# Choosing a Business IT Support Partner on the KZN South Coast
If your business has more than 5 staff, downtime costs more than IT support does. Here's how to think about it.
## Three common models
1. **Break-fix freelancer** — pay per call-out. Cheapest until your servers go down on a Friday.
2. **In-house IT** — great at scale, expensive below 30 staff.
3. **Managed Services Provider (MSP)** — fixed monthly fee, proactive monitoring.
## What an MSP should include
- Remote monitoring & alerts on every workstation and server
- Patch management (Windows + third-party apps)
- Endpoint antivirus + EDR
- Cloud / on-prem backup with monthly restore tests
- Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace administration
- Quarterly business review
## Typical pricing in 2026
- **5–10 users:** R350–R600 per user per month
- **10–25 users:** R280–R450 per user per month
- **25+ users:** Custom
## Why local matters
Remote support handles 80% of issues, but when a switch dies you want a technician on-site within an hour, not the next day. We have technicians based in Ramsgate covering Margate, Port Shepstone, Hibberdene, and Scottburgh.
[Contact us](/contact) for a free IT health check.