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Managed IT Support Adelaide - Priced in the Open, No Lock-In
Most managed IT proposals arrive as one number with a three-year term attached to it. This one is built the other way around: three published components you assemble yourself. Labour at $180/hr ex GST, an optional per-endpoint security baseline with no monthly minimum, and device management quoted to the size of your fleet. One senior engineer takes ownership of the environment - patching on a schedule, the security baseline maintained, faults handled by the person who picks up the phone. Month to month throughout, and no 36-month term anywhere. If you are assembling a budget, our guides cover how managed IT services are priced and what a virtual CIO adds beyond day-to-day support.
- $180/hr ex GST, all labour
- $29.95/endpoint/mo optional baseline
- Month-to-month, 30 days notice
Three published parts, assembled to suit you
Ask most Adelaide providers what managed IT costs and you get a contact form. The numbers below are the numbers. Labour is always hourly; the security baseline and device management sit alongside it as options, not obligations. Every figure is ex GST. For what an hour of that labour actually buys, read the IT support pricing guide.
Labour · Hourly
Ad-Hoc Support
Every hands-on job, without exception. Billed with a one-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments. No contract, no ongoing commitment, no fixed-fee alternative — this is the only rate labour is ever charged at.
$180/hour
ex GST, billed in AUD per hour of work. No lock-in, nothing to cancel.
- Support, fixes, projects and advice
- Configuration and remediation work
- Often the cheapest option for small teams
Optional · Per endpoint
Security Baseline
Managed endpoint security, entirely optional. Priced per endpoint with no monthly minimum. Tooling only; human time is never included in it.
$29.95/endpoint/mo
ex GST, billed monthly in AUD. No minimum. Full detail on the Managed Security Essentials page.
- Secure remote support platform + managed endpoint platform
- Bitdefender-powered AV + patching automation
- No hands-on labour — human time billed at $180/hr
Optional · MDM
Device Management
Device management across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, quoted against the fleet you actually run.
Custom
Quoted per device, ex GST. Pick the platforms you need; standalone or with the baseline.
- Enrolment, configuration profiles and policy
- Windows, macOS, iOS and/or Android
- Compliance and a streamlined OS environment
Take what fits. Ad-hoc support at $180/hr ex GST on its own is a perfectly reasonable answer. Add the security baseline, add device management, or take all three. Quoted separately and never folded in quietly: EDR and XDR add-ons, cloud backup, hardware, and specialist projects such as websites, networking, audits and migrations — labour at $180/hr plus any product cost, in writing before anything starts.
Three situations we walk into repeatedly
Owners who go looking for managed IT support usually arrive describing one of the following. None of them are unusual, and none of them reflect badly on the business. The wider list is written up in 7 IT mistakes we keep finding in small-business offices.
A patchwork nobody owns
Microsoft 365 configured by whoever happened to be available, antivirus from one supplier, backup from another, multi-factor authentication rolled out to about half the staff, devices unmanaged entirely. When something fails there is no documentation and no one whose job it was.
Support that only exists once you call
The arrangement works until it does not. Patches go unapplied, licences renew quietly whether or not anyone still uses them, a new starter waits a week for a working desk, and nobody has ever tried restoring the backup. The gap stays invisible right up to the day it is not.
A three-year term and a ticket queue
The larger providers want thirty-six months signed, a substantial onboarding fee paid, and a helpdesk sitting between you and anyone who can actually change a setting. You become an account number, and leaving is made deliberately awkward.
Built around your environment, not a product tier
There is no bundled retainer to buy into. Three published components, combined however your environment and workflow warrant, with specialist project work quoted separately on top.
$180/hr ex GST — all labour
Ad-Hoc Support
- Every hands-on job — support, fixes, projects, configuration — billed at $180/hr ex GST
- One-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments — no contract, no ongoing commitment, no fixed-fee labour plan
- This is the only way labour is charged — the security baseline includes none
- Often the cheapest option for small teams that only need occasional help
$29.95/endpoint/mo — optional, no minimum
Security Baseline
- Secure remote support platform, managed endpoint platform, Bitdefender-powered antivirus, patching automation
- $29.95 per endpoint per month ex GST — no monthly minimum
- Includes no hands-on labour — any human time is billed at $180/hr ex GST
- Full detail on the Managed Security Essentials page
Custom — quoted per device
Device Management (MDM)
- Mobile device management for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android — pick the platforms you need
- Enrolment, configuration profiles, policy and compliance to streamline the OS environment
- Custom pricing, quoted per device — sized to your fleet
- Standalone or alongside the security baseline — your choice
Specialist services — scoped and quoted as projects
Available on top of any of the above, delivered as quoted projects (labour at $180/hr ex GST plus any product costs). Need direction rather than hands-on work? Our virtual CIO service covers IT roadmaps, budgeting and vendor management, and our compliance and risk management work covers what your regulator or insurer checks:
- Cloud backup, scoped per data set
- WordPress web design & hosting — plus custom builds
- Network design, hardening and ongoing management
- Cyber security audits and Essential 8 alignment
- Migrations — Google Workspace → Microsoft 365, on-prem → cloud
The caveats, stated before you ask
- Labour is always $180/hr ex GST. No fixed-fee labour plan exists here, in any form. The $29.95 security baseline covers tooling and nothing else; it includes no hands-on time at all.
- EDR and XDR are priced add-ons rather than defaults. The baseline is Bitdefender-powered antivirus. Behavioural telemetry and threat hunting are added where the risk profile warrants the spend, not automatically.
- No monthly minimum applies to the security baseline. You pay $29.95 ex GST for each endpoint you elect to protect, and nothing beyond that.
- Where ad-hoc at $180/hr genuinely works out cheaper, we will tell you. Small teams with a handful of devices are frequently better off paying as they go, and saying so costs less than the reputation of selling a baseline nobody needed.
What the first month looks like
Three stages, no black box at any of them. You should be able to say what is happening and what it costs at every point.
Step 1
Scoping call (20 minutes)
We count endpoints, review the setup, the devices and the tools already in place, and work out which components are genuinely warranted. If ad-hoc labour on its own is the cheapest sensible answer, that is what you will be told, with nothing riding on the outcome.
Step 2
Onboarding (1–2 weeks)
The environment is documented, the security baseline deployed wherever you have chosen it, devices enrolled into management, and the patch and policy baseline established. Setup labour bills at $180/hr ex GST and is quoted before it begins. Specialist work is scoped on its own.
Step 3
Monthly rhythm
Patching runs to schedule, policies hold, alerts are triaged, and new starters are set up without drama. Once a month you receive a plain summary: what patched, what was blocked, what is due next. Questions about it go straight to the engineer who wrote it.
What holds true on every engagement
- Rates published in advance. $180/hr for labour, $29.95 per endpoint per month for the security baseline, device management quoted per device. No annual true-up, and every project priced before it starts.
- One engineer across the lot. Devices, security, backup and networking handled by the same person, rather than four suppliers each explaining why it is one of the others.
- You speak to that engineer directly. Aaron is the practice; there is no layer between you and whoever is changing the setting.
- Nothing locks you in. Month to month, thirty days' written notice, done. That leverage sitting with you is the point of the arrangement.
- Add-ons priced line by line. EDR and XDR, cloud backup, blocks of helpdesk time, projects — each quoted separately and in writing before work starts.
One accountable owner, or pay as you go
Ad-hoc support handles an occasional problem perfectly well. What it cannot do is notice the small things accumulating quietly in the background until one of them stops being small. The comparison below is the honest version.
| What you get | Break-fix / ad-hoc only | Support Adelaide managed IT |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns your IT | Nobody — you chase it | One accountable owner who knows your setup |
| When things get done | Only after you notice and call | Proactively, before it becomes your problem |
| Patching & updates | Whenever, if at all | Scheduled and tracked across devices |
| Security posture | Reactive — fixed after an incident | Baseline maintained, gaps closed on a plan |
| Knowing your environment | Re-explained every call | Documented — we already know it |
| Billing | $180/hr, unpredictable spikes | Transparent $180/hr labour + published parts you combine |
| Lock-in | None, but no continuity either | Month-to-month, no lock-in — continuity without the cuffs |
A workable rule of thumb: if you need a hand a few times a year, ad-hoc at $180/hr ex GST is both the right fit and the cheaper one, and we will say so on the call. Once technology starts interrupting the actual running of the business, an accountable owner pays for itself in the problems that never reach you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Direct answers on terms, inclusions, exclusions, and how the three parts fit together.
What does managed IT actually mean here?
Managed IT is the ongoing, deliberate care of the technology your business runs on - patching, monitoring, security and support - carried by one accountable provider rather than assembled from call-outs after the fact. Here that means a senior engineer takes ownership of the environment: devices patched to a schedule, the security baseline held in place, faults dealt with before they interrupt anyone's day. You assemble published components - hourly labour, an optional per-endpoint security baseline, device management - instead of buying into a bundled retainer.
What does managed IT cost in Adelaide?
Labour is $180/hr ex GST, and the optional security baseline is $29.95 per endpoint per month - no fixed-fee labour plan exists, and no monthly minimum applies. Device management is quoted per device against your fleet. The whole arrangement runs month to month with nothing locking you in, and projects are priced in writing beforehand, so the only labour you pay for is labour actually performed.
How long am I committed for?
There isn't one, in the usual sense. The arrangement runs month to month and ends on thirty days' written notice. Most Adelaide providers press for twenty-four to thirty-six months; we would rather you were free to leave the moment the service stops justifying itself. That constraint does more for standards than any contract clause.
What sits outside the baseline?
The $29.95 security baseline covers tooling and nothing else: the secure remote support platform, the managed endpoint platform, Bitdefender-powered antivirus and patching automation. Specifically excluded are:
- Labour. Every hands-on job bills at $180/hr ex GST. No fixed-fee labour plan exists.
- EDR and XDR. Priced add-ons, sitting above the base antivirus rather than inside it.
- Device management. Quoted per device and entirely separate from the baseline.
- Cloud backup. A separate engagement, scoped to whichever data set you want protected.
- Hardware, websites, networking and larger projects. Scoped and quoted as projects, labour at $180/hr plus product cost, before anything begins.
Anything on that list is quoted in writing before a keystroke is spent on it. Invoices should never contain a surprise.
Are we too small for this?
None whatsoever. The security baseline carries no monthly minimum: $29.95 ex GST buys protection for one endpoint, and you pay for exactly the endpoints you nominate. Ad-hoc work has no minimum either beyond the standard one-hour charge. Very small teams needing help occasionally are frequently best served by ad-hoc at $180/hr ex GST on its own, and that is what you will hear on the scoping call.
How long before it is all running?
Where the security baseline or device management is taken up, a small Adelaide business is normally running properly inside one to two weeks:
- Week one: discovery and environment review, security baseline and Bitdefender antivirus deployed, devices enrolled into management, the initial patch and policy baseline set.
- Week two: policies tuned against how you actually work, asset inventory verified against reality, first monthly report produced.
Setup labour bills at $180/hr ex GST and is quoted before it starts. Specialist work such as backup, networking or migrations is scoped on its own. You see the whole process as it happens; nothing is hidden behind a portal.
We have someone internal already. Does that work?
Yes, and it is a common arrangement. Co-managed work leaves your internal person holding day-to-day ownership, the relationships and the business context, while the security baseline, device management, patching and escalation run behind them. Labour bills at $180/hr ex GST as it is used.
Some of the best-fitting engagements look exactly like this. The internal person is not displaced; they are given a proper management console and patch and policy automation to work with.
How does EDR differ from the base antivirus?
The baseline is Bitdefender-powered antivirus: real-time scanning, heuristic detection, web traffic filtering, anti-phishing and ransomware protection. EDR and XDR layer behavioural telemetry and active threat hunting above that.
They are a priced add-on rather than a default inclusion. For most Adelaide small businesses the managed endpoint platform with Bitdefender antivirus is the correctly sized baseline, and pretending otherwise would just cost you money. The detail sits on the Managed Security Essentials page.
Which components do we actually need?
They are not alternatives; they stack. Everybody pays $180/hr ex GST for labour, which is the only labour rate here and has no fixed-fee counterpart. Above that sit the optional $29.95 per endpoint security baseline, with no minimum, and device management quoted per device. One, two or all three.
If occasional ad-hoc help is honestly the whole answer for you, that is what you will be told. The right mix gets worked out on the scoping call, and nothing turns on which way it lands.
Is this security only, or the full picture?
Full IT, with security as one component of it. The per-endpoint baseline, set out on the Managed Security Essentials page, is optional and sits alongside everything else.
Also covered: device management, cloud backup, website hosting and maintenance, network design and hardening, cyber security audits and Essential Eight alignment, and migrations from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 or on-premises to cloud. Each is delivered as a quoted project with labour at $180/hr ex GST.
Worth a twenty-minute conversation?
Take a twenty-minute scoping call. We count the endpoints, look over the setup and devices, say plainly which components are warranted — including the possibility that ad-hoc labour alone is cheaper for you — and send an itemised quote the same week.
Prefer to write? hello@supportadelaide.com.au reaches the same person, answered the same day during business hours, ACST.