MSP vs. Hiring a Full-Time IT Person: A Real Cost Breakdown
Should you hire a full-time IT person or pay an MSP? Here's a real cost breakdown, the hidden costs, and how to run the numbers for your own company.
It's a familiar moment for a lot of growing companies. You hit 40 or 50 employees, the office manager who "handles the computers" is drowning, and someone in the leadership meeting asks the obvious question: should we hire a full-time IT person, or pay an MSP? Then someone else asks what each one actually costs, and nobody has a straight answer. Getting the MSP vs in-house IT cost comparison right is what this post is about.
I've sat on both sides of this decision. Before we started SoftwarePac, I spent years as the network engineer people called when things broke. Now my partner Mukesh and I run a managed IT and cybersecurity firm in Roanoke, so yes, I have a stake in the answer.
That's exactly why I want to be fair about it. For some companies, a full-time hire is the right call. For others, it's an expensive way to get less coverage. Here's how to tell which one you are.
In this guide
- What a full-time IT hire really costs
- What an MSP costs and what's usually included
- MSP vs in-house IT cost for a 50-person company
- The costs nobody puts on the spreadsheet
- When hiring in-house makes more sense
- The middle ground: co-managed IT
- How to run the numbers for your own company
- Frequently asked questions
What a full-time IT hire really costs
Most people start with salary and stop there. That's the first mistake. Salary is usually only about 70% of what an employee costs you.
Start with the salary range
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the May 2025 median annual pay was about $61,860 for computer user support specialists and about $76,220 for computer network support specialists. Network and computer systems administrators came in around $99,130. Pay in your area may be higher or lower, and an experienced person who can handle networking, security and servers usually sits toward the top of those ranges.
For a company under 500 employees, the first IT hire is almost always a generalist. You need someone who can fix a laptop at 8 AM, troubleshoot a firewall at noon and sit in a vendor call at 3 PM. Those people are hard to find, and they know it.
Add the cost of benefits
BLS data for June 2026 shows benefits made up about 30% of private industry compensation costs. That covers health insurance, retirement contributions, paid leave, and payroll taxes. A quick rule of thumb: divide the salary by 0.7 to get a rough fully loaded cost.
- A $65,000 support specialist works out to roughly $93,000 a year fully loaded.
- A $99,000 systems administrator works out to roughly $141,000 a year fully loaded.
Then add the tools and the extras
Your new hire can't manage 50 computers with a screwdriver and good intentions. They'll need software, and most of it is billed per device or per user.
- Remote monitoring and management (RMM) and patching tools
- A ticketing or help desk system
- Backup software and storage
- Endpoint security, such as EDR, and its management console
- Training and certifications to keep their skills current
- Recruiting costs, which can be significant if you use an agency
None of these are huge on their own. Together they often add several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars a year, depending on what you already own.
What an MSP costs and what's usually included
Most managed service providers price per user or per device, per month. For fully managed IT, a common range is somewhere around $100 to $200 or more per user per month. Where you land depends on how much is included, how complex your environment is, and how much security work is bundled in.
What's typically in the monthly fee
Every MSP builds its packages differently, so always read the agreement. A fully managed plan commonly includes:
- Help desk support for your staff, by phone, email or remote session
- Patching and monitoring for workstations and servers
- Network management for firewalls, switches and Wi-Fi
- Backup monitoring and restore testing
- Onboarding and offboarding of employees
- Vendor management, such as calling your internet provider when the line goes down
- Regular planning meetings and documentation of your environment
What's often billed separately
This is where comparisons get messy. Ask about these up front:
- Hardware and software licenses, like Microsoft 365 or new laptops
- Project work, such as a firewall replacement or an office move
- Advanced security services, such as 24/7 monitoring by a security operations center
- Compliance work like CMMC or HIPAA readiness
- On-site visits, if the provider is mostly remote
If you want a deeper look at what a good provider should cover, I wrote about what local businesses should expect from managed IT services.
MSP vs in-house IT cost for a 50-person company
Let's put rough numbers side by side. These are illustrative ranges, not quotes. Your actual numbers depend on your location, your environment and who you hire.
Option A: one full-time generalist
- Salary of about $65,000 to $76,000
- Fully loaded with benefits: roughly $93,000 to $109,000 a year
- Tools and training: often an extra $5,000 to $20,000 a year
- Coverage: one person, about 40 hours a week, minus vacation and sick days
Option B: a fully managed MSP
- 50 users at roughly $125 to $175 per user per month
- That's about $6,250 to $8,750 a month, or $75,000 to $105,000 a year
- Tools are usually included in the fee
- Coverage: a team, with help desk, network and security people behind the contract
What the comparison actually shows
At 50 users, the dollar amounts often land in the same neighborhood. That surprises people who expected one option to be dramatically cheaper.
The real difference is what you get for the money. With one hire, you get one person's skills and one person's availability. With an MSP, you get a team, but less of any single person's time on site.
The costs nobody puts on the spreadsheet
The spreadsheet comparison is the easy part. The hidden costs are what usually decide it.
The single point of failure
When your only IT person is on vacation, out sick, or quits, your IT knowledge walks out the door with them. I've seen companies discover that all the admin passwords lived in one person's head. Turnover in IT roles is common, and replacing someone can take months.
The skills gap
No single person is an expert at everything. A great desktop support tech may not be strong at firewall configuration. A strong network admin may not have time for security monitoring. My partner Mukesh has spent 25 years in cybersecurity, and he'll tell you that security alone is a full-time specialty.
Security and compliance exposure
Cyber insurance applications and frameworks like NIST 800-171 ask detailed questions about MFA, backups, patching and logging. If your one IT person is busy resetting passwords, those controls tend to slip. If you're not sure where you stand, our post on 10 steps to protect your company is a good starting checklist.
Management time
Someone has to manage your IT hire, set priorities, and review their work. If nobody on your leadership team understands IT, that's hard to do well. With an MSP, you manage a contract and service levels instead of a person.
When hiring in-house makes more sense
I'll be straight with you: an MSP is not always the answer. A full-time hire often makes more sense when:
- You need someone physically on site every day, for example to support production equipment or a busy shop floor.
- You run specialized line-of-business software that needs deep, daily attention.
- You're large enough, often well past 100 users, that you need several IT people anyway.
- You have a strong IT leader who can manage and mentor the hire.
Even then, many companies keep an outside partner for the things one person can't cover well, like after-hours monitoring or security work.
The middle ground: co-managed IT
You don't have to pick one or the other. Co-managed IT means you keep an in-house IT person or team, and an MSP fills specific gaps.
How co-managed IT usually works
- Your in-house person handles on-site work, users and day-to-day priorities.
- The MSP provides tools, monitoring, patching, and backup oversight.
- The MSP handles escalations, network projects, and security work.
- Your IT person gets vacation coverage and someone to call when they're stuck.
For a lot of manufacturers between 75 and 300 employees, this is the setup I'd look at first. It keeps local knowledge in the building while removing the single point of failure.
How to run the numbers for your own company
Here's a simple process you can do in an afternoon. Grab your last year of IT invoices before you start.
- Count your users and devices, including shared shop-floor PCs and servers.
- Total what you spent on IT last year: people, software, hardware, outside help and emergency calls.
- Estimate a full-time hire's loaded cost: salary divided by 0.7, plus tools and training.
- Get two or three MSP quotes, and ask each one for a written list of what is and isn't included.
- Compare coverage, not just price: hours, response times, security services and backup testing.
- Ask what happens during an incident. Who responds, how fast, and what does it cost?
- Factor in risk. What would a week of downtime or a ransomware event cost your business?
If you're still weighing what technology to standardize on before you decide, this post on choosing the right technology for your business may help.
Frequently asked questions
Is an MSP cheaper than hiring an IT person?
Sometimes, but not always. For companies with roughly 20 to 75 users, an MSP is often similar to or less than the fully loaded cost of one full-time hire, and you get a team instead of one person. As you grow, the math shifts, and many larger companies use a mix of both.
How much does a full-time IT person cost a small business?
Start with the salary, which BLS data puts in the $60,000 to $100,000 range for common IT support and admin roles. Then add benefits, which average about 30% of total compensation in private industry. Add tools, training and recruiting, and a single generalist often costs $95,000 to $130,000 a year or more.
What is the typical MSP price per user per month?
For fully managed IT, a common range is around $100 to $200 or more per user per month. Lower prices often mean fewer services included, so compare what's in each agreement. Security add-ons and project work are frequently billed separately.
Can I keep my IT person and still use an MSP?
Yes. That's called co-managed IT, and it's very common. Your in-house person keeps the day-to-day relationship with staff, and the MSP adds tools, after-hours coverage, security and backup.
When should a company hire its first in-house IT person?
There's no single number. Many companies consider it when they pass 75 to 100 users, need someone on site every day, or run complex systems that need daily attention. A good first step is a review of your current setup so you know what the role actually needs to cover.
Not sure which option fits? Start with a free assessment
If you're weighing an MSP against a new hire, it helps to know where your environment stands first. Our free cybersecurity assessment looks at your network, endpoints, backups and security controls, and you get a plain-English summary of what we found.
There's no obligation and no pressure. Whether you end up hiring in-house, working with us, or going co-managed, you'll make the decision with better information. Request your free cybersecurity assessment here.
Related reading
- Managed IT Services in Roanoke, VA: What Local Businesses Should Expect
- Cybersecurity for Roanoke Small Businesses: 10 Steps to Protect Your Company
- IT Consulting: How to Choose the Right Technology for Your Business
Harsha is a co-founder of SoftwarePac Technologies in Roanoke, VA, and a network engineer with 15 years of experience.