Short answer: in Surrey, business IT support typically costs $100–$150 an hour for remote help and $125–$185 an hour onsite, usually with a one-hour minimum per visit. Prepaid blocks of hours save around 10–15%, and ongoing monthly plans run $95–$250 per user per month. Installs and setups are usually quoted as a project.
Those are typical ranges for Surrey and Metro Vancouver in 2026, drawn from published local rates and our own pricing. Your price depends on the job, the building and the equipment, which is why we quote onsite work before it starts. This guide explains how each pricing model works, what typical jobs cost, and how to keep the bill down.
Hourly IT Support Rates in Surrey
Hourly billing, sometimes called break-fix, is the simplest way to pay: something breaks, someone fixes it, you pay for the time. Most businesses that call us for the first time pay this way.
| Type of work | Typical rate | How it’s billed |
|---|---|---|
| Remote support | $100–$150 / hr | In 15-minute steps, from when the session starts |
| Onsite visit | $125–$185 / hr | One-hour minimum, then by the quarter hour |
| Scheduled evenings & weekends | typically 1.5× the hourly rate | Booked ahead for installs, moves and upgrades |
Remote support is cheaper because it’s faster. No travel, no parking, and the technician can often fix the problem while you’re still on the phone. Password problems, Outlook issues, software errors and most printer problems are remote jobs. Hardware failures, cabling and new equipment need a visit.
Across Metro Vancouver, published break-fix rates range from under $100 an hour for basic remote help to $250 an hour for senior engineers. Surrey sits in the middle of that range. Be wary of very low hourly rates with long minimums or a separate call-out fee: a $90 rate with a two-hour minimum and a $75 trip charge costs more than $150 for a 45-minute visit.
Block Hours: Prepaid Time at a Lower Rate
A block of hours is IT time you buy upfront, usually 10 or 20 hours, at around 10–15% under the hourly rate. You draw it down as you use it, remote and onsite, and get a statement showing what each hour was spent on.
Blocks suit businesses that call a few times a month, or that have a project coming up with a tail of small jobs after it: new staff to set up, a printer to replace, a few Wi-Fi tweaks. Ask how long the hours last before they expire, and whether onsite time uses them at a higher rate.
Monthly IT Support Plans
Monthly plans charge a fixed fee per user, typically $95–$250 per user per month in Metro Vancouver. In return, the provider monitors and updates your computers, handles support requests without counting hours, and usually includes security tools and backup.
A monthly plan makes sense when you need help most weeks, when downtime is expensive, or when you’d rather have someone watching for problems before they happen. It doesn’t make sense if you call twice a year. Plenty of Surrey businesses run happily on hourly support for years.
Rule of thumb: add up last year’s IT invoices. If hourly support cost less than a monthly plan would for your headcount, stay hourly. If it cost more, or if problems are piling up because nobody wants to pay to fix them, look at a plan.
What Typical Jobs Cost
Installs and setups are usually priced per unit: per computer, per cable run, per access point. These are typical Surrey ranges for labour, with hardware listed separately because you can buy it yourself or through us.
| Job | Typical labour | Typical hardware |
|---|---|---|
| New computer setup | $125–$250 per computer | $1,000–$2,000 per computer |
| Network cabling | $175–$350 per drop | Included or not needed |
| Wi-Fi access points | $250–$450 per access point | $200–$700 per access point |
| Microsoft 365 / email migration | $75–$175 per mailbox | Included or not needed |
| VoIP phone system | $100–$200 per handset | $150–$400 per handset |
| Backup / NAS setup | $800–$2,000 per site | $1,000–$3,000 per site |
A few worked examples, using the midpoint of each range:
- Eight new laptops for a growing office: about $1,500 in setup labour, plus the laptops themselves.
- Twelve new network drops and four access points in a small office: about $4,550 in labour, plus the access points.
- Moving 15 mailboxes to Microsoft 365: about $1,875, plus Microsoft’s monthly licences.
Try your own numbers in the estimator below.
What Makes IT Support Cost More
- No documentation. If nobody knows the admin passwords or how the network was set up, the first hour goes on finding out.
- Old equipment. A seven-year-old server or an out-of-support firewall takes longer to fix and is more likely to need replacing.
- Difficult buildings. Concrete walls, heritage buildings, high warehouse ceilings and strata rules all add time to cabling and Wi-Fi jobs.
- Urgency. Work booked for evenings or weekends costs more. Most fixes can wait until morning; most installs can be planned.
- Scope creep. “While you’re here” is reasonable, but write the extras down so the invoice makes sense.
How to Keep the Bill Down
- Try the safe checks first. Restarting properly and checking whether a problem affects one person or everyone solves a lot. Our troubleshooting checklist walks through them.
- Describe the problem well. The exact error message, when it started, who’s affected and what changed recently. A good description can halve the time.
- Batch small jobs. Three small requests in one visit cost less than three visits.
- Keep a password and settings record. Ask for one at the end of every job, and keep it somewhere safe.
- Replace on a schedule. Computers older than five or six years cost more in support time than they save.
Which Option Is Right for You?
If you need help a few times a year, pay hourly. If you’re calling a few times a month or have a project with lots of small follow-ups, buy a block. If your team relies on technology all day and downtime costs real money, a monthly plan is usually the better deal. The comparison below sums it up, and if you’re still not sure, call 604-359-5284 and we’ll tell you which would have cost less last year.
| Hourly | Block hours | Monthly plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | $100–$150/hr remote, $125–$185/hr onsite | Prepaid 10 or 20 hours, 10–15% under hourly | $95–$250 per user, per month |
| Commitment | None. Pay per job | Hours used as you need them | Ongoing agreement |
| Best for | Occasional problems and one-off installs | A few jobs a month, or a project with extras | Teams that need help every week |
| Prevention | Only what you ask for | Can be spent on health checks | Monitoring and patching included |
| When it costs more | If you call every week | If hours expire unused | If you rarely need help |