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In-house IT vs. managed IT: what does each really cost?
Price out the IT team you’d hire — salaries, benefits, tools and training — and compare it with Managed Care at our published per-user price. Salaries start at local medians for Orange County and Los Angeles; change any number to match your own.
Cost per year
In-house cost, by part
- Salaries$0
- Benefits and payroll taxes$0
- Tools$0
- Training and recruiting$0
Microsoft licensing and hardware are extra either way. Managed Care includes one computer and one mailbox per user; servers and extra computers are $40/month each.
See what Managed Care includes →What each option covers
In-house team
- Your staff, during their working hours
- Coverage gaps during vacations, sick days and turnover
- Security monitoring only if you buy or staff a SOC
- Skills limited to the people you hire
- You manage the hiring, training and tools
Managed Care
- Service desk staffed 5 AM–6 PM weekdays, with on-call engineers 24×7 for emergencies
- 24×7 NOC & SOC monitoring, SentinelOne MxDR and managed SIEM
- On-site support included
- vCIO and vCISO planning, backups, patching and Microsoft 365 administration
- A team of senior engineers, not one person
Starting salaries: median annual wages, Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim area, May 2025 (BLS data via O*NET). Benefits share: BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Pacific division, June 2026. Tools and training are estimates — use your own numbers.
In-house vs. managed IT questions
How much does an in-house IT employee cost in Orange County?
Start with salary: in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim area, which includes Orange County, median pay in May 2025 was about $75,000 for an IT support specialist, $106,000 for a systems administrator and $130,000 for a security analyst. Benefits and payroll taxes add roughly 46% on top for Pacific-region employers, before tools, training and recruiting.
Why does the calculator default to two IT staff?
Managed Care covers help desk, systems administration and security monitoring. One person rarely covers all three, and nobody covers vacations, sick days or nights. Set the team to whatever you’d actually hire — even one person — and the comparison updates.
What does Managed Care cost?
A published per-user monthly price that includes one computer and one mailbox per user, with a lower rate above a set number of users and a monthly minimum. Servers and extra computers are billed per device, and Microsoft licensing and hardware are extra. The calculator uses the same rates as our pricing page.
Is managed IT always cheaper than in-house?
Not always. Large companies with steady needs sometimes do better with their own team. Many keep one or two IT staff and add co-managed IT for the help desk, 24×7 security monitoring and senior engineering; co-managed plans are priced after a short scoping call.
What isn’t included in the estimate?
Microsoft licensing, hardware, office space for IT staff, turnover and the cost of downtime while a position is open. For downtime, try our downtime cost calculator.
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