What every Phoenix MSP should publish.
Most won’t.
Of the top 10 Phoenix managed IT service providers, only 3 publish actual prices on their websites. The rest make you book a “consultation” so they can scope to your budget, not theirs. That’s not a discovery call, that’s a price-discrimination tactic. Here’s what real pricing transparency looks like.
Built for Phoenix business owners actively comparing MSPs. If you have a quote in hand from someone else, use this page to pressure-test it. If we end up being the right fit, the same transparency carries through every conversation we’ll have.
It is not because their pricing is bad. It is because their pricing is variable.
There are real reasons MSPs avoid publishing rates, and there are bad reasons. Here are the four most common, and what they tell you about who you are about to hire.
They price to your budget, not their costs
If their first question is “what are you currently paying?”. They are anchoring on your budget, not pricing their service. A bigger company gets quoted more for the same work. That is price discrimination, not a discovery call.
The “starting at” trap
“Starts at $99/user” usually does not include security tooling, after-hours, or anything you actually need. Add-ons quoted line by line after signature can double the real bill. Watch for “starting at” pricing followed by a long list of “additional charges may apply.”
Hourly rate as the hidden lever
Most MSPs publish monthly plans but refuse to disclose the hourly rate for anything outside the plan. When something breaks at hour 9 of a 6-hour plan, the bill arrives at $200–$275/hour. Always ask for the hourly rate in writing before signing.
They are not sure what they will charge you
If a vendor cannot tell you their per-user rate on their website, the rate gets invented on the call. That is fine for custom enterprise work; it is not how a 25-employee Phoenix shop should buy commodity IT support. Standardized pricing is a sign of operational maturity.
Ask every Phoenix MSP before you sign
Print this list. Take it to every sales call. If the vendor refuses to answer any of these in writing before signature, you have your answer about how the relationship will go after signature.
What is your hourly rate?
Standard business hours, after-hours, and weekend. In writing. If they say “we don’t bill hourly”. Ask what happens when you exceed the monthly plan. The answer is always an hourly rate; they just refuse to tell you what it is.
What does the security stack actually cost?
Endpoint protection, SOC monitoring, email security, patch management. Each per device per month. Most “all-in” plans add this at $55–$100/device on top. If the plan is “$150/user/month all-in,” confirm what’s actually included vs added later.
Is your contract month-to-month?
If they require a 1-, 2-, or 3-year commitment with no monthly option, ask why. Many lock clients in because they know turnover happens after 18 months. The trade-off should be your choice: a real discount for a 3-year term, never a handcuff.
Who owns the passwords and IT documentation?
Most MSPs put your passwords in their tooling. When you leave, you get a partial export, if you fight for it. Ask for a client portal where YOU can access every credential, every config, every license, in real time. We call this the “anti-hostage” question.
What is your vCIO or strategic IT model?
If their answer is “your account manager will check in quarterly”, that is not a vCIO, that is a sales touchpoint. Ask for a written quarterly business review template, an annual IT budget deliverable, and a maintained risk register. Those are the artifacts of a real strategic engagement.
What is your average response time, and is it in the SLA?
“Same-day” is a marketing line. Ask for the SLA: critical priority response in X minutes, high in Y hours, with penalties if missed. If they cannot quantify in writing, the response time is whoever-yells-loudest, not whatever-was-promised.
What happens if we fire you?
Off-boarding fee? Final-month billing rules? How long does it take to hand over documentation and passwords? Get this in writing before you sign. A vendor that makes leaving painful is a vendor banking on lock-in, not retention through value delivery.
Five published dimensions. Zero “contact us for pricing.”
Real pricing transparency means the rate is the same whether you are a 5-person mortgage shop or a 50-person manufacturer. Our entire commercial model is on the website, no login required.
Hourly rate
Standard $165/hr · After-hours $230/hr. Published. The rate you pay for one-off work, the rate you pay for overages on a block plan, the rate every comparison starts from. See it on the Managed IT page.
Block-hour plans (Plan 2 / 6 / 8)
$300 / $750 / $960 per month for 2 / 6 / 8 hours of monthly support. Effective rate drops to $120/hr at Plan 8. Lock in a 1-year or 3-year term for additional discount. Or stay month-to-month. Your choice.
Per-user Prime + Prime Enterprise
$165/user/month for 1–19 users · $135/user/month flat once you cross 20 users. Includes unlimited remote support, the full Security Operations Stack, vCIO Embedded. The “I want it simple” tier.
Per-device Security Operations Stack
$55–$80 per device per month, tiered with the block-hour plan you choose. Endpoint protection, 24/7 SOC monitoring, email security, patch management, asset and change management. Vendor-named: Avanan, SentinelOne, Rapid7, Datto RMM, ITGlue.
vCIO + vCISO + Compliance. Productized
vCIO at $1,500 / $3,000 / $5,500+/mo · vCISO at $2,500/mo · Compliance gap assessment $5K–$15K + $1,500–$3,500/mo posture management. Standalone products with published rates. Buy individually or bundle.
Client portal. Your passwords, always yours
Every credential, every config, every license documented in a portal YOU access. Not us. When you leave (or fire us), the export is a button click. Most Phoenix MSPs hold this hostage. We do not.
Where to expect a real Phoenix MSP price to land
From neutral 2026 Phoenix MSP cost guides (PK Tech, ITS, ParksideTech, MSP industry research). Use these as sanity-check ranges against any quote you receive.
Have a quote from another MSP? Let us pressure-test it.
Bring a competitor’s quote to a 30-minute call. We will walk through what is included, what is not, and what the effective rate works out to once you factor everything in. No commitment, no sales theater. Just honest math.
Phoenix-based · Pricing the same whether you’re 5 or 50 users · Hourly published · Month-to-month default · Client portal included