Fractional IT for fast-growing companies
Blog Post
Half of the IT providers in Kaseya's 2023 Global MSP Benchmark Survey charge between $50 and $200 per user per month, and the most common band is $50 to $100. Network Right publishes its own rates: $120 per user per month on the Start-up plan and $170 on Scale-up, with Enterprise quoted custom. Headcount, office count, onsite needs, compliance scope and security tooling decide where your quote lands inside that range.
Most managed IT services pricing uses one of five models: per user, per device, tiered bundles, hourly (a la carte) or prepaid block hours. Per-user pricing is the default for laptop-and-SaaS offices, since one person usually carries two or three devices. "MSP" on this page means an IT managed service provider, not a staffing managed service program.
If you want the background first, here is what an IT managed service provider actually does day to day. The pricing table below is the short version.
Two notes on the survey. Kaseya ran it in 2023 with 1,091 respondents, most in the Americas. Treat the bands as a national floor, not a San Francisco or New York price. The ranges are also wide because "per user" covers very different scopes from one provider to the next. A $60 plan and a $170 plan may both say "helpdesk included" and cover different things.
Six factors move a per-user quote: headcount, number of locations, onsite coverage, compliance scope, the security stack and after-hours support. Headcount lowers the unit price only at volume. The other five raise it, because each one adds engineering time or licensed tooling the provider has to carry every month.
A 15-person company on Network Right's published rates pays $1,800 to $2,550 a month. A 40-person company pays $4,800 to $6,800. A 100-person company pays $12,000 to $17,000. The table compares monthly costs at several headcounts, with examples of the work that can come with growth.
Choose a tier around the work your team needs, including security, networking and compliance support. Headcount helps estimate the bill, but it does not tell the whole story: a small regulated firm can need more support than a larger business with a simpler setup.
Venture-backed companies tend to buy IT in step with funding rounds, because each round brings a hiring plan. If that is you, our IT services for startups page maps support to each round.
Running an established business with steady headcount? Compare our small business IT support plans instead.
Want a fixed monthly number for your team? Send your headcount, office address and support needs using the contact link at the end of this page to request a quote.
Per-user fees usually cover helpdesk, device management, onboarding and offboarding, monitoring and routine patching. Hardware, software licenses, large projects, extra onsite visits and specialist security services are usually billed on top. Ask every provider for both lists in writing before you compare prices.
Usually included in the monthly fee:
Usually billed extra:
One in-house systems administrator in the San Francisco metro costs about $185,000 a year fully loaded, based on the BLS median wage plus benefits. Network Right's Scale-up plan for 40 users costs $81,600 a year for a team, not one person. In-house wins on physical presence. Managed wins on coverage, and on cost for most teams under about 100 users.
The wage figures below are the May 2025 median annual wages from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program for the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro areas. We added benefits using the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026, where benefits made up 30.0% of private-industry compensation. That means the median wage divided by 0.70.
The loaded figures leave out recruiting fees, tooling licenses, training and the months a seat sits empty. They also use a national benefits ratio, so treat them as estimates.
Many companies land in between. If you already employ one IT person, keep them and add a provider for overflow, projects and after-hours. That is co-managed IT for in-house IT teams, and it usually costs less than a second hire.
No IT staff at all? Fractional IT for teams without in-house IT gives you a dedicated consultant without the salary.
Network Right charges $120 per user per month for Start-up, $170 for Scale-up and a custom price for Enterprise. Every plan includes a dedicated IT consultant, helpdesk, asset management and onboarding and offboarding. We publish the numbers because a buyer should know the price before the first call.
The full feature grid lives on Network Right's published per-user IT pricing page, and this article changes the same day that page does.
Two things make the per-user number predictable. You are not billed per ticket, so a busy onboarding month does not produce a surprise invoice. And the dedicated consultant knows your environment, so fewer issues bounce between technicians.
The results back it up. Across more than 100,000 tickets handled, Network Right holds 99% SLA adherence and a 4.95 out of 5 NPS, and customers stay five years on average. Clients include Discord, Okta, Palantir and Pinterest. Clearbit's COO, Robin Spencer, put it simply: "Network Right anticipates every issue and responds quickly, effectively, and professionally to every request or problem."
If you're preparing for an audit, Scale-up is the better fit, because it carries the advanced security work that SOC 2 compliance support depends on: MDM enforcement, encryption reporting and access reviews.
Seven red flags show up in managed IT quotes: per-ticket overages on "unlimited" plans, long auto-renewals, vague SLAs, unexplained setup fees, hidden hardware markups, no exit terms and seat minimums above your headcount. Each has a simple fix you can ask for. Three or more unfixed is a reason to get another quote.
A strong quote answers all seven before you ask. Use the list as your checklist when comparing proposals.
Managed IT services usually cost $50 to $200 per user per month, and half of the providers in Kaseya's 2023 survey charge within that band. Network Right charges $120 per user for Start-up and $170 for Scale-up. For a 40-person company that is $4,800 to $6,800 a month before hardware and licenses.
Per-user pricing is better for most offices, because each employee now carries a laptop, a phone and sometimes a tablet. Per-device pricing wins when many people share one machine, such as labs, retail kiosks or shift workstations. Compare both on your real device count before you sign.
At Network Right's published rates, 20 employees cost $2,400 a month on Start-up and $3,400 on Scale-up. That is $28,800 to $40,800 a year. Using the Kaseya 2023 survey band of $50 to $200 per user, the wider market range for 20 users is $1,000 to $4,000 a month.
An onboarding fee can cover discovery, documentation, MDM and security tool deployment, and account cleanup. Ask whether setup is included in the monthly price or billed separately, and what you keep afterward: a network diagram, an asset inventory and admin credentials in your own password vault.
Contract length varies by provider and scope. Compare the initial term, renewal clause, notice period and exit terms, along with any difference in price between shorter and longer commitments.
A user is usually a named employee or contractor with a company account and devices to support. Shared mailboxes, service accounts and conference room systems are normally excluded. Ask how part-time staff and contractors are counted, and whether the count updates monthly or once a quarter.
Usually not. The per-user fee covers support and management. Laptops, network gear, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace seats, and security licenses such as endpoint detection are billed separately, either at cost or with a markup. Get the license list priced line by line so you can compare quotes fairly.
Yes, because compliance adds recurring evidence work: access reviews, encryption reports, vendor reviews and offboarding logs. On Network Right's pricing, teams with an audit ahead are usually better served by Scale-up at $170 per user than Start-up at $120, since Scale-up carries the advanced IT security work.
It depends on the plan. Many providers price business-hours helpdesk into the base fee and bill nights and weekends separately or through a premium tier. Ask for the exact support hours, the time zone, and the after-hours response target for a priority one outage.
A useful SLA sets first-response and resolution targets by priority level, defines each priority, and reports adherence monthly. Network Right reports 99% SLA adherence across more than 100,000 tickets. Avoid SLAs that only say "best effort" or give one response time for every issue.
Usually, but the exit clause decides the cost. Look for termination for cause, a notice period you can live with, and a handover obligation that returns admin credentials, documentation and asset records. A clean handover takes weeks, so plan the overlap before you give notice.
Compare managed IT quotes on total scope: support hours, onsite work, licenses, projects and exit terms. A clear proposal makes it easier to budget and understand what happens when your needs change.
Network Right publishes its prices, assigns every client a dedicated IT consultant, and runs teams out of offices in San Francisco (SoMa) and New York (Lower Manhattan). If your current setup is working and your quote falls in a fair range, we will tell you that and suggest you stay put.
If you want a number, send three things: your headcount, your current tool stack (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, MDM, identity provider) and your office address. You'll get back a fixed monthly quote and a short list of anything we'd fix first. Book a call with our team to get started.
