Skip to content
ISO 27001 certified
Client portal
Menu

Managed IT vs in-house, hourly and DIY IT

Every way to run IT has a cost. Some are harder to see.

Hire staff, pay a technician by the hour, sign with a provider, or do it yourself. Each can be the right choice. Here they are side by side on cost, cover, security and the time they take from you.

See the comparison See plans and pricing

By the CCP team · Updated

A meeting room whiteboard with four columns of blank sticky notes, above a table with a closed laptop, a marker, a notebook and a coffee.

At a glance

Options
Five, CCP included
Compared on
Cost, cover, security, effort
Sources
ASD, ABS, SEEK, Fair Work
Our fee
$175 to $420 a seat a month

Managed IT comparisons

Pick the comparison you need.

  • 01

    Managed IT vs in-house IT

    Salary, super, leave cover, recruitment and tools, against one fee per seat. Set your own seat count.

    Read the comparison
  • 02

    Managed IT vs hourly IT support

    What Perth IT providers charge by the hour, what that leaves out, and a calculator for your own hours.

    Read the comparison
  • 03

    What’s included in managed IT

    A free sheet of questions to take to every quote, and where other agreements most often differ from ours.

    Read the comparison
  • 04

    Doing IT yourself

    What it costs when nobody looks after IT, with the latest government figures.

    Read the risks

Managed IT vs in-house, hourly, limited-scope and DIY

Five ways to run IT, side by side.

The other columns describe common patterns, not any one business. Our column follows our published terms.

Compared on CCP managed ITIn-house IT staffHourly IT supportLimited-scope providerDo it yourself
Cost
How you pay One fee per seat, $175 to $420 a month. Salaries, super, recruitment and the tools. About $180 an hour, plus after-hours loadings and the tools. A fee per user, plus work outside the schedule. Staff time, and the cost of each incident.
What makes the bill go up More seats, CPI each year, and up to 10% above CPI with notice. Another hire, pay rises and turnover. More problems. Each call is billed. Visits, projects and security add-ons. An outage or a breach.
Cover
Leave and sick days A team of Perth engineers covers. About six weeks a year with no cover, per person. Often one or two people. Usually covered by a larger desk. Whoever knows how is away.
After hours Emergencies included. Other work billed. Paid call-outs, if someone answers. Often 1.5 to 2 times the rate. Often urgent incidents only. Nobody.
Onsite Unlimited, within 40 km of Welshpool. Yes, at your main site. Billed per visit, often a 1-hour minimum. Sometimes remote only, or charged per visit. Whoever is free.
Security and risk
Security tools Endpoint and identity threat detection, watched by a 24/7 security operations centre. Bought and run by your staff. Usually sold as extras, per device. Often a higher tier or an add-on. What came with the computers.
Evidence for insurers and audits Included on + Compliance and Complete. Depends on your staff’s skills. Billed by the hour, if offered. Sometimes billed as time and materials. Hard to produce.
If one person leaves A named team knows your setup. Their knowledge leaves with them. A solo operator is a single point of failure. Calls often go through a first-level desk. Nobody else knows the passwords.
Effort for you
Who manages it We do, against an agreed plan. You manage the staff. You decide when to call. You manage the scope and the extras. You do.
Planning ahead A regular security and technology review on every plan. A virtual CIO on + Compliance and Complete from 30 seats. Depends on how senior your staff are. Rarely included. Often a separate fee, or only for larger clients. None.

Hourly rates: the median of 10 published business rate cards from Australian IT providers, September 2026. Leave: the National Employment Standards.

Risks of doing IT yourself

Doing it yourself is free until the first incident.

Many small businesses run IT themselves, with the office manager or a keen staff member on it part time. These figures show what that risks.

Sources: ASD, Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024–25; ABS, Characteristics of Australian Business 2024–25; ASIC 26-021MR, FIIG Securities, 13 February 2026

  • 01

    $56,600 per cybercrime report

    The average cost a small business reported in 2024–25, up 14% in a year. For a medium business it was $97,200, up 55%.

  • 02

    28% have no protection

    28% of Australian businesses with staff had no measures to prevent a cyber incident in 2024–25. 21% had an incident.

  • 03

    Insurers ask for the basics

    Cyber insurance forms ask about multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection, offline backups and patching. You answer under your duty of disclosure.

  • 04

    A $2.5 million court penalty

    In February 2026 the Federal Court fined a financial services firm $2.5 million for cyber security failures, including missing multi-factor authentication and patching.

Which way of running IT is right for you

When each option is the right choice.

We are not the right fit for everyone. This is how we would decide.

  • 01

    CCP managed IT

    You have 10 to 300 staff and want one team to own support, security and planning for a fixed fee.

  • 02

    In-house IT staff

    You have enough work for a whole team, or need someone on site every day. Many firms keep one IT person and add us.

  • 03

    Hourly IT support

    You have fewer than 10 staff, simple cloud systems, and nobody asks about your security.

  • 04

    Limited-scope provider

    You have a capable IT manager who only needs extra hands, and your security comes from elsewhere.

  • 05

    Do it yourself

    You are a very small team on cloud apps, with MFA on every account and backups you have restored.

Questions to ask a managed IT provider

Getting quotes? Take these questions.

A free sheet of 19 questions that find what a quote leaves out. Download it blank, or with our answers already filled in.

Free, with no email needed. See all 19 questions

Managed IT vs the alternatives questions

Straight answers.

Something not covered? Call (08) 9467 2269 and ask an engineer.
Is managed IT cheaper than hiring an IT person?
At 25 seats, one systems administrator with super, callouts and the tools costs about $154,000 a year. Our + Services plan for 25 seats costs $69,000. Compare with your own seat count.
What is the difference between break-fix and managed IT?
Break-fix bills by the hour when something breaks. Managed IT is a fixed fee that includes support, monitoring, patching and security tools, so the provider earns more when nothing breaks. See the hourly comparison.
Why do two managed IT quotes differ so much?
Because the scope differs. Onsite visits, after-hours cover, security monitoring and compliance evidence are included in some services and billed in others. Check what an agreement covers, and download the questions to ask.
Do you answer after hours?
Yes, for emergencies. In our latest incident response reports, every after-hours call was answered or returned within 30 minutes. Work after hours that is not an emergency is billed.
What size of business do you work with?
Businesses with 10 to 300 staff, across Australia. Every engineer works from our office in Welshpool, Perth.
How long is the agreement?
Our standard agreement is a three-year term, with no onboarding fees. We spend the first three months onboarding you. Full alignment with every security recommendation usually takes the whole term, because the work is incremental. A month-to-month arrangement is available on request, at a higher rate. If you leave, we hand over full documentation and credentials. Some clients have stayed 20+ years.

Not sure which fits? Ask an engineer.

Book a free IT review with a Perth engineer. Tell us how you run IT today. You get a straight answer on whether we are the right fit, in writing.

Or call (08) 9467 2269

How you run IT today
Staff

A Perth engineer, not a salesperson, replies within one business day.

We hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification from BSI, certificate IS 840964.

Call now Free risk review