Most small businesses start with someone they call when the computer dies. At some point that stops being the cheap option. Here is how the two models compare on cost, downtime, and who actually owns the problem.
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Break-fix is cheaper while nothing is wrong and expensive the moment something is. Managed IT costs a predictable amount every month and exists to stop the expensive moments from happening: patches applied, backups verified, problems caught before staff notice. Below about five employees, break-fix can still make sense. Above that, the math usually flips, and the real difference is not the bill — it is whether anyone is responsible before the outage.
| Break-fix (hourly) | Managed IT (flat monthly) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $100–$200 per hour, only when you call. Unpredictable month to month. | A fixed fee per user or per device, per month. Budgetable; goes up or down with headcount. |
| Incentives | They earn more when you have more problems. | They earn the same whether you call or not, so preventing problems is in their interest. |
| Who notices a problem first | Your staff, when it is already broken. | Monitoring, usually before anyone in the office does. |
| Updates and backups | Done when someone remembers. Backups often exist but are rarely tested. | Patching on a schedule; backups run and verified; you get told when something fails. |
| Security | Antivirus, maybe. Phishing and ransomware are handled after the fact. | Endpoint and email protection, MFA, and a managed firewall — bundled into the plan or priced per user alongside it. |
| Response when it breaks | When they are free. One person, one phone, often another job in front of yours. | Help desk during stated hours (ours: Mon–Sat 7AM–6PM) with your setup documented. |
| Dealing with vendors | You call the ISP, the printer company, the software vendor yourself. | One number. We deal with the vendors. |
| When they leave | Passwords and knowledge leave with them. | Documentation belongs to you; month-to-month means you can walk. |
One to four people, mostly in the cloud, nothing on a server, and a tolerance for a day without email now and then. If a dead laptop is an inconvenience rather than a lost day of revenue, paying by the hour is reasonable. Do at least have your backups tested and MFA turned on — those two things prevent most of the disasters we get called into.
Per user or per device, one flat number each month, for businesses in Dallas Fort Worth. Help desk, monitoring, patching, backups, Microsoft 365 administration, and vendor management are in the fee; hardware and out-of-scope projects are quoted in writing first. Month-to-month, no long-term contract. How the number is built →
How much does managed IT cost for a small business? It is priced per user or per device each month. The total depends on headcount and what is included, so we quote a flat monthly number after a short assessment. Our pricing page explains how the figure is built.
Do we have to sign a multi-year contract? No. Agapetec managed IT is month-to-month.
Can we keep our current IT person? Yes. Many clients keep an in-house or part-time person for day-to-day questions while we handle monitoring, security, backups, and anything that needs a specialist.
What is not included in the monthly fee? Hardware, software licenses, and projects outside the agreed scope such as an office move or a server replacement. Those are quoted in writing before any work starts.
Do you only serve Dallas Fort Worth? Managed IT and on-site support are for Dallas Fort Worth businesses. 3CX phone systems and websites are delivered and supported remotely for businesses anywhere.