Outsourced IT Services & Support UK: Costs, What's Included and How to Choose

Outsourced IT services mean an external provider runs some or all of your business technology for a monthly fee: the helpdesk your staff call, the monitoring and patching that keeps devices healthy, security, Microsoft 365, backups and the projects in between. This guide explains what a good outsourced IT service includes, what it costs in the UK, how it compares with hiring in-house, and how to choose a provider. Where we quote our own pricing it comes from our business IT support page.

What Is Outsourced IT Support?

Outsourced IT support means engaging an external provider, usually a managed service provider (MSP), to manage your organisation's technology instead of employing an in-house IT team. You pay a fixed monthly fee for access to a team of engineers, their monitoring tools and their expertise.

The scope varies. Some businesses outsource everything, from password resets to cyber security, cloud management and hardware procurement. Others use a co-managed model, where the provider works alongside an internal IT person to fill skills gaps and cover out-of-hours.

The terms overlap, so it helps to be precise:

• Outsourced IT support is any external IT help, including old-style break-fix where you pay per incident.
• Managed IT services is the proactive version: monitoring, maintenance, security and planning bundled into one monthly contract. Most reputable outsourced providers now work this way. See our managed IT services.
• Co-managed IT keeps your internal IT staff and adds the provider's tools, specialists and cover around them.

What Does Outsourced IT Support Include?

A good outsourced IT service covers far more than fixing broken laptops. The table below shows what each level of our own business IT support packages includes; most UK providers structure their offer along similar lines.

Service area	Essential IT Support	Professional RMM Support	Enterprise Managed IT
Unlimited helpdesk (phone, email, chat)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microsoft 365 administration and user management	Yes	Yes	Yes
Email configuration and troubleshooting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Security monitoring	Basic monitoring and guidance	Antivirus management and threat response	Antivirus management and threat response
Remote assistance	Business hours	Business hours, priority response for critical issues	24/7 emergency support available
Proactive device monitoring (RMM)	–	All devices, via Pulseway	All devices, via Pulseway
Automated security patching and updates	–	Yes	Yes
Hardware troubleshooting, network management	–	Yes	Yes
Dedicated IT manager, quarterly on-site visits	–	–	Yes
IT strategy, vendor management, compliance reporting	–	–	Yes
Reporting	Monthly health reports on cloud services	Monthly health reports	Monthly health reports plus compliance documentation

In practice the service breaks down into six areas:

• Helpdesk and day-to-day support. Your staff call, email or chat when something goes wrong and an engineer fixes it remotely or, when needed, on site. Response times are set out in a service level agreement (SLA).
• Proactive monitoring and patching. Remote monitoring and management (RMM) agents watch every device for failing disks, missing updates, low storage and unusual activity, and apply security patches automatically.
• Cyber security. Endpoint protection, email filtering, multi-factor authentication and staff awareness training as a minimum. Many providers, including us, can also take you through Cyber Essentials certification.
• Microsoft 365 and cloud. Licensing, user setup and leavers, security configuration and migrations from on-premise servers.
• Backup and disaster recovery. Automated, tested backups of files, servers and Microsoft 365 data, with a documented recovery plan.
• Planning and procurement. Regular reviews, a technology roadmap and budget forecasting, plus sourcing laptops, licences and networking kit at trade prices.

How Much Does Outsourced IT Support Cost in the UK?

Most UK providers price per user per month. Our IT support cost guide puts current market rates at:

Service level	Typical UK price	What you usually get
Basic managed support	£40–£55 per user/month	Business-hours helpdesk, remote monitoring, patching, basic antivirus, cloud backup of user data
Standard managed support	£55–£85 per user/month	Everything in basic plus endpoint detection and response, email security, MFA management, server and network management, quarterly reviews
Comprehensive / premium	£85–£150 per user/month	Everything in standard plus 24/7 availability, security operations monitoring, compliance support, vCIO services, regular on-site presence

Our own fully managed packages commonly fall around £55–£65 per user per month; Essential (helpdesk-led) and co-managed scopes are quoted per business because the price depends on users, devices, cover hours and the security stack included. For a 20-person business, £55–£65 per user works out at roughly £1,100–£1,300 a month, or £13,200–£15,600 a year, for helpdesk, monitoring, patching, Microsoft 365 administration and security.

Two other pricing models exist. Per-device pricing suits businesses with shared machines and is usually cheaper per unit but adds up quickly when staff have a laptop, phone and tablet each. Fixed monthly fees are common for larger or more complex environments. Whatever the model, compare the same scope: a low per-user price that excludes security, backup, new-starter setup or out-of-hours cover will not stay low.

Ask every provider about the extras that sit outside the headline price: onboarding fees, project work such as office moves and migrations, out-of-hours call-outs, hardware margin and whether Microsoft 365 licences and backup software are included. Use our IT support cost calculator to compare like for like.

Outsourced IT vs In-House IT: Cost and Capability

The comparison most businesses need is not outsourcing versus doing nothing, but outsourcing versus hiring. A single in-house IT engineer typically costs £35,000–£55,000 a year in salary before employer National Insurance, pension, training, tooling and holiday cover; a two- or three-person team costs £80,000–£150,000 or more in salaries alone. Read the full in-house vs outsourced cost comparison.

Factor	One in-house engineer	Outsourced managed IT
Annual cost (20 users)	£35,000–£55,000 salary plus on-costs	Roughly £13,200–£15,600 at £55–£65 per user
Cover	One person, 9–5, off sick and on holiday	A team; monitoring runs around the clock
Breadth of skills	A generalist	Networking, security, cloud and Microsoft 365 specialists
Tooling	Bought and maintained separately (RMM, EDR, backup)	Included in the monthly fee
Institutional knowledge	Strong, but leaves when they do	Built through documentation and a named contact
Physical presence	In the building	Remote first; on-site visits scheduled or included at higher tiers

Pros and Cons of Outsourcing IT Support

Pros

• Lower, predictable cost. A fixed monthly fee replaces salaries, recruitment and surprise break-fix bills.
• A whole team, not one person. Helpdesk, engineers and security specialists, with no single point of failure when someone is on leave.
• Round-the-clock monitoring. Problems such as failing drives and missed patches are caught before they cause downtime.
• Up-to-date expertise. Providers keep their engineers current across Microsoft, networking and security; one in-house generalist rarely can.
• Scalability. Add or remove users without hiring or redundancies.

Cons

• Less physical presence. Most support is remote. If you need someone in the building every day, budget for on-site visits or a co-managed arrangement.
• Learning curve. A new provider needs time to document your systems and workflows; good onboarding shortens this.
• Quality varies. A cheap provider can mean long hold times and slow fixes, so check the SLA and references before you sign.
• Dependency. You rely on the provider's availability and standards, which is why contract terms and exit arrangements matter.

When Outsourcing Makes Sense

Outsourcing suits most businesses with roughly 5 to 200 users, where a full in-house team is not cost-effective but the risk of running without proper support is real. It is also the practical route to specialist security, compliance or cloud skills that a single hire cannot provide.

Small businesses often assume they are too small for managed IT. In practice they gain the most: for less than the cost of a part-time hire they get a helpdesk, monitoring and genuine security controls. If you already employ IT staff who are stretched, co-managed IT support adds overflow helpdesk, specialist security, out-of-hours cover and enterprise tooling without replacing your team.

How to Choose an Outsourced IT Provider

1. UK-based helpdesk. Ask where the people answering the phone sit and what hours they work.
2. Written response targets. The SLA should state response and resolution targets by priority. Ask for actual performance over the past year, not just the target. Our response targets and support hours are agreed in writing before onboarding.
3. Proactive, not just reactive. A provider that only fixes what breaks is a helpdesk, not a managed service. Look for monitoring, patching, regular health reports and scheduled reviews.
4. Security credentials. Ask about their security stack and which certifications they hold. Cyber Essentials is the sensible minimum; ISO 27001 matters if they will handle sensitive data.
5. Transparent pricing. Get the inclusions and exclusions in writing: on-site visits, out-of-hours work, new starters, hardware and projects.
6. Sector experience. Law firms, accountants, schools and regulated businesses each have compliance requirements a generic provider may miss.
7. References. Speak to two or three existing clients of a similar size, and check independent reviews.

Outsourced IT Support by Sector

The core service is the same everywhere, but the compliance obligations and software differ. We have separate guides for:

• Law firms and solicitors: SRA expectations, secure document management, case management systems.
• Accountancy practices: Making Tax Digital, Xero and Sage, seasonal peaks.
• Schools and education: safeguarding, filtering, managing pupil and staff devices.
• Construction: multi-site connectivity and a mobile workforce.
• Financial services: FCA record-keeping, encryption and business continuity.
• Healthcare: patient data protection and clinical system integration.
• Manufacturing: operational technology, ERP and supply chain systems.

Switching From Your Current IT Provider

If you are outsourcing already but the service has slipped, read when to switch IT provider for the warning signs. Check your notice period (30 to 90 days is common), ask the outgoing provider for full documentation and administrator credentials, and make sure the incoming provider runs monitoring in parallel before the handover date. Our guide to switching IT provider without downtime covers the sequence in detail.

Outsourced IT Support From Connection Technologies

We provide UK-based business IT support and managed IT services to small and growing organisations, and our engineers have supported UK businesses since 1995. Onboarding starts by documenting your users, devices, suppliers, licences and risks; we then agree priorities, support contacts and response targets before moving monitoring and support into service, and you get a named route for operational and account questions.

• Three package levels: Essential IT Support, Professional RMM Support and Enterprise Managed IT, so you pay for the level of cover you need.
• Fully managed packages typically £55–£65 per user per month; other scopes quoted per business.
• Microsoft 365, monitoring, patching, backup checks and security improvement as part of the service.
• Cyber Essentials as a managed add-on, from £103 per month ex VAT for 1–9 users, including the IASME certification fee.
• Fully outsourced or co-managed, depending on whether you already have IT staff.

In their words

Hear from our customers

Two Connection Technologies customers on what it is like to work with us.

Frequently Asked Questions