Managed IT vs In-House IT in Dallas: What Small Businesses Really Pay

If you run a 20 to 75 person business in Dallas, you have probably asked the same question more than once: should we hire someone to handle IT, or pay a managed services provider to do it? The answer often comes down to a single number, but that number is easy to get wrong. A salary looks like a clean comparison, and a monthly contract looks like an extra expense. Neither tells the full story on its own.

This article compares the real costs of both options, shows the assumptions behind each number, and explains when an in-house hire is the better choice. The full cost model behind these figures is published by Ighty Support, and you can adjust it for your own headcount.

Start With the Scope, Not the Price

Before comparing dollars, compare what each option covers. A single in-house IT hire is one person. That person can be excellent, but they have one set of skills, one schedule, and one day off a week. When they are sick, on vacation, or resign, your coverage drops to zero until someone is hired.

A managed IT provider is a team. A typical managed services contract covers help desk support, remote monitoring of servers and workstations, patching, backup management, security tools, and a named account lead. Scope depends on the contract, so always confirm what is included.

This is why comparing one salary to one monthly fee is misleading. You are comparing one person to a team, and the right comparison depends on what your business needs covered.

What an In-House Hire Really Costs

The salary is the largest line item, but it is not the only one. An illustrative model for one full-time IT support person in a 20-user office might look like this:

• Base salary: $62,000 (estimate based on typical DFW job postings for an IT support specialist, 2026)

• Payroll taxes and employer costs: about 10 percent, or $6,200

• Benefits (health, retirement match, paid time off): about $7,200

• Tools and training: about $1,860 for licenses, monitoring software, and certifications

• Recruiting: about $2,400 for a one-time hiring cost

• Backup coverage for vacation or sick days: about $1,800 per year, if you use contractors for gaps

• Equipment and workstation: about $2,500 for laptop, phone, and tools, amortized over three years

• Management time: about 4 hours a week of owner or manager time, valued at $3,500 per year

Under these assumptions, the total is roughly $91,000 per year. Every number above is an estimate, so change them to match your own market and staffing plan.

The model also leaves out one cost that is hard to put on a spreadsheet: the impact of a gap. If your only IT person leaves, it can take two to four months to hire a replacement in a tight market. During that time, problems pile up, and you may pay a contractor by the hour at a higher rate.

What a Managed IT Contract Costs

A managed IT contract is usually priced per user or per device per month, plus setup fees and any project work. For a 20-user office with a mid-tier service level, an illustrative annual cost might look like this:

• Monthly managed services fee: about $2,600 per month, or $31,200 per year

• Security tools and endpoint protection: about $3,600 per year, if not included in the fee

• Backup and disaster recovery storage: about $2,400 per year

• Email security and filtering: about $3,000 per year

• Onboarding and setup project: about $1,500 per year, amortized

That comes to roughly $41,700 per year under these assumptions. Again, the numbers are a model, not a quote. Actual pricing depends on your users, devices, compliance needs, and the service level you choose.

The Honest Comparison

On these illustrative numbers, managed IT costs less than a single in-house hire, but it does not cover the same things. The in-house model above assumes one person working on your environment. The managed model assumes a team with monitoring, after-hours coverage, and specialists for security and backup.

If you need someone physically in the office every day, to manage hardware, handle reception-area issues, and build relationships with staff, an in-house hire may be the better fit. If your priority is uptime, security, and predictable monthly costs, managed services often make more sense.

A fair comparison also includes a second in-house scenario: one hire plus a managed provider for after-hours coverage and security. Many businesses end up in this hybrid model, and the cost depends on how much of the work stays in-house.

When In-House IT Is the Right Choice

In-house is not the wrong answer for every business. It often makes sense when:

• You have 75 or more employees and enough IT work to keep one or two people busy full time.

• Your business depends on custom internal systems that need a developer or specialist on site.

• You operate in a regulated environment where on-site staff are required by policy.

• Your leadership wants direct control over every technical decision and has the budget for a senior hire.

In these cases, the in-house cost is easier to justify, and the internal knowledge of your systems can be a real advantage.

When Managed IT Makes More Sense

Managed services tend to fit better when:

• Your team is 10 to 50 people and does not have enough IT work for a full-time role.

• You want predictable monthly costs and do not want to budget for turnover, training, and recruiting.

• Security, backup, and monitoring are priorities, and you want them handled by people who do this every day.

• You want coverage for nights, weekends, and holidays without paying for on-call shifts.

For many DFW offices, this combination is what makes outsourcing attractive.

Questions to Ask Before You Decide

Whichever option you choose, answer these questions first:

1. How many users and devices do we support today, and how fast are we growing?

2. What happens to our operations if IT support is unavailable for one day? One week?

3. Which systems are critical, such as email, accounting, line-of-business software, or phones?

4. Do we have compliance requirements that affect where data is stored or who can access it?

5. Who will manage vendors, licenses, and renewals, and how much of that time can we spare?

6. What is our realistic hiring timeline if we need to replace someone?

If you cannot answer most of these, that is useful information too. It usually means you need a short IT assessment before you commit to either path.

The Bottom Line

The cost difference between in-house and managed IT depends on scope, not just salary. A single hire can be the right choice for some businesses, but the true cost includes benefits, tools, turnover, and coverage gaps. A managed provider can be more predictable and cover more ground, but only if the contract matches your needs.

Build the model with your own numbers, compare the same scope on both sides, and be honest about the risks of depending on one person. If you want help running that comparison for your office, you can request a free IT assessment for your Dallas business.