Managed IT vs In-House IT: True Cost Comparison for Houston Businesses

Houston businesses deciding between managed IT services and an in-house IT hire consistently underestimate the true cost of in-house IT. The “visible” cost of managed IT — the monthly fee — is easily compared to the “visible” cost of an employee — their salary. But true cost comparison requires accounting for everything an employee costs beyond salary and everything a managed IT team provides beyond basic support.

The True Cost of an In-House IT Hire

The true cost of a Houston IT employee earning $75,000 base salary: base salary $75,000, employer payroll taxes 7.65% = $5,738, health insurance $7,200-$12,000, retirement contribution $2,250-$4,500, paid time off (15 days = $4,327), recruiting and onboarding $5,000-$15,000 amortized. Total year one cost: $99,000-$116,000+. And this one employee cannot have expertise in networking, server management, Microsoft 365, cybersecurity, compliance, and strategic IT planning simultaneously.

What a Single IT Employee Cannot Provide

A single Houston IT employee — no matter how talented — has inherent limitations: single point of failure (when they are sick, on vacation, or resign, you have no coverage), limited expertise breadth (no one person is simultaneously expert in networking, cloud, cybersecurity, compliance, backup, EHR support, and telephony), limited vendor relationships (can’t negotiate the same discounts as an MSP), and no economies of scale in tooling (monitoring, security, backup tools are very expensive for one organization).

What SpaceTown IT Managed IT Provides

SpaceTown IT managed IT for a 25-50 employee Houston business typically costs $2,500-$5,500/month ($30,000-$66,000/year). This includes: dedicated account team with multiple engineers, 24/7 monitoring and alerting, helpdesk with SLA-backed response times, full security stack (EDR, email security, backup), patch management, strategic IT planning, vendor management, and compliance support. The team brings 8+ specializations that no single employee can cover.

When In-House IT Makes Sense

In-house IT makes sense for Houston businesses above approximately 150-200 employees who need dedicated on-site presence, or companies with highly specialized technology environments requiring full-time dedicated expertise. For most Houston businesses under 150 employees, managed IT delivers better coverage at lower total cost than a comparable in-house team.

Get a Managed IT ROI Analysis

SpaceTown IT provides free cost comparison analysis for Houston businesses evaluating managed IT. See our managed IT ROI and managed IT services. Call (832) 304-9748.