Managed IT support or an in-house IT person, which suits a small business?

A 30-person firm in Leeds advertises for an IT support engineer at £35,000. By the time the role is filled, equipped and insured against the person being off, the real bill is closer to £44,000 a year. Then they go on holiday for a fortnight in August and the server room is a locked door.

What does an in-house IT person really cost in the UK?

Here is the build-up for one hire in Yorkshire, using current rates.

Salary. IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary for an IT Support role in Yorkshire at £29,500 and an IT Manager at £55,000. A 30-person business usually wants someone between the two, so we have used £35,000.

Employer's National Insurance. For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, employers pay 15% on earnings above £96 a week. On £35,000 that is roughly £4,500. Employment Allowance can offset up to £10,500 of employer NI, but most firms with 30 staff have already used it on the rest of the payroll.

Pension. Auto-enrolment requires a minimum 3% employer contribution on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. On £35,000 that is about £860 a year.

Tools. One person still needs monitoring, remote support, ticketing, backup and security tooling, sold per seat. Our assumption for a 30-seat business buying direct is about £1,800 a year.

Training. Certifications lapse and a lone engineer has nobody to learn from. Allow £1,500 a year for courses and exams.

Recruitment. An agency fee or several weeks of a director's time, every time the person leaves. We have left it out of the annual figure.

Add it up and a £35,000 hire costs about £43,700 a year, or roughly £121 per user per month across 30 users. A £55,000 IT manager comes to nearer £67,000, or £186 per user per month.

Why one in-house IT person cannot cover a business

A full-time worker gets at least 28 days of paid holiday a year. The ONS reports the average UK worker lost 4.4 days to sickness in 2025. That is around 32 working days a year, about one in eight, when your only IT person is not there.

They also cannot be at your Wakefield site and your Leeds site at the same time, or fixing the finance system while the sales team's email is down. And when the one person who knows the passwords, the network diagram, the supplier contracts and the quirks of the warehouse scanner hands in their notice, the knowledge leaves with them.

Our article on what a slow IT response costs puts numbers on the waiting time that builds up behind one person.

What does managed IT support give you instead?

A fixed monthly price per user, for a service desk staffed by several engineers rather than one. Someone answers when your person is on holiday because there is no "your person". Proactive monitoring and patching runs across your whole estate, and the tooling is included in the price.

You also get breadth. The problem that stumps a lone engineer for a day has usually been solved by someone on the desk last month. Cloud migrations, compliance work, office moves and security incidents draw on specialists rather than one generalist.

Where to compare: at typical UK rates of £50 to £90 per user per month, a 30-person business would spend £18,000 to £32,400 a year, against about £43,700 for the in-house hire costed above. We cover typical UK pricing in more detail in what managed IT support costs in the UK.

Where does in-house IT still win?

Someone on site every day. If you run a factory floor, a lab, a warehouse or anywhere hardware fails physically and often, a person who can walk over in two minutes is worth a great deal. A managed provider will attend site, but not on a two-minute walk.

Deep knowledge of one business. A good in-house engineer learns your line-of-business software, your suppliers, your people and your bad habits. If your systems are unusual, that depth has value.

Control. Some directors simply want an employee they manage, with one set of priorities, theirs. That is a legitimate preference.

Scale. Past about 80 staff the arithmetic starts to turn, and one salary spread across 80 users beats most managed contracts per user.

Is a hybrid the sensible middle?

Often, yes. The in-house person handles new starters, printers, the shop-floor PC and being the face of IT. A managed provider sits behind them with monitoring, patching, holiday and sickness cover, and specialists for projects.

The in-house person stops being a single point of failure, and when they leave, the documentation and monitoring stay with the provider. It is a common arrangement at the 40 to 80 staff mark.

Side-by-side for a 30-person business

• Annual cost. In-house: about £43,700 for a £35,000 hire, before recruitment. Managed: £18,000 to £32,400 at typical UK rates. Hybrid: a salary plus a reduced managed fee.
• Holiday and sickness cover. In-house: none, around 32 days a year uncovered. Managed and hybrid: built in.
• Breadth of skills. In-house: one generalist. Managed: several engineers and specialists. Hybrid: both.
• On-site presence. In-house and hybrid: every day. Managed: scheduled and on request.
• Knowledge of your business. In-house: deep, but it walks out with them. Managed: documented and held by the provider. Hybrid: deep and documented.
• Tooling. In-house: you buy and maintain it. Managed: included. Hybrid: mostly included.
• Recruitment risk. In-house: every time they leave. Managed: none. Hybrid: reduced.

What we do

We provide managed IT support at a fixed monthly price per user to businesses across Leeds and Yorkshire, and we have done since 2005. That means a service desk staffed by engineers, proactive monitoring and patching, cloud services, and specialists for compliance and projects when you need them.

If you already have someone in-house, we will tell you honestly whether you need us at all.

Our guides on how to choose an IT support provider and the signs you need managed IT support will help you frame the decision.

Book a free IT audit. We will cost both options against your actual headcount and systems, with no obligation. Call 0113 898 0565 or use the button below.

Book a free IT audit

Frequently asked questions

How much does an in-house IT person cost a UK small business?

Using current Yorkshire salary data, a £35,000 IT support hire costs about £43,700 a year once you add 15% employer's National Insurance, a 3% pension contribution, tooling and training. An IT manager on the Yorkshire median of £55,000 comes to roughly £67,000 fully loaded. Neither figure includes recruitment or cover for holiday and sickness.

At what size does in-house IT make sense?

Below about 50 staff one full-time IT person is usually either overloaded or under-used, with nobody to cover them. Above that, a hybrid of one in-house person backed by a managed provider tends to work better than two in-house hires. Businesses with a factory or warehouse often justify an on-site person earlier.

Does managed IT support cover holidays and sickness?

Yes, because you are buying a service from a team rather than hiring an individual. The service desk is staffed whether or not any one engineer is away. That alone removes around 32 uncovered working days a year compared with a single in-house hire.

Can I keep my IT person and still use a managed provider?

Yes, and it is a common arrangement. The in-house person handles the day-to-day and on-site work, while the provider supplies monitoring, patching, cover, and specialists for projects. It also means documentation and monitoring stay with the business when that person moves on.