Pay external IT per incident or sign a fixed contract?
Per incident looks cheap in quiet months, but for SMBs seriously dependent on IT, the bill hits hard the moment one real incident happens.
Try this first
- 1Count last year's incidents, including small ones: password resets, printer issues, integrations that broke.
- 2Calculate an hourly rate plus response-time buffer on those incidents, that is your per-incident annual cost.
- 3Compare that to a retainer that includes an SLA and proactive management, not just reactive firefighting.
- 4Below a few incidents per month per-incident may work, above that or under compliance pressure a retainer almost always wins.
When to bring us in
If you want to know which model fits your incident history, we can run the math against your actual tickets.
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.
None of the above fits?
Describe your situation below. We pass your input plus the steps you already saw to our AI and return tailored next-step advice. If it's too risky to DIY, we'll say so.
Or skip the DIY entirely
Our Managed IT clients do not look these things up. One point of contact, a fixed monthly price, resolved within working hours.