Managed IT support for a financial trading or brokerage firm usually costs between £45 and £100 per user per month. Trading firms tend to sit towards the upper end, because they need high availability, layered security and support that understands a regulated, no-downtime environment. Set against the cost of an outage or a fraud loss, it is money well spent.
Here is what drives the price for a trading firm, so you can judge a quote properly.
1. Availability and resilience
If your systems cannot go down during market hours, you need resilient connectivity, failover and tested disaster recovery. That resilience adds cost but protects revenue that downtime would otherwise destroy.
2. Security and compliance
Trading firms are heavily targeted and tightly regulated. Endpoint protection, application allowlisting, MFA, managed email security, staff training and communications retention all factor into the price, and all protect client money and your licence to operate.
3. Secure access into external networks
Connecting securely into banks’ and counterparties’ systems needs to be reliable and locked down. Managing that access well is part of what you are paying for.
4. Response and support level
Fast response is essential when an issue hits mid-trade. The level of support and monitoring you choose shapes the monthly fee, and a good provider includes proactive monitoring as standard so problems are caught early.
A real example: a quick fix when it mattered
We supported a technology firm serving trading desks where a user expected a slow fix but got a fast one: “I thought the connection error would take a long time to fix, however the issue was sorted in just 3 hours.” In a trading environment, that speed is exactly what the monthly fee is for.
What a firm your size should expect to pay
As a rough guide, based on the £45 to £100 per user range:
- A 10-person team: roughly £450 to £750 a month for fully managed IT and security.
- A 25-person firm: roughly £1,250 to £2,000 a month.
- A 50-person firm with strict security or uptime needs: roughly £2,250 to £5,000 a month.
These are guide figures, not a quote, but the cost is predictable, per user, and scales with you as you hire.
What a managed service includes
For a trading firm, a complete managed service covers the desk and the back office:
- Helpdesk and support for your team, Microsoft 365 and core business apps
- Device management for laptops and servers: monitoring, patching and updates
- Secure access, including remote and privileged access where it is needed
- Managed cyber security: endpoint protection, allowlisting, email security and MFA
- Backup and tested recovery of your data and Microsoft 365
- Vendor coordination with your software, cloud and connectivity suppliers
- Clear reporting and a forward IT plan, not just reactive fixes
The result is systems that stay up, communications you can evidence, and money movements you can trust.
Getting value from your IT budget
The goal is not the lowest invoice but the most value per pound. For a trading firm that means systems that stay up through the trading day, communications you can evidence for compliance, and payment processes that resist fraud, all of which cost far more to get wrong than to get right.
A predictable per-user cost also makes budgeting simple. You know what each desk costs to support, scaling the team does not spring surprise IT bills on you, and you can plan resilience and compliance work rather than reacting to it after a problem.
Why the cheapest quote costs more
It is tempting to pick the lowest number, but on a trading desk minutes of downtime, a missed or unrecorded communication, or a redirected payment costs far more than the gap between a cheap contract and a good one. The right question is not the lowest price, but who keeps you trading, compliant and protected.
Why technology and trading firms choose First Stop IT
First Stop IT has supported businesses since 2002, including software and technology companies and firms that serve financial markets. We know the systems these teams depend on: secure VPN and remote access, source control and build pipelines, virtual dev and test environments, Microsoft 365 and Teams, and the security that banks and regulators expect, from multi-factor authentication and endpoint protection to application allowlisting and email security. We work with technology and trading firms in London and across Essex and Hertfordshire. Our credentials include:
- Cyber Essentials Certified
- IASME Cyber Assurance (Gold)
- NCSC Assured Service Provider (Cyber Advisor for Cyber Essentials)
- Microsoft Partner
- Crown Commercial Service Supplier (G-Cloud)
- Quality Principles Certified
We look after more than 2,000 endpoints across 50 companies, we’ve been named a Top 50 UK MSP for three years running, and we support organisations with 10 to 100 employees across Essex, Hertfordshire and London, including Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford.
Book a free IT and cyber security review
Want a clear quote for your trading firm? Book a free IT and cyber security review with First Stop IT and we’ll show you exactly what’s included.