The question of how much it costs to outsource IT almost never has a single-figure answer, and anyone who quotes you one without first asking how many workstations you have, what servers sit behind them and how critical it is that nothing ever goes down is selling you smoke. The real price hinges on three things: how many people use technology in your company, what availability you need and who takes on the risk when something breaks on a Friday at seven in the evening.
This guide gives you ballpark ranges for 2026 and, more importantly, the criteria to read a quote and know whether it’s expensive, cheap or incomplete. The usual mistake isn’t overpaying: it’s signing up for the lowest figure and discovering six months later that everything you actually need gets billed separately.
What outsourcing your IT department means
Outsourcing your IT department means handing an external provider the management, support and maintenance of all your technology: computers, servers, network, email, backups, cybersecurity and the relationship with software vendors when something fails. Instead of keeping people on the payroll dedicated to this, you hire a team that already has it all set up and answers for it under a service agreement.
It’s not the same as calling your usual IT guy whenever something breaks. That’s reactive support and it works out expensive, because it only kicks in once there’s already a problem. Outsourcing done right is the opposite: someone watches your infrastructure, applies updates, checks that backups actually work and spots the fault before it leaves you unable to invoice for half the morning.
For an SME the logic is simple: technology is essential but it isn’t your business. You need it to work, not to build a whole department to make that happen. That’s where a provider offering MagicBoxDesk services gives you a level of specialisation that a single in-house technician can rarely match.
Pricing models: per seat, block of hours or flat fee
There are three basic ways to bill the service, and each shifts the risk differently. That’s where nearly everything lies.
Per-seat pricing (per user or device). You pay a monthly fee for each person or machine managed. It’s the most transparent model for an SME, because it scales with your headcount and you know exactly what you’ll pay if you take someone on or let them go. As a rough 2026 benchmark, it runs from around €30 to €90 per month per seat: a bare-bones seat with basic support sits at the low end; one with managed antivirus, backups, monitoring and serious cybersecurity approaches the high end.
Block of hours. You buy a package of hours a month (10, 20, 40) and use them as needed. The technician’s hourly rate usually falls between €40 and €75, cheaper the bigger the commitment. It works if your needs are irregular or if you already have someone in-house and want occasional backup. The risk is clear: if everything goes wrong one month, you run out of hours and the urgent stuff gets billed separately and pricier.
Flat fee (managed service or “all-inclusive”). A fixed monthly rate for a defined scope, with unlimited support and committed response times. It’s the model that offers the most peace of mind because the provider takes on the risk: if your system plays up, you don’t pay more. It usually starts at a few hundred euros a month for a micro-business and grows with the number of seats and their criticality. For companies whose processes simply can’t stop, it’s the best cost-to-peace-of-mind ratio.
A block of hours rewards the provider when something breaks. A flat fee rewards them when everything works. Choose the model whose incentives look like yours.
What each tier includes (and what gets billed separately)
Per-seat pricing doesn’t mean the same thing across two different quotes, and this is where a low figure deceives. Look at what’s inside the tier and what falls outside, because “outside” means an extra invoice.
The basic tier (the low end of the range) covers L1 user support —email, printers, office software, day-to-day incidents—, antivirus and little else. It’s fine if your operation is straightforward and you don’t depend on your own servers. The mid tier adds what spares you the nasty surprises: proactive monitoring, backup management, patching, L2 support and network administration. The advanced tier brings in managed cybersecurity, compliance (GDPR and ISO 27001 if your clients demand it), L3 support and incident response with committed times.
What almost always gets billed separately, and is worth asking about from day one:
- The hardware and software licences: the machines, Microsoft 365, server operating systems or security tools are yours and you pay for them.
- The one-off projects: migrating to the cloud, switching email, setting up a new office or deploying an application are jobs with their own quote, not recurring support.
- The on-site visits (if the model is remote-only) and the out-of-hours emergencies, unless the agreement explicitly covers 24/7.
- The cloud infrastructure (servers on Azure or AWS, cloud backups): you pay for the consumption; the management is what the provider bills.
There’s nothing wrong with these items being billed separately; it’s normal. What’s wrong is finding out too late. A good SME maintenance quote draws a clear line between what’s the fee, what’s a project and what’s third-party consumption.
Outsourcing vs. hiring in-house: the real numbers
The deceptive comparison is “the provider’s monthly fee against the technician’s salary”. An experienced systems technician costs the company —between gross salary, social security, equipment, training and holiday— on the order of €40,000 to €55,000 a year, and that’s one person. One who gets ill, goes on holiday or, sooner or later, finds another job and walks out the door with all the knowledge.
The problem isn’t just the cost, it’s the coverage and the depth. A single in-house technician can’t be an expert in networking, cybersecurity, cloud, backups, compliance and user support all at once, at the level each area now demands. By outsourcing, for a fraction of that cost you gain access to a team with several specialisms, with holidays and sick leave covered by definition.
So where’s the break-even point? As a rule of thumb: below 15–20 seats outsourcing almost always pays off, because it doesn’t justify a full, well-covered salary. Between 20 and 50 the usual answer is a hybrid model: someone in-house who knows the business and a provider that brings specialists, 24/7 monitoring and on-call cover. The figure that matters isn’t the salary: it’s the total cost of keeping your technology working and covered 365 days a year.
How to request a quote you can genuinely compare
For two quotes to be comparable they have to answer the same brief. If you give one provider four facts and another twenty, you’re not comparing prices: you’re comparing what each of them has imagined. Prepare this information and hand it to all of them equally:
- Number of seats and users, and how many servers or critical services sit behind them.
- The coverage hours, the maximum acceptable response time when something critical goes down and whether you need on-site support as well as remote.
- Your compliance obligations: GDPR always, plus ISO 27001 or sector-specific schemes if they’re required of you.
- What’s included in the fee and what gets billed as a project, extra hour or third-party consumption.
And be wary of two warning signs. The first, a price well below everyone else’s: it’s almost always a trimmed-down scope that will land you with a bill the moment there’s a serious incident. The second, the absence of a written SLA: without committed response times, “we respond fast” is worth nothing the day you really need it.
How MagicBoxDesk helps you
At MagicBoxDesk we outsource the IT department of SMEs and companies across Spain, with remote support and on-site visits when needed. We don’t sell a figure off the shelf: we analyse your seats, your infrastructure and your risk, and we propose the model —per seat, block of hours or flat fee— that fits your operation, with scope and response times in writing.
We cover every layer —managed workstation, L1·L2·L3 support, cloud, cybersecurity, compliance and ISO 27001, 24/7 monitoring and verified backups— through a single point of contact, so your technology runs without a hitch and you get on with your business instead of firefighting. Request a no-obligation quote and we’ll tell you in clear numbers what your company genuinely needs.
