An in-house IT team costs more than its salaries. In the US, the median network and computer systems administrator earned $99,130 in May 2025, and benefits make up 30 per cent of private-sector employer compensation costs, so one administrator's fully loaded cost is roughly $140,000 a year before tools, training, cover and turnover. A remote managed IT partner replaces most of those fixed costs with a recurring fee, but gives up some day-to-day control, so the right answer depends on your size, hours and on-site needs.
Key takeaways
- •Salary is the starting point, not the total. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports a median of $99,130 for network and computer systems administrators and $62,890 for computer support specialists (May 2025).
- •Benefits add a large share. BLS data for June 2026 shows benefits at 30.0 per cent of total compensation costs for private industry workers.
- •One employee cannot cover every hour. A 40-hour week is about 2,080 hours a year, against 8,760 hours in a year: under a quarter of the clock, before leave and sickness.
- •Replacing staff costs time. SHRM's 2025 benchmarking found a median time-to-fill of about a month and a half and a non-executive cost-per-hire of $1,200, excluding the lost productivity during the gap.
- •The downside risk is large. IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 puts the global average cost of a breach at $4.99 million.
What you are comparing
In-house IT means employing your own staff to run devices, accounts, networks, cloud services and security. You buy their tools, manage their time and replace them when they leave.
A remote managed IT partner (a managed service provider, or MSP) runs those functions under contract, mostly from outside your premises. You pay a recurring fee, often per user or per device, and the provider supplies people, tools and processes.
Many organisations end up with a mix. The comparison below is meant to help you decide where the line should sit.
Total cost of ownership: the in-house side
1. Salaries
Salary data should come from a named, dated source. In the US, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook gives median annual wages for May 2025:
Outside the US, local guides should be used. For example, the Guildhall Dubai Salary Guide 2026 puts a typical network engineer at AED 16,500 a month and a typical IT manager at AED 43,000 a month in fixed package for large local groups and multinationals. Pay varies widely by country and city, so treat any single figure as a benchmark for that market only.
2. Benefits and employer costs
The BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026 reports that private industry employers spent an average of $46.89 per hour worked, of which wages were $32.82 (70.0 per cent) and benefits $14.07 (30.0 per cent). Benefits include paid leave, insurance, retirement contributions and legally required payments.
If benefits are 30 per cent of total compensation, total compensation is roughly the salary divided by 0.70. Applied to the BLS medians, as an illustration:
| Role | Median wage | Illustrative total compensation (wage ÷ 0.70) |
|---|---|---|
| Systems administrator | $99,130 | about $141,600 |
| Computer support specialist | $62,890 | about $89,800 |
| Both roles together | $162,020 | about $231,500 |
This is an average-based estimate. Actual benefits depend on the employer, the plan and the location.
3. Tools and licences
An IT team needs software to do its job. Typical categories include:
- •Remote monitoring and management (RMM) and remote access tools.
- •Endpoint protection or endpoint detection and response (EDR).
- •Backup and recovery software and storage.
- •A ticketing or service desk system.
- •Password management and identity tools.
- •Vulnerability scanning and logging.
Prices vary by vendor and seat count. With an MSP, many of these are included in the service fee; in-house, each is a separate contract to buy, configure and renew.
4. Training and certification
Technology changes quickly, and staff need time and budget to keep up with cloud platforms, security tools and vendor certifications. That is both a direct cost and time away from operational work.
5. Coverage gaps
This factor is often left out of in-house budgets.
| Coverage requirement | Hours per year | Full-time staff needed (at 2,080 hours each, before leave) |
|---|---|---|
| Business hours, 5 days a week (8 hours) | 2,080 | 1.0 |
| Extended hours, 5 days a week (12 hours) | 3,120 | 1.5 |
| 24 hours a day, 7 days a week | 8,760 | 4.2 |
These figures ignore holidays, sickness and training, all of which increase the number needed. A single IT employee also creates a single point of failure: when they are on leave, or when they resign, knowledge and access can leave with them.
An external partner absorbs these gaps in its rota. That does not mean every MSP offers 24/7 cover; it means the hours you need are a contract term rather than a hiring problem.
6. Turnover and vacancy
When an IT employee leaves, the business pays twice: once to recruit, and again in work that does not get done while the role is open. SHRM's 2025 Recruiting Benchmarking report found:
- •A non-executive cost-per-hire of $1,200 in 2025.
- •A median time-to-fill of about a month and a half for both executive and non-executive roles.
- •Extra-large organisations took 61 days to fill non-executive roles.
Cost-per-hire covers recruiting costs only. It does not include the onboarding period, the overtime others work during the vacancy, or the risk of undocumented systems.
7. Security exposure
Security is not a separate line item in most small IT budgets, but it is where losses can be severe. The IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 puts the global average cost of a data breach at $4.99 million. That average is weighted towards larger organisations, but the underlying point applies at any size: consistent patching, monitoring, backups and access control cost far less than recovery. Our cybersecurity page outlines what a baseline programme includes.
Total cost of ownership: the managed partner side
An MSP's cost is mostly a recurring fee. When you compare quotes, check what the fee includes:
| Cost element | Usually in the MSP fee? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Helpdesk and remote support | Yes | Check hours, languages and response targets |
| Monitoring and patching | Yes | Ask for monthly patch-compliance reports |
| Security tooling (EDR, email filtering) | Often | Sometimes an add-on per user |
| Backup software and storage | Often | Storage may be billed by volume |
| On-site visits | Varies | Often charged per visit or by the hour |
| Projects (migrations, new offices) | Usually extra | Quoted separately |
| Hardware and licences (e.g. Microsoft 365) | Usually extra | Passed through or bought directly |
| Strategy and budgeting reviews | Varies | Ask how often reviews are held |
Many MSPs do not publish list prices, because fees depend on user count, devices, locations and the level of security required. Ask at least two providers for written quotes on the same scope and compare them against your in-house total, not your salary line.
There are costs on this side too:
- •Onboarding effort to document systems and hand over access.
- •Less day-to-day familiarity, at least at the start.
- •Dependence on one provider, which makes clear exit terms important.
- •Response time for physical issues if the provider is remote.
An illustration: two in-house roles versus the same scope outsourced
To show how the pieces add up, take a hypothetical US company that wants business-hours support plus someone responsible for servers, networks and cloud accounts. Built only from the published figures above, the in-house side looks like this:
| Line item | Basis | Annual figure |
|---|---|---|
| Systems administrator, total compensation | BLS median wage ÷ 0.70 | about $141,600 |
| Support specialist, total compensation | BLS median wage ÷ 0.70 | about $89,800 |
| Recruitment, if one role turns over in the year | SHRM non-executive cost-per-hire | $1,200 |
| Tools, licences and training | Vendor-specific | Add your own quotes |
| Out-of-hours and holiday cover | Not covered by two business-hours staff | Gap, or extra cost |
The known figures already come to roughly $232,600 a year, and that still leaves tools, training and out-of-hours cover unpriced. It also buys about 4,160 working hours a year, against 8,760 hours in the year.
The outsourced column cannot be filled in from published data, because MSP fees depend on scope. That is the point of the exercise: once you have the in-house total, you can ask providers to quote against the same list of duties, hours and service levels, and compare like with like.
Labour market context
Hiring conditions also affect the in-house option. The BLS projects employment of network and computer systems administrators to decline 4 per cent from 2025 to 2035, while still expecting about 13,400 openings a year as people retire or change occupations. In practice, that means experienced administrators are still being recruited and replaced every year, and an employer competing for them should plan for vacancies rather than assume continuity.
Decision table
Use the table to see which model your situation points towards. Most organisations will find a mix of answers, which usually points to a hybrid.
| Your situation | Leans in-house | Leans managed partner | Common hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small organisation, mostly cloud services | ✓ | ||
| Large organisation with complex on-site systems | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Need 24/7 monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Specialised equipment needing daily hands-on work | ✓ | ||
| Strict regulatory evidence requirements | ✓ (if the provider can produce evidence) | ✓ | |
| IT is part of your product | ✓ | ||
| High staff turnover in IT roles | ✓ | ||
| Staff spread across several locations or remote | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Desire for tight control of every change | ✓ | ✓ |
A common hybrid is an internal IT lead, who knows the business and owns priorities and vendors, supported by an external partner for helpdesk, monitoring, security operations and out-of-hours work.
A simple way to run your own numbers
- •List every IT role you would need, including cover for leave and the hours you require.
- •Price each role using a named salary source for your market (BLS in the US, a published recruiter guide elsewhere).
- •Add benefits and employer costs; in the US, the BLS figure of 30 per cent of total compensation is a reasonable starting assumption.
- •Add tools, training and recruitment, including an allowance for turnover.
- •Get written MSP quotes on the same scope and service levels.
- •Compare risk, not just cost: coverage gaps, single points of failure and security exposure.
- •Review annually, because both salaries and service fees change.
For more on how a managed arrangement is usually structured, see our managed IT services page, and for cloud-heavy environments, the cloud and DevOps overview.
Sources
- •US Bureau of Labor Statistics – Network and Computer Systems Administrators, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- •US Bureau of Labor Statistics – Computer Support Specialists, Occupational Outlook Handbook
- •US Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (released 9 September 2026)
- •SHRM – 2025 Recruiting Benchmarking Report
- •IBM – Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026
- •Guildhall – Dubai Salary Guide 2026
If you are weighing this decision for a Gulf-based business, our UAE and Saudi Arabia pages cover the local context.