Managed IT services in Brisbane typically cost between $100 and $250 per user per month — that’s the range most industry guides quote, and it’s accurate. What almost no provider will tell you is where their price sits in that range. We will: Bridge IT’s managed IT bundle is from $100 per user per month ex GST, ad-hoc support is $175 per hour plus GST, and both are published permanently on our pricing page. This article explains what those numbers buy, what moves them, and how to compare providers who won’t show you theirs.
The short answer
For a straightforward Brisbane small business — cloud apps, modern devices, no on-premise servers — budget $100 per user per month for fully managed IT. A 10-person business is therefore around $1,000 a month. That covers the complete security and support stack: 24/7 device monitoring and patching, fully managed antivirus across computers, servers and mobiles, Microsoft 365 backup running 6–12 times a day, AI-driven email and collaboration security, and a dedicated help desk. Complexity — on-premise servers, compliance obligations, legacy systems — moves the number up; headcount alone doesn’t.
Why is every other answer “it depends”?
Because unpublished pricing is a sales tactic: it forces a phone call, and it lets the provider price each client by pain tolerance rather than by a rate card. It’s the industry standard — and it’s why budgeting for IT support feels harder than it should. We publish our rates for the same reason we publish our response times: if a provider is confident in their value, the number shouldn’t need a meeting to survive.
What a managed IT fee should include
At minimum, a per-user managed fee in this market should buy: help desk access during business hours; proactive monitoring and patch management of every device; business-grade antivirus with someone actually watching it; email security that stops phishing before staff can click it; and backup of your Microsoft 365 data — because Microsoft itself only retains deleted items for 30 days. If any of those are “add-ons,” the headline price is smaller than the real one. The full inclusion list for our bundle — and the exclusions, which matter just as much — is on the pricing page.
What moves the price — and what doesn’t
The price follows the work, not the headcount. Things that genuinely move it: on-premise servers (they need management, patching and backup regimes of their own), compliance obligations (medical practices, financial services and legal firms need configurations, audit trails and data-handling practices a generic setup doesn’t provide), legacy systems (old software that resists patching consumes disproportionate support time), and after-hours requirements. Things that shouldn’t move it much: adding a few staff to an already-clean environment. Two 10-person businesses can legitimately pay different amounts; a 10-person and a 14-person business with identical setups shouldn’t pay wildly different rates per user.
Managed vs ad-hoc vs hiring in-house
Ad-hoc ($175/hr + GST, no contract) suits very small or very simple setups — you pay only when something breaks. Its hidden cost is that nobody is preventing the breakage. Managed (from $100/user/month) inverts the incentive: your provider profits by preventing problems, not billing for them. In-house is the comparison most 20–50 seat businesses should run: a full-time IT coordinator in Brisbane costs well over $80,000 a year plus super, covers business hours only, takes leave, and can’t be an expert in everything — while a managed contract for the same team typically runs $24,000–$60,000 a year and comes with a bench of specialists and published response times.
Five questions to ask any provider (including us)
- What’s your actual price? If the answer requires a meeting, ask why.
- What are your guaranteed response times, in writing? Ours: urgent issues within 2 hours, non-critical within 4 — published here.
- What’s excluded from the monthly fee? Every provider excludes projects, migrations and on-site work — the honest ones list it before you sign.
- Who answers when we call? A rotating queue of strangers, or a team that knows your systems?
- What happens to our data and passwords if we leave? Clean exit terms are a sign of a provider that keeps clients by service, not by hostage-taking.
Frequently asked questions
How much does managed IT cost for a 10-person business in Brisbane?
Around $1,000 per month ex GST with Bridge IT for a straightforward setup ($100 per user). Across the wider Brisbane market, expect quotes between $1,000 and $2,500 for the same team depending on scope and provider.
Is there a lock-in contract?
Our managed bundle carries a 1-year commitment because Microsoft 365 licensing is annual. Ad-hoc support has no contract at all.
What’s not included in a managed IT fee?
Typically: projects (migrations, office moves), on-site visits, structured training, and data recovery — these are quoted separately or billed hourly. The full list is on our pricing page.
Is cheap managed IT worth it?
Price it against downtime, not against other quotes. Half a day offline for a 10-person team costs more in lost productivity than the monthly difference between a budget provider and a good one — and that’s before considering a security incident, which the right protective stack largely prevents.
Ready for a number specific to your business? Our free discovery call maps your setup and quotes a plan sized to it — nothing more.
