Per device, per employee or by effort: how IT support costs are made up, which additional costs are often missing and how to compare offers fairly.
October 6, 2026
oneCorp Team
IT support costs depend on users, devices, infrastructure and the scope of responsibility. Whether billing is per device, per employee or by effort: offers only become comparable on the same basis and with clearly stated additional costs.
Anyone who wants to have their company's IT supported by a provider needs a transparent calculation. A low hourly rate is of little help if the monthly effort remains unclear. A flat fee, on the other hand, is only meaningful if it is clear which services it covers.
This guide explains what drives the cost of IT support, which billing models exist, which budget items are often missing and how to compare offers sensibly. Whether an in-house IT position is the better choice is covered in our article Managed IT or an in-house IT department?
Three questions determine the price: How many users and devices are supported, what infrastructure is in place – and how much responsibility does the provider take on?
Two companies with 25 employees each can have very different requirements. A consulting firm may work mainly with notebooks and cloud applications. A manufacturing company of the same size additionally needs local servers, warehouse workstations, special interfaces and reliable connections between several buildings.
The number of devices doesn't have to match the number of employees either: some staff use a notebook and an office PC, others share a workstation. Servers, meeting room technology, mobile devices and shared systems come on top. For a reliable calculation, record users, end devices, servers and locations separately – and decide which of them are included in the support.
Service hours and response times are further cost drivers: support outside normal business hours or guaranteed short response times cost more than standard hours.
| Model | Suitable for | What to watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Flat fee per device | Clearly defined maintenance and security tasks, when part of the support is handled in-house | How are user questions and incidents billed additionally? |
| Flat fee per employee or workstation | Regular support needs around accounts, applications and devices | How many devices are included, what counts as a project, which fair-use limits apply? |
| Billing by effort | Individual tasks or clearly limited projects | Who takes care of preventive tasks such as updates, documentation and backup checks? |
With pure hourly billing, the monthly costs result from the rate and the actual effort. For ongoing support, however, there is often no clear responsibility for preventive work – it gets left undone between individual assignments. Flat fees create predictability, but they are only as good as their service description.
How much the expected additional effort changes the result is shown by an example based on published prices – here those of the oneCorp plans, as of October 2026, net (Managed IT plans). The assumption is 25 employees with one device each, without servers.
In this example, the difference is just €62 – with slightly more support needs, the picture is reversed. This is not a complete cost-effectiveness comparison, as the models also differ in response times and other services. The calculation only shows why a low base price should be considered together with the expected additional effort. A good basis is the support hours actually used in recent months, separated into ongoing support and one-off projects.
A realistic IT budget consists of several items. Which of them are already included must be stated explicitly in an offer.
| Budget item | What to check |
|---|---|
| Hardware | Purchase, rental, replacement and hardware maintenance |
| Software | User licenses, business applications and additional security features |
| Servers and hosting | Operation of local or hosted systems including the required resources |
| Network | Internet connections, site links, firewall and Wi-Fi |
| Backup | Protected data, storage volume, retention and recovery |
| Projects | Migrations, office moves, major changes and rollouts |
| Extended service | Support outside regular hours and special response requirements |
| Internal effort | Coordination, approvals and remaining tasks within the company |
If a provider manages Microsoft 365, the required Microsoft licenses are not automatically included in the support price. The same applies to business applications and other cloud services: management, usage rights and hosting, if any, are different services. A transparent offer lists them separately.
Are end devices, servers, mailboxes or all relevant cloud storage backed up? How long are backups kept? Who performs a restore, and are regular tests planned? Included backup of workstations is not yet complete protection of all company data.
Before ongoing operations, an inventory, documentation and technical clean-up may be necessary – for example clarifying missing admin access or updating outdated systems. This work should be described separately in the offer so that it stays clear what is one-off and what is recurring. What matters in a takeover is described in our guide to switching IT service providers.
Request offers on the same basis: the same number of users, the same devices, the same locations and the same requirements for support and backup. Then these questions help:
A flat fee becomes comparable when its scope is clear. A cheaper offer can make economic sense – provided it covers the services you actually need.
Separate ongoing costs, one-off projects and a justified reserve. The basic structure is:
Annual budget = ongoing monthly costs × 12 + planned one-off costs + justified reserve
The reserve should be derived from your situation: Is an office move coming up? Is a hardware generation reaching end of life? Are additional workstations being set up? A flat percentage unrelated to the infrastructure is less helpful. Also take your own employees' time into account: anyone who regularly solves technical problems themselves creates internal effort – even if no invoice is issued for it.
The question “What does IT support cost?” can only be answered once scope, responsibility and starting point are clear. Billing models differ less in price than in which risks and tasks they cover. Comparing offers on the same basis and asking explicitly about additional costs avoids surprises.
oneCorp publishes its Managed IT plans with prices and scope of services transparently on its website (Managed IT). Which support fits your environment is shown by the free IT Quick-Check: in around 45 minutes we go through 25 checkpoints in seven areas, and you receive a traffic-light overview with the most important recommendations.
As of October 2026. The example uses one provider's published prices, net plus VAT; it is not a market average and does not replace an individual quote. Scope, response times and exclusions are governed by the respective service description.
