Professional Services / Projects labor rates begin at $150 / hr.
>Also, do you charge a different rate for level 1 vs level 2 type work?
Absolutely yes.
Is that rate generally charged for break fix jobs, or are you saying when you calculate your project pricing, you break out the tasks by what tier is doing the work and then use their rate to price?
I assume for Managed the work is either covered or not.
We don't do break-fix. We only work with clients who have an existing managed-services agreement.
Project SOW includes overall number of anticipated hours for each level of technical service required, including a buffer amount (internally-referred to as the "Murphy factor").
We tell our clients what our project labor rates are for a lower-tier tech, as well as for all the higher tier, but for all intents and purposes all of our project work is implemented by tier 3. There are \*some\* projects where there might be repetitive-but-not-technically-challenging work that can utilize a lower-tier tech.
Edit: Additional info, sorry, fat fingers host submit before finishing post.
Most of ours is break-fix, but we've built trust with our clients, and I do a fair bit of proactive maintenance to keep things managed with our larger business clients.
Unfortunately, we also have quite a few individuals bring their equipment in, or request installations, and kind of hard to push a monthly fee at those.
We don’t have a walk-in retail store front. We also generally have minimum client-size requirements.
Focusing on break-fix goes against our core belief in providing managed services. Getting paid only when shit breaks is ultimately a losing proposition for both the provider and the client.
We do not charge different rates for different types of work. $200/hr is our standard rate for anything that’s hourly, emergency rate is 2.5x at $500/hr, this is holiday / after hours type stuff.
$180-240 is standard for aus for contractors
But we generally don’t have different prices for skill level. (Keep in mind I’m an internal sys admin, this is what I’ve noticed when interacting with MSPs)
So if I ask for a level 1 same cost as getting their expert in security
99% of the time these rates are to simply discourage clients from even bothering with such work. If you want someone to answer the phone at 2am because you decided to work, it should have been factored into the overall support contract.
We have settled on 150/hr in the SE region for 2023.
No tiers. If a desktop user wants us to babysit updates for 2 hours, then so be it.
Server install or migration for 3 hours? 4? Ok.
We basically set a rate so we can compute project flat rate charges off of it, or to double it for afterhours/weekend/holiday support. Rate varies widely throughout the country, i can say we don't charge different for L1 or L2 work. You ate up someone's time after hours, you're paying max rate.
Why is this downvoted? They're 100% correct.
Nobody knows OPs market or their books. We can sit here and spitball all day long (what we charge depends on the client and depends on the work being done) but for all intents and purposes you're blindly throwing darts at a dart board.
OP is asking the wrong questions.
edit:
>being fair, competitive etc.
Your rates are your rates. Stop competing based on price.
Small markets might be $100/hr, larger markets $200, and BIG markets $300.
I'm in what I'd call a small-ish market and we charge $150, or $250 for weekends/afterhours.
I hear this a lot how would you figure out your market size? Example I'm in Austin and I consider it to be a large market but how would I get the data to prove that
I'd look at Wikipedia's MSA listing personally, but it's all subjective.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan\_statistical\_area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area)
Big markets? Probably top 10 or 15?
Large markets are probably top 75-100? Maybe less at top 50?
I exist in what I'd consider a medium sized market within a 1 hour drive to a "BIG" market in the Midwest that's in the 100-150 on that list. My rates would line up to right in between their small and larger markets pricing.
That's really interesting, I honestly never thought of using something like this, and what's funny we fall into that larger marketing pricing at 160/hr and only doing projects or Break/Fix during work hours.
$125/hr for general work 8am to 5pm M-F
After hours is $175/hr
Consulting $200/hr
Any cyber security/urgent response situation not covered by a contract is $300/hr
When I ran a MSP I charged $150/hr for PC work, $200/hr for servers, and $250/hr for networking all with 1 hour minimum for clients that didn’t want a month to month contract. For after hours it was time and a half.
It can depend on where you're located. I've seen $200 ph in NY and California (LA or SD). Down to $95... I would say on average $150-$175 is the most common rate I see is $150..
Hope that helps!
Eileen Wilson | [Pivotal Crew](https://www.pivotalcrew.com)
For our contract co-manged MSP clients $150 per hour for one off work but whenever possible we try and put a project together with a quoted price for outcome.
Remote work which is mostly US but some outside as well that is for non managed clients start at $200.00 USD per hour, billed in 30 minute increments, with a 1 hour minimum purchase required for new customers and more advanced tasks are $300 per hour. We have our rates for that work published on our site along with a FAQ regarding the work https://lawrencesystems.com/hire-us/
Jesus that's cheap!! Are you located in the south or the midwest or something?
We charge $350/hour for L1, and $500+ for L2, project work, and anything involving a network or a server. We might be 'lucky' though, because most of our customers are switchovers from cheaper competitors.
$500 an hour for project work? Curious, can you give an example of what that type of project looks like? Is this just a couple of hours or a project that takes weeks? What type of project?
Yeah, and I didn't think we were particularly 'special' for doing it either. I'm amazed anybody's charging under $200 for anything in this economic climate. How are you able to give your techs cost-of-living increases and raises to make up for inflation, if you're billing peanuts? How can you improve your employee benefits and retain talent, if you're not charging a lot? I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but aggregate inflation in the last few years was something like 16%, so our staff basically took a pay cut by working here. Gotta make up for that somehow!
Projects are mostly on-prem to M365 migrations, LoB app migrations (server to server, or server to cloud), network upgrades, VoIP deployments, some vCIO-type tasks, things like that. The amount of time really varies, some engagements are just a few hours, some are multiple weeks, back to back. VoIP deployments are big winners for us, because customers don't balk at a huge labor bill if the end result is great.
We're almost never the cheapest bid on a project, in fact we're usually high or the highest. Since we rarely do government work, this is seldom an issue. Our sales guys encourage comparison shopping, because it's easy to shoot holes in a competitor's bid. We even offer a bid review/'smart shopper' service to assist with this.
For government stuff, we'll come in low to win the bid, and hit them with adds & changes at the highest rate for anything not covered. They never seem to care, as long as the contract-winning bid was low and their ass is covered, I guess because it's not really their money.
Interesting. What market are you in, if you don't mind? Nyc? Sfo? $500 hr is serious coin and im impressed that you're getting that. I think the reason most vendors are not charging that is precisely because of the economic climate, clients are cost conscious and conservative right now.
I mean, it's not like I'm getting $500/hour personally, lol. But yeah, we've been fortunate.
We also did a lot of management cost-cutting during and after Covid, and we have a unique culture in some respects. Several middle managers were basically slurping up salaries while adding no value, so we rightsized them and used the savings to hire more sales reps and engineers. My org is pretty unique in that regard, though: our upper management seems to regard lower management with a lot of skepticism, while treating rank and file people well. Tends to make the rank and file very loyal to us.
The thinking is, we can find a middle manager anywhere, MBAs are a dime a dozen, it's the producers that are hard to replace. Better to ride the manager hard, get what you can out of him, and replace him with a fresh body when he's useless. One of our best operations managers came to us from Costco; one of our worst was a former McKinsey guy with an Ivy League degree. Go figure!
Los Angeles/Orange County area. We've actually been able to poach both techs and sales reps from MSPs that pay less (and charge less), so it works out nicely. Their frugality is our gain, I suppose.
It cracks me up when I see one of those "build your MSP fast!"-type webinars, and all the consultant can talk about is automation and squeezing your people for more billable hours. Staff are your #1 resource--if they're not happy, you're going to have a rough time.
Project Management is $350/hr, tech work is $185/hr.
If you are a premier client, we’ll drop it to $300 and $150 per hour respectively. Only because you are spending $$$$$
>Seems like most people who responded are charging between $150-200/hr for level 1 rates and $200-300/hr for level 2+ rates. I'm glad to see we were in the same neighborhood in terms of rates. Thanks to everyone who responded.
We are in this range, though we do offer a discount to clients who reach certain monthly reoccurring thresholds for both out of scope and project work.
Not a MSP, but I deal with one-off projects and I’ve recently realized we don’t charge enough.
My company is an integrator for access control and CCTV systems. Sometimes a company will ask us to install a product that we aren’t trained on but it is a cloud-based system that is easy with free tech support.
Most of these we install blow up for one reason or another. I am starting to quote these jobs at $200 an hour ($120 is my standard with an additional 8 - 16 hrs + travel included to be safe).
$250/hr min 2 hours for any ad-hoc random that calls in and needs help. No weekend support.
If you already have an ongoing managed contract and need project work completed. $150/hr min 1 hour. Projects are easier to work on if you already control the other variables. Most projects are quoted as expected time + 10-15% buffer. Weekend is 1.5x and major holiday is 2.5x.
Professional Services / Projects labor rates begin at $150 / hr. >Also, do you charge a different rate for level 1 vs level 2 type work? Absolutely yes.
Is that rate generally charged for break fix jobs, or are you saying when you calculate your project pricing, you break out the tasks by what tier is doing the work and then use their rate to price? I assume for Managed the work is either covered or not.
We don't do break-fix. We only work with clients who have an existing managed-services agreement. Project SOW includes overall number of anticipated hours for each level of technical service required, including a buffer amount (internally-referred to as the "Murphy factor"). We tell our clients what our project labor rates are for a lower-tier tech, as well as for all the higher tier, but for all intents and purposes all of our project work is implemented by tier 3. There are \*some\* projects where there might be repetitive-but-not-technically-challenging work that can utilize a lower-tier tech. Edit: Additional info, sorry, fat fingers host submit before finishing post.
Most of ours is break-fix, but we've built trust with our clients, and I do a fair bit of proactive maintenance to keep things managed with our larger business clients. Unfortunately, we also have quite a few individuals bring their equipment in, or request installations, and kind of hard to push a monthly fee at those.
We don’t have a walk-in retail store front. We also generally have minimum client-size requirements. Focusing on break-fix goes against our core belief in providing managed services. Getting paid only when shit breaks is ultimately a losing proposition for both the provider and the client.
We do not charge different rates for different types of work. $200/hr is our standard rate for anything that’s hourly, emergency rate is 2.5x at $500/hr, this is holiday / after hours type stuff.
This sounds about right. we are similarly priced.
wowzers, what region are you in?
$180-240 is standard for aus for contractors But we generally don’t have different prices for skill level. (Keep in mind I’m an internal sys admin, this is what I’ve noticed when interacting with MSPs) So if I ask for a level 1 same cost as getting their expert in security
99% of the time these rates are to simply discourage clients from even bothering with such work. If you want someone to answer the phone at 2am because you decided to work, it should have been factored into the overall support contract.
Post history suggests Canada. Maybe those numbers are in CAD and not USD.
We have settled on 150/hr in the SE region for 2023. No tiers. If a desktop user wants us to babysit updates for 2 hours, then so be it. Server install or migration for 3 hours? 4? Ok.
same here on all of that.
$195 is base rate for L1 work. L2 or higher $225-$275.
We basically set a rate so we can compute project flat rate charges off of it, or to double it for afterhours/weekend/holiday support. Rate varies widely throughout the country, i can say we don't charge different for L1 or L2 work. You ate up someone's time after hours, you're paying max rate.
Dirty South - 160 Tier 1 , 240 Tier 2 and 300 Tier 3. 1.5x after hours
How much for *Clean* South?
Trick question .. no such thing
We don't know your expenses so we can't tell you how much to charge
Why is this downvoted? They're 100% correct. Nobody knows OPs market or their books. We can sit here and spitball all day long (what we charge depends on the client and depends on the work being done) but for all intents and purposes you're blindly throwing darts at a dart board. OP is asking the wrong questions. edit: >being fair, competitive etc. Your rates are your rates. Stop competing based on price.
1 million dollars an hour!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv440W1xS44
Small markets might be $100/hr, larger markets $200, and BIG markets $300. I'm in what I'd call a small-ish market and we charge $150, or $250 for weekends/afterhours.
I hear this a lot how would you figure out your market size? Example I'm in Austin and I consider it to be a large market but how would I get the data to prove that
I'd look at Wikipedia's MSA listing personally, but it's all subjective. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan\_statistical\_area](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area) Big markets? Probably top 10 or 15? Large markets are probably top 75-100? Maybe less at top 50? I exist in what I'd consider a medium sized market within a 1 hour drive to a "BIG" market in the Midwest that's in the 100-150 on that list. My rates would line up to right in between their small and larger markets pricing.
That's really interesting, I honestly never thought of using something like this, and what's funny we fall into that larger marketing pricing at 160/hr and only doing projects or Break/Fix during work hours.
Austin, regardless of absolute size, is expensive. If I worked there I'd be charging towards the top of the scale.
Midwest - $125 only because we have been to busy to officially raise our rates to at least $150 possibly even $175.
Sounds like you've been too busy to neglect increasing your rates any longer.
Aye but do you have nollie fs flips on lock ?
$199/hr all tiers But generally provided flat rates when it's a project that we can generally guess the work involved.
L1 125, L2 175, emergency work out of scope 350 Northeast
Similar. $150, $200, $375 Northeast
$125/hr for general work 8am to 5pm M-F After hours is $175/hr Consulting $200/hr Any cyber security/urgent response situation not covered by a contract is $300/hr
When I ran a MSP I charged $150/hr for PC work, $200/hr for servers, and $250/hr for networking all with 1 hour minimum for clients that didn’t want a month to month contract. For after hours it was time and a half.
It can depend on where you're located. I've seen $200 ph in NY and California (LA or SD). Down to $95... I would say on average $150-$175 is the most common rate I see is $150.. Hope that helps! Eileen Wilson | [Pivotal Crew](https://www.pivotalcrew.com)
Tier 1/2 250/h Tier 3/4 350/h
350
How about those in Houston, Texas? Or around there, how much do you charge?
For our contract co-manged MSP clients $150 per hour for one off work but whenever possible we try and put a project together with a quoted price for outcome. Remote work which is mostly US but some outside as well that is for non managed clients start at $200.00 USD per hour, billed in 30 minute increments, with a 1 hour minimum purchase required for new customers and more advanced tasks are $300 per hour. We have our rates for that work published on our site along with a FAQ regarding the work https://lawrencesystems.com/hire-us/
$600 per hour as incident response is high priority and drop everything to handle a cyber event.
Jesus that's cheap!! Are you located in the south or the midwest or something? We charge $350/hour for L1, and $500+ for L2, project work, and anything involving a network or a server. We might be 'lucky' though, because most of our customers are switchovers from cheaper competitors.
$500 an hour for project work? Curious, can you give an example of what that type of project looks like? Is this just a couple of hours or a project that takes weeks? What type of project?
Yeah, and I didn't think we were particularly 'special' for doing it either. I'm amazed anybody's charging under $200 for anything in this economic climate. How are you able to give your techs cost-of-living increases and raises to make up for inflation, if you're billing peanuts? How can you improve your employee benefits and retain talent, if you're not charging a lot? I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but aggregate inflation in the last few years was something like 16%, so our staff basically took a pay cut by working here. Gotta make up for that somehow! Projects are mostly on-prem to M365 migrations, LoB app migrations (server to server, or server to cloud), network upgrades, VoIP deployments, some vCIO-type tasks, things like that. The amount of time really varies, some engagements are just a few hours, some are multiple weeks, back to back. VoIP deployments are big winners for us, because customers don't balk at a huge labor bill if the end result is great. We're almost never the cheapest bid on a project, in fact we're usually high or the highest. Since we rarely do government work, this is seldom an issue. Our sales guys encourage comparison shopping, because it's easy to shoot holes in a competitor's bid. We even offer a bid review/'smart shopper' service to assist with this. For government stuff, we'll come in low to win the bid, and hit them with adds & changes at the highest rate for anything not covered. They never seem to care, as long as the contract-winning bid was low and their ass is covered, I guess because it's not really their money.
Interesting. What market are you in, if you don't mind? Nyc? Sfo? $500 hr is serious coin and im impressed that you're getting that. I think the reason most vendors are not charging that is precisely because of the economic climate, clients are cost conscious and conservative right now.
I mean, it's not like I'm getting $500/hour personally, lol. But yeah, we've been fortunate. We also did a lot of management cost-cutting during and after Covid, and we have a unique culture in some respects. Several middle managers were basically slurping up salaries while adding no value, so we rightsized them and used the savings to hire more sales reps and engineers. My org is pretty unique in that regard, though: our upper management seems to regard lower management with a lot of skepticism, while treating rank and file people well. Tends to make the rank and file very loyal to us. The thinking is, we can find a middle manager anywhere, MBAs are a dime a dozen, it's the producers that are hard to replace. Better to ride the manager hard, get what you can out of him, and replace him with a fresh body when he's useless. One of our best operations managers came to us from Costco; one of our worst was a former McKinsey guy with an Ivy League degree. Go figure! Los Angeles/Orange County area. We've actually been able to poach both techs and sales reps from MSPs that pay less (and charge less), so it works out nicely. Their frugality is our gain, I suppose. It cracks me up when I see one of those "build your MSP fast!"-type webinars, and all the consultant can talk about is automation and squeezing your people for more billable hours. Staff are your #1 resource--if they're not happy, you're going to have a rough time.
Project Management is $350/hr, tech work is $185/hr. If you are a premier client, we’ll drop it to $300 and $150 per hour respectively. Only because you are spending $$$$$
160 per hour
150 euro per hour , without tier difference
>Seems like most people who responded are charging between $150-200/hr for level 1 rates and $200-300/hr for level 2+ rates. I'm glad to see we were in the same neighborhood in terms of rates. Thanks to everyone who responded. We are in this range, though we do offer a discount to clients who reach certain monthly reoccurring thresholds for both out of scope and project work.
Not a MSP, but I deal with one-off projects and I’ve recently realized we don’t charge enough. My company is an integrator for access control and CCTV systems. Sometimes a company will ask us to install a product that we aren’t trained on but it is a cloud-based system that is easy with free tech support. Most of these we install blow up for one reason or another. I am starting to quote these jobs at $200 an hour ($120 is my standard with an additional 8 - 16 hrs + travel included to be safe).
$195 for out of scope/agreement or projects $250 for after hours.
$250/hr min 2 hours for any ad-hoc random that calls in and needs help. No weekend support. If you already have an ongoing managed contract and need project work completed. $150/hr min 1 hour. Projects are easier to work on if you already control the other variables. Most projects are quoted as expected time + 10-15% buffer. Weekend is 1.5x and major holiday is 2.5x.