Backup & Disaster Recovery

Backup and BDR Pricing for MSPs

Q: How should MSPs price restore tests?

Include a defined number of restore tests per year in the service agreement (typically 4 for critical systems). Additional tests beyond the included count are billable at your standard hourly rate. Emergency restores (actual disaster recovery, not scheduled tests) should also be covered by the agreement with a defined scope.

Q: Should emergency restores be billed separately?

If the restore is due to a hardware failure or a disaster event, it should be covered under the backup service agreement (within reason). If the restore is due to user error (deleted files, accidental overwrite) beyond a defined threshold (say, 2 per quarter), additional restores can be billed. Define this boundary in the MSA.

Q: What margin should MSPs target on backup services?

Target 50 to 60% gross margin on backup services. This is higher than the typical managed services margin (40 to 50%) because backup carries higher liability. The margin needs to cover not just tool costs and labor, but also the operational risk of being the last line of defense for client data.

How to understand your true backup costs, price BDR services profitably, and avoid the margin traps that erode profitability as client data grows.

Pricing guide Â· Updated Feb 2026

By MSP Workflows Team

Contents

1.The Pricing Complexity
2.What Backup Actually Costs You
3.Common Pricing Models for Backup Services
4.Watch for storage growth
5.Protect your margin
6.How should MSPs price restore tests?
7.Should emergency restores be billed separately?
8.What margin should MSPs target on backup services?

The Pricing Complexity

Backup pricing is more complex than other managed services because the cost scales with data volume, not just device count. A client with one server holding 500 GB of data costs dramatically less to protect than a client with the same number of devices but 5 TB of data. Most MSPs discover this the hard way: they set a flat per-server backup price, then onboard a client with a massive file server and watch their margin disappear into storage costs.

What Backup Actually Costs You

BDR appliance costs are typically structured as a hardware or virtual appliance license fee, per-device agent licensing, and cloud storage for offsite replication that scales with data volume. These three components compound, and storage costs in particular grow as client data increases. Direct-to-cloud backup costs are simpler but still variable: per-device licensing plus per-GB storage. Without a local appliance, the storage component is often higher. SaaS backup is typically priced per-user per-month. Labor costs are the hidden variable: daily monitoring (15 minutes per day across all clients), failure triage (variable, budget 2 to 4 hours per month), quarterly restore tests (30 minutes to 2 hours per client per test), and reporting (15 minutes per client per month). These hours add up and must be factored into pricing.

Common Pricing Models for Backup Services

Model	How It Works	Best For
Per-device flat rate	Flat monthly rate per server or workstation (varies by vendor and data volume)	Clients with predictable data volumes
Per-device plus storage	Base price per device plus per-GB overage above included storage	Clients with variable or growing data
Tiered by data volume	Small (<500 GB), Medium (500 GB to 2 TB), Large (2 TB+) pricing bands	Simplifies quoting while accounting for storage
Bundled in managed services	Included in per-endpoint AYCE price	MSPs with standardized service packages
BaaS with SLA tiers	Bronze (daily RPO, 24hr RTO), Silver (hourly, 4hr), Gold (15min, 1hr)	MSPs selling differentiated recovery levels

Watch for storage growth

Client data volumes grow 20 to 40% per year on average. If your pricing doesn't account for growth, your margin erodes annually. Include storage growth projections in your pricing, add overage clauses for storage beyond the included amount, or review pricing annually alongside data volume.

Protect your margin

Calculate your fully loaded cost per client (tool licenses plus storage plus labor hours) and compare it to what you're charging. If your margin is below 40%, investigate which cost component is the problem. Usually it's either storage overages or untracked labor for failure triage and restore testing.

How should MSPs price restore tests?

Include a defined number of restore tests per year in the service agreement (typically 4 for critical systems). Additional tests beyond the included count are billable at your standard hourly rate. Emergency restores (actual disaster recovery, not scheduled tests) should also be covered by the agreement with a defined scope.

Should emergency restores be billed separately?

If the restore is due to a hardware failure or a disaster event, it should be covered under the backup service agreement (within reason). If the restore is due to user error (deleted files, accidental overwrite) beyond a defined threshold (say, 2 per quarter), additional restores can be billed. Define this boundary in the MSA.

What margin should MSPs target on backup services?

Target 50 to 60% gross margin on backup services. This is higher than the typical managed services margin (40 to 50%) because backup carries higher liability. The margin needs to cover not just tool costs and labor, but also the operational risk of being the last line of defense for client data.

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