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 (4 x 7,900 EUR fully loaded) | 31,600 EUR |
| On-call allowances (4 staff x 800 EUR) | 3,200 EUR |
| Tooling (monitoring, ticketing, mobile) | on top, at your expense |
| TOTAL | 34,800 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| RDEM Systems, per machine (customer provides monitoring) | 90 - 160 EUR/month |
| RDEM Systems, 24x7 fleet package | 3,450 - 6,000 EUR/month |
At RDEM Systems
On-call only, per machine
90 or 160 EUR/month
90 EUR with a 4h response time SLA, 160 EUR with a 1h SLA, per server, volume discount from 5 servers. You provide your own monitoring.
On-call only, fleet package
3,450 or 6,000 EUR/month
3,450 EUR for 24x7 with a 4h SLA, 6,000 EUR with a 1h SLA, whole fleet. Cheaper than per-machine billing beyond roughly fifty servers.
Managed services, on-call included
From 70 EUR/month
We also carry monitoring, patching and operational maintenance: 70, 150 or 250 EUR per server.
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 round-the-clock standby: the ability to pick up an incident at 3 a.m. Outsourcing complements your team -- it does not replace it.
| Criteria | In-House | Outsourced |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (5 servers) | ~34,800 EUR | ~405 EUR |
| Monthly cost (20 servers) | ~34,800 EUR | ~1,440 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 |
In-house on-call allowances alone:
3,200 EUR/month vs 1,440 EUR/month
On the left, 800 EUR of on-call allowance per person for four people in rotation -- salaries excluded. On the right, outsourced on-call for 20 servers with a 4h response time SLA. And without the overhead: HR management, scheduling, overtime, regulatory compliance.
The break-even point
We sell on-call two ways, per machine or as a fleet package, and the crossover is a calculation. The 24x7 fleet package with a 4h response time SLA is 3,450 EUR/month: at the 90 EUR list price that would be 38 machines. But the volume discount applies — -20% beyond 20 servers, so 72 EUR a machine — which pushes the crossover out to 48 servers. Same mechanics with a 1h SLA: 6,000 EUR/month is worth 37 machines at list price, 47 once the discount is applied.
Both service levels cross over at the same place, around fifty machines, and that is no coincidence: what costs money in an on-call service is the rota you have to staff, not the number of machines you watch. Below that, per-machine billing is cheaper; above it, the fleet package is. We apply whichever is cheaper for you.
Bringing the standby in house is a different order of magnitude altogether: a four-FTE rota costs 34,800 EUR/month whether you run 5 servers or 50 — ten times the fleet package. The calculation does not turn on a server count. It turns on the day standby stops being the bulk of what you ask those four people to do, and that is a question of in-house team versus managed services, not of on-call.
Summary: on-call support from 90 EUR/month
Two ways to buy the same round-the-clock standby, depending on whether you already run your own estate. No hourly billing on the on-call itself, no surprise invoices.
On-call only — you provide the monitoring
24x7, 4h SLA
90 EUR/month*
Picked up within 4 hours, 365 days a year
24x7, 1h SLA
160 EUR/month*
Picked up within 1 hour, 365 days a year
Managed services — we also carry monitoring, patching and operational maintenance
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, volume discount from 5 servers. On the managed services plans, offsite backup via NimbusBackup PBS is included. Incidents dispatched via PagerDuty.
* Excludes the server / VM you rent separately. You subscribe to the machine directly with the host and the contract stays in your name: we only bill the management service.
Save on your IT on-call support costs
Go from a 34,800 EUR/month budget to 405 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.