimited end-user IT support, monitoring and maintenance, network and infrastructure management, cyber security and data protection, cloud and software management, backup and disaster recovery, and strategic IT advice. A dedicated account manager and clear SLAs come as standard. See what is in our outsourced IT support.
What does break-fix IT support cost compared with a monthly plan?
Break-fix means you pay only when something goes wrong. It looks cheaper in a quiet month, but there is no monitoring, no patching routine and no one who knows your systems. iPing quotes €150 to €300 for the first hour of an emergency call-out from a reactive provider, before diagnosis.
The bigger cost is the downtime itself. Our own article on the costs of IT downtime covers how quickly lost hours add up.
Managed IT services pricing models explained
Managed service providers price in a few standard ways. Most Irish quotes use one of these or a mix:
| Pricing model | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Per user per month | One rate per person, covering all their devices | Offices where each person has a laptop and phone |
| Per device per month | A rate for each laptop, server or network device | Shared devices, warehouses, shift workers |
| Tiered packages | Bronze, silver, gold style bundles with set inclusions | Businesses that want a simple choice |
| Co-managed | Lower fee for a defined slice of work alongside your own IT staff | Firms with an internal IT person |
| Block hours | Prepaid hours used as needed | Very small firms with little to manage |
| Break-fix | Hourly or call-out charges, no monthly fee | Rarely the cheapest over a year |
Servers are often priced separately from users. Security add-ons such as managed detection and response are sometimes a separate line too.
How to estimate your own cost: a simple pricing calculator
You can rough out a budget before you talk to any provider. Use the published range as a starting rate and adjust it for your setup.
- Count your users. Multiply by a per-user rate from the published range (from €50 per user per month at the entry level).
- Add servers or specialist systems you host on-site, which are usually priced separately.
- Add Microsoft 365 licences if they are not in the quote.
- Add a project budget for anything known in the next 12 months: a server replacement, an office move, a Windows 11 refresh.
- Compare the total with the cost of one in-house hire (see below).
This gives you a sense check, not a quote. A provider who has seen your systems will give you a firmer number.
Managed IT vs hiring in-house: how do the costs compare?
One in-house IT person in Dublin costs more than their salary. Morgan McKinley's 2026 guide puts a Dublin Technical Support Engineer Level 2 at €38,000 to €42,000 and a Systems Engineer at €65,000 to €75,000. Employer PRSI on earnings above €552 a week is 11.40% from 1 October 2026.
So a €42,000 support engineer costs about €46,800 a year with employer PRSI alone, before pension, training, tools, and cover for holidays and sick days. One person also cannot be expert in networks, security, cloud and Microsoft licensing at once. We go through this in detail in in-house IT vs managed IT in Ireland.
How ERS quotes for managed IT
ERS IT Solutions does not publish a price list, because two 20 person firms can have very different setups. ERS quotes per business after a short call, and the quote is built from what we find:
- A short call about your team, sites, systems and what is not working today.
- A look at your current setup (users, devices, servers, Microsoft 365, backup, network).
- A written proposal with scope, SLAs and exclusions spelled out, so you can compare it line by line.
- Onboarding with a site audit to secure, update and document the environment.
Our managed IT clients get an average call response of 15 minutes, and 98% of issues are solved within 30 minutes. Clients such as PPI and JMB moved to ERS managed services after problems with their previous setup. Read more about our managed IT services or call us on 01 885 9500.