"How much does a remote desktop server cost?" is a fair first question, and a hard one to get a straight answer to online — most providers hide pricing behind a contact form. Here is an honest, plain-English breakdown of what a hosted remote desktop server actually costs in Australia, what drives the price, and how to make sure you are comparing like with like.
What you are actually paying for
A managed remote desktop server is not just a slice of a computer — it is the whole running cost of an office IT setup, rolled into one monthly fee: the Windows Server licence, Microsoft Office, the hardware, the data centre, backups, monitoring, updates, and support. When you compare prices, make sure the other quote includes all of that, because a cheap "bare" server with none of it is not the same product.
What drives the cost
- Number of users — more concurrent people means more CPU and memory to keep it smooth.
- CPU and RAM — light office work needs little; heavier apps (large accounting files, design software, busy databases) need more.
- Storage — how much data you hold, plus room to grow.
- Software — Windows Server and Office are typically included; specialist apps you license yourself, and we install them.
- Backups and support — proper dual-site backups and real human support are part of a managed service, not optional extras.
Typical price ranges in Australia
For a fully managed Windows remote desktop server hosted in Australia, plans generally start around A$200 per month for a small setup suited to one or two concurrent users, and scale up to roughly A$700 per month for a powerful server comfortably handling sixteen to twenty users with demanding business software. A typical small business of five to eight people running standard office software usually lands in the A$350 or so per month range.
Those figures include the Windows Server licence, Microsoft Office, maintenance, monitoring and backups — not just raw hardware. You can see our current packages and exactly what each includes on the pricing page.
Watch for the "cheap RDP" trap
You will find offshore "RDP" offers online for a few dollars a month. They are a different product entirely — usually a shared, unmanaged account on an overseas server with no real support, no Australian data location, no backups, and often dubious security. For a business running real work and real client data, the risk is not worth the saving. Genuinely managed, Australian-hosted server hosting sits in the ranges above for good reasons.
The hidden costs it replaces
A monthly fee can look bigger than it is until you tally what it removes: buying and refreshing server hardware every few years, the electricity to run it, a separate backup solution, and the IT time spent patching and fixing it. Spread a typical on-premise server's purchase, maintenance and replacement over its life and the managed cloud option is frequently cheaper overall — with none of the capital outlay or the 2am hardware failures.
How to right-size (and not overpay)
The most common mistakes are buying far more than you need "just in case," or squeezing too many users onto an underpowered plan and ending up with a sluggish desktop. The right approach is to size to how your team actually works now, with a little headroom, and scale up later — adding users or storage is quick and cheap. We will recommend the smallest plan that runs well for you, not the biggest.
Want a real number for your situation?
Tell us how many people need access and what software you run, and we will come back with a right-sized, all-inclusive quote — no hidden extras, hosted entirely in Australia.
Get a quote →