The first question on almost every managed IT call we take from Plymouth, Kingston, Marshfield, or Hanover is some version of "what is this going to cost me?" It is a fair question, and the honest answer has two parts. The first is how the price is built, which we can explain completely. The second is the number itself, which depends on what is actually in your office, so we only give it after we have looked.
This post covers the first part in detail: how Power Up Boston prices managed IT services for South Shore businesses, what the monthly fee includes, what is always quoted separately, which five things move the price up or down, and how to compare quotes from different providers without being misled by a low headline number.
The short answer: a flat monthly fee, priced per user and per device
Our managed IT agreements are a flat monthly fee. The fee is itemized per user and per device after a free on-site assessment, and it is explained line by line in a written proposal before you sign anything.
"Per user" covers the people: the helpdesk your staff call, their email and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace accounts, MFA, onboarding and offboarding. "Per device" covers the machines: the management agent on every workstation and server, monitoring, patching, and endpoint protection. A ten-person office with ten laptops and no server is a short list. A ten-person contractor with a server in the back room, a shop-floor network, and three trucks with tablets is a longer one, and the price reflects that.
Because the fee is tied to a count of users and devices, it is predictable. It changes when your business changes, not when you have a bad month. If you hire two people in March, two users are added. If you retire a server in the fall, a device comes off.
Why we do not publish a rate card
We get asked for one, and we understand why. We do not publish one because two twenty-person businesses can have completely different environments. One runs entirely in Microsoft 365 on laptops. The other has a Windows Server, a practice-management database, a legacy application that needs babysitting, and a network closet nobody has opened since the last tenant. A rate card that was fair to the first would be wrong for the second.
What we promise instead is that the pricing is itemized, that it is quoted only after we have seen your systems, and that there are no surprise hourly invoices for covered work. If you are paying someone by the hour today, bring the last twelve months of invoices to the assessment. The comparison is usually straightforward.
What the monthly fee covers
Every plan is scoped to the business, but the core of the service is the same whether you are a three-person law office in Duxbury or a forty-person contractor in Carver. Month to month, the fee covers:
- Monitoring and alerting on every managed workstation and server: disk health, failed backups, missing patches, offline status, and security events.
- Unlimited helpdesk for your staff. Password resets, Outlook problems, printer setup, and software installs are covered without a per-incident bill.
- Patch management for Windows, macOS, and common third-party applications, scheduled outside working hours.
- Server and network management: Windows Server, file shares, Active Directory or Entra ID, firewalls, switches, and Wi-Fi, configured and documented.
- Endpoint protection and an email security baseline: managed antivirus/EDR, MFA on email, and spam and phishing filtering as part of the standard plan, not an upsell.
- Backup monitoring of servers and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace data, with restores tested on a schedule.
- Onboarding and offboarding: a new hire's laptop, email, MFA, and shared drives ready before they arrive; access revoked the same day someone leaves.
- Vendor management: we deal with your internet provider, phone vendor, and software support lines so you are not on hold.
- On-site visits when remote is not enough. Because the office is on Samoset St in Plymouth, a technician driving to Kingston, Duxbury, Pembroke, or Marshfield is a drive, not a scheduling event.
- Documentation and periodic reviews: an up-to-date inventory, network map, credential vault, and licensing record, plus a sit-down to review what broke and what to budget for.
If a provider's quote is noticeably cheaper than another, this list is where to look. Monitoring without patching, or a helpdesk that bills after the first hour, is a different product at a different price.
What is always quoted separately
Three things are never buried in the monthly fee, and you should be suspicious of any agreement where they are:
- Hardware. New workstations, a replacement firewall, a switch, a server: quoted at clear, itemized pricing and approved by you before anything is ordered. We only recommend what the business actually needs.
- Project work. An office move, a new location, a Microsoft 365 migration, a structured cabling run to a new suite, or a security camera install is scoped and priced as a project with its own approval.
- Deeper security and compliance work. The baseline (EDR, MFA, email filtering, backup monitoring) is in the plan. A full cybersecurity program, or the written policies and controls that HIPAA, PCI DSS, CMMC, or the Massachusetts WISP rule require, is priced per user or per device on top, with one-time remediation quoted as a project. We will tell you plainly when you need it and when you do not.
The five things that move the price up or down
When two South Shore businesses of the same headcount get different quotes from us, it is almost always one of these:
- A server on site. Servers need image backups, more monitoring, and more hands. A business that has moved everything to the cloud has a shorter device list.
- Line-of-business applications. A practice-management system, a job-costing package, or a point of sale means coordinating with the vendor's support team when problems cross into their product. That coordination is part of the job, and it takes time.
- Compliance obligations. Medical and dental practices, firms that hold Social Security or financial account numbers, defense suppliers, and anyone taking card payments carry written-policy and control requirements that a landscaping company does not. See our IT compliance services page for what each framework asks.
- How many locations and how far apart. A single office in Plymouth and a shop in Wareham ten miles away are easy. A second location on the Cape or up the Route 3 corridor is still covered by the same agreement, but on-site visits are scheduled from Plymouth and the device list grows with the second network.
- The state of things on day one. If the assessment finds no backups, no MFA, a firewall out of support, and a dozen machines two years behind on patches, there is remediation to do before the monthly fee makes sense. That work is quoted as a one-time project, not folded into a higher recurring price.
How to compare managed IT quotes on the South Shore
A low monthly number is easy to produce by leaving things out. When you compare proposals, line them up on the same questions:
- Is helpdesk unlimited, or does it bill after a set number of hours or tickets?
- Are patching, endpoint protection, MFA, and backup monitoring included, or listed as add-ons?
- Is after-hours coverage defined? Our managed clients have an emergency line for genuine outages outside business hours, and monitoring alerts us to server and network failures automatically.
- Who shows up when something needs hands, and where are they driving from? A provider based in Plymouth reaches Kingston, Duxbury, Plympton, Carver, Halifax, Pembroke, Marshfield, Norwell, Hanover, Scituate, and Wareham in the same morning. A provider dispatching from Boston or from another state cannot.
- What is the term, and what is the written scope? You should leave the assessment with both before deciding anything.
- Will you be talking to the same people in six months? We keep the team small on purpose.
One of our HVAC clients put it this way in a Google review: "Customer service is A+++ Always available when I need them. They handle all our IT, cameras, and networking. Couldn't run my business without them." That is the standard the price is buying.
What the process looks like
Getting to a number follows the same steps every time: a fifteen-minute call about how many people and devices you have and what has been going wrong; a free on-site assessment where a technician inventories the equipment, checks the network closet, and reviews backups and security settings; a written proposal listing exactly which devices, users, and systems are covered and what is out of scope; onboarding; then ongoing support with one number to call. You get the assessment findings in plain English whether or not you hire us.
If managed IT is more than your business needs, we will say so. A three-person shop that only needs occasional help may be better served by our hourly computer repair service. Our break-fix vs. managed IT guide walks through that trade-off.
Frequently asked questions
Is the monthly fee really flat, or are there surprises? Covered work is covered. The fee changes only when the count of users or devices changes. Hardware, project work, and deeper security or compliance work are quoted separately and approved before we start, so nothing shows up on an invoice that you did not agree to.
How small a business will you take on? From a handful of users up to several dozen. Most of our managed clients have between five and seventy-five employees and no full-time IT person. If you have three people and a Microsoft 365 tenant, the plan can be small and simple.
Do you charge more for businesses outside Plymouth? No. The same flat-rate agreement covers Kingston, Duxbury, Marshfield, Hanover, and the rest of the South Shore, the Route 3 and I-93 corridor into Boston, and Cape Cod. Monitoring and helpdesk work the same anywhere; on-site visits are scheduled from Plymouth.
Does the fee include backup? Backup monitoring and restore testing of existing backups are part of every plan. If the assessment finds you have no backup worth the name, we design one, and it is priced per server, per workstation, or per Microsoft 365 user plus storage, as described on our backup and disaster recovery page. Our post on Microsoft 365 backup gaps explains why cloud email and files need their own copy.
Ready for a number instead of a model? Book a free on-site assessment or call (508) 617-1310 and we will come look.
Written by Chris Kolacz, founder of Power Up Boston. Chris started the company in Plymouth in 2009 and still does on-site work across the South Shore.