What should a solo dental practice actually pay for IT?
A solo or small practice (one to a few chairs) typically lands in the $500-$1,200 per month range for managed IT, or roughly $35-$80 per workstation if priced per device. The goal for a small office is to be right-sized: not overpaying for enterprise-grade tiers you do not need, and not underpaying into a break-fix gamble that costs you a lost day at the worst moment. The right number is the one that covers the essentials predictably.
What a solo practice genuinely needs
- Monitoring and support for the server (or cloud), workstations, and dental software.
- Security basics - firewall, endpoint protection, MFA. (See why small offices are ransomware targets.)
- Tested backups - the one thing a small practice cannot afford to get wrong. (See do my dental backups actually work?)
- A BAA and HIPAA-aware setup. (See what is a BAA?)
- Imaging and PMS support from someone who knows your software.
Where solo practices overpay
- Enterprise tiers sized for multi-location groups.
- Per-user pricing when per-device or flat would be cheaper for a tiny team.
- Bundles full of features a one-chair office will never use.
- Long contracts that lock in a rate with no leverage. (See is month-to-month worth it?)
Where solo practices underpay - and pay for it later
The opposite mistake is going pure break-fix to save money. A solo practice has the least slack to absorb a full-day outage, and "we will call someone when it breaks" means nobody is watching the backups or the security gaps until it is too late. For a one-person practice, an unrecoverable database or a ransomware hit is not a setback - it is existential. (See break-fix vs managed vs autonomous.)
How to right-size it
- Match the plan to your actual device and user count, not a template.
- Confirm security and tested backups are included, not add-ons.
- Prefer transparent, predictable pricing over a low headline with metered extras.
- Favor flexible terms so you are not locked into the wrong size.
Where automation helps a small budget
A small practice benefits most from automation, because it has the least staff slack. A platform that resolves the routine failures itself stretches a modest IT budget further than paying for human hours to do the same. CyberCore is built dental-native and autonomous, priced transparently with no long-term contract; see pricing for a number sized to your practice.