Device count, not headcount
Pricing follows device count: firewall, switches, access points. A 20-person office with one firewall and two switches is a small job; the same 20 people across six APs and a separate server VLAN is not.
Managed Firewall Cost
How much does managed firewall service cost?
Published ranges, what moves them, and our numbers.
Short Answer
How much does managed firewall security usually cost?
Jimber’s 2026 North American pricing table lists $325 to $425 per firewall per month for 10 to 25 users and $1,175 to $1,475 or more for 100 to 500 users. Our managed plans start at $695 per site per month and cover the firewall, switches and access points.
Market bands from Jimber’s 2026 managed firewall pricing guide. Full ranges and our plan table below.
The Market
What managed firewall service costs per month in 2026.
Published guides price managed firewall service per firewall appliance per month, banded by user count and compliance scope, with the top band open-ended. The managed firewall pricing guides and price lists below differ in scope, so separate monitoring-only (the provider alerts) from managed (the provider also makes changes, patches firmware and backs up configuration) before comparing.
| Offering | Typical price | What is usually included | Source type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitoring only | From $4.99 per month (HEX64 published starting price) | 24x7 device monitoring and email alerts; no changes | NOC provider |
| Managed firewall, 10 to 25 users | $325 to $425 per firewall appliance per month | Monitoring, rule changes, patching, reporting | MSP pricing guides |
| Managed firewall, 26 to 100 users | $525 to $1,175 per appliance per month | Same, larger rule base and log review | MSP pricing guides |
| Managed firewall, 100 to 500 users | $1,175 to $1,475 and up | Same, larger environments; compliance work is priced on top (see Compliance scope below) | MSP pricing guides |
| Carrier managed firewall (monitoring tier) | $360 to $480 per month | Monitoring and alerting on a standard (non-HA, non-Gigabit) firewall; customer supplies approved hardware | Verizon schedule, NJ state contract |
| Carrier managed firewall (management tier) | $564 to $1,148 per month | Management, with or without IPS, on a standard (non-HA, non-Gigabit) firewall; HA and Gigabit tiers cost more; customer supplies approved hardware | Verizon schedule, NJ state contract |
| ISP security add-on | $40 to $60 per month | Network filtering and application controls, not managed firewall administration | ISP press release |
Ranges are from the sources listed below. Ranges reflect differences in scope, contract term and service tier. The carrier rows are one contract’s example: a Verizon schedule dated 2014, with one-time setup on top ($2,500 per standard site, $5,000 per HA site, plus per-device setup charges).
What Moves the Price
Six things that decide where you land in the range.
These are the variables we price on and the ones to ask any provider about.
Response window
Next-business-day versus same-day versus after-hours is the biggest multiplier. After-hours human response is a real cost; expect it as an add-on, or a higher base price that includes it.
Included change hours
Some plans include zero engineering and bill every change hourly, from a new Wi-Fi network to a new remote-access user; our Essential plan works that way. Others include one to three hours a month, as our higher plans do. Compare the hour allowance and the hourly rate behind it.
Compliance scope
HIPAA, PCI or SOC 2 add quarterly policy reviews, access reviews and evidence packaging. IGTech365’s guide estimates that can add 40 to 60 percent over a plain managed firewall. That work is our Edge Compliance plan; medical practices buy it through their MSP and can buy the assessment from us directly. See HIPAA managed network.
Hardware and licenses
The firewall cost itself is separate from the service fee unless a bundle says otherwise. A FortiGate 70G with three years of UTP carries a reference list price of about $3,645, so a bundled price that looks high may simply include it. See FortiGate models and pricing; we quote hardware by exact part number through our Fortinet reseller practice.
Who does the work
A senior engineer costs more than a ticket queue, and that is often the price difference between two quotes. Ask who will make changes on your firewall. Ours is Jeff Johnson: Cisco, Fortinet and CompTIA certified.
Our Pricing
Our managed firewall pricing, with every number published.
Plans are priced per site per month, with the full comparison on the services page. Each Edge site plan covers every managed device at a location, up to the device ceiling, for one monthly fee. The two Edge Firewall rows are priced per firewall appliance, for when the firewall is all you want covered.
A Network Risk Assessment ($3,500 for a single small site; larger networks priced by size) is required before any Edge site plan, and before Edge Firewall Managed on a firewall we did not install or swap. Edge Firewall Watch, a like-for-like FortiGate swap and prepaid hours do not need one.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Response | Included changes | Device ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edge Essential | $695 | Next business day | None (billed hourly) | 10 |
| Edge Secure | $1,295 | Same business day | 1 hr/month | 20 |
| Edge Compliance | $1,795 | Priority same day | 2 hrs/month | 30 |
| Edge Multi-Site | $2,495 first site + $995 each additional | Highest priority, named escalation | 3 hrs/month pooled | 30 per site |
| Edge Firewall Watch | $199 per firewall (HA pair +$75) | Same as Essential | None | 1 firewall |
| Edge Firewall Managed | $449 per firewall (HA pair +$100) | Same as Essential | 2 changes/month, up to 30 min each | 1 firewall |
Standard annual adjustment: plan fees rise 4 percent at each anniversary of a 12-month term; 24- and 36-month terms lock more of the price (see the FAQ below).
Edge Essential, Secure and Compliance: additional managed devices $25 each per month; Multi-Site extra devices are quoted after scoping, because device mix varies by site. Additional standard remote changes bill at $225 per hour, 30-minute minimum, then 15-minute increments; specialized work is quoted separately. Human response: Monday–Friday, 8 AM–5 PM Pacific; after-hours emergency requests from an authorized contact depend on our acceptance and engineer availability, and bill at $487.50 per hour ($525 for architecture work), 2-hour minimum.
One-time costs: Edge plan onboarding is twice the monthly fee for the first site, at least $1,950 and capped at $3,500, plus $1,500 for each additional full site. Edge Firewall Watch and Managed carry a $750 setup fee, waived after a like-for-like FortiGate swap or a takeover we perform.
Downtime Cost Model
What an unplanned outage actually costs you per year.
An estimate: enter your site count, revenue per site per hour and hours lost per year.
More sites means more ways for one failure to stop work.
Annual site revenue divided by operating hours.
Count every hour work stopped, not only full outages.
Annual Exposure
$60K
Based on 3 sites × $2.5K/hr × 8 hours/yr. This estimates revenue at risk during downtime; actual losses depend on how an outage affects operations.
Compare the result with the plan prices in the table above.
Track Record
Network-only practice: firewalls, switching and wireless.
Engineering
20+
Years in network architecture, security and operations.
Delivery
300+
Sites delivered. Healthcare clinics, law offices, financial branches, multi-site operations.
Availability
99.99%
Design target for fully redundant builds.
Career aggregate. The 20+ years and 300+ sites span our founder’s career, including prior-employer engagements. 99.99% availability, about 53 minutes of downtime per year, is an architecture design target for engagements that fund full redundancy. It is not a service guarantee or uptime SLA. Contracted response times and service levels are defined in each customer agreement.
Where We Work
Sacramento, the Bay Area, and remote across California.
Setup is done remotely; switch-over day is on site, or guided by phone with your hands on the box, your choice. Local clients: see our pages on managed firewall in Sacramento, Fortinet MSP in Sacramento and Fortinet MSP in San Francisco.
FAQ
Managed firewall cost questions.
How much does a managed firewall cost per month?
It depends on user count, response window and what is included. Published 2026 guides price it per firewall appliance per month, banded by user count, with compliance scope priced on top. Our site plans are priced per site per month, with the change-hour allowance, hourly rate and device ceiling stated in the plan table.
Is monitoring the same as managed?
No. Monitoring-only plans send alerts. Managed means someone makes the changes, patches firmware, backs up configuration and reviews policy. Ask which one you are being quoted; see network monitoring.
Does the price include the firewall?
Usually not. Hardware and its security subscriptions are a separate purchase or lease. We quote hardware and subscriptions as line items so term and contents are unambiguous.
Why isn't after-hours response included?
After-hours staffing carries an additional cost. See the notes under our pricing table for hours and emergency rates.
What does a carrier-managed firewall cost by comparison?
One carrier managed firewall example is Verizon’s 2014 managed security schedule on a New Jersey state contract; its monthly and setup prices are in the Market table and its footnote. The customer supplies the firewall from Verizon’s approved hardware list.
Can I get a cheaper rate on a multi-year commitment?
Not a percentage discount. A longer term locks your price instead: on 24 months the adjustment after year one is 3 percent instead of 4, and on 36 months there is one adjustment only. Signing an Edge plan or Edge Firewall Managed for 24 or 36 months within 60 days of an assessment readout also returns the full assessment fee as a credit, up to one month of the plan fee per year of the term.
What is the cheapest responsible option?
For one firewall and nothing else, Edge Firewall Watch: monitoring, nightly configuration backup and an expiry calendar; changes bill when you ask. Managed adds two small changes a month and a quarterly rule review. For the whole site, Edge Essential: up to 10 managed devices and a monthly summary; changes bill hourly.
How do I compare two quotes fairly?
Line them up on five fields: devices covered, response window, included change hours, what compliance work is in scope, and whether hardware and subscriptions are included. A quote missing any of those is incomplete.
What pricing models do managed firewall providers use?
There is no single standard. Jimber’s 2026 guide describes per-appliance, throughput-based and per-user pricing, and gives per-site examples. Per-user prices are usually bundled managed IT that includes helpdesk and endpoint protection.
Is a managed firewall priced per site or per appliance?
Most published guides quote per firewall appliance. Edge site plans are priced per site: one fee covers every managed device at that location up to the plan ceiling, and an HA pair at one site is still one site. Edge Firewall Watch and Managed are the per-firewall exception.
What is included in a managed firewall service price?
A managed price usually covers monitoring, firmware and patch maintenance, a capped number of routine rule changes and regular reporting. Our per-firewall and per-site inclusions are listed in the plan table above.
Sources
Where the market numbers come from.
Last reviewed October 24, 2026. Vendor documents and prices change; confirm against the linked pages before you decide.
- Jimber: Managed firewall pricing 2026 (bands by user count)
- IGTech365: Managed firewall pricing guide 2026
- Verizon Managed Security Services price schedule (Schedule M), New Jersey state contract T1776; PDF dated February 11, 2014
- Comcast Business SecurityEdge Preferred launch (ISP security add-on pricing)
- HEX64 NOC plans (careBasic monitoring plan pricing)
- Fortinet Americas end-user price list, effective September 7, 2026 (partner portal)
Fortinet, FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiGuard and FortiCare are trademarks of Fortinet, Inc. Other vendor names are trademarks of their respective owners, used to identify the products discussed. Ambio Edge Networks is an independent Fortinet partner and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any vendor named here.
Get a Managed Firewall Quote
Send your device list. We reply within one business day.
In a written quote request, include the firewall model, switch and access point counts, internet speed, and whether you need compliance reviews. We recommend a plan and quote any hardware you need. Replacing a non-Fortinet firewall is a separate project; see firewall migration. See a sample assessment report (PDF).
What Happens Next
A direct conversation with the engineer who would do the work.
A plain answer on fit, and next steps if it makes sense.