IT Support Cost for Small Business | Repair Forge IT
What small business IT support costs: market rates, our flat-price fixes and fixed quotes. The cost of IT support in Houston, with no long contract.
Straight numbers where we have them: what small businesses are typically quoted, the fixes we sell at a published flat price, and how we price everything else, with no hourly meter and no long contract.
Market guides in 2026 put IT help by the hour at about $75 to $250, and a full managed IT plan at about $100 to $250 per person per month. Those are national ranges, and they vary with team size, how much needs someone on-site, and what the plan actually includes.
At Repair Forge IT, common fixes have a published flat price, and everything else gets a fixed quote after a free first call. You know the total before any work starts.
What drives the cost
Two offices the same size can get very different IT support pricing. Most of the difference comes down to a handful of things:
How many people and devices need looking after.
How much of the work needs someone on-site, and how far away the site is.
How old or tangled the current setup is, and whether anything is written down.
Whether you need after-hours or emergency cover.
Who owns the admin accounts and licenses. If a provider holds them, leaving costs extra.
Whether hardware and software come with a markup.
What small businesses are quoted
What
Market range
Notes
IT help by the hour (break-fix)
$75–$250 an hour
Most quotes land around $75–$150. Emergency call-outs can reach $300 an hour or more.
Managed IT plan, per person
$100–$250 per user a month
A monthly plan covering help desk, security and updates. For 20 people that is roughly $2,000–$5,000 a month.
An in-house IT employee
$8,000–$12,000+ a month
Salary, benefits and tools for one full-time person.
After-hours work
1.5× to 2× the normal rate
A common rule in IT service agreements for work outside business hours.
These are market ranges from national guides, not our prices and not quotes. Checked in October 2026.
Our flat-price fixes
Email Deliverability Fix: $299. Quotes and invoices that land in spam, fixed. We set up the records that prove your mail is yours and re-test until it reaches the inbox.
Backup Reality Check: $299. Find out whether your backup works before you need it. We restore a file and an email from it, time it, and write down what happened.
Keys Back: Domain & Account Custody: $399. Your domain, DNS, website hosting and email admin, moved into accounts you own, with one page that says where every key is.
Ex-Employee Access Lockdown: $499. Someone left and you don’t know what they can still get into. We find every account, shut off what shouldn’t be there, and lock the rest.
Small Office Security Setup: from $950. The security basics a small office needs, set up at a published price with no monthly contract.
Backup Internet for Card Machines: $349. When the internet drops, your card machines and phones keep working. We set up cellular, 5G or Starlink backup internet that takes over by itself, then test it by pulling the plug.
New-Hire Computer Setup: $195 per device. A new hire’s computer, ready on day one: updated, encrypted, signed in to your email and apps, with a one-page first-day sheet.
How we quote everything else
Projects, AI builds, web apps and SaaS products, server room and data center work, and migrations to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace are all quoted, because the details change the price too much for one number to be honest. We don’t publish an hourly rate, and we don’t run a meter.
A free first call to understand what you need.
A written scope that says what we will do and what we won’t.
A fixed quote, agreed before any work starts.
Anything outside the scope is quoted and agreed before it starts, too.
If the project needs an on-site visit outside Houston, the travel is built into the quote, not added as a separate line.
After the first project: a monthly retainer, quoted
People searching for what managed IT services cost a small business usually want one monthly number. We don’t publish a plan. Once you’ve worked with us, ongoing support is a monthly retainer, quoted for your business: how many people and devices, what we look after, and how much on-site time you need.
There is no long contract. You keep everything in your own name, so you can stop whenever the work stops being worth it.
What does an IT consultant charge per hour?
The national range for hourly IT work is about $75 to $250 an hour, with emergency work at $300 or more, according to national 2026 pricing guides. What an hourly rate doesn’t tell you is the total: a slower consultant at a lower rate can cost more.
That is why we quote fixed scopes instead. You get the total in writing before work starts, and the hours it takes us don’t change it.
What you keep, whatever you spend
No long contract required.
Admin access, accounts, licenses and warranties stay in your business’s name.
No markup on hardware or software. You buy direct, and we’re vendor-neutral.
Teams under 15 people are welcome, and so are larger businesses.
On-site across the Houston metro, remote across Texas, and on-site elsewhere in Texas by arrangement for larger projects.
Common questions about cost
Why don’t you publish an hourly rate?
Because the hourly rate isn’t what you end up paying, the hours are. Repair Forge IT publishes flat prices for common fixes and gives everything else a fixed quote from a written scope, so you know the total before we start.
Is the first call free?
Yes. The first call is free, and it’s how we work out whether a flat-price fix covers it or the job needs a written scope and a quote.
What does a monthly retainer cost?
It depends on your business, so it’s quoted rather than published. Once you’ve worked with us, we price ongoing support for your team size, your systems and how much on-site time you need. There’s no long contract.
Can the price change once work starts?
Not without your say-so. The quote covers the written scope. If something outside it comes up, we quote it and you agree to it before we do it.
Do you mark up hardware or software?
No. You buy direct from the vendor, licenses are billed to you, and warranties are registered to your business. We’re vendor-neutral, so we recommend what fits, not what pays us.
Does it cost more outside Houston?
Remote work is the same anywhere in Texas. When a larger project needs an on-site visit outside the Houston metro, the travel is built into the written quote, not added as a separate line.