What IT support actually costs in Hamilton

Most small business owners in Hamilton find out what IT costs the first time something breaks, which is the worst possible way to learn.

Here is the honest version, from someone who prices this work every week.

The three models

Break-fix. You call when something dies, you pay by the hour. Typical rates in the Hamilton area run roughly $100 to $160 per hour for on-site work. Cheap until it is not: a failed server or a ransomware scare can burn through thousands in a week, and every hour billed is an hour someone had to spend explaining a problem instead of running the business.

Per-user managed plans. A flat monthly rate per computer or per user, usually $50 to $150 per user depending on what is covered. At the low end you get monitoring, patching, and remote helpdesk. At the high end you get on-site time, hardware management, and vendor wrangling included. For a 20 person office that is $1,000 to $3,000 a month, which sounds like a lot until you price out one unplanned outage.

Hybrid. Project work (a cabling job, a server replacement, a Microsoft 365 migration) billed at fixed scope, plus a smaller retainer for the day to day stuff. Most growing businesses land here.

What actually drives the price

Not the number of computers. The real drivers are age of the gear, how many one-off systems the business depends on, whether backups have ever been tested, and how much of the setup is documented. Two offices with identical headcounts can be $400 a month apart for exactly that reason.

How to compare quotes properly

Ask every provider the same three questions:

1. What is the response time for a down server, in writing?
2. Are restores tested, and how often?
3. What is not covered, specifically?

Anyone who will not put those answers in writing is selling hope. Anyone who will is worth talking to.

The best time to price this is before the emergency. The second best time is now.