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Managed IT Services Melbourne: $180/hr Labour, Month-to-Month, Nothing Locked In
Skip the bundled retainer. Hourly labour at $180/hr ex GST covers every job, an optional $29.95-per-endpoint baseline covers the security tooling, and device management is quoted to your fleet. Combine the parts that fit, drop the ones that never did, and end the arrangement with 30 days' notice rather than surviving a 36-month term. Working out a budget? See how managed IT services are priced, or what a virtual CIO adds above the day-to-day.
- All labour at $180/hr ex GST
- Optional $29.95/endpoint/mo baseline
- Month-to-month, 30 days' notice
The Price List, In Full View
Ring around the bigger providers of IT support in Melbourne and the number only arrives after a discovery call. Ours sits on the page: hourly labour at the centre, with the baseline and device management as optional extras. Every figure shown excludes GST. For a plain-English breakdown of what an hour actually covers, see our IT support pricing guide.
Labour · Hourly
Ad-Hoc Support
Every hands-on job. No contract, no minimum, no fixed-fee plan — this is the only way labour is charged.
$180/hour
ex GST, billed in AUD per hour of work. No lock-in, nothing to cancel.
- Troubleshooting, advice and project hours
- Remediation and configuration jobs of any size
- Frequently the best value for smaller teams
Optional · Per endpoint
Security Baseline
Optional managed endpoint security. Published per endpoint, no monthly minimum. Tooling only — no labour included.
$29.95/endpoint/mo
ex GST, billed monthly in AUD. No minimum. Full detail on the Managed Security Essentials page.
- Remote support and endpoint management agents
- Bitdefender-powered antivirus with automated patching
- Hands-on time invoiced separately as $180/hr labour
Optional · MDM
Device Management
Mobile device management across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android — sized to your fleet.
Custom
Quoted per device, ex GST. Pick the platforms you need; standalone or with the baseline.
- Enrolment, profiles and policy kept consistent
- Any mix of Windows, macOS, iOS and Android
- Compliance reporting and a tidier OS image
Assemble it your way. Some clients only ever book hourly support at $180/hr ex GST; others layer the baseline and device management over the top. Everything else arrives as a written quote: EDR and XDR add-ons, cloud backup, hardware and specialist projects — websites, networking, audits, migrations — with labour at $180/hr plus product costs listed line by line.
Sound Familiar? Three Ways Melbourne Businesses End Up Here
These are the three recurring situations that bring Melbourne business owners to us. See which one matches yours — we wrote up the full list in 7 IT mistakes we keep finding in small-business offices.
A stack of tools, nobody accountable
One person set up Microsoft 365 years ago, the antivirus came from a different vendor, someone else added backup after the fact, MFA only ever got half-finished, and devices were never enrolled into anything. When it breaks, there is no single person to call and no record of what was even configured.
IT that only exists when something breaks
The current arrangement is reactive: someone turns up after you have rung them, not before. Patches sit unapplied for months, licences auto-renew without review, a new starter waits a week for a working laptop, and nobody has actually tested whether the backup restores. It works fine, right up until it does not.
Locked into a three-year contract you regret
Plenty of the bigger Melbourne MSPs will only sign you for three years, charge a steep onboarding fee, and route every question through a ticket queue before you reach someone technical. You become an account number, and getting out of the contract is built to be as painful as possible.
Three Components, Combine the Ones You Need
There is no bundled retainer to buy into. Pick from three published components based on what your business actually runs on, then add specialist project work separately when it is needed.
$180/hr ex GST — all labour
Ad-Hoc Support
- Fixes, configuration changes and project hours, every one of them at $180/hr ex GST
- Nothing to sign up front, no monthly spend to maintain, and no fixed-fee labour plan
- One rate for every kind of hands-on work, since tooling subscriptions never include labour
- Usually the best-value IT support Melbourne teams can buy when problems only surface occasionally
$29.95/endpoint/mo — optional, no minimum
Security Baseline
- Puts a remote support agent, endpoint management, Bitdefender-powered antivirus and patch automation on each covered machine
- Charged at $29.95 ex GST per endpoint monthly, with no monthly minimum, covering exactly the devices you nominate
- A tooling subscription with no hands-on labour inside it; human time is invoiced at $180/hr ex GST
- Full detail on the Managed Security Essentials page
Custom — quoted per device
Device Management (MDM)
- Windows, macOS, iOS and Android fleets enrolled on whichever platforms you actually operate
- Enrolment, profiles and compliance policy holding every device to one standard
- Quoted per device against the size of your fleet
- Runs standalone or paired with the security baseline
Project work, always quoted first
Project-shaped work sits on top of any of the above and always arrives as a written quote, labour at $180/hr ex GST plus product costs. Need direction rather than hands-on work? Our virtual CIO service covers IT roadmaps, budgeting and vendor management, and our compliance and risk management work covers what your regulator or insurer checks:
- Cloud backup designed around the data you genuinely cannot lose
- WordPress web design and hosting, alongside fully custom builds
- Networks designed, hardened and managed across CBD offices and industrial sites alike
- Cyber security audits and Essential Eight alignment with evidence you can hand over
- Migrations, whether Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 or on-premises to cloud
Caveats we volunteer before you ask
- Every hour of labour costs $180 ex GST, full stop. A fixed-fee labour plan does not exist here, and the $29.95 baseline buys tooling rather than anyone's time.
- EDR and XDR sit outside the baseline. What ships by default is Bitdefender-powered AV; behavioural telemetry and threat hunting get quoted as add-ons when your risk genuinely warrants them.
- No minimum endpoint count applies. Protect one machine or fifty, and the bill is $29.95 ex GST for each one you chose.
- Sometimes pay-as-you-go wins, and we will tell you. A small office with a handful of devices often does better on hourly work at $180 than on any subscription, and pretending otherwise would cost you money.
From First Call to Steady State
Three steps, and you know what is happening at each one. If it turns out you only need one of the three components, that is what we will quote.
Step 1
Scoping call (20 minutes)
A short call to tally your devices, current subscriptions and pain points, and to name which of the three parts apply. When hourly work alone is the cheaper answer, you hear it on that call.
Step 2
Onboarding (1–2 weeks)
Your environment gets documented, agents go onto the machines you nominate, and patching plus policy standards take effect. Setup hours run at $180/hr ex GST with the quote agreed before anything begins. Specialist work is scoped separately.
Step 3
Monthly rhythm
Patching runs to schedule, policies stay enforced, alerts get triaged and new starters get set up without a week of waiting. Once a month you get a plain-English snapshot, and when you ring you get the technician rather than a queue.
What working with us feels like
- Rates you can quote back to us. Labour at $180/hr, the baseline at $29.95 per endpoint, device management priced per device, and projects put in writing before they start.
- A single point of accountability. One engineer looks after devices, security, backup and the network, instead of five vendors blaming each other.
- Direct access. Aaron does the work and takes the calls, so nothing sits in a queue between you and a fix.
- Freedom to leave. Month-to-month terms with 30 days' notice keep the incentive exactly where it belongs.
- Add-ons in daylight. EDR, XDR, cloud backup and project work are itemised in a quote first, never slipped onto an invoice.
Managed IT in Melbourne vs. Calling Someone When It Breaks
Hourly work handles the occasional problem well. What it does not do is notice the unpatched server, the licence nobody reviewed, or the backup nobody restored from. Those accumulate quietly until one of them becomes the emergency.
| What you get | Break-fix / ad-hoc only | Support Melbourne managed IT |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns your IT | Nobody — you chase it | One accountable owner who knows your setup |
| When things get done | Only after you notice and call | Proactively, before it becomes your problem |
| Patching & updates | Whenever, if at all | Scheduled and tracked across devices |
| Security posture | Reactive — fixed after an incident | Baseline maintained, gaps closed on a plan |
| Knowing your environment | Re-explained every call | Documented — we already know it |
| Billing | $180/hr, unpredictable spikes | Transparent $180/hr labour + published parts you combine |
| Lock-in | None, but no continuity either | Month-to-month, no lock-in — continuity without the cuffs |
Our honest rule of thumb: a business that needs help a couple of times a year belongs on ad-hoc work at $180/hr ex GST, and we tell Melbourne callers that every week. The managed arrangement earns its keep once IT problems start stealing time from actually running the business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Melbourne owners ask before committing: what is covered, what is not, and which of the three parts they genuinely need.
What is managed IT support?
It means somebody is looking after the technology before it breaks — patching, monitoring, security and helpdesk owned by one accountable person rather than whoever you happened to ring last time. Here that person is a senior engineer who knows your environment: machines patched on a schedule, the security baseline maintained, and problems dealt with before they cost your team a morning. You assemble it from the three published components instead of signing up to a bundled retainer.
How much does managed IT support cost in Melbourne?
Labour is $180/hr ex GST — a one-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments — with the $29.95 per endpoint per month security baseline entirely optional. There is no fixed-fee labour plan and no monthly minimum on the baseline. Device management is quoted against your fleet. Everything runs month-to-month, projects are put in writing before anyone starts, and you only ever pay for hours actually worked.
How long am I committing for?
Month-to-month, exited with 30 days' written notice. Plenty of the larger Melbourne providers still push 24 to 36-month terms; we do not. If the work stops being worth paying for, you should be able to leave.
What sits outside the published components?
The $29.95 baseline is tooling only — remote support agent, endpoint management, Bitdefender-powered AV and patch automation. Quoted separately, every time:
- Labour — every hands-on hour runs at $180/hr ex GST, and no fixed-fee labour plan exists here.
- EDR and XDR — priced add-ons that sit above the base antivirus, never assumed.
- Device management — quoted per device against your fleet, and separate from the baseline.
- Cloud backup — its own engagement, scoped around the data you cannot afford to lose.
- Hardware, websites, networking and larger projects — written up as quoted projects, labour at $180/hr plus product costs, before anything starts.
Nothing on that list ever lands on an invoice without a quote in front of it first.
Are we too small for this?
No minimum, in either direction. Sole operators and two-person practices are welcome, and the baseline bills $29.95 ex GST for each endpoint you nominate — one machine or fifty. For very small setups the honest answer is often ad-hoc labour at $180/hr ex GST with no subscription attached, and we would rather say that on the first call than bill you for tooling you do not need.
How long does it take to get running?
One to two weeks for a typical Melbourne small business, depending on which components you take:
- Week one: discovery and documentation, then agent deployment, Bitdefender AV, device enrolment and the first patch and policy baseline.
- Week two: policy tuning, the asset inventory verified against reality, and your first monthly report.
Setup hours run at $180/hr ex GST with the quote agreed first. Specialist work — backup, networking, migrations — is scoped separately. You see the console throughout; nothing happens in a black box.
We have someone internal already. Does that work?
Yes, and it is common. Your internal person keeps the business context and the relationships; we carry the tooling, the patching rhythm and the escalation path for the jobs that need a second pair of hands, with labour at $180/hr ex GST as it is used.
Plenty of clients use us exactly this way. The internal person is not replaced; they are equipped with a real management console and patch and policy automation behind them.
What is the difference between EDR and the antivirus in the baseline?
The baseline uses Bitdefender-powered antivirus: real-time scanning, ransomware protection, web filtering and device control. EDR adds behavioural analytics, threat hunting and a monitored response layer on top.
If your obligations genuinely call for EDR, we quote it as an add-on rather than pretending the baseline is the same thing. For most Melbourne small businesses, managed endpoint plus Bitdefender AV is the honestly right-sized starting point. The full inclusions sit on our Managed Security Essentials page.
Which of the three parts do I actually need?
They stack rather than compete. Labour at $180/hr ex GST is the only part everyone uses, and it is the only labour rate. The $29.95 security baseline starts paying for itself around five devices, and device management is worth it once new starters and leavers happen often enough that manual setup costs real time.
On the scoping call we tell you which ones apply and which do not. If occasional ad-hoc help is genuinely the whole answer, that is what you will hear.
Is this just security, or the whole of IT?
The whole of it. The per-endpoint security baseline — set out in full on our Managed Security Essentials page — is one optional component, not the boundary.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace administration, networking, hardware, device management, backups, automation, migrations and project work all sit alongside it. Security is where most engagements start because it is where most of the gaps are — delivered as quoted projects with labour at $180/hr ex GST.
Ready for One Owner of Your IT?
Book a twenty-minute call. We tally what you run, flag which components genuinely apply, and put a written quote in front of you within days. Where hourly work alone is the right fit, that is the recommendation you will get.
Prefer email? hello@supportmelbourne.com.au — we reply same day in business hours.