How much does IT support cost on Sydney’s Northern Beaches?
Managed IT support from Vaelis IT costs $95 to $279 per person per month, ex GST, for a Northern Beaches or North Shore business with 5 to 30 staff. A 10-person business would pay $950 to $2,790 per month, depending on the support, planning and security coverage it needs.
If you want your own number first, use the managed IT pricing calculator. It shows the estimate immediately and does not ask for your contact details.
If you have asked an IT provider this question before, you may have been told “it depends” and pushed towards a sales call. It does depend, but that is not a reason to hide the numbers.
These are our current prices, not an industry estimate. All prices are ex GST. Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences are supplied separately at Microsoft’s published rate. Pricing assumes a 12-month agreement, and the right plan depends on what your business needs covered.
The number matters, but the inclusions matter more. A $95 plan and a $150 plan can both be fair value when they solve different problems.
What does that work out to each month?
Here is the simple version for a Northern Beaches or North Shore business.
| Team size | Foundation | Strategic | Fortified |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 people | $475/month | $750/month | $1,395/month |
| 10 people | $950/month | $1,500/month | $2,790/month |
| 20 people | $1,900/month | $3,000/month | $5,580/month |
| 30 people | $2,850/month | $4,500/month | $8,370/month |
These figures exclude GST and Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences. Hardware, major projects and any separately scoped work also sit outside the monthly amount.
| Plan | Price per person | Best fit | Support and onsite | Planning and security depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $95/month | A lean Microsoft 365 setup | Business-hours remote support; onsite billed hourly | Annual planning chat; 24/7 specialist threat detection |
| Strategic | $150/month | A growing or established team | Business-hours remote support and onsite incident support included | Annual Technology Plan with a six-month review and stronger identity protection |
| Fortified | $279/month | A regulated or insurer-driven business | Business-hours support plus critical after-hours escalation; onsite included | Quarterly Essential Eight Maturity Level 2 reporting and advanced identity controls |
Strategic is the default fit for many established businesses. It includes the support and planning most teams expect without adding the higher-level controls needed mainly by regulated or insurer-driven firms.
What do Sydney IT providers advertise?
Publicly advertised Sydney pricing spans several different service models. Ad hoc business IT support commonly appears around $150 to $220 per hour. Basic monitoring or capped-support plans start around $60 to $110 per person per month, while more complete business-hours managed support is advertised from roughly $119 to $200 per person per month. Plans with advanced security, compliance reporting or extended support can reach $199 to $300 or more per person per month.
Those are observed advertised bands, not a formal market average. Most providers do not publish pricing, and the offers below are not like-for-like.
| Provider | Publicly advertised pricing checked 11 August 2026 | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| All IT Services, Brookvale | $60, $124 and $199 per person per month, ex GST | The $60 tier excludes a dedicated support desk and charges support hourly. Higher tiers list minimum team sizes and exclude some licensing and platform fees. |
| Milnsbridge, Sydney | $109, $119 and $169 per seat per month, ex GST | The lowest tier includes three remote-support hours. Unlimited remote and onsite support starts at $119, with a ten-seat minimum and 12-month term. |
| Telstra Business Managed Services | $90.91, $136.36 and $181.82 per person per month, ex GST | The bundles are modular. Endpoint, collaboration, network, cloud and backup services can appear as separate line items. |
| Onside IT, Sydney | $150 per hour, or $89, $249 and $599 monthly including GST | The first two monthly plans cap remote-support hours. The $599 plan advertises unlimited remote support and two onsite visits for businesses with 10 to 30 staff. |
| TECHD Group, Northern Beaches | Claimed local range of $150 to $220 per person per month | The article targets 20 to 60-person businesses but does not publish detailed plan inclusions, so treat the range as the provider’s claim. |
The useful lesson is not that one provider is cheaper. It is that the billing unit alone tells you very little. A $60 monitoring plan with hourly support is a different purchase from a $150 plan that includes remote support, onsite incident support, security management and an annual Technology Plan.
What makes IT support cost more or less?
Two businesses with 10 staff can need very different support. A Warriewood consultancy running Microsoft 365 on ten modern laptops is simpler than a manufacturer with shared workstations, an ageing server and warehouse Wi-Fi.
The main cost drivers are:
- How much support is included. Some plans cap support hours or charge for every onsite visit. Others include unlimited business-hours support.
- Your security requirements. Basic device protection costs less than 24/7 specialist threat detection, identity monitoring and documented Essential Eight controls.
- The systems you already have. Old servers, multiple offices, unsupported software and a mix of unmanaged devices take more work to maintain.
- Backup and recovery. A backup licence is not the same as a tested recovery plan. Check what is protected, how long data is retained and who verifies that restores work.
- Onsite requirements. Most routine support can be handled remotely. If your work regularly needs someone onsite, make sure travel and onsite time are clearly included or priced.
- Projects and change. Office moves, Microsoft 365 migrations, network replacements and major security improvements are normally scoped separately from day-to-day support.
A simple, cloud-first business with one office, current devices and no unusual support hours should sit towards the lower end. Multiple sites, old servers, unmanaged devices or formal security requirements push the work and price up.
This is why comparing only the per-person number can be misleading. Ask each provider to show you the full inclusions, exclusions and response commitments.
What do you get at each Vaelis IT tier?
Foundation: from $95 per person per month
Foundation suits a small team that needs Microsoft 365 managed, devices secured and reliable help when something breaks.
We run Microsoft 365 so you don’t have to. Every device is locked down so a stolen laptop isn’t a breach. Everything is backed up daily so lost files come back, even months later. Threats are caught and shut down before they spread across your network, with a specialist security team watching 24/7.
Remote support is available during business hours. Onsite support is billed hourly when it is needed. Account changes, quarterly phishing drills and a concise monthly health report are included. A managed password manager is available as an optional add-on.
Foundation is a good fit when your environment is straightforward and you do not need onsite support, formal planning or advanced security reporting included every month.
Strategic: from $150 per person per month
Strategic adds the operational pieces an established business usually expects from a managed IT relationship.
Remote support is included during business hours, along with onsite incident support across the Northern Beaches and North Shore when a covered issue cannot reasonably be fixed remotely. Identity attacks and laptop threats are monitored. Your business also gets an annual security posture review, a documented recovery plan and a written 12-month Technology Plan with a six-month review.
Standard account changes and managed-device setup for new starters and leavers are included. Hardware, delivery, data migration and non-standard application work are scoped separately. Practical AI opportunities are considered in the Technology Plan, while training and implementation are scoped separately.
This is usually the right place to start when your team depends on IT every day and you want someone accountable for keeping it organised.
Fortified: from $279 per person per month
Fortified is for businesses where the security evidence matters as much as the tools.
It includes everything in Strategic, plus an after-hours escalation path for genuine critical incidents. It also adds stronger identity and administrator controls, email protection that stops attackers spoofing your domain, and quarterly reporting against Essential Eight Maturity Level 2, an Australian cybersecurity baseline.
That level of coverage is often relevant to legal, allied health, finance and other firms handling sensitive information or responding to detailed customer and insurer questionnaires.
Fortified does not mean every routine support request is handled at 2 am. It means serious incidents have an escalation path and your security controls are managed and documented to a higher standard.
What sits outside the monthly fee?
A clear quote should tell you what is not included. With Vaelis IT, you should budget separately for:
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences
- laptops, monitors, networking equipment and other hardware
- major migrations, office moves and network replacements
- specialised compliance programmes or large remediation projects
- onsite support on Foundation
- support inside third-party business applications. We check the computer, Microsoft 365 and network side, then pass application-specific issues to the software vendor’s support team and coordinate where needed.
Pricing and inclusions are reviewed annually, and the service agreement contains the final scope.
What are the downsides of managed IT support?
Managed support is not automatically the right answer. There are trade-offs, and a provider should be willing to explain them.
You pay every month, including the quiet months. The value comes from the work happening in the background: patching, monitoring, backup checks, security improvements and planning. If you only judge the service by the number of tickets logged, a quiet month can look expensive.
You also agree to standard ways of working. A provider may require supported devices, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, two-step sign-in and approved security tools. That reduces risk and makes support reliable, but it means you cannot keep every old application or personal device exactly as it is.
Major change is normally separate. A monthly agreement covers the environment described in the scope. It does not usually include a new office fit-out, a tenant migration or replacing an ageing server.
Finally, a poor provider can turn a fixed monthly fee into a comfortable retainer while service drifts. The agreement should define what is managed, what gets reported and what happens when targets are missed.
Is hourly IT support cheaper?
It can be, while nothing is going wrong.
Hourly or break-fix support means you pay when you call. That can suit a very small business with simple systems and someone internally who is comfortable owning the day-to-day IT work.
The trade-off is that nobody is accountable for preventing the next problem unless you separately pay them to do it. Patching, backup checks, account security, device management and documentation can drift because they do not create an urgent ticket.
Managed support changes the incentive. The provider is paid to keep your environment stable, secure and documented, not just to repair it after the damage is done. For a business where downtime sends five, ten or twenty people home, predictability usually matters more than the lowest possible monthly bill.
Who is Vaelis IT not a good fit for?
We would rather tell you this before you book a call.
Vaelis IT is built for businesses with 5 to 30 computer-based staff on the Northern Beaches, plus selected businesses on the North Shore. We are probably not the right provider if:
- you have fewer than five staff and only need occasional help when something breaks
- you have more than 30 staff and need an enterprise IT department
- your whole operation needs general user support at all hours, every day
- your business is outside the Northern Beaches and North Shore
- you do not want managed devices, two-step sign-in or a standard security baseline
- you want every migration, hardware purchase and office project absorbed into one monthly fee
In those cases, an hourly technician, a larger provider or an internal IT team may suit you better.
How to compare IT support quotes properly
Put the headline prices aside for five minutes and ask every provider the same questions:
- Is remote support unlimited, capped or charged separately?
- Is onsite support included, and for which service area?
- Which security and backup tools are included in the quoted price?
- Does 24/7 monitoring include human investigation, or only automated alerts?
- What happens if there is a serious incident after hours?
- Are Microsoft 365 licences included or billed separately?
- Are onboarding, offboarding and new device setup included?
- What work is treated as a separately quoted project?
- What response targets are written into the agreement?
- How will the provider report the work completed each month?
If a quote cannot answer those questions clearly, the per-person price does not tell you enough.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a 10-person business budget for IT support?
Using Vaelis IT’s current tiers, a 10-person business would pay from $950 per month for Foundation, $1,500 for Strategic or $2,790 for Fortified, ex GST. Microsoft 365 Business Premium licences and separately scoped hardware or projects sit on top of that.
Are Microsoft 365 licences included?
No. Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the licence floor across all three Vaelis tiers and is supplied separately at Microsoft’s published rate. Keeping it separate makes the support cost and the Microsoft licence cost clear.
Does 24/7 threat detection mean 24/7 IT support?
No. Threat detection means a specialist security team watches for and investigates security threats at all hours. Routine IT support is provided during business hours. Fortified adds an after-hours escalation path for genuine critical incidents.
Is onsite support included?
Onsite support is included with Strategic and Fortified when a problem cannot be fixed remotely. It is billed hourly on Foundation. Vaelis IT is based in Warriewood and supports businesses across the Northern Beaches and selected parts of the North Shore.
Which tier should I choose?
Choose Foundation when your setup is straightforward and you mainly need Microsoft 365, devices, security and reactive support managed properly. Choose Strategic when you want remote support, onsite incident support and annual planning included. Choose Fortified when your security obligations require stronger controls, documented evidence and critical after-hours escalation.
Is the cheapest plan the best value?
Only when it covers the work your business needs. A lower price can be sensible for a simple environment. It becomes expensive when backup, onsite support, identity protection or project work appears later as an unexpected charge. Compare the scope first, then the price.
Related reading
- Managed IT support: compare the three Vaelis service tiers and use the pricing calculator.
- Microsoft 365 support: what we manage, secure and support across Microsoft 365.
- Cybersecurity for small business: practical protection and help meeting security requirements.
Get a number for your business
Start with the managed IT pricing calculator. It will estimate the monthly service cost for your team and show Microsoft 365 separately. You do not need to enter your name or email to see the result.
If you want us to check the assumptions, we can then look at your current setup and required support level. We will tell you which tier fits, which tier does not, and what would sit outside it.
Vaelis IT provides local managed IT support and plain English advice for businesses across the Northern Beaches and selected parts of the North Shore. Book a 15-minute IT chat and we will give you a straight answer.