Employee Owned Since 2022 | Serving Chicagoland since 1996Support: 630-523-0220Sales: 630-526-8030Remote support
MSP vs. break-fix
Break-fix looks cheaper because you only pay when something breaks. The catch is that your provider only gets paid when something breaks, too. Here is an honest look at both models.
The short answer
Break-fix IT means you call someone when something breaks and pay by the hour. A managed service provider, or MSP, charges a flat monthly fee to monitor, secure, and support your systems before they break. Break-fix can work for a very small office that barely depends on technology. Once downtime, security, or compliance matter, a managed IT agreement usually costs less over a year and carries far less risk.
Side by side
| Managed IT (MSP) | Break-fix IT | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Flat monthly fee per user or device | Hourly, per visit, or per project |
| What the provider is paid for | Keeping things running | Fixing things after they fail |
| Monitoring and patching | 24/7 and automated | Usually none |
| Security | EDR, filtering, patching, and backups managed for you | Whatever you set up and remember to maintain |
| Response | Defined response times in an SLA | When a technician is available |
| Budgeting | Predictable monthly cost | Surprise invoices, often at the worst time |
| Documentation | Maintained as part of the service | Often lives in one technician's head |
| Cyber insurance and compliance | Controls and evidence ready for questionnaires | Hard to prove controls are in place |
| Best for | 10 or more employees who depend on technology every day | Very small offices with simple needs |
Hidden costs
The hourly rate is not the real cost. The real cost is the hours your team cannot work while they wait. If 20 people lose half a day, that is 80 hours of payroll gone before a technician even arrives. Run your own numbers with the downtime cost calculator.
Break-fix also skips the boring work that prevents problems: patching, monitoring disk and backup health, replacing aging hardware on schedule, and reviewing who has admin access. Those gaps are exactly what cyber insurers now ask about. Check where you stand with the cyber insurance readiness checklist.
Finally, incentives matter. A break-fix provider earns more when your systems fail more. An MSP earns more when your systems fail less. That is the whole argument in one sentence.
Which one fits
One to five people, no sensitive data, no compliance requirements, and a business that can live with a day of downtime now and then.
Ten or more employees, client data or regulated data, cyber insurance, remote staff, or any situation where an outage stops revenue.
Co-managed IT gives your team monitoring, security tools, and help desk backup without replacing anyone.
What to ask
Whichever model you choose, ask these before you sign: What is your response time, in writing? Who owns our admin passwords and documentation? What is included and what is billed extra? How do you handle security and backups? How easy is it to leave? For more, read questions to ask before signing a managed IT agreement and what a good MSP SLA actually looks like.
Already with an MSP and not sure it is working? Take the should I switch MSPs self-assessment.
FAQ
Break-fix providers charge by the hour when something breaks. A managed service provider charges a flat monthly fee to monitor, secure, and support your systems so fewer things break in the first place.
Only in months when nothing goes wrong. Once you count downtime, emergency work, and security gaps, managed IT usually costs less over a year for organizations with 10 or more employees.
For very small offices with simple needs, no regulated data, and a tolerance for occasional downtime.
WEBIT publishes its prices. Managed IT is priced per computer user plus a per-device fee for endpoint management and Security Essentials. The managed IT calculator gives you a ballpark in two minutes.
WEBIT focuses on managed and co-managed IT, because that is how we can commit to response times and security. Month-to-month agreements and a 90-day money-back guarantee keep the risk low.
Not with WEBIT. Agreements are month to month. Read more about month-to-month vs. multi-year IT contracts.
Two new clients per month. Maximum.
Talk with an owner for thirty minutes. We will look at what you spent on IT last year and show you what managed IT would have cost.
Support line: 630-523-0220 | Main: 630-870-1088
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