At some point, every growing Halifax business hits the same inflection point: we need real IT support. The question that follows — do we hire someone in-house or outsource to a managed services provider? — is one of the most important technology decisions you’ll make.
Both options are legitimate. Both have real advantages. The right answer depends on your business size, your IT complexity, and your growth trajectory. Here’s an honest, numbers-driven comparison.
What Does In-House IT Actually Cost in Halifax?
Let’s start with the real cost of hiring an IT person in Halifax.
Salary
An entry-level IT support technician in Halifax earns $42,000–$58,000/year. A mid-level IT generalist (someone who can handle helpdesk, server administration, and basic networking) is $55,000–$75,000/year. A senior IT person or IT manager who can architect infrastructure, manage security, and lead projects is $80,000–$110,000+/year.
Most small businesses hire a single IT generalist. That means $55,000–$75,000 in salary alone.
Benefits and Employment Overhead
Add CPP contributions (5.95% employer portion), EI contributions (2.21% employer premium factor × employee premiums), group health and dental benefits ($2,000–$5,000/year), and any RRSP matching.
Total employment cost for a $65,000/year IT person: approximately $75,000–$85,000/year including benefits and employer payroll costs.
Equipment and Tools
Your IT person needs tools to do their job:
- Remote management and monitoring (RMM) software: $1,000–$5,000/year
- Ticketing system: $500–$3,000/year
- Security tools (endpoint protection, patch management): $2,000–$8,000/year
- Development environment, laptop, etc.
Add $5,000–$15,000/year in tooling.
Coverage Gaps
A single IT person:
- Gets sick, takes vacation, goes on parental leave
- Has a finite skill set — your generalist may be great at Windows support but has limited cloud infrastructure experience
- Can only be in one place at a time
- Has 8 working hours a day — incidents at 2am are their problem (or they’re not covered)
Realistic total annual cost of one in-house IT person in Halifax: $85,000–$100,000+/year, before the gaps in coverage and skill.
What Does Managed IT Actually Cost?
Managed services pricing in Halifax and Atlantic Canada varies widely based on scope. Rough ranges:
- Basic helpdesk and endpoint management (monitoring, patching, helpdesk tickets): $500–$1,500/month for a 10–25 person company
- Full managed IT (helpdesk, monitoring, server management, security, strategy): $1,500–$5,000/month for a 10–50 person company
- Enterprise-grade managed services with SLAs: $5,000–$20,000+/month
For a 20-person company in Halifax, solid full managed IT runs approximately $2,000–$4,000/month — or $24,000–$48,000/year.
That’s roughly half the cost of one in-house IT person, and you’re getting:
- A team, not a single person (depth of expertise, no single point of failure)
- Broader skill coverage (someone who knows cloud, someone who knows security, someone who knows networking)
- Coverage during vacations, sick days, off-hours
- Formal SLAs with defined response times
- Tools and monitoring infrastructure included
When In-House IT Makes More Sense
Managed services is not always the right answer. In-house IT makes more sense when:
You’re a large organization: If you have 100+ employees with complex, mission-critical IT infrastructure, the economics shift. A team of three IT people is more efficient than paying managed services rates for that level of support.
You have specialized industry requirements: Healthcare organizations running medical imaging systems, financial firms with specific compliance environments, or manufacturers with industrial control systems often benefit from someone deeply embedded in their specific environment.
You need constant on-site presence: If your business has significant physical IT requirements — a large server room, specialized equipment, constant hardware management — on-site presence matters more.
You have regulatory requirements for internal IT: Some regulated industries require employee management of specific systems, not third-party access.
When Managed IT Makes More Sense
Managed services wins clearly when:
You’re a small to mid-size business (5–75 employees): The economics are decisively better. You get more expertise for less money.
Your IT needs are variable: Managed services scales up and down. You’re not paying an employee salary during slow periods.
You can’t afford the coverage gaps: A single IT employee creates significant risk. What happens when they’re on vacation and something breaks?
You want access to broader expertise: Managed services providers have specialists — cloud engineers, security experts, developers — that no single hire could cover.
You’re growing: Adding employees, opening new locations, adding new software — managed services handles the scaling without hiring delays.
The Hybrid Model
Some businesses land on a hybrid approach: a part-time IT coordinator or office manager with IT responsibilities for day-to-day coordination, backed by a managed services provider for technical depth and after-hours support. This works particularly well for 20–60 person companies.
The internal coordinator knows the business, the people, and the day-to-day quirks. The MSP brings the technical depth and coverage.
Making the Decision
Ask yourself:
- How many employees do we have? Under 75 — managed services is almost certainly more cost-effective.
- How complex is our IT environment? More complex means more benefit to specialized managed expertise.
- What are our response time requirements? Critical systems needing 24/7 coverage favor managed services.
- Are we growing? Growing businesses benefit from scalable managed services over fixed-cost hires.
Our managed services are designed specifically for Atlantic Canada SMBs — flat-rate pricing, clear SLAs, and a Halifax-based team that understands the local business context. Contact us to discuss what the right scope looks like for your business.