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Managed IT vs break/fix.
Reactive support looks cheaper — until you price downtime, security gaps, and surprise invoices.
Break/fix shops bill when something breaks. Managed IT prevents and contains issues under a flat agreement. The right choice depends on how expensive silence is for your business.
| Factor | Managed MSP | Break/fix support |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Flat monthly — known in advance | Hourly / per-incident — spikes when things go wrong |
| Monitoring | 24/7 alerting and remediation | Usually none until you call |
| Security posture | Baselines, MFA, patching, reviews | Ad-hoc fixes after an incident |
| Incentive | Keep you stable (fewer tickets = success) | More outages = more billable hours |
| Response commitment | Contractual SLA (e.g. 4-hour critical) | Best effort / whoever is free |
| Documentation | Environment documented and yours | Rarely maintained |
The honest takeaway
Break/fix can work for very small, low-risk setups. Once email, cloud, and compliance matter to revenue, proactive management costs less than the outages you stop paying for.
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