How Much Does IT Outsourcing Cost per Year for SMBs? 2026 Pricing Models, Published Tiers, and Pitfall Guide

“How much does IT outsourcing actually cost per year?” is the question we hear most often from business owners and admin staff. With opaque pricing and quotes that differ by several times over, it is easy to feel uncertain. This article lays it all out at once: the pricing models used for SME IT outsourcing, 2026 market rates, our own published tiers, and how to work out the numbers without falling into traps. Once you have read it, you can estimate your own budget — and take it to compare against any other provider.

What pricing models does IT outsourcing use?

Model	Beijing market rates (Sep 2026)	Who it suits / where the traps are
Pay-per-incident	RMB 300–800 per on-site visit; incident packages from about RMB 4,000/year	Under 10 people, no servers. Trap: no one is accountable when something major breaks, and a different technician turns up each time
Per person / per device	RMB 80–200 per computer/month; or RMB 2–3 per person per day	Companies with many endpoints and simple needs. Trap: servers, network equipment, and on-site visits are often billed separately
All-inclusive monthly subscription (the full package)	RMB 2,000–10,000 per month, tiered by headcount	Companies of 10 to 200 people that want everything covered under one contract. This is what we mainly offer — see the tiers below
On-site / semi-dedicated staffing	RMB 8,000–15,000 per person per month	Over 200 people with heavy IT demands. Trap: staff turnover means every replacement requires a fresh handover

Siwenlide’s published IT full-package tiers

We publish our prices openly because it is the first thing clients ask, and hiding them serves no purpose. All four tiers cover everything under a single contract: day-to-day operations + network equipment (firewall, router, switch, and AP supplied and under warranty for the contract term) + data backup + remote and on-site response, with unlimited service requests.

Tier	Suitable scale	Monthly fee (from)	Typical configuration
Basic	5 to 20 people	from RMB 1,999/month	One office, no server or one NAS; firewall + switch + AP
Standard	20 to 50 people	from RMB 3,999/month	One or two servers or NAS, backup, remote access; the most commonly chosen tier
Full Package	50 to 100 people	from RMB 6,999/month	Multiple servers, two-site interconnection, zero trust remote access, 7×12 response, MLPS 2.0 support
Flagship	100 to 200 people	from RMB 9,999/month	Multiple sites, server room, monitoring, a dedicated 1-to-1 engineer, 7×24 response, regular on-site inspections

What is not included is spelled out too: one-off projects (cabling, surveillance, office moves) are quoted separately per data outlet and per point; internet lines and cloud resources are charged by the carrier and cloud provider — we only handle the application and coordination; software licences (Office, ERP, etc.) are purchased at actual cost.

By this table, a 30-person company on the Standard tier pays about RMB 48,000 a year. The firewall, switch, and AP set does not need to be bought separately (buying your own set usually costs tens of thousands of RMB), service requests are unlimited, and the annual cost is predictable. Our article How much does a 30-person company actually spend on IT in a year breaks the individual expenses down in more detail.

Converted into a per-person figure, so you can compare with providers who quote per head: the Standard tier at RMB 3,999/month covers 20 to 50 people — about RMB 80–200 per person per month, or roughly RMB 2.7–6.7 per person per day; the Full Package tier at RMB 6,999/month covers 50 to 100 people — about RMB 70–140 per person per month, or roughly RMB 2.3–4.7 per person per day. These figures include network equipment, backup, remote access, and unlimited service requests; per-head packages usually exclude these items, so add them back when comparing. (September 2026 reference only; this does not constitute a binding quotation.)

Which ”hidden items” in a quote should you pin down?

Two providers can both say ”RMB 30,000 a year” — one covers everything, the other charges extra at every turn. Confirm each item before signing:

• Is there a cap on the number of service requests? Do overages cost extra?
• Are on-site visits charged a separate call-out fee? How many hours until arrival within the city? Is this written into the contract?
• Are the firewall, router, switch, and AP included? Who pays if they fail? Who owns the equipment when the contract ends?
• Are servers, backup, and remote access part of ”another package”?
• Are project-type work — OS installation, office moves, cabling, surveillance — billed separately? How is it calculated?

How to choose so it pays off

Under 30 people with light IT needs: an annual all-inclusive package is less hassle than paying per incident, and someone is accountable when things go wrong. 30 to 200 people: choose the full package with equipment included in the contract and unlimited service requests, putting operations and networking under one provider and saving yourself from wrangling with several vendors. Over 200 people or high-frequency IT needs: consider semi-dedicated on-site staffing. The most expensive thing is never the service fee — it is the downtime caused by having no one to call when it matters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: We already have an IT colleague in-house — do we still need this?
A: Yes. Many of the people we work with are the company’s own IT administrators. We are their outside support: network equipment, security policies, and backups — the parts one person cannot cover alone — are handled by us, and we step in when things get busy.

Q: Why do quotes from different companies differ by several times?
A: Mostly in ”what is included”. A low price is often charged per visit or excludes equipment; it looks cheap, but when something actually goes wrong, the add-on charges for individual items make it more expensive. Compare line by line against the hidden cost items above.

Q: The prices are published online — will you refuse to honor them later?
A: The tiers are public, and the starting price is the starting price. If the on-site inventory comes back higher than the starting price, we will explain item by item which equipment or sites added to the cost, and you can choose to leave them out.

Q: Can we try it for a while first?
A: Yes. Start with a free on-site IT health check, receive an inventory report and a quote, and sign only if it suits you — no long-term contract.

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Further reading:What IT really costs a 30-person company per year · Who owns the equipment when the contract ends · IT Operations Outsourcing providers in Beijing · Shunyi / Chaoyang / Haidian IT operations companies