Break-fix vs managed vs autonomous IT: which costs less for a dental practice?
There are three ways to buy dental IT, and they trade predictability for cost differently. Break-fix is pay-per-incident: cheapest on paper, but unpredictable and reactive. Managed is a flat monthly fee for ongoing monitoring and support: predictable and proactive. Autonomous is managed plus software that resolves the common failures itself: the same coverage with fewer human hours, which is what lets it be priced competitively. The cheapest sticker is break-fix; the lowest total cost is usually whichever model prevents the most downtime.
Break-fix: pay when it breaks
You call when something fails and pay by the hour or the incident. It looks cheap because there is no monthly fee - but it is reactive by definition (nobody is watching), the costs are unpredictable, and the real expense is the downtime while you wait for help. For anything beyond the smallest, simplest office, the lost chair time usually dwarfs the savings. (See what downtime costs.)
Managed: a flat monthly fee
A recurring fee (commonly $35-$80 per workstation, or by practice size) buys ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and support. It is predictable and proactive - problems are caught and patched before they become outages - which is why most practices past a couple of chairs move to it. The cost is the monthly fee; the value is fewer emergencies. (See dental IT pricing ranges.)
Autonomous: managed, plus the software fixes the routine itself
An autonomous, dental-native platform does what managed does, and additionally resolves common, well-understood failures - a stopped database service, a stuck print queue - automatically in seconds, inside the owner's authorized boundaries. Because software handles the routine 80%, the human team focuses on what actually needs a person. That changes the cost structure: the same (or better) coverage with fewer billed human hours. (See why auto-remediation should be off by default.)
The cost comparison, honestly
- Lowest sticker: break-fix - until the first real outage.
- Most predictable: managed and autonomous - a known monthly number.
- Lowest total cost of ownership: usually the model that prevents the most downtime and needs the fewest emergency human hours, which is where autonomous aims.
The mistake is comparing monthly fees in isolation. The real comparison includes the cost of the outages each model lets through.
Which should a dental practice choose?
Most practices past one or two chairs are better off with managed or autonomous than break-fix, because predictable prevention beats cheap reaction once downtime has a real price. Solo offices have more room to weigh it. (See what a solo practice should pay.) CyberCore is the autonomous option, priced transparently with no long-term contract; see pricing for a real number.