How to choose an IT support company in Leicester (2026)
Adam Syed ·
If you're choosing an IT support company in Leicester, start with three questions: do you need someone who can turn up at the office, what hours do you need covered, and does the provider hold (or can it get you) Cyber Essentials? The Leicester page on IT Support Directory lists 24 providers that cover the city as of 1 November 2026. Ten are based in Leicester itself, and the listings differ most on exactly those three points, so they're a fair way to cut the list down before you ring anyone.
Who covers Leicester
The 24 listings split into two groups. Ten companies give a Leicester address: Cipher Knights, CSR Leicester, Cyber Root, Kazzoo, RCS Technologies, Realtime IT Solutions, Reliance IT, Somerbys IT, The IT Business and TulipTech. The other 14 are based elsewhere and list Leicester among the places they serve; three of those are in the county (Computerlink in Blaby, Globe2 in Harborough and Mark1 IT Solutions in Melton), and the rest come from Derby, Nottinghamshire, Coventry, Birmingham and further afield. If your office is outside the city boundary, the Leicestershire county page has 49 listings.
The ten city-based listings, as the directory's data showed them on 1 November 2026:
| Provider | Founded | Accreditations listed | On-site support listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cipher Knights | 2024 | None listed | No |
| CSR Leicester | 2008 | None listed | Yes |
| Cyber Root | Not listed | IASME | No |
| Kazzoo | 2003 | None listed | No |
| RCS Technologies | 2015 | None listed | No |
| Realtime IT Solutions | 2005 | ISO 9001, Microsoft Partner | Yes |
| Reliance IT | Not listed | Cyber Essentials | No |
| Somerbys IT | 1996 | Microsoft Partner, Cyber Essentials Plus | No |
| The IT Business | Not listed | None listed | No |
| TulipTech | 2011 | ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials | No |
They aren't all the same kind of business. Cyber Root describes itself as an IASME Certification Body that does Cyber Essentials assessments and penetration testing, and it lists only two services. TulipTech gives the largest team size of the ten (the 51 to 200 band) and does custom software and ERP work alongside managed IT. The IT Business describes itself as an off-site, remote support team for small businesses. A ten-person office and a 150-person manufacturer will end up on very different shortlists from the same table.
None of the 24 listings has a review on the site yet, and none has filled in the structured "price from" field. So you can't compare on price or star ratings from the directory today; you'll have to ask.
On-site cover and support hours
Only 8 of the 24 listings include on-site support as a service. Of the ten city-based companies, that's just CSR Leicester and Realtime IT Solutions. The other six are Computerlink, Davis Ground IT Services, Keystone IT, Liberate IT, Link ICT and Serenus IT, all based outside the city.
That doesn't mean the rest never visit: 15 of the 24 list helpdesk support and 13 list networking, and some of that work will happen in person. But if you have a server cupboard, a phone system on the premises or staff who struggle with remote sessions, ask directly how often an engineer would come out, how quickly, and whether visits are included in the monthly fee or billed by the hour. A provider in Derby or Coventry can be a perfectly good choice for remote work and a slow one for a dead switch on a Monday morning.
Hours and response times are where the listings are least comparable. The directory has fields for support hours and a response time, and all 24 Leicester listings leave them blank, so what we know comes from the companies' own descriptions:
- The IT Business gives opening hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
- Cipher Knights says it runs a 24/7 helpdesk with emergency incident response, and is otherwise available Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 2pm.
- IT Helpdesk (based in East Staffordshire) says it has 24/7 availability and a 15-minute target response for emergencies.
- Express Networks (Birmingham) mentions a guaranteed one-hour response for critical incidents covered by its service agreements.
- Skylock IT, Link ICT and TulipTech each mention 24/7 cover of some kind.
Those phrases mean different things. A 15-minute "target response" usually means how fast someone picks up the call, which isn't how fast it's fixed, and "24/7 infrastructure operations" (TulipTech's wording) may cover servers and monitoring without covering a user who can't log in at 8pm. When you get a proposal, ask to see the response and resolution times written into the contract, by priority level, along with what counts as out of hours and what that costs.
On price, the only figure in any of the 24 descriptions is The IT Business's "helpdesk support from £10 per month". The listing doesn't say whether that's per user, per device or per business, so ask before you compare it with anyone else's quote.
Cyber Essentials, and why your provider's badge counts
Cyber Essentials is the National Cyber Security Centre's baseline scheme, built on five technical controls: firewalls, secure configuration, security update management, user access control and malware protection. Certification is a verified self-assessment; IASME, the NCSC's delivery partner, prices it by organisation size and lists £320 + VAT for organisations with 0 to 9 employees (checked 1 November 2026). Certification lasts 12 months. Cyber Essentials Plus adds a technical audit by a Certification Body.
In Leicester, 9 of the 24 listings offer Cyber Essentials support as a service, and 8 list Cyber Essentials as one of their own accreditations. Two (Somerbys IT and Supere) list Cyber Essentials Plus.
I'd weigh a provider's own certification fairly heavily. If a company has admin access to every machine you own, its security is part of yours. The government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026 found that 43% of UK businesses identified a breach or attack in the previous 12 months, phishing was by far the most common type (38% of businesses), and only 25% of businesses had a formal incident response plan. The same survey found 44% of micro businesses now use an external cyber security provider, up from 39% the year before. If you're one of them, it's reasonable to ask your IT company what happens on the day something goes wrong, and to get the answer in writing.
What to ask before you sign
Most of what separates these companies isn't on any listing, so a short call with three or four of them is worth the time. These are the questions I'd ask:
- Is support priced per user, per device or as a fixed monthly fee, and what's outside it (projects, new starters, hardware, on-site visits)?
- What are the response and resolution times by priority, and are they in the contract?
- What hours are covered as standard, and what does an out-of-hours call cost?
- Do you hold Cyber Essentials yourselves, and can you get us through it?
- Who backs up our Microsoft 365 data, how often is a restore tested, and who would we speak to during an incident?
- What's the notice period, and how do you hand over passwords, admin accounts and documentation if we leave?
The last question gets skipped most often, and it's the one that decides how painful it is to switch later. If you're not sure what a service covers, the services list explains each one and shows which providers list it.
Questions people ask
How many IT support companies are there in Leicester?
As of 1 November 2026, the Leicester page lists 24 providers that cover the city, 10 of them with a Leicester address. The Leicestershire county page, which covers the districts around the city, has 49. These are the companies listed on IT Support Directory, not every IT firm trading in the area.
How much does IT support cost in Leicester?
Very few local providers publish prices. None of the 24 Leicester listings has a "price from" figure, and the only price in their descriptions is The IT Business's helpdesk support "from £10 per month", with no unit given. Ask each provider for a written quote that states the unit (per user or per device) and what's excluded.
Do I need a local IT company or can support be remote?
Day-to-day fixes are mostly done remotely, so a provider in Nottingham or Coventry can handle them as well as one on the next street. Location starts to count when you have equipment on site that can fail. In Leicester, 8 of the 24 listings include on-site support, so check that before you shortlist.
Should my IT support company have Cyber Essentials?
It's a sensible thing to ask for, because the provider will have admin access to your systems. Eight of the 24 Leicester listings hold Cyber Essentials and two hold Cyber Essentials Plus. If you need certification yourself, IASME lists the self-assessment at £320 + VAT for organisations with up to 9 employees.