In-House IT vs. Outsourced IT: Which Is Better for My Business? 

For most Canadian businesses with fewer than 75 employees, outsourcing IT costs less, provides broader coverage, and reduces security risk compared to hiring one or two internal staff. Once you pass roughly 100 employees, a hybrid model, one internal person supported by an outside partner, becomes the stronger option for most operations. 

How much does an in-house IT employee cost?

The salary range for a competent IT generalist in Canada runs from $75,000 to $110,000 fully loaded, once you factor in benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, and training. That figure buys you one person with a defined skill set, standard working hours, and the same vacation and sick days as everyone else on your team. 

The gap between what one person can know and what your business actually needs is where most companies run into trouble. A single IT employee is unlikely to hold deep expertise in cybersecurity, networking, and your cloud infrastructure simultaneously. When something outside their wheelhouse breaks, you are either waiting or hiring a contractor on short notice. 

What does outsourced IT cost for a small business?

A managed service provider operating in the $40,000 to $60,000 per year range for a 25-person business gives you access to a team that typically includes 10 to 30 specialists. That team covers monitoring around the clock, an after-hours support line, and dedicated security and network expertise that would be impractical to hire individually. 

The economics work because the MSP’s cost is spread across many clients. You are not paying for a full-time security analyst. You are paying for access to one when you need it. 

The hidden risk of relying on one person 

Single-point-of-failure exposure: If your IT person is on vacation, sick, or leaves the company, so does institutional knowledge of your passwords, vendor relationships, and system configurations. Most businesses discover this risk only after it has already caused a problem. 

Documentation gaps: Internal IT staff often work from memory. MSPs are structured around documentation. Every system, credential, and vendor contact is recorded and accessible to the whole team, which means transitions are far less disruptive. 

Knowledge ceiling: No single employee can stay current across every area of IT simultaneously. Threats evolve, systems change, and certifications lapse. A team-based model keeps specialized knowledge current by design. 

When should a business hire an in-house IT person?

Around 75 to 100 employees, the calculus shifts. At that scale, the volume of daily IT requests, the need for on-site presence, and the complexity of your systems often justify a dedicated internal role. Even then, most organizations at this size still benefit from keeping an outside partner involved for security coverage, after-hours support, and specialized projects that fall outside an internal hire’s scope. 

Past 100 employees, a hybrid model is usually the most cost-effective and operationally sound structure available. 

What outsourced IT does not do as well 

• Daily floor presence: An MSP is not walking your office. If your team needs hands-on help with physical hardware, printers, or in-person onboarding regularly, remote support has limits. 

• Deep institutional knowledge: An outside team learns your environment over time, but they will not have the same understanding of your internal projects, workflows, and business context that a long-term employee builds. 

• On-demand availability for minor requests: Managed services work well for structured support. Ad-hoc requests that fall outside your agreement may require a ticket and a wait, rather than someone down the hall. 

Side-by-side comparison 

Why this matters 

The instinct to hire is understandable. Having someone in the office feels more controllable. But for most businesses under 75 employees, the math rarely supports it. You end up with one generalist, standard hours, and a gap in coverage every time that person is unavailable. Running the numbers honestly, including fully loaded salary, limited after-hours coverage, and the cost of contractor calls when something specialized breaks, usually tells a different story than the initial hire feels like it will. 

Sunco works with businesses across Western Canada on exactly this question. With more than 3,000 clients served and a team that covers IT support and business communications under one provider, we can walk through the numbers with you and help you figure out what structure actually fits your size, your budget, and how your team works.