How to Budget for Cybersecurity as a Small Business
A UK small business should allocate 5–15% of its overall IT budget to cybersecurity, or roughly £200–£1,500 per month depending on size and risk profile. The right approach is risk-based: invest proportionally to the value of what you are protecting.
Direct Answer
UK small businesses (10–50 staff) typically spend £400–£1,200 per month on cybersecurity — around £15–£25 per user per month for managed endpoint protection, email security, and monitoring. This compares to £40,000–£55,000 per year for a single in-house security hire, making managed cybersecurity significantly more cost-effective.
Building a Practical Security Budget
A framework for allocating cybersecurity spend as a small business.
Start with Risk Assessment
Identify your most valuable data and systems. Your security budget should protect the assets whose loss would cause the most damage.
Prioritise by Impact
Fund the controls that reduce the most risk first: MFA, email security, endpoint protection, backups. These cover the majority of attack vectors.
Factor in Compliance
If your industry requires Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, or sector-specific compliance, budget for the controls and audit costs those frameworks demand.
Plan for Growth
Choose per-user pricing models that scale with your business. Avoid large upfront capital expenditure on security hardware that may become obsolete.
Security Budget by Business Size
Typical monthly cybersecurity spend for UK SMEs.
| Feature | Micro (1–10)£100–£300/mo | Small (10–50)£300–£1,200/mo | Medium (50–250)£1,200–£5,000/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endpoint protection | |||
| Email security | |||
| MFA | |||
| 24/7 monitoring | Optional | Recommended | |
| Incident response retainer | Optional | ||
| Vulnerability management | |||
| Compliance support | CE only | CE/CE Plus | CE Plus/ISO 27001 |
Budget ranges are indicative. Actual costs depend on industry, risk profile, and compliance requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
MFA requires two or more verification methods to access an account. Microsoft reports that over 99.9% of compromised accounts did not have MFA enabled. Only 40% of UK businesses have two-factor authentication enabled (DSIT 2025). MFA can prevent more than 99.9% of account compromise attempts.
UK businesses typically allocate 13.2% of their total IT budget to cybersecurity. More than half of UK small businesses increased their cybersecurity spending in 2024. 85% of UK firms plan to boost their cyber budget for 2026. The cost of prevention is significantly less than the average breach cost of £3,550.
The first hour after detection is considered the golden hour that determines outcome severity. Organisations that detect breaches internally save an average of $900,000 in costs. Only 22% of UK businesses have a formal cybersecurity incident management plan in place.
The average cost of the most disruptive breach is £3,550 for UK businesses. For businesses that experienced negative outcomes such as data loss or financial theft, the average cost rises to £8,260. Medium and large businesses face average costs of £10,830 per disruptive incident.
Organisations with Cyber Essentials certification are 92% less likely to make a claim on their cyber insurance. Certification is mandatory for UK government contracts involving sensitive data. Only 3% of UK businesses are currently certified, giving certified businesses a competitive advantage.
Get a Realistic Security Budget
We will assess your risk profile and recommend a cybersecurity budget that matches your actual needs — not a generic percentage.
Related Resources
How Much Does Managed Cybersecurity Cost?
Detailed per-user pricing for managed cybersecurity services for UK SMEs.
Cybersecurity Guide for UK SMEs
A comprehensive guide to cybersecurity controls, priorities, and budgeting.
What Is Cyber Essentials?
The UK baseline certification — the starting point for any cybersecurity budget.