Managed IT Services Pricing Melbourne
Most Melbourne providers will not publish a price. We do. Here are our actual plans, what is in each one, and how to compare any quote you receive.
How We Price Managed IT
Published, Not Quoted
Every plan price is on our website, along with the seat cap and the full inclusion list. You can budget before you talk to a salesperson.
Sized to Your Team
Plans are capped by staff and device count. We size you to the plan that fits rather than the plan that bills best.
No Hidden Onboarding
No onboarding fee, no setup fee, no exit fee. On-site hours beyond your plan allowance are quoted before the work happens.
Month to Month
No lock-in contract and no minimum term, so the price you see is not buying your commitment, it is buying the service.
What Managed IT Services Cost in Melbourne
Managed IT pricing in Melbourne is unusually opaque. Most provider websites route you to a discovery call before they will name a number, which makes it very hard to work out whether a quote you have received is fair.
The figures that are publicly available give a reasonable picture of the market. Fully managed IT is commonly quoted between $120 and $280 per user per month. Break-fix and ad-hoc hourly work sits between $130 and $260 per hour. Hybrid arrangements, where some elements are fixed and some are billed as used, generally land between $70 and $220 per user per month.
Those are wide bands, and the spread is the interesting part. Two quotes for the same business can differ by a factor of two, and the difference is almost never the same work at a different margin.
Tech Seek Total Care Pricing
These are our published prices. They are the same figures shown on our plans page, where you can subscribe directly.
- Core: $545 per month, up to 10 staff and 15 devices, 1 on-site hour per month
- Growth: $955 per month, up to 25 staff and 38 devices, 2 on-site hours per month
- Business: $1,895 per month, up to 50 staff and 75 devices, 4 on-site hours per month
- Enterprise: $3,795 per month, up to 100 staff and 150 devices, 8 on-site hours per month
What every plan includes
- Unlimited remote support within fair use, during business hours
- Endpoint security on every managed device
- Proactive monitoring and maintenance
- Microsoft 365 tenancy management
- Managed domain and DNS hosting
- WordPress web hosting and SSL
- Hardware procurement and setup for new starters
Unlimited remote support applies within fair use during business hours, which are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Additional on-site hours beyond the plan allowance are available and are quoted before the work is done.
The Honest Per-User Maths
Comparing a capped plan price against a per-user rate is where most pricing comparisons quietly mislead. Here is the arithmetic done properly.
At the full seat cap, our plans work out at roughly $55 per user per month on Core, $38 on Growth, $38 on Business and $38 on Enterprise. Against a market range of $120 to $280 per user per month, that is a substantial difference.
But that is the best case, and you should know where it stops being true. If you have 4 staff on the Core plan, you are paying about $136 per person, not $55. Capped plans reward you for filling the plan. This is precisely why we size you to the plan that fits your team rather than encouraging you into a bigger one, and why it is worth telling us your real headcount rather than your aspirational one.
Three Worked Examples
Abstract ranges are hard to act on. Here is what the numbers look like for three real shapes of Melbourne business, using our published prices and the market ranges above.
A 6-person professional practice with 9 devices
Sits comfortably on Core at $545 per month. That is about $91 per person, which is below the bottom of the $120 to $280 market band even though the plan is not full. At market per-user rates the same business would be quoted roughly $720 to $1,680 a month. The trade-off is one on-site hour a month, which for a small office rarely binds.
An 18-person practice with 26 devices
Sits on Growth at $955 per month, about $53 per person, with two on-site hours. At market per-user rates this business would be quoted roughly $2,160 to $5,040 a month. This is the size at which capped pricing starts to look very different from per-user pricing, and it is the most common plan we place.
A 30-person business with 48 devices
Needs Business at $1,895 rather than Growth, because 48 devices exceeds the Growth cap of 38 even though 30 staff would fit. That is $63 per person. It is worth stating plainly: device count, not headcount, is what pushes this business up a tier, and any provider who quotes on headcount alone has not counted your environment properly.
The Pricing Models You Will Be Quoted
Melbourne providers use five broad models. Knowing which one a quote uses is the first step to comparing it against another.
Break-fix or ad-hoc hourly
You pay for time when something goes wrong, commonly $130 to $260 per hour. Predictable only in the sense that you control when you call. Suits very small teams with low downtime cost, and nobody else.
Per-device
A monthly rate per managed device. Simple to audit, but it penalises businesses whose staff run two or three devices each, and it can create an incentive to leave devices unmanaged.
Per-user
A monthly rate per person regardless of how many devices they use. The most common model in the Australian market and generally the fairest, at $120 to $280 for a fully managed arrangement. Its weakness is that it scales linearly, so it gets expensive as you grow without any efficiency dividend.
Capped plan pricing
A fixed price covering a business up to a stated staff and device count. This is our model. It is best value the closer you are to the cap and worst value when your team is well below it, which is exactly why it is worth being honest about your numbers when we size you.
Hybrid
A lower fixed fee with certain elements billed as used, commonly $70 to $220 per user per month. The figure to interrogate is what falls outside the fixed part, because the headline number is only meaningful once you know that.
What Is Not Included, and Why We Say So
No monthly plan covers everything, and providers who imply otherwise are being imprecise. These are the things that sit outside our monthly fee, stated up front rather than discovered later.
- Hardware itself: we procure and set up devices, but the devices are yours to buy
- Third-party software licences, including Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which you own directly
- Major projects such as an office relocation, a full server replacement or a large migration, all scoped and quoted first
- On-site hours beyond your plan allowance, quoted before the work happens
- Work on systems we do not manage, which we will still help with but cannot monitor or warrant
Owning your own licences matters more than it sounds. When a provider holds your Microsoft 365 subscription in their own account, leaving becomes their decision rather than yours.
Why MSP Quotes Vary So Much
When two Melbourne quotes differ sharply, the gap is usually explained by one of the following. None of them are visible on a one-page proposal, which is why they are worth asking about directly.
Who does the work
An offshore or subcontracted helpdesk costs a provider far less than employing Australian technicians full time. That difference has to show up somewhere, and it shows up in the price. It also shows up in the experience your staff have on the phone.
What counts as included
Watch for support that is unlimited until it is not, on-site visits billed separately, project work carved out of the agreement, or security tooling listed as an optional extra. A cheap monthly fee with everything meaningful billed on top is not a cheap arrangement.
Whether security is genuinely in the plan
Endpoint security, patching and monitoring are the parts that prevent incidents, and they are the parts most easily left out of a low quote. If security appears as a line item you can decline, the base price is not comparable to a plan that includes it.
Contract length and exit terms
A lower monthly rate attached to a 36-month term is a different product from a month-to-month arrangement. So is a plan with an onboarding fee, an exit fee, or a clause that makes handover of your own administrative access conditional.
How to Compare Quotes Fairly
Put every quote you receive through the same questions. If a provider will not answer them plainly in writing, that is itself an answer.
- What is the total monthly cost at our actual headcount, not a band?
- Is remote support unlimited, and what specifically does fair use exclude?
- How many on-site hours are included, and what is the rate beyond that?
- Is endpoint security included, or is it an optional line item?
- Is there an onboarding fee, an exit fee, or a minimum term?
- Who employs the technicians, and where are they located?
- Do we own our Microsoft 365 tenancy, domain and licences?
- What is billed as a project rather than covered by the agreement?
Which Plan Fits Your Business
Most businesses of 2 to 10 staff sit on Core. Growing teams of 10 to 25 move to Growth, which is the most common plan we place. Established teams of 25 to 50 sit on Business, and organisations approaching 100 staff sit on Enterprise.
Device count matters as much as headcount. A team of 20 people running a laptop, a desktop and a shared workstation each will need a larger plan than headcount alone suggests. The free IT risk review counts this properly so the number we give you is the number you pay.
Ready to sort out your IT?
Book a free IT risk review — no obligation, and we reply within 1 business day. Systems down? Severity 1 issues get a 45-minute response.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do managed IT services cost in Melbourne?
Across the Melbourne market, fully managed IT is commonly quoted between $120 and $280 per user per month, break-fix hourly work between $130 and $260 per hour, and hybrid models between $70 and $220 per user per month. Tech Seek publishes fixed plan prices instead, starting at $545 per month for up to 10 staff and 15 devices.
Why do you publish prices when most Melbourne MSPs do not?
Because it makes the buying decision easier and it keeps us honest. If our price is on the website, we cannot quote one business differently from another for the same scope, and you can budget before you spend time on a sales call.
What is the effective cost per user?
At the full seat cap our plans work out at roughly $55 per user per month on Core and about $38 on Growth, Business and Enterprise. If your headcount is well below the plan cap the effective rate per person is higher, which is why we size you to the plan that fits rather than the next one up.
Are there any additional fees?
There is no onboarding fee, no setup fee and no exit fee. The two things that can sit outside the monthly price are on-site hours beyond your plan allowance and larger project work such as an office relocation or a major migration. Both are quoted before the work starts.
Is there a minimum contract term?
No. Memberships are month to month with no lock-in contract and no minimum term.
What does fair use mean on unlimited remote support?
Unlimited remote support covers normal day-to-day support for your team during business hours. It is not intended to absorb large project work, such as a full office migration or a site relocation, which is scoped and quoted separately.
Can we move between plans as we grow?
Yes, in both directions. Plans are capped by staff and device numbers, so you move up when you hire and back down if your team contracts. There is no penalty for changing plan.
Get a Real Price for Your Team
Tell us your headcount and device count and we will tell you which plan fits and what it costs. No discovery call required before you get a number.