This is one of those decisions that keeps coming back. Every time something goes wrong with your IT, you wonder if the other option would be better. The truth is neither outsourced nor in-house IT is universally better. It depends on your size, your industry, and what you actually need.
Here is an honest breakdown of both, including the middle ground that a lot of people overlook.
When in-house makes sense
There are genuine situations where having your own IT person or team is the right call.
If you have 50 or more users, the volume of day-to-day support requests usually justifies having someone on site full time. At that scale, there is always something that needs attention, and the response time of having someone down the corridor is hard to beat.
If you are in a heavily regulated industry with specific compliance requirements, having someone who lives and breathes your compliance framework can be valuable. They understand the nuances, they attend the audits, they know the regulators' expectations inside out.
If your business is development-heavy, meaning you build software or rely on custom applications, you probably need people who understand your specific technology stack deeply. A general MSP is not going to manage your CI/CD pipeline or debug your production environment.
And if you have complex on-site infrastructure, like manufacturing systems, lab equipment, or specialist hardware that needs hands-on attention regularly, having someone physically present makes practical sense.
When outsourced makes sense
For most small to mid-sized businesses in Somerset, outsourced IT is the more practical choice. Here is why.
If you have fewer than 50 users, there usually is not enough work to keep a full-time IT person busy all day, every day. You end up paying a full salary for someone who spends a chunk of their time waiting for something to break. With an MSP, you are sharing that cost across their client base.
If your IT needs are fairly standard, things like Microsoft 365, some cloud apps, laptops, networking, and general security, an outsourced provider has seen your setup hundreds of times. They have established processes and know the common problems and fixes.
If you worry about cover during holidays and sick days, outsourced solves this automatically. An MSP has a team. If one engineer is off, another picks up. You never have that Monday morning panic of realising your IT person is on annual leave and the server is down.
And if you want monitoring outside of office hours, most MSPs include 24/7 monitoring as standard. An in-house person clocks off at 5:30. An MSP's monitoring tools do not.
The co-managed middle ground
This is the option that does not get talked about enough. You have one IT person in-house, and an MSP handles everything that person cannot or should not be doing alone.
Your internal person handles the daily requests, knows the team, understands the quirks of your business, and is there when someone needs a hand with something quickly. The MSP handles the backend: monitoring, security, patching, backup, escalation for complex issues, and cover when your person is away.
This works well for businesses in the 30 to 80 user range. You get the personal touch of having someone in the building combined with the depth and resilience of a managed service. It also solves the documentation problem. The MSP maintains records of your setup, so if your internal person leaves, you are not starting from scratch.
It is not the cheapest option, since you are paying both a salary and a managed service fee. But for businesses that need both on-site presence and robust IT infrastructure, it is often the best balance.
The real cost comparison
People often compare a managed service fee to a salary and think in-house is cheaper. But the full cost of an in-house IT person goes well beyond their take-home pay.
In-house IT manager costs:
- Salary: £40,000 to £55,000 depending on experience and location
- Employer National Insurance: roughly 13.8% on top of salary
- Pension contributions: minimum 3% but often 5% or more
- Training and certifications: £1,000 to £3,000 per year to keep skills current
- Tools and software: monitoring tools, remote access, ticketing system, security tools, often £2,000 to £5,000 per year
- No cover during holidays, sickness, or after hours
All in, you are looking at £55,000 to £75,000 per year for one person, with no redundancy.
Outsourced managed IT costs:
- Typically £30 to £80 per user per month, depending on scope
- For 30 users: roughly £10,800 to £28,800 per year
- Includes a team of engineers, monitoring tools, and holiday/sickness cover
- On-site visits and project work may be extra
The numbers usually favour outsourced until you hit a size where you need multiple IT staff anyway.
What you lose with outsourcing
It is not all upside. There are genuine trade-offs.
The biggest one is familiarity. An in-house person knows that Janet in accounts always forgets her password on Mondays, that the boardroom projector needs a specific HDMI cable, and that the warehouse Wi-Fi drops out when it rains because of that dodgy cable run. An external provider learns these things over time, but it takes a while.
You also lose immediacy for physical tasks. If a monitor dies or a network cable needs running, an MSP has to schedule a visit. An in-house person just walks over.
And there is the relationship factor. Some people prefer having a known face they can walk up to and ask a question. Remote support via phone or screen sharing is efficient, but it is not the same.
What you gain with outsourcing
A broader skill set is the main one. One person cannot be an expert in networking, security, cloud infrastructure, Microsoft 365 administration, and desktop support. An MSP has specialists across all of these. When you hit a complex problem, it gets escalated to someone with deep expertise in that area.
Holiday and sickness cover is built in. You never have a gap in IT support because one person is off.
24/7 monitoring means problems are often caught and resolved before anyone in your office even notices. A server running low on disk space at 2am gets flagged and dealt with before it causes issues at 9am.
Vendor relationships are another underrated benefit. MSPs deal with Microsoft, Dell, HP, Datto, SonicWall, and dozens of other vendors every day. They know how to navigate support channels, they often get priority treatment, and they know which products actually work well together.
Making the decision
For most Somerset businesses under 50 users, outsourced IT is the practical choice. The maths works, you get better coverage, and you avoid the single-point-of-failure risk of relying on one person.
If you are over 50 users or have very specific technical needs, consider the co-managed model before going fully in-house. You get the best of both without the downsides of either.
Whatever you choose, the worst option is doing nothing and hoping things hold together. That is how you end up losing a week to a ransomware attack or a failed server with no backup. Sort out your IT support one way or another. The specific model matters less than actually having one in place.