Managed IT support vs in-house: the honest cost comparison

The number on the job ad is not the cost

A mid-level IT engineer in the UK costs £35–45k in salary. Add employer NI, pension, equipment, training, certifications and tooling licences, and the real figure is closer to £50–60k a year — for one person, who takes holidays and gets sick.

What the same budget buys as a managed service

• A team, not a person — helpdesk, monitoring, and senior escalation
• 24/7 cover instead of 9-to-5 with gaps
• Tooling included — RMM, documentation, ticketing
• No recruitment risk, no notice periods, no single point of failure

When in-house genuinely wins

If you have 100+ staff, specialist on-premise equipment, or IT work that fills every hour of every day, an internal hire starts to make sense — often alongside a managed partner for out-of-hours cover.

For most SMEs under that line, managed support delivers broader cover for less money. Aura's managed IT support is priced per user, in writing, before anything starts.