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In-house IT vs managed IT: cost calculator for the UAE
The short answer: an in-house team costs salary plus on-costs, recruitment, tools and cover for leave and nights. Managed IT costs a per-user fee plus whatever you keep in-house. Put your own numbers in below and see both annual totals side by side.
Your organisation
Assumptions (edit any of them)
Managed IT side
Type the per-user range from a quote you hold, or leave it blank. We do not fill this in for you.
Annual cost, side by side
In-house
AED 0
AED 0 per user / month
Managed
Enter a range
from your quote
A planning estimate from your inputs, not a quote. For a fixed price, we survey your sites first.
Get a fixed quote after a site surveyHow the maths works
What goes into each side.
- In-house = IT staff × monthly salary × 12 × (1 + on-costs), plus recruitment and training per person, tools and licences, out-of-hours cover and site visits.
- Managed = users × your quoted per-user fee × 12, plus the cost of any staff you keep (same on-cost maths) and any tools the quote leaves out.
- Microsoft 365 user licences are left out of both sides because you pay for them either way. To check you hold the right ones, use the Microsoft 365 licence optimiser.
- Want the cost of the outages you avoid as well? The downtime cost calculator works it out per hour.
Further reading: managed IT cost in the UAE, break-fix vs managed IT and our managed IT services.
Common questions
About the calculator.
Is in-house IT cheaper than managed IT in the UAE?
It depends on your headcount, how many sites you run and what your IT staff cost you in total, including on-costs as well as salary. This calculator puts both sides on one page using your own numbers, so you can see where the line falls for your organisation.
Where do the salary and on-cost figures come from?
From you. The defaults are example figures to show how the maths works, not a market benchmark. Replace them with your payroll numbers. Employer on-costs in the UAE typically include visa and Emirates ID fees, medical insurance, housing or allowances, annual air tickets and end-of-service gratuity, so we show them as a separate, editable percentage.
Why does the calculator not show a Missan price?
Because a fair managed IT price depends on your users, sites, devices and the cover you need. Type in a range from any quote you hold, or leave it blank and ask us for a fixed quote after a site survey.
Can I keep some IT staff and outsource the rest?
Yes, and many organisations do. Set "IT staff you would keep" above zero to model a co-managed setup, where your own team handles day-to-day requests and a managed provider covers monitoring, security, out-of-hours cover and projects.
Is anything I type sent to Missan?
No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing is sent unless you fill in the optional form at the bottom of the page and press send.
Email me my results, or get a fixed quote
Your figures are attached automatically. We reply within one business day, and a fixed quote follows a site survey. Head office in Sharjah with teams in 3 countries.
Need IT support you can actually reach?
Tell us how many users and sites you have and what is going wrong. We reply within one business day with a support plan and a price.