How Much Does IT On-Call Support Cost?
The cost of 24/7 IT on-call support varies dramatically depending on whether you build an in-house team or outsource to a managed services provider. This guide gives you the real numbers to budget accurately.
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The true cost of in-house IT on-call support
To run a reliable 24/7 IT on-call rotation in-house, you need at least 4 qualified engineers on rotation. Here is why -- and what it actually costs.
Why at least 4 people?
- * Annual leave: 4-5 weeks per person per year
- * Public holidays: 8-12 days per year depending on country
- * Sick leave: average 8-10 days per employee per year
- * Training: 3-5 days per year minimum
- * Healthy rotation: 1 week on-call / 3-4 weeks off
With fewer than 4 people, your on-call schedule will have gaps or your team will burn out.
Cost breakdown
| Cost item | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| 4 senior sysadmins (salaries + employer costs) | ~30,000 EUR |
| On-call compensation (4 staff x ~900 EUR) | ~3,600 EUR |
| Intervention hours (night/weekend premiums) | ~2,000 EUR |
| Tooling (monitoring, ticketing, mobile) | ~500 EUR |
| TOTAL | ~36,100 EUR/month |
On-call compensation breakdown (per person)
Weeknight on-call
25-50 EUR/night x 5 = 125-250 EUR
Weekend on-call
50-100 EUR/day x 2 = 100-200 EUR
Total per week
225-450 EUR/week of on-call duty
With 1 week on-call out of every 4, each employee receives approximately 900 EUR/month in on-call compensation.
How many staff for 24/7 on-call coverage?
Beyond the unit cost, the fundamental question is: how many people do you need to ensure continuous coverage? This number is often underestimated.
For reliable 24/7 on-call with a 1-hour response time SLA:
1. Annual hours to cover
- Hours per day: 24h
- Days per year: 365 days
- Total to cover: 8,760 hours/year
Important: On-call includes nights (10 PM - 7 AM), weekends, and public holidays. These are the most difficult and costly shifts to staff internally.
2. Actual availability per employee
| Standard working hours/year: | 1,800h |
| Annual leave (4-5 weeks): | -175h |
| Public holidays: | -80h |
| Sick leave (average): | -56h |
| Professional development: | -35h |
| Net availability: | ~1,450h/year |
On-call is not active work
During on-call shifts, staff are not at their desk but must remain reachable. Most employment regulations limit the frequency and duration of on-call duties per employee.
3. Final headcount calculation
Minimum configuration (no redundancy):
Recommended configuration (with 1-hour response time SLA redundancy):
- 2 people on-call simultaneously (automatic escalation)
- Healthy rotation to prevent burnout
- Coverage for unexpected absences
The cost of outsourced on-call support
Outsourcing IT on-call support to a specialised managed services provider allows you to share costs. The provider distributes its teams across multiple clients, which drastically reduces the per-client price.
Market rates (2026)
| Type of on-call service | Price range |
|---|---|
| After-hours only (nights + weekends) | 1,500 - 3,000 EUR/month |
| 24/7 with 4-hour response time SLA | 3,000 - 4,500 EUR/month |
| 24/7 with 1-hour response time SLA | 5,000 - 8,000 EUR/month |
| Managed services + on-call included (per server) | 100 - 200 EUR/month |
At RDEM Systems
Managed Services + On-Call
From 70 EUR/month
70 EUR business hours (7 AM - 10 PM) or 150 EUR 24x7 with on-call included
Fleet on-call, 1h response time SLA
6,000 EUR/month
Fleet package - guaranteed intervention within 1 hour
Comparison: in-house vs outsourced
Fair comparison: Your internal team does much more than on-call (daily administration, projects, user support...). We are comparing here only the cost of after-hours coverage. Outsourcing complements your team -- it does not replace it.
| Criteria | In-House | Outsourced |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (5 servers) | ~36,000 EUR | ~750 EUR |
| Monthly cost (20 servers) | ~36,000 EUR | ~3,000 EUR |
| Coverage | 24/7 if 4+ staff | 24/7/365 guaranteed |
| Coverage gaps | Yes (leave, sickness) | No |
| Available expertise | Limited to 4 people | Multidisciplinary team |
| Scalability | Requires hiring | Immediate |
On-call compensation cost comparison:
~3,680 EUR/month vs 3,450 EUR/month
Comparable cost, but without the overhead: HR management, scheduling, overtime, regulatory compliance...
The break-even point
In-house on-call only becomes economically viable if you manage more than 200 servers, with a team of 8-10 people in rotation. Below that threshold, outsourcing is always more cost-effective while also delivering better service quality.
Summary: on-call support from 70 EUR/month
On-call support is included in our managed services packages. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
Essential
70 EUR/month
7 AM-10 PM 7d/7 + monitoring
Pro
150 EUR/month
24/7 4h response time SLA + NimbusBackup
Critical
250 EUR/month
24/7 1h response time SLA + 1 TB backup
Per server, excl. VAT. Offsite backup via NimbusBackup PBS included. Incidents dispatched via PagerDuty.
Save on your IT on-call support costs
Go from a 36,000 EUR/month budget to under 1,000 EUR/month for 5 servers. 24/7 on-call support included in our managed services packages. You can also learn how our on-call works.