Managed IT services pricing: what UK businesses actually pay.
Managed IT services pricing in the UK sits between £40 and £150 per user per month, and most small and medium-sized businesses land between £60 and £80. Those are published market figures. Lanmark Total is £55 to £65 per user per month, excluding VAT, and includes 24x7x365 security monitoring.
£40 to £150
typical UK range per user a month for managed IT, from published 2026 market guides
What do UK providers typically charge?
These are published market ranges, not Lanmark’s rates. A quote outside them is not automatically wrong. Treat them as a starting point for a conversation.
| Model | Typical UK range, 2026 | Charged |
|---|---|---|
| Fully managed, basic (help desk and monitoring) | £40 to £55 | per user, per month |
| Fully managed, standard (adds cyber security and proactive management) | £55 to £90 | per user, per month |
| Fully managed, premium (adds compliance, advanced security, account management) | £100 to £150 | per user, per month |
| Per device | £20 to £50 | per device, per month |
| Block hours, prepaid | £50 to £125 | per hour, varying with block size |
| Ad hoc, no contract | £80 to £150 | per hour |
Sources: published 2026 UK pricing guides from Connection Technologies, IT Support Helpdesk and Server Consultancy.
What are the four ways UK providers charge?
Two providers can quote the same figure and sell very different things.
- Per user, per month
- A fixed fee for each person, whatever the number of devices or calls. The default for fully managed support and the only common model where the provider has no financial reason for your technology to keep breaking. Check what unlimited covers.
- Per device, per month
- A fee for each supported item. It looks cheaper on the first line, but most staff use two or three devices, and shared equipment such as reception terminals and kiosks attracts a fee while belonging to no one. Check the definition of a device.
- Block hours
- Support time bought up front, typically 10 or 20 hours. Market rates run around £50 to £100 per hour for a 10-hour block and £100 to £125 for 20 hours. When every ticket visibly depletes a balance, people stop raising tickets. Check expiry dates and whether monitoring and patching are included.
- Ad hoc, pay as you go
- No contract, £80 to £150 an hour plus travel. Rational for a business of fewer than about ten people with simple cloud-based IT. Above that it is a risk position: nothing is monitored or patched, and response times are best efforts.
Why does the pricing model matter more than the price?
Take a 50-user business. At £70 per user per month, fully managed, the annual cost is £42,000 and known in advance. At £30 per device across 120 devices it is £43,200, and it rises every time someone is issued a second laptop. At £100 an hour ad hoc, the annual cost is whatever the year hands you.
The models create different incentives. Fixed per-user pricing makes prevention profitable for the provider. Hourly pricing makes failure profitable. That is not an accusation, just arithmetic worth knowing before you sign.
What moves the number in a quote?
Five things legitimately explain why one provider quotes £55 and another £95.
- Headcount
- Larger contracts cost less per user, because the fixed cost of running the account is spread further.
- Whether security is inside the price
- The largest variable. Basic antivirus is cheap. Genuine 24x7x365 monitored detection and response, with people reading alerts at three in the morning, is not. If one quote includes it and another does not, you are not comparing the same product.
- Complexity of the estate
- On-premises servers, legacy applications, unusual hardware and multiple sites cost more to support than a standard cloud estate.
- Compliance obligations
- Regulated sectors need evidence, documentation and audit support. Cyber Essentials and sector requirements create real work.
- Out-of-hours cover
- A nine-to-five contract and a genuine 24x7 contract are different services.
What is usually included, and what costs extra?
A standard UK managed contract in the £55 to £90 band typically includes remote help desk, monitoring of devices and network, patch management, endpoint protection, Microsoft 365 administration, email security, backup and periodic account reviews. What that list is worth depends on how it is written down.
Commonly charged separately, and worth asking about explicitly:
- Microsoft 365 licences, almost always billed on top, since Microsoft sets the price.
- 24x7 managed detection and response, frequently a premium add-on.
- Project work such as new sites and migrations, usually quoted separately.
- Hardware, sometimes marked up substantially.
- Onsite visits, which some contracts include and some charge for.
- Out-of-hours support: check whether it is included, chargeable or unavailable.
How do you compare two quotes properly?
Do this before the second meeting and it takes twenty minutes.
- Step 1Convert to cost per user, per month.Divide device-based and hourly quotes by your actual headcount. This alone resolves most confusion.
- Step 2Write down what each quote includes.Go line by line using the lists above. Gaps become obvious.
- Step 3Add the excluded items back in.At the provider’s stated rate. A £55 quote with security at £15 extra is a £70 quote.
- Step 4Multiply by the contract length and add the exit terms.Three years is common in the UK, so multiply by 36. Notice period belongs in the comparison, not the small print.
- Step 5Ask for references who have renewed.Two clients who have renewed, not two who have signed. Retention predicts your experience.
What does Lanmark charge?
Lanmark prices per user or per device, whichever is fewer, per month. All prices exclude VAT.
| Plan | How you pay | Price | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lanmark Total | Per user or per device, whichever is fewer, per month | £55 to £65, about £55 per user at 25 users | 12 months |
| Lanmark Core | Fixed monthly support hours, agreed for your team size | About £40 per user per month at 25 users, with security, backup and training as add-ons | 12 months |
| Lanmark Flex | Prepaid hour packs of 10, 20, 40 or 80 | £1,250, £2,300, £4,200 or £7,600 | None |
Lanmark Total includes unlimited support Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, a named senior technician, an annual IT plan and budget, 24x7x365 MDR, ITDR and SOC, Microsoft 365 backup and awareness training. 24x7 support is available on request.
What do people ask about managed IT pricing?
How much does IT support cost per user in the UK?
Published 2026 UK pricing guides put fully managed IT support between £40 and £150 per user per month, depending on scope. Most small and medium-sized businesses buying a standard fully managed service pay £60 to £80. These are market ranges, not Lanmark rates. Lanmark Total is £55 to £65 per user per month excluding VAT.
Is unlimited IT support genuinely unlimited?
It should be for day-to-day support. If raising a ticket costs nothing extra, people report problems early. What unlimited does not usually cover is project work, new infrastructure, migrations and hardware, which are quoted separately. Ask any provider to define the boundary in writing before signing.
Is per-user or per-device pricing better?
Per user, for most businesses. Per-device pricing looks cheaper line by line but multiplies with your estate rather than your workforce, and it penalises shared equipment such as reception terminals. Convert both to cost per user before deciding. Lanmark’s approach: Priced per user or per device, whichever is fewer, at the same rate. A device here means a computer. Part-time staff, locums and volunteers follow the same rule. Tell us your headcount and your computers and we will confirm which applies. A business with twelve staff on rotas and four shared computers is charged on four.
Are Microsoft 365 licences included in the support fee?
Usually not, and that is normal, since Microsoft sets the licence price. You should expect your provider to review your licence position rather than let it roll forward untouched. Lanmark is a Microsoft Direct CSP partner.
Should cyber security be included or added on?
Included, if you want the price to mean anything. Basic endpoint protection is inexpensive and most contracts have it. Monitored 24x7 detection and response with a security operations centre behind it is the expensive part and is where quotes differ most. On Lanmark Total it is included.
Where to go next
Find out what your IT should cost.
Send us a quote you are unsure about or a renewal with no benchmark. We will tell you what a sensible figure looks like for a business your size.
Talk to us about your quote