All client systems operationalAvg response today: 22 min
Subscription IT for South African SMEs

Your IT department. One flat monthly fee.

Helpdesk, Microsoft 365, your website and your hardware, all handled by a dedicated team. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices, no chasing a freelancer who has gone quiet.

From a 12 month term, then month to month with 30 days' notice. POPIA-conscious from day one.

Support consoleLive queue
Outlook not syncing, reception PCResolved 18 min
New starter setup, M365 licenceResolved 41 min
Website contact form fixIn progress
Printer offline, boardroomResolved 25 min
Illustrative queue. Actual response times reported monthly per client.
The problem

Small businesses get the worst of IT

You're too small for an internal IT team and too busy to be your own. So you end up with one of these.

Option 01

The hourly IT guy

Every call costs money, so problems get ignored until they become emergencies. His incentive is your downtime, not your uptime.

Option 02

The nephew who's good with computers

Free until he isn't. No documentation, no backups, no answer on a Sunday when the server is down and payroll is due Monday.

Option 03

Doing it yourself

You started a business to run the business. Instead you spend Tuesday afternoons on hold with your email provider.

What's covered

Everything an SME actually needs. Nothing you don't.

One subscription covers the four things that keep a small business running.

Helpdesk and remote support

A real person, on WhatsApp, email or phone, who fixes the thing.

  • Fair use remote support, up to 4 tickets per user per month
  • Guaranteed response times, tracked and reported
  • Named support contact who knows your setup

Microsoft 365 management

Email, Teams, SharePoint and licences, set up properly and kept that way.

  • Licence management and cost optimisation
  • Email security, backups and staff onboarding
  • New starters set up in hours, leavers locked out same day

Website design and care

We design and build your site, then keep it live, secure and up to date.

  • New site design and build, from brief to launch
  • Hosting management, updates and security patches
  • Content changes included in your subscription

Hardware and device support

Laptops, printers, networks and the mystery cable behind the desk.

  • Device setup, troubleshooting and lifecycle advice
  • On-site callouts included on Growth and Scale plans
  • Procurement guidance so you stop overpaying for kit
How it works

Sorted in your first week

We do the heavy lifting up front so the subscription just hums after that.

Week 1

Audit and onboard

We map every device, account, licence and password in your business, fix the urgent stuff, and document all of it. You get a copy. It's your IT, not ours.

Ongoing

Support and maintain

Log tickets on WhatsApp, email or phone. We resolve, patch, back up and monitor in the background so most problems never reach you.

Monthly

Report and improve

A one-page monthly report: tickets resolved, response times, what we recommend next. You always know what you're paying for.

The team

Sharp graduates. Senior oversight. Honest prices.

Deskside is staffed by top South African tech graduates working under experienced senior engineers. It's why we can charge what an SME can actually afford, and it's why our team is hungrier than anyone else you'll deal with. Every client also gets a senior engineer reviewing their environment, so you get energy and experience, not one or the other.

Trained

Certified before they touch your systemsEvery engineer completes Microsoft 365 and support certifications during onboarding.

Backed

Senior engineers on every accountComplex issues escalate to senior staff within the same ticket. You never get "I'll have to ask someone".

Local

South African, in your time zoneNo offshore call centre. Support in plain English, on the channels you already use.

Pricing

One flat fee. Everything included.

Priced per business, not per panic. Plans run on a minimum term, then continue month to month with a 30 day notice period.

Essentials

For teams of 1 to 5 people

R2,495 /month excl. VAT

20 tickets included · R250 per extra ticket

  • Remote helpdesk, up to 20 tickets a month
  • Microsoft 365 management, up to 5 users
  • Website care and hosting management
  • Next business day response guarantee
  • Monthly report

12 month minimum term

Start with Essentials
Most popular

Growth

For teams of 6 to 20 people

R4,995 /month excl. VAT

70 tickets included · R195 per extra ticket

  • Everything in Essentials
  • Remote helpdesk, up to 70 tickets a month
  • Microsoft 365 management, up to 20 users
  • 4 hour response guarantee
  • 1 on-site callout per month included
  • Quarterly IT health review with a senior engineer

12 month minimum term

Start with Growth

Scale

For teams of 21 to 50 people

R8,995 /month excl. VAT

160 tickets included · R150 per extra ticket

  • Everything in Growth
  • Remote helpdesk, up to 160 tickets a month
  • Microsoft 365 management, up to 50 users
  • 2 hour response guarantee
  • 3 on-site callouts per month included
  • Dedicated account engineer and annual IT roadmap

24 month minimum term

Start with Scale

Plan comparison

What you getEssentialsGrowthPopularScale
Monthly feeR2,495R4,995R8,995
Included tickets20 / month70 / month160 / month
Extra ticket costR250 eachR195 eachR150 each
Microsoft 365 usersUp to 5Up to 20Up to 50
Response guaranteeNext business day4 hour2 hour
On-site calloutsNone1/month3/month
Monthly reportIncludedIncludedIncluded
Quarterly health reviewIncludedIncluded
Dedicated account engineerIncluded
Annual IT roadmapIncluded
Minimum term12 month12 month24 month

All prices exclude VAT. Overage only applies to remote helpdesk tickets beyond your monthly allowance and is billed in the following month.

Ticket allowances are pooled across your team and cover remote helpdesk requests. We warn you before you hit your limit so there are no surprises. Extra tickets are billed at the per-ticket rate shown above, and if overages become regular we recommend moving up a plan instead. Project work such as office moves and hardware rollouts is quoted separately at preferential subscriber rates. Larger than 50 people? Talk to us about a custom plan.

WEB
LAUNCH
Add-on: The Website Launch Pack

A professional website, designed, built and launched

A modern, mobile-friendly site for your business: design, build, copy polish, hosting setup and launch, typically live within three weeks. From R14,995 once-off for subscribers, and ongoing care is already covered by your plan, so it never rots. Includes basic search visibility setup and a POPIA-compliant contact form.

Ask about the Launch Pack

SLA
BACKED

The Response Guarantee

If we miss our response time commitment on any ticket in a given month, that month's subscription is free. We publish our response times in your monthly report, so you'll know before we do. That's how confident we are, and it means our incentives point at your uptime, not your downtime.

Founding cohort

We're onboarding our first 20 clients

Founding clients lock in launch pricing for 24 months, get their onboarding audit free, and get a direct line to the founding team. Places remaining: 14

Claim a founding place
FAQ

Fair questions

What exactly is included in support?+
Remote helpdesk tickets up to your plan's monthly ticket allowance, within your plan's user count. Essentials includes 20 tickets, Growth 70 and Scale 160. Almost every SME lands well inside it. Project work such as a new website, an office move or a server migration is always quoted separately.
What happens if we go over our ticket allowance?+
We warn you before you hit your limit, so there are no surprises. Extra tickets are billed at R250 each on Essentials, R195 each on Growth and R150 each on Scale. If overages start happening regularly, we'll recommend moving up a plan instead. We never bill for overages without flagging it first.
We already have an IT person. Why switch?+
If they're great, keep them. Most SMEs we meet have someone who is reactive, undocumented and expensive per incident. We start with a free comparison: bring us your last three months of IT invoices and we'll show you what the same work costs on subscription.
What happens to our passwords and documentation if we leave?+
You get everything. All documentation, credentials and configurations belong to you and are handed over in full within five business days of cancellation. We win by being good, not by holding your systems hostage.
Are graduates really qualified to handle our IT?+
Our engineers are selected from top graduate programmes, certified during onboarding, and every account has a senior engineer reviewing the environment and handling escalations. Most SME support work is well-defined and process-driven; the model gives you responsiveness at a fair price with experience behind it.
How do you handle POPIA and our data?+
Access to your systems is role-based, logged and covered by a data processing agreement signed at onboarding. We treat compliance as part of the product, not an afterthought, and we'll flag POPIA risks in your environment during the initial audit.
What is the contract term?+
Essentials and Growth run on a 12 month minimum term, Scale on 24 months. That is what lets us hold a flat fee instead of billing per incident. After the minimum term the plan continues month to month with 30 days' notice, and you can move up a plan at any time.
Get started

Book a free IT audit

We'll only use your details to respond to this enquiry. No mailing lists, no nonsense.

Or just talk to us

Prefer a human? Same.

Tell us what's broken, what's slow or what's costing too much. The audit is free, takes about an hour, and you keep the findings whether or not you subscribe.

HoursMon to Fri, 08:00 to 17:00 SAST. Emergency line for subscribers.
WhereJohannesburg, serving clients nationwide remotely