Wednesday , October 21, 2026
It's one of the first questions firms ask and one of the hardest to get a straight answer to. Quotes for what looks like the same service can vary by a factor of two, and the headline number rarely tells you what's actually included.
This guide explains how IT support is usually priced in the UK, what published market ranges look like, what tends to be included and excluded, and how to compare quotes properly. It's written with law firms in mind, but most of it applies to any professional services firm.
>How IT support is usually priced
There are four common models.
- Per user, per month. The most common model for managed IT support. You pay a fixed monthly fee for each member of staff, usually covering their devices, accounts and support. It's predictable and scales with headcount.
- Per device, per month. A fee for each laptop, desktop or server. Less common now that most people use more than one device, but still used for servers and shared equipment.
- Block hours. You buy a bank of support hours in advance and draw them down. Useful for very small firms with an in-house person who needs backup, but it rewards the provider for time spent rather than problems prevented.
- Break-fix. You pay when something goes wrong. It looks cheap until something goes wrong, and it gives nobody a reason to prevent problems in the first place.
Most firms with ten or more staff end up on a per-user arrangement, sometimes with servers or specialist systems priced separately.
What the market charges
Published UK pricing guides give a useful sense of the range. Inology's 2026 guide puts the realistic range for small and medium-sized businesses at around £45 to £95 per user per month, depending on the level of service. HJS Technology quotes a wider band of £50 to £150 per user per month for a comprehensive managed service.
Treat these as orientation rather than a benchmark. The figures come from individual providers, not independent surveys, and the gap between the top and bottom of the range is mostly explained by what's included, which is where the real comparison happens.
What you usually get at each level
Providers package things differently, but services tend to fall into three broad levels.
- Basic support. A helpdesk for day-to-day problems, patching and basic antivirus. Largely reactive.
- Proactive managed service. Everything above, plus monitoring that catches issues before users notice, stronger security tools such as endpoint detection and response, enforced multi-factor authentication, Microsoft 365 administration and regular reporting.
- Fully managed with strategy. Everything above, plus extended or 24/7 cover, more advanced security monitoring, named engineers, and regular planning sessions covering budgets, renewals and where your IT is heading.
For most law firms, the middle level is the realistic minimum. Client confidentiality, insurer questionnaires and the volume of sensitive data moving through email make basic reactive support a false economy.
What's usually not included
This is where quotes become hard to compare. Check whether each of these is in or out.
- Microsoft 365 licences. Often billed separately. Business Premium licences alone can account for a large share of the difference between two quotes.
- Hardware. Laptops, servers and network equipment are almost always extra, as is the time to replace them.
- Project work. Migrations, office moves, new systems and upgrades are typically quoted separately.
- Onboarding. Many providers charge a one-off fee to take on a new client and document their environment.
- Out-of-hours support. "24/7" can mean a monitored service or a phone number that goes to voicemail. Ask which.
- Your practice management system and other specialist software. Your software vendor may support the application while your IT provider supports everything around it. Make sure someone is clearly responsible for each piece.
- Hosting and virtual desktops. If your systems run on a hosted platform or virtual desktop service, that's often a separate contract on top of your IT support.
Costs specific to law firms
Law firms don't necessarily pay more per user, but there are a few things that tend to push costs up or create costs elsewhere.
- Security expectations. Clients, insurers and lenders increasingly expect evidence of controls such as multi-factor authentication, tested backups and certifications like Cyber Essentials. Meeting those expectations takes tools and time.
- Specialist software. Practice management, document management and case management systems, often with integrations and add-ins, add complexity that a generalist provider may struggle with.
- Hosting layered underneath. Many firms pay for IT support and, separately, for hosted desktops or servers to run their practice management system. That's two bills for one working environment, and it's easy to lose sight of the total.
- The cost of downtime. Every hour a fee earner can't work is lost time that rarely appears in an IT budget but shows up in the firm's results.
We've written more about the costs that don't appear on the invoice in the hidden costs of on-premise servers for law firms.
Is your firm paying too much?
The monthly IT support fee is only part of what your technology costs. If your firm runs on hosted desktops, Citrix or its own servers, our savings calculator gives you a quick estimate of what that setup is costing you, based on your own numbers rather than someone else's averages.
How to compare IT support quotes like for like
When quotes arrive, line them up against the same questions.
- Are Microsoft 365 licences included, and at what level?
- Which security tools are included, and are they managed or just installed?
- What are the response and resolution times, and will you get monthly reporting against them?
- Is there a named engineer or account manager who knows your firm?
- What counts as project work, and how is it charged?
- Is there an onboarding fee?
- What does "out of hours" actually mean?
- How often will they review your IT with you, and does that include planning for renewals and replacements?
- What are the notice period and exit terms?
The cheapest quote often turns out to be the one with the most exclusions. The most expensive isn't automatically the best either. What matters is the total cost of running your firm's technology, and how much of your team's time it saves or wastes.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical IT support cost per user in the UK?
Published UK guides put managed IT support for small and medium-sized businesses at roughly £45 to £150 per user per month, with most proactive services towards the lower and middle part of that range. The spread mostly reflects what's included, particularly security tools and Microsoft 365 licences.
Are Microsoft 365 licences included in IT support costs?
Sometimes. Many providers bill licences separately and some bundle them into a single per-user price. Always check, because it can make one quote look far more expensive than another when the service is similar.
Why do IT support quotes vary so much?
Mainly because of scope. Differences in security tooling, licences, out-of-hours cover, how many users each engineer looks after and what counts as project work all affect the price. Comparing quotes line by line usually explains most of the gap.
Is cheap IT support a false economy?
It can be. A low monthly fee with a long list of exclusions, slow response times or minimal security can cost more over a year once project charges, downtime and risk are counted. Look at total cost and outcomes rather than the headline rate.
Can we reduce what we pay without changing provider?
Often, yes. Reviewing licences, removing unused accounts, consolidating overlapping tools and looking at whether servers or hosted desktops are still needed can all reduce costs. A good provider should be helping you do this already. If yours isn't, it may be one of the signs it's time to switch.
Talk to us
If you'd like an honest view of what your firm is paying for IT and what it's getting for it, get in touch with the team.
Download the
Whitepaper
nexian.co.uk/legal-modern-workplace-whitepaper
Or get in touch with the team if you would like to talk through where your firm is on its technology journey.
