Headline finding · measured 2026-09-06

The median US IT support provider has 9 employees, and 85% serve a single local market.

Small businesses buy IT support from other small businesses. What that market looks like, how it prices itself, and how few firms make you commit to a seat minimum.

9 staff

median headcount across the 29,505 US providers that publish one

Measured across 39,148 in-scope US providers in one snapshot; unknowns count against every share. Headcount is on file for 29,505 of them; 361 publish a per-user, per-month rate (701 tiers) with a plausible amount between $10 and $500. as of 2026-09-06.

How big the providers are (share of all 39,148)

1-10 staff40.9%

11-50 staff22.8%

51-200 staff8.1%

201+ staff3.6%

No headcount on file24.6%

Providers that name small business as who they serve

13.5% say small business or SMB somewhere on their site · 5,292do not say it · 33,856

base 39,148

What a seat costs, from the 361 firms that publish a rate

Per user, per month

each firm counted once

Median cheapest tier: $75
Median of all 701 tiers: $97
Median most expensive tier: $100

Seat minimums

of the same 361 firms

State any minimum: 38 (10.5%)
Minimum of 10 seats or fewer: 26
Minimum above 25 seats: 8

The provider is usually smaller than you are

16,019 of 39,148 US providers, 40.9%, employ ten people or fewer. Another 8,932 (22.8%) employ between 11 and 50. Only 1,396 firms, 3.6% of the directory, have more than 200 staff. 9,643 (24.6%) publish no headcount at all, and they count against every one of those shares.

Across the 29,505 firms that do publish a number, the median is 9 employees. A small business shopping for IT support is, in most cases, hiring a company its own size or smaller.

Geography matches. 33,373 firms, 85.2%, operate a single local footprint; 1,395 (3.6%) are regional and 419 (1.1%) national. The remaining 3,961 show us no footprint. The market for small-business IT support is overwhelmingly a market of one-office firms serving one metro.

13.5% say the words 'small business'

5,292 of 39,148 providers mention small business or SMB somewhere we can read: in their listed services, their target industries, or their own description of themselves. That is 13.5%. Only 109 list small business as a formal target vertical, because most firms describe their targets as industries (healthcare, legal, manufacturing) rather than by company size.

Read that as a floor on intent, not a ceiling on who will take your call. The 33,855 firms that never say 'small business' are mostly firms with nine employees, and their customer base is not Fortune 500. The phrase is a marketing choice; the headcount is the fact.

What it costs, and who publishes a price

361 US providers publish a per-user, per-month rate we can read, 701 tiers between them. Counting each firm once at its cheapest tier, the median is $75 a user a month. Across all 701 tiers the median is $97. Counting each firm once at its most expensive tier, the median is $100. A ten-person business is therefore looking at roughly $750 to $1,000 a month at the published middle of the market, before onboarding fees.

Publishing a price is rare at every size, and rarer the bigger the firm. 195 of 16,019 firms with 1-10 staff are flagged as showing a price on their site (1.2%); 78 of 8,932 firms with 11-50 staff (0.9%); 13 of 4,554 firms with 51 or more (0.3%). The small providers are the transparent ones, relatively speaking.

Seat minimums are the exception

Of the 361 firms that publish a per-user rate, 38 (10.5%) state a minimum number of seats. 15 set it at five or fewer, 11 at six to ten, 4 at 11 to 25, and 8 above 25. So 26 of the 38 minimums admit a business of ten people, and 323 firms state no minimum at all.

The firms that publish a low minimum are not the cheap ones. Among the 26 with a minimum of ten seats or fewer, the median cheapest tier is $112.50; among the 12 with a higher minimum it is $100. Both groups are small enough that the difference should be read as a hint, not a finding.

Coverage is the other question a small business should ask. 5,125 of 39,148 providers, 13.1%, state 24/7 coverage anywhere on their site. The share barely moves with size: 15.0% of firms with 1-10 staff, 15.0% of firms with 11-50, 13.0% of firms with 51 or more.

What this number can't tell you

·This card was measured on 2026-09-06 at a base of 39,148 in-scope US providers in one repeatable-read snapshot. The rest of this edition is frozen at 39,351 from 2026-09-03; cleanup moved the base by 0.5% between snapshots. Every figure here is quoted against 39,148, and no existing card was rebased.
·Headcount is on file for 29,505 of 39,148 firms. Size shares are quoted against all 39,148, so 'No headcount on file' (24.6%) is a real bucket, not a rounding remainder.
·'Says small business' matches the phrases small business, small biz, SMB, small and medium, small to medium and SME in listed services, target verticals or the firm's own description. Firms that serve small businesses without using those words are not counted.
·Pricing figures use only rows with unit per user, period month, a current snapshot, and an amount between $10 and $500; 361 firms, 701 tiers. Every tier is priced at its listed starting amount; 105 of the 701 tiers are shown as a range and the upper bound is not used. 'Median cheapest tier' takes each firm's minimum, 'median most expensive' each firm's maximum, and 'all tiers' counts every row. These are advertised rates, not contracts.
·The seat-minimum comparison rests on 26 and 12 firms respectively and is reported as an indication only.
·The price-publishing share by size uses the site-level 'shows pricing' flag (298 firms in total), which is a different and stricter signal than the 361 firms in the pricing table; the two are not interchangeable.
·24/7 coverage is a floor: an unchecked firm counts as showing no claim.

What to do about it

▸Buying: ask the provider's headcount before their client list. The median is 9; if that is a problem for you, the shortlist gets short quickly. Then ask for the per-user rate and the minimum, and expect neither to be on the website.
▸Selling: 86.5% of your competitors never say 'small business' anywhere a buyer can read it, and 89.5% of firms that publish a rate state no minimum. Saying both, with a number, is a differentiator that costs nothing.

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