Managed IT vs. break-fix: which is right for your small business?

If you’re running a small business with more than a handful of employees, you’ve almost certainly had this thought: “Do I really need managed IT? Can’t I just call someone when something breaks?”

That’s the break-fix vs. managed IT decision. Here’s how the two models actually differ — and where the crossover point is at your size.

Break-fix, in one paragraph

You pay per hour, per ticket, or per incident. When something breaks, you call. Somebody shows up (or dials in), fixes it, hands you an invoice. The rate is usually $125–$200/hour. The upside is you only pay when something breaks. The downside is that “something breaks” happens more than you think, and the person fixing it has no incentive to prevent it from breaking again next month.

Managed IT, in one paragraph

You pay a flat monthly fee per user (typically $110–$180/user/month for a proper stack). In exchange, you get: help desk, 24/7 monitoring, patching, backup, EDR, phishing training, and vendor management — bundled. The upside is your costs are predictable and your MSP is incentivized to prevent tickets, not create them. The downside is you’re paying even in months where nothing goes wrong.

The math

Take a 25-person business:

• Break-fix: expect 3–5 incidents per month across your team, averaging 90 minutes each. At $150/hour that’s $675–$1,125/month — and that’s just reactive support. You still pay separately for antivirus, backup, and any security you buy.
• Managed IT: 25 users × $140/user = $3,500/month — but that includes EDR, backup, phishing training, monitoring, patching, and 24/7 emergency response.

The break-fix number looks cheaper. It isn’t, once you add real-world costs:

• Downtime while you wait for a tech.
• Time your team spends managing the vendor relationship.
• The security tools you were supposed to buy but never got around to.
• The one time in three years when ransomware hits and you don’t have current backups.

When break-fix still makes sense

• Under ~10 employees with basic SaaS-only tooling and no compliance requirements.
• You have technical staff in-house and just need occasional escalation.
• You’re a startup burning runway and can absorb the risk of a bad month.

When managed IT wins

• 10+ employees using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, some SaaS apps, and a mix of laptops.
• Regulated verticals: healthcare, legal, financial services, defense contractors.
• You value predictable expenses more than optimizing for the cheapest possible month.

The honest sales pitch

We do managed IT. We’re biased. But we won’t try to sell it to a 5-person shop that doesn’t need it — because it wastes your money and makes us look bad. If we’re not a fit, we’ll say so on the intro call.

If you want to run the numbers for your specific business, book a 20-minute call. We’ll tell you within that call whether we’re a fit.