posted May 30, 2026 · 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

IT vendor for 3-location retail business — what should I expect to pay?

We have 3 hardware stores, each with about 6-8 computers, a POS system, and shared network drives. No one on staff handles IT. Currently calling a local guy when things break which is reactive and expensive. Looking to move to a managed IT service. What's a reasonable monthly cost and what should the contract cover? Any vendors in the Ohio/Midwest area?

Vendors

24 pts

3 Comments

Managed IT services · 6 yrs · 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

Priya from CloudByte IT. For your setup (3 locations, ~24 endpoints), managed IT typically ranges $60-90/endpoint/month for full coverage. That's roughly $1,440-$2,160/month. A decent contract should cover: 24/7 monitoring, unlimited helpdesk calls, patch management, antivirus, and basic network monitoring. Anything involving hardware replacement or major projects should be scoped separately. Red flags to watch for: contracts that charge per-ticket (incentive is misaligned), and providers that won't give you access to your own systems/passwords if you leave.

Hardware retail · 11 yrs · 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

That per-ticket point is really smart — I hadn't thought about the incentive misalignment. Our current guy charges per ticket and I always feel like he's dragging things out.

Property manager · 17 yrs · 1 hour, 52 minutes ago

We use CloudByte for our office and 2 properties. Been solid. The monitoring caught a ransomware attempt before it got into our system — that alone paid for years of the contract.