If you have been researching managed IT services for your UK business, you have almost certainly encountered a bewildering range of prices. Some providers quote £15 per user per month. Others quote £150. Both claim to offer "comprehensive managed IT." So what is actually going on — and what should you expect to pay in 2025?
This guide breaks down the real cost of managed IT services in the UK, what drives pricing differences, and how to evaluate whether a quote represents genuine value.
The UK Managed IT Pricing Landscape in 2025
Based on our experience working with UK businesses across multiple sectors, here is how the market breaks down:
| Tier | Price Range (per user/month) | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Entry-level | £15 – £30 | Remote helpdesk, basic monitoring, patch management |
| Mid-market | £35 – £65 | Full helpdesk, proactive monitoring, endpoint security, backup, cloud management |
| Enterprise / MSSP | £70 – £150+ | Everything above plus 24/7 SOC, SIEM, incident response, compliance management |
What Drives the Price Difference?
1. Coverage Hours
A provider offering 9-to-5 Monday to Friday support costs significantly less to operate than one providing 24/7/365 coverage. If your business operates outside standard hours — or if a security incident at 2am on a Sunday would be catastrophic — you need to pay for round-the-clock coverage. Do not assume it is included; always ask specifically about out-of-hours response times and whether they are contractually guaranteed.
2. Included Security Stack
The biggest cost variable in 2025 is the security tooling included in the package. A basic MSP might include antivirus and a firewall. A full MSSP package includes EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), email security, DNS filtering, vulnerability scanning, and a staffed SOC. The difference in tooling cost alone can be £20–£40 per user per month.
3. Response Time SLAs
A P1 (critical) incident response SLA of 4 hours is very different from 15 minutes. Faster SLAs require more staff, better tooling, and more mature processes — all of which cost more. For businesses where downtime directly costs revenue, the premium for a 15-minute P1 SLA is almost always worth it.
4. On-Site vs Remote Only
Providers who include on-site engineer visits in their standard package charge more than those who are remote-only. In 2025, the vast majority of IT issues can be resolved remotely — but for hardware failures, office relocations, or complex network changes, on-site capability matters.
5. Compliance and Governance
If your business operates in a regulated sector — financial services, healthcare, legal — you need a provider who understands your compliance obligations. Providers with genuine GDPR, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, and sector-specific expertise (DSPT for NHS suppliers, FCA requirements for financial services) command a premium, but the alternative — a compliance failure — is far more expensive.
Hidden Costs to Watch For
- Per-incident charges: Some providers quote a low monthly fee but charge separately for each support ticket above a threshold. Always ask for the average monthly ticket volume for a business your size.
- Onboarding fees: Legitimate providers invest time in onboarding — documenting your environment, deploying tooling, training your team. A provider who charges nothing for onboarding is either cutting corners or will recoup it elsewhere.
- Software licensing: Clarify whether Microsoft 365, security tooling licences, and backup storage are included or billed separately.
- Out-of-scope work: Projects, new user setups, hardware procurement — understand what is included in the monthly fee and what triggers a separate statement of work.
What Baycop Charges — and Why
Our Essential package starts at £18 per user per month and covers remote helpdesk, 24/7 monitoring, patch management, and endpoint security. Our Professional package at £45 per user per month adds full MSSP capabilities including EDR, SIEM, email security, and a dedicated account manager. Enterprise pricing is bespoke.
We are transparent about what is included because we have seen too many businesses locked into contracts that looked cheap on paper but delivered poor value in practice.
View our full pricing and package comparison, or book a free 30-minute assessment to get a tailored quote for your business.