There is no single useful “per employee” number
A managed service has several cost drivers: people asking for support, devices that must be patched and protected, servers and cloud workloads, network equipment, backup capacity, business locations, security tooling and support hours. Two organizations with 100 employees can create completely different IT workloads.
Per-user pricing is simple—but can overstate clinic cost
Per-user pricing is easy to budget when nearly every employee has a dedicated computer, Microsoft 365 licence and similar support needs. It becomes less accurate when many staff only use email occasionally or rotate through shared workstations.
Per-device pricing solves one problem and creates another
Charging only by device can fit shared-workstation environments, but identity, email, onboarding, offboarding and user support still create labour. A device-only model can undercount those responsibilities.
A hybrid model is usually more honest
NextPixel’s estimator separates full technology users, light/email-only users, managed endpoints, servers, network devices, protected backup data, locations, security tier and support coverage. The point is not to produce an instant binding quote. It is to create a budget based on the environment instead of headcount alone.
What should be outside the managed-service fee?
Hardware, Microsoft and third-party licences, specialized line-of-business applications, unusual after-hours project work and major transformation projects are often separated from the recurring operating fee. Clear scope prevents the monthly agreement from becoming a mystery bundle.
What to ask an MSP before comparing prices
Ask what counts as a user, what counts as a device, whether shared machines are priced differently, which security tools are included, how backup is priced, whether projects are included, what after-hours support means, how onboarding/offboarding is handled and which items are explicitly excluded.