Break-fix IT means you call someone when something breaks and pay by the hour. Managed IT means you pay a flat monthly fee for a provider to keep things from breaking: monitoring, patching, security, backups and support are all included. For most businesses with more than a handful of computers, client data worth protecting, or any compliance obligation, managed IT costs less over a year and removes the risks that hourly support leaves open.
What break-fix actually is
Break-fix is the default most small businesses start with. A local technician set up the network years ago. When a computer dies or email stops working, somebody calls, the technician comes when they can, and an invoice arrives for the hours. Nothing happens between calls.
It feels cheap because you only pay when something is wrong. The problems are what happens between visits:
- Nobody is patching the computers, so known security holes stay open for months.
- Nobody is checking that the backup actually ran, let alone that it can be restored.
- Nobody is watching for an attacker who already has a foothold.
- The technician's incentive is backwards: they earn more when your systems are unreliable.
- When the technician is on vacation, sick or retiring, you have no one.
What managed IT actually is
Managed IT is a flat monthly agreement in which the provider takes responsibility for the whole environment. In practice that means:
- A help desk your staff can call, email or message, that knows your office.
- Monitoring software on every computer and server, so problems are seen early.
- Scheduled patching of operating systems and applications.
- Security tooling: endpoint detection and response, multi-factor authentication, email protection, and in our case a 24x7 security operations center watching the alerts.
- Backups that are monitored and tested on a schedule, with written recovery times.
- Administration of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- Network, Wi-Fi and firewall management.
- Regular planning conversations so purchases are budgeted rather than emergencies.
The provider earns the same whether you call once or fifty times, so the incentive is to prevent problems.
When break-fix still makes sense
Honesty matters here. Break-fix can be fine if you have one or two computers, no server, no client data you are legally required to protect, and no tolerance problem with a day or two of downtime. A solo consultant with a laptop and a cloud email account probably does not need a managed agreement.
When managed IT becomes the better deal
The crossover usually arrives when any of these is true:
- You have roughly five or more computers. Patching and monitoring by hand stops happening, and one unpatched machine is enough.
- You hold data someone else would want. Client files, patient records, tax returns, closing documents, policy applications. The question is no longer "will something break" but "will someone get in."
- You have a compliance obligation. HIPAA, the FTC Safeguards Rule, ALTA Best Practices or a cyber insurance application that asks about MFA, EDR and tested backups.
- Downtime costs real money. A clinic with a full waiting room, a CPA firm in April, a title company on closing day.
- One person holds all the knowledge. If your IT depends on a single technician's memory, you have a single point of failure.
What switching looks like
Switching to managed IT is not a rip-and-replace. A good provider starts by documenting what you have, deploys monitoring and security tools, cleans up accounts and access, fixes the urgent problems found along the way, and introduces your staff to the help desk. Most of that happens remotely, with on-site visits scheduled around your business. Replacements of old equipment are planned into a budget rather than forced on day one.
How to compare the cost honestly
Add up what break-fix actually cost you last year: the invoices, plus the staff time lost waiting, plus the cost of any incident. Then ask what was not done at all: patching, backup testing, security monitoring, training. A managed agreement puts a monthly price on doing those things. For a 10 to 20 person professional office, that number is usually lower than the owner expects, and it is predictable.
If you want a number for your own business, a free 30-minute assessment produces written findings and, if it makes sense, a flat-rate quote with everything listed.