Guide · Updated October 2026
Managed IT vs Hiring In-House: What It Really Costs
Salary is only the start. Here’s the full yearly cost of one IT hire in the Lower Mainland, what managed IT costs instead, and where the line falls.
The short answer
For most Surrey businesses with fewer than about 47 staff, managed IT costs less than one full-time IT hire and covers more. Using Job Bank’s Lower Mainland median wage for a user support technician, $32.93 an hour, one hire costs roughly $92,710 a year once CPP, EI, benefits, training and tools are added. Fully managed IT for a 12-person office at a typical $165 per user per month is $23,760. Past roughly 40 to 60 staff, a hire plus co-managed support usually makes more sense.
Why This Question Comes Up
Most Surrey businesses ask it at the same moment. The company has grown to fifteen or twenty people, the owner or office manager is spending hours a week on IT, and something has just gone badly wrong: a ransomware scare, a lost laptop, a server that wouldn’t start on a Monday. The obvious answer feels like “we should hire an IT person.”
Sometimes that’s right. Often it isn’t, because one person can’t be a help desk, a network administrator, a security team and an IT planner at once, and they still need holidays. This guide puts real numbers on both options so you can decide with a calculator instead of a gut feeling.
What One IT Hire Really Costs
Wages come from the Government of Canada’s Job Bank for the Lower Mainland–Southwest region, which includes Surrey. They’re based on the 2023–2024 Labour Force Survey and were last updated on Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Payroll costs use the 2026 rates published by the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Employment Insurance Commission. Lines marked “est.” are our estimates for a typical small business.
| Yearly cost | User support technician (median $32.93/hr) | Network technician (median $31.25/hr) | IT manager (median $67.31/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary (median × 2,080 hours) | $68,494 | $65,000 | $140,005 |
| CPP and CPP2, employer share | $3,867 | $3,659 | $4,646 |
| EI, employer share | $1,562 | $1,482 | $1,571 |
| Benefits and vacation cover (est. 12%) | $8,219 | $7,800 | $16,801 |
| WorkSafeBC and other payroll costs (est. 1.5%) | $1,027 | $975 | $2,100 |
| Training, certifications and tools (est.) | $4,500 | $4,500 | $4,500 |
| Monitoring and security software, 12 users (est.) | $5,040 | $5,040 | $5,040 |
| Total per year | $92,710 | $88,456 | $174,663 |
Three things this table doesn’t include. Recruiting: job ads, interviews and the weeks of half-covered IT while you search. Cover: two or three weeks of vacation, sick days and training days when nobody is doing the job. Turnover: when an IT person leaves, a lot of what they knew leaves with them unless it was written down.
The IT manager column is there because many businesses imagine hiring “someone senior who can also do the support”. That person exists, but at a median of $67.31 an hour, and they rarely want to reset passwords all day.
What Managed IT Costs Instead
Fully managed IT, where a provider acts as your whole IT department, typically costs $100–$250 per user per month in Surrey and Metro Vancouver. The price depends on how many devices each person has, how much onsite work you need and which security tools are included. Co-managed IT, where you keep an in-house person, is usually $50–$150 per user per month.
| Business size | Fully managed, yearly range | At a typical $165/user/month | One support-technician hire, yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 staff | $12,000–$30,000 | $19,800 | $91,870 |
| 25 staff | $30,000–$75,000 | $49,500 | $98,170 |
| 50 staff | $60,000–$150,000 | $99,000 | $108,670 |
| 100 staff | $120,000–$300,000 | $198,000 | $129,670 |
The crossover sits around 47 staff at typical prices. Below it, managed IT is clearly cheaper. Above it, the numbers get close, and the decision turns on cover, skills and how much IT work your business really has.
Run Your Own Numbers
Move the slider to your staff count, pick the hire you’d compare with, and switch between a fully outsourced IT department and a hire backed by co-managed IT.
Difference in favour of managed IT
Hire cost = Job Bank median wage for the Lower Mainland × 2,080 hours, plus 2026 CPP and EI, and estimates for benefits, payroll costs, training and tools. Managed IT uses typical Surrey prices ($165 per user per month fully managed, $95 co-managed). Ranges, not quotes. See the full breakdown.
What the Numbers Leave Out
In favour of managed IT
- A team, not a person: help desk, network, security and planning skills in one agreement
- No gap when someone is on holiday, sick or leaves
- Monitoring, patching and security tools already included
- Documentation kept in a system you own, not in one person’s head
- Cost scales up or down with your staff count
In favour of an in-house hire
- Someone on site every day who knows the business and the people
- Faster for hands-on work like moving desks or fixing a printer down the hall
- Deep knowledge of specialized systems, like production or design software
- Easier to give them non-IT jobs too, which many small businesses do
Neither list is a trick. An in-house person really is better for some things. That’s why the answer for mid-size businesses is often both.
When Hiring In-House Makes Sense
Hiring usually makes sense when at least two of these are true: you have more than 40 to 60 staff; you run systems that need daily hands-on attention, like a production floor, a lab or a busy multi-site network; you have a steady stream of IT projects; or the business depends on someone being physically present all day.
If you do hire, plan for the gaps from the start. Who covers their holidays? Who reviews their security work? Who has the admin passwords if they leave? Those questions are what co-managed IT answers.
The Middle Option: Co-Managed IT
With co-managed IT, your in-house person stays in charge and a managed provider handles overflow tickets, monitoring, patching, security alerts and holiday cover. It costs about $50–$150 per user per month on top of the hire, and it’s how many 40- to 150-person businesses in Surrey, Delta and Langley run IT. The calculator above shows that option too.
How to Compare Quotes Fairly
When you compare a hire with a managed IT quote, or two quotes with each other, line up the same things:
- Who answers when staff call, and during which hours.
- What’s included: help desk, onsite visits, patching, endpoint security, backup monitoring, new-staff setup, vendor calls, planning.
- What costs extra: projects, after-hours work, hardware, licences.
- Response targets, written into the agreement.
- Documentation and passwords: who owns them, and how you get them back.
- Term and notice period, and what happens to your data if you leave.
Our guide to choosing a managed IT provider turns this into a full checklist.
Sources
- Job Bank, Government of Canada: wages for user support technicians (NOC 22221), computer network technicians (NOC 22220) and computer and information systems managers (NOC 20012), Lower Mainland–Southwest region, reference period 2023–2024, updated 19 November 2025.
- Canada Revenue Agency: 2026 CPP rate 5.95% to a maximum pensionable earnings of $74,600, and CPP2 at 4% to $85,000.
- Canada Employment Insurance Commission: 2026 EI premium of $1.63 per $100 for employees and $2.28 per $100 for employers, on insurable earnings up to $68,900.
- Benefits, payroll, training, tools and software lines are estimates for a typical small business, and are labelled as such.
Questions
Is managed IT cheaper than hiring an IT person?
For most businesses under about 47 staff, yes. Using Job Bank’s Lower Mainland median for a user support technician, one hire costs about $92,710 a year once payroll costs, benefits, training and tools are included. Fully managed IT for 12 staff at a typical $165 per user per month is $23,760.
What does an IT support technician earn in BC?
Job Bank lists a median of $32.93 an hour for user support technicians (NOC 22221) in the Lower Mainland–Southwest region, with a range of $21.06 to $49.22. Computer network technicians (NOC 22220) have a median of $31.25. Those figures are from the 2023–2024 Labour Force Survey and were last updated on Job Bank on 19 November 2025.
When does it make sense to hire in-house?
Usually once a business passes 40 to 60 staff, runs specialized systems that need someone on site every day, or has enough IT projects to keep one person busy. Even then, most businesses that hire keep a managed provider for co-managed support, so the hire isn’t alone.
What’s co-managed IT?
Co-managed IT is when you keep an in-house IT person and a managed provider backs them up with a help desk, monitoring and security tools, after-hours patching and holiday cover. It suits businesses big enough for a hire but not for a whole IT department.
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