Ask three Sydney IT providers what managed support costs and you will get three different answers, because the quotes are usually built on different units. One is per user, one per device, one is an hourly rate plus a retainer. None of those numbers means much until you know what sits inside them.
So here are ours, in full, with the detail that determines whether a monthly contract or an hourly invoice suits your business.
Hourly support and a managed contract are different products
Hourly support is work for time. Something breaks, or something needs doing, and you pay for the hours it takes. You carry the risk that a bad month costs more than you expected.
A managed contract is an agreed scope, paid monthly, whether or not the work happens that month. You stop paying per incident and start paying for the setup to be looked after.
Because they buy different things, they cannot be compared hour for hour. The useful question is not which one is cheaper, it is which one matches how your business actually uses IT.
What TechMedia charges
| Service | Rate | Billing detail |
|---|---|---|
| Remote support | $165.00 per hour incl. GST | One hour minimum, then 15-minute increments |
| Onsite support, home and small office | $198.00 per hour incl. GST | One hour minimum, then 30-minute increments |
| Onsite support, commercial | $242.00 per hour incl. GST | One hour minimum, then 30-minute increments |
| Onsite call-out fee | $82.50 per onsite visit incl. GST | No repeat call-out within 7 days for the same unresolved fault |
| Managed IT contract | $165.00 per PC per month incl. GST | Scope agreed after a short assessment, before you commit |
Every job carries a one-hour minimum. That is not a hidden penalty, it is the reality that the first hour of most jobs is diagnosis and travel. After the first hour, remote work is billed in 15-minute increments and onsite work in 30-minute increments, so you pay for the time used rather than a rounded-up afternoon.
The call-out fee applies once per onsite visit, and it is not charged again within seven days if the same fault is still unresolved. Travel beyond 30 minutes each way is quoted before the booking is made. Managed contract pricing varies for larger teams and is quoted after the assessment.
All prices shown include GST. Business clients can request ex-GST pricing if that suits your accounting.
What the monthly contract actually buys
The contract is priced per PC at $165 per month. It is a flat rate, and the scope is written down before you commit to it. That last part matters more than the number.
What that means in practice:
- We assess your setup first, then tell you what is covered and what is not.
- Anything outside the agreed scope is quoted before it is done, not billed after.
- You deal with the person doing the work, during business hours.
- The rate does not move because you had a bad month.
Third-party costs sit outside the contract. Licences, hosting, domains, hardware and stock assets are additional, which is the same position as our published terms of service. Larger teams are quoted individually rather than multiplied out at the single-PC rate, because the work does not scale in a straight line.
The scope document is where the detail lives: what is covered, what is quoted separately, and what happens when something falls outside it. Read that before you sign, not the headline rate.
What the monthly figure compares to, and what it does not
Take an eight-computer office at the single-PC rate. The contract comes to 8 x $165, which is $1,320 per month including GST.
That number can be translated into hourly equivalents, and it is worth knowing what they are. $1,320 buys about eight hours of remote support, or a little over five hours of onsite commercial support, before the call-out fee.
What that comparison does not tell you is which option is cheaper, because the two are not the same service. The hourly figure buys only the time you actually use. The contract figure buys an agreed scope being looked after in months when nothing visible happens. Neither is a discount on the other.
What it does tell you is the scale of the commitment. If your team would never generate five hours of support work in a month, the contract is buying something other than hours, and you should be clear with yourself about whether that something is worth it. If your team routinely generates more, the hourly route is exposing you to a bill that moves every month.
Reading a quote from any provider
Six things decide what a managed IT quote will actually cost you over a year. Ask about all of them, whichever provider you are talking to.
- Per user or per device. A per-user rate can work out very differently once you count the computers each person uses.
- What is excluded. Projects, hardware, licences, after-hours work and third-party vendor management are the usual exclusions.
- Billing increments. Fifteen minute or 30 minute blocks change the effective rate more than the headline hourly figure does.
- Call-out and travel charges. A per-visit fee and a travel threshold can add more to a year than a small difference in the hourly rate.
- What the scope says, not the brochure. The contract document should state what is covered and what is quoted separately. If it does not, ask for it in writing.
- Notice and exit terms. Monthly rolling with 30 days notice is very different from a three-year agreement with a termination fee.
Three ways businesses get surprised
The first is licences. Microsoft 365, antivirus and backup software are subscriptions, not support. They sit outside a support contract, and they are not negotiable just because you have one.
The second is paying for a visit that did not need to happen. Many issues are fixed faster remotely. If an onsite rate plus a call-out fee is applied to something a remote session would have solved, that is worth a question.
The third is scope creep in reverse. A contract that excludes more than you expected can leave you paying the monthly fee and the hourly rate in the same month. The scope document is the thing to read closely, not the price.
When hourly is the right call
Hourly support suits a one or two person office with a stable setup and no server, a business that only needs help with a specific project, or a migration with a beginning and an end. If your IT has been quiet for a long time, a per-PC contract may be paying for cover you are not using.
The reverse is also true. Once there is a server, shared files, Microsoft 365, a line-of-business application and staff who work remotely, the maintenance is real work, even when nobody is complaining about anything.
Key takeaways
- TechMedia charges $165 per hour for remote support, $198 onsite for home and small office, and $242 onsite for commercial clients, all including GST.
- Onsite visits carry an $82.50 call-out fee, charged once per visit, with no repeat charge within seven days for the same unresolved fault.
- Managed support is $165 per PC per month, with the scope agreed before you commit and larger teams quoted individually.
- Every job has a one-hour minimum, then 15-minute remote or 30-minute onsite increments.
- Hourly support and a contract buy different things. Compare what each includes before you compare the totals.
If you are in South West Sydney and you want a straight answer on what your setup would cost to look after, book a free 30-minute consultation. We will look at what you have and put the scope in writing before you commit to anything. See our IT support services or book a free consultation.
