When Montreal SMB owners think about IT support, the first question is almost always: "Can't I just call someone when something breaks?" It's a reasonable question. Break-fix IT feels simple, flexible, and cheap — you only pay when you need it.
The problem is that the full cost of break-fix IT is almost always higher than it looks on the surface, and the risks are significantly higher than most business owners realize until something goes seriously wrong.
This isn't an argument that managed IT is always the right choice — it's not, for every business. But for most Montreal SMBs with 10 or more employees who depend on technology to operate, the comparison doesn't go the way most people expect.
What Is Break-Fix IT?
Break-fix (also called time-and-materials) IT support works like this: something breaks, you call an IT person or company, they fix it, you pay the bill. There's no ongoing relationship, no monthly contract, no monitoring. You pay per hour, per incident, or per project.
Rates for IT contractors in Montreal typically run $125 to $250 per hour, depending on expertise and urgency.
What Is Managed IT?
Managed IT means an MSP takes ongoing responsibility for your technology — monitoring, maintaining, and securing it — for a fixed monthly fee per user. Most incidents are handled remotely and proactively, often before you know anything was wrong.
Managed IT pricing in Montreal typically runs $80 to $150 per user per month.
The Cost Comparison
Let's use a real example: a Montreal professional services firm with 15 employees.
How does break-fix reach $6,200/month? Here's the breakdown most people don't think about:
- 2–3 reactive service calls per month at $200/hr average, 2 hours each: $800–1,200
- Downtime costs — if even 2 employees lose 4 hours of productivity per month to IT issues at $50/hr loaded cost: $400
- Owner/manager time spent dealing with IT problems instead of billable work: hard to quantify, but real
- No proactive maintenance means problems compound over time — one unpatched server can cause months of cascading issues
- Security gaps — no EDR, no patch management, no monitoring means one phishing email away from a potentially catastrophic incident
And that's a normal month. A bad month — a server failure, a ransomware attack, a major software issue — can easily cost $10,000–$50,000 in a break-fix scenario.
The Incentive Problem
There's a structural issue with break-fix IT that rarely gets discussed: the incentives are misaligned.
A break-fix IT provider makes more money when your IT breaks more often. They have no financial incentive to prevent problems — in fact, preventing problems reduces their revenue. This doesn't mean break-fix providers are bad people, but the model itself doesn't reward proactive thinking.
A managed IT provider, on the other hand, makes more money when your IT runs smoothly — because they're spending less time fixing problems. Their incentive is to prevent issues before they happen. This alignment matters significantly over time.
When Break-Fix Makes Sense
Break-fix IT is genuinely the right choice for some businesses. Specifically:
- Solopreneurs and very small teams (1–4 people) with minimal technology dependence
- Businesses with an internal IT team that occasionally needs specialized outside help
- Project-specific needs — one-off network builds, specific software deployments
- Very low IT complexity — businesses that essentially just use email and a cloud-based app
If you have 10 or more employees, rely on technology for core operations, and have experienced more than one IT disruption in the past year, break-fix is almost certainly costing you more than managed IT would.
The Risk Factor
Beyond cost, the risk profile of break-fix IT is significantly higher. Without monitoring, you have no visibility into what's happening on your network. Threats — ransomware, compromised accounts, failing hardware — can be present for days or weeks before you know anything is wrong.
Break-fix IT also typically means no documented environment. When something goes catastrophically wrong, there's often no network diagram, no password documentation, no asset inventory — which dramatically increases recovery time and cost.
The question to ask yourself: If your server failed or your email was compromised today, how long would it take to get back to normal? And what would that cost your business in lost revenue, client trust, and recovery work?
Making the Switch
One of the most common concerns we hear from Montreal SMBs considering managed IT is: "What if I'm locked into something that doesn't work?" It's a fair concern.
The right MSP relationship should include a clear contract, transparent pricing, and defined response time commitments — not a vague month-to-month arrangement where you're not sure what you're getting. Ask to see sample SLAs and monthly reports before you sign anything.
If you want to compare what managed IT would actually cost for your specific business versus what you're spending now on break-fix support, our free IT assessment includes exactly that conversation — no pressure, no commitment.
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