What does a decent firewall for an SMB office cost
Count on hardware plus a yearly licence. The licence is not optional; without it the firewall is deadweight after a year.
Try this first
- 1Decide the scale. For an office up to 25 people an entry-business firewall (Fortinet 40F, Sophos XGS 87, Watchguard T20) is enough. For 25 to 100, a tier higher. Beyond that you need serious hardware.
- 2Hardware purchase: for SMB-tier units this is roughly between a few hundred and a thousand euros one-off. Not the place for generic consumer gear.
- 3Yearly licence: here sits the real cost. Anti-malware, web filtering, IPS, VPN licences add up. Often the same order of magnitude as the box, but recurring.
- 4Implementation and config: between 4 and 12 hours of external work depending on VLANs, VPN, and rules. Do not skip this in the quote.
- 5Maintenance. Firmware updates, rule review, log walking are about an hour a month at a competent provider. Either inside a retainer or invoiced separately.
When to bring us in
For a new firewall with the right licence mix and config we help clients in a day. /contact with desk count, guest wifi requirement, and VPN need.
See also
- What does Managed IT actually cost for a 10-person SMBNo fixed number, but an honest breakdown. A full package for ten people is not 50 euros a month and not 5000 either.
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard versus Premium, what is extraThe price jump is real but Premium does not add Word features. It adds security and device management.
- Microsoft announces another price hike, what do I doSince NCE Microsoft adjusts pricing structurally. Without action you renew at the new price for a full year.
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