What does IT actually cost your business?
Not just the support fee. Licences, security, backup and laptops — the lines most quotes leave out — at current Australian prices. No email required.
Your business
Desktop Office apps and email. Security tooling has to be added separately.
Total cost of IT, per month
$2,644–$4,144
$176–$276 per person · ex GST
- Managed IT support$1,485–$2,985
Published Australian rates run roughly $99–$199 per user per month.
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard$315
$21.00 per user per month, annual commitment.
- Security add-ons$225
Defender for Business ($4.50) and Entra ID P1 ($10.50) — what Business Premium includes.
- Microsoft 365 backup$56
25 GB per user at $0.15 per GB per month.
- Laptops, spread over their life$563
$1,800 per laptop over 4 years.
The range comes entirely from the managed IT line. Licences, backup and hardware cost the same whoever supports you.
Business Premium would cost you $47 a month less
Business Standardplus the security add-ons costs more than Business Premium — which includes the same security and more. It’s one of the most common overspends we find.
With Nexcentric: $2,884 a month
The same total with our flat $115 per user in place of the market range — security included, no lock-in. A fixed quote follows a free 30-minute review.
Get a fixed quoteMicrosoft prices are Australian list prices on annual commitment, checked August 2026. Microsoft repriced Microsoft 365 on 1 July 2026, so figures published before then are out of date. All amounts exclude GST.
The quote you compare is rarely the bill you pay
Managed IT providers quote their own fee. The licences, backup and hardware arrive separately — so two quotes that look $20 a user apart can be the same price, or the cheap one can be the expensive one.
The fee is the variable
Support runs roughly $99–$199 per user across Australian providers. That's the only line in this calculator that changes depending on who you choose.
Licences are fixed
Microsoft 365 costs the same through anyone. What varies is whether you're on the right plan — and many businesses aren't.
Hardware is the forgotten line
A laptop refresh is a real monthly cost, just billed every few years. Spreading it out is the only way to compare honestly.
About IT costs
What a business should budget, what quotes leave out, and what this calculator can and can't tell you.
How much should a small business spend on IT per employee?
For a typical 15-person Australian business on Microsoft 365 Business Standard, the total comes to roughly $176 to $276 per person per month excluding GST, once managed support, licences, security, backup and laptops are all counted. The single biggest variable is the managed IT fee, which commonly runs $99 to $199 per user. Everything else costs about the same whoever supports you.
Why is the IT quote I've been given lower than this?
Because most quotes are for the support fee alone. Microsoft 365 licences, backup, security add-ons and hardware are usually billed separately, so the number you compare between providers is rarely the number you end up paying. This calculator shows the whole thing.
Do I really need to back up Microsoft 365?
Microsoft's position is a shared responsibility model: it keeps the service available, and protecting your data is your job. Microsoft 365 does keep deleted items for a limited retention window, but that isn't the same as a backup you control — it won't help once the window has passed, and it isn't designed for recovering from ransomware or a malicious insider.
Is Microsoft 365 Business Premium worth the extra?
Usually, yes. At $32.90 per user it includes Intune, Defender for Business and Entra ID P1 — the tooling behind most of the Essential Eight. Buying that security separately on top of Business Standard costs more than Business Premium does, which the calculator will show you.
Are these prices including GST?
No. Every figure is in Australian dollars excluding GST, using Microsoft's list prices on annual commitment. Monthly-commitment licensing runs roughly 20% higher, and pricing through a reseller can vary.
How accurate is this?
It's an estimate built on published list prices, checked in August 2026, with every assumption shown alongside the figure it produces. Your real cost depends on what you already own and how you buy it. A fixed quote needs someone to look at what you're actually running.
Want the real number?
A free 30-minute review and a fixed quote in writing — including where you’re over-licensed, which is the saving most businesses don’t know they have.
Book a 30-minute review