For a company with up to 10 workstations, a monthly IT support retainer typically starts around £130 (roughly PLN 600). At 10–30 workstations, you're usually looking at £260–£770 a month. Ad-hoc support without a contract is normally billed at £33–£44 an hour. Those are the ranges I work with day to day — the rest of this piece explains what drives those numbers and when a retainer is actually worth it, versus when it's money you don't need to spend.
I write this from the side of someone who quotes and signs these contracts, not from a price-comparison site. If you came here for a budgeting number, you have it above. If you want to know whether your business even needs a retainer, keep reading.
What IT support actually costs in 2026
| Scope | Approximate price | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| One-off IT audit and risk list | £175 – £440 | A business that's never had an external review of its hardware and accounts |
| Retainer for up to 10 workstations | from £130 / month | A micro-business or office with one server, or just a NAS |
| Retainer for 10–30 workstations | £260 – £770 / month | A company with its own network, several departments, a server or cloud setup |
| Ad-hoc support, no contract | £33 – £44 / hour | Occasional problems, no in-house IT person |
The retainer range is wide because the price depends entirely on what's actually included: is it just "call us when something breaks," or does it cover server monitoring, managed updates, backups with a tested restore, and a guaranteed response time? Two offers at £175 a month can differ the way third-party-only car insurance differs from fully comprehensive cover — same category, completely different level of protection.
From pricing conversations, three things move the price the most: the number of workstations and servers, the guaranteed response time (a 4-hour SLA costs more than "next business day"), and the state of the environment at the start. A company that hasn't paid anyone to tidy things up in years will need more hours in month one than the retainer assumes — and an honest provider will say so upfront, rather than signing a contract built on a fiction of "2 hours a month."
Retainer or pay-as-you-go
This is the question I hear on every first call, and the answer isn't the same for every business.
Hourly billing makes sense when:
- you have 2–5 workstations and failures are rare (a few times a year),
- the hardware is in good shape and your data is already backed up safely,
- you don't need a guaranteed response time — you can wait a day or two.
A retainer pays off when:
- downtime on a computer or server actually costs you money (sales, production, customer service),
- you want one point of contact for all your IT, not someone you have to search for online on a Wednesday morning,
- you need regular work that nobody does "because nothing's broken right now" — updates, backup tests, access reviews,
- you're subject to NIS2 or your customers are sending you security questionnaires — I covered this in more depth in NIS2 for small and medium businesses.
A practical observation from dozens of these conversations: companies that move from hourly to a retainer rarely do it over the maths. They do it after an incident — the server went down on a Friday evening, and the "IT person on call" picked up on Monday. A retainer mainly buys predictability, not just hours of work.
What a sensible contract has to include
Before you sign anything, check the offer or contract for these four things:
- Response time — not "quickly," but an actual number of hours, separate for urgent and routine tickets.
- Scope of hours in the retainer — is it a monthly pool of hours (say, 5), or unlimited remote support with on-site visits quoted separately?
- Backup with a tested restore, not just "we take backups." A backup nobody has ever test-restored isn't protection — it's an assumption.
- A monthly activity report — a short summary of what was done, what needs a decision, what's planned. Without it, you don't know what you're paying for in the quiet months.
Missing point 3 is the single most common gap I find when taking over support from another provider. Backups exist, but nobody has checked whether the data actually comes back from them — and that usually surfaces at the worst possible moment.
What actually drives the price
- Number of workstations and servers. The most obvious factor, but not the only one — a file server needs more attention than five identical laptops.
- Response time. A guaranteed 4-hour SLA during business hours costs more than "by the end of the next business day," because it requires real availability, not just a line in a contract.
- Starting condition of the environment. A business with no MFA, outdated systems, and accounts still active for former employees needs a clean-up first — that's usually a separate, one-off line item, not part of the monthly retainer.
- Remote vs on-site work. Remote administration is cheaper; on-site visits (setting up a new workstation, a network issue, server room work) are usually billed separately or limited to a set number of visits in the package.
- Number of specialist systems. An ERP, accounting software with integrations, industry-specific production software — each one is extra knowledge the provider has to keep current.
For clients outside the immediate area — say, in Puszczykowo or Czerwonak — travel for the first on-site review is sometimes added to the quote; most of the ongoing work after that happens remotely regardless.
In-house IT vs an outsourced provider
Above roughly 20–30 workstations, the question of hiring in-house comes up. Let's run the numbers honestly.
| In-house IT hire | Outsourced retainer | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Gross salary + employer costs, typically £1,500 – £2,600 for an experienced person | £260 – £770 at 10–30 workstations |
| Availability | One person — holidays and sick leave leave the business uncovered | A team or an agreed backup, with the environment documented |
| Breadth of knowledge | Depends on one person — networking, servers, security, accounting software | A provider usually has a wider team of skills on call |
| Makes sense for | A large company with its own infrastructure, where the work is genuinely full-time | A business up to 30–40 workstations, where a full-time hire can't be justified by hours |
The point that's easy to miss: an in-house IT person costs the same in a quiet January as in a September when the server dies. A good retainer is also a fixed cost, but it spreads the risk across more people — if your provider has two or three technicians rather than one, an outage during someone's holiday doesn't leave you stranded.
On the other hand, a business with its own server room, multiple sites, and a development team usually needs someone on-site daily anyway — that's where a full-time hire starts to make sense, often alongside outsourcing for specialist areas (security, cloud) that one person can't realistically keep up with alone.
What the first month of support looks like
Well-run IT support doesn't start with the full retainer on day one. In my experience, this sequence works:
- Environment review (1–2 days). I inventory the hardware, accounts, services, backups, and network setup. The result is a risk list ordered by urgency — not a vague report, but concrete items to fix.
- Clean-up (month one). The most urgent items from the list: enabling MFA, removing accounts of former employees, setting up a real backup with a tested restore, patching systems. This usually needs more hours than the retainer assumes — and a fair offer says so upfront, often as a separate one-off item.
- Ongoing support from month two. Helpdesk, monitoring, a monthly report. Ticket volume drops once the recurring problems from the clean-up stage are gone.
Skipping the clean-up stage is a common mistake when switching providers — the new company inherits the previous one's mess and tries to fix it "in the background," at the cost of response times on routine tickets.
Red flags when choosing an IT provider
From experience on both the client and provider side, three warning signs come up again and again:
- No specific response time in the offer. If nobody will commit to a number of hours, that usually means they don't plan to honour one.
- A price with no questions about workstations, servers, or software. A fair quote needs a conversation or a short audit — a flat price given with no questions at all is a sign the scope will either be under-estimated or the extra costs will show up later.
- No mention of backups or restore testing. If an IT support offer says nothing about how data recovery actually works, that element probably doesn't exist at all.
FAQ
Should I sign a yearly contract or go month-to-month?
It depends on how easily you want to be able to switch providers. Annual contracts are sometimes slightly cheaper, but check the notice period — a good IT contract lets you leave with a month's notice rather than locking you in.
Does a small business (2–3 people) need a retainer?
Usually not right away. With 2–3 workstations and infrequent problems, hourly support makes more financial sense. A retainer starts paying off once downtime actually costs you money — an online shop that can't take orders, or an office handling customers by phone.
What's typically included in a retainer, and what costs extra?
Standard inclusions are the helpdesk, basic monitoring, updates, and account management. Usually billed separately: new hardware (setting it up may be included, buying it isn't), software licences, larger projects (like a server migration), and sometimes on-site visits beyond an agreed limit.
Will IT support help me prepare for NIS2?
Good support covers the basics: MFA, tested backups, updates, basic incident procedures. Full NIS2 preparation — policies, a risk register, formal compliance — is usually a separate project, because it needs more than just managing computers.
Can I switch IT providers without downtime?
Yes, if the previous provider kept proper documentation of the environment (account lists, admin passwords, network configuration). The problem comes up when that knowledge only ever lived in one person's head — then the handover starts with rebuilding that documentation, which stretches out the first month.
Summary
IT support pricing isn't a single number off a rate card — it's a function of how many workstations you have, the response time you're guaranteed, and whether the package includes a real, tested backup or just the words "we take backups." Before comparing two offers on monthly price alone, check exactly what's in scope: a difference of £100 a month often separates 24/7 monitoring from a phone that might get answered.
If you want to know what support for your business would actually cost, I'll start with a free environment review and tell you plainly whether you need a retainer or just occasional hourly help. Have a look at the IT support and helpdesk service page, or get in touch — I'll reply within one business day.