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By Cian Fitzpatrick | 20th July 2026
It’s never been easy to be a Managed Service Provider, but in recent years the market has become even more competitive.
With cyber threats escalating by the day, it’s to be expected that customer expectations are rising too. These expectations encompass wanting top quality cybersecurity protection, predictable costs and the best service. On the other hand, MSPs are navigating staying ahead of cyber criminals, mounting operational costs and increasing software license fees.
This is why MSPs are finding it challenging to maintain healthy profit margins while at the same time delivering best-in-class security.
And now, with Microsoft changing its licensing model and several security vendors putting their prices up, it’s time to ask some strategic questions. Is your email security vendor helping your business grow? Or holding your profitability back?
Up until recently, MSP growth came from acquiring new customers.
Of course, business development to attract new customers is still important. But today, the most successful MSPs understand that sustainable growth comes from protecting profit margins from existing customers.
There are several major market changes currently putting pressure on MSPs:
To adjust to these challenges, MSPs need to reassess their technology stack because every vendor will come with a technical and commercial impact.
In just Q1 of this year, Microsoft Security reported 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats.
Year on year, email remains the number one entry point for a cyber attack. No matter whether it’s a phishing attack, ransomware, credential theft or a business email compromise, malicious actors use email.
Therefore, this makes email security one of the easiest services for MSPs to offer their clients.
And this is a win/win for both customers and the MSP.
The customer strengthens their security posture by having a MSP look after their email. This places their organisation in a much stronger position to keep their data safe.
For the MSP, email security delivers predictable monthly income. It also helps both the customer and the MSP avoid a costly cyber incident because the support is proactive instead of reactive.
But for an MSP to deliver an exceptional email security experience for their client and make a profit, they need to do more than choose the right technology. They also need to choose the right partner.
Since the 1st July 2026, Proofpoint Essentials price has risen by 20%.
MSPs in various industry forums are reporting the increase in price has impacted several tiers of the Essentials suite. This has driven up base price increases before resellers or MSPs can add their own margin.
This price increase, happening at the same time as Microsoft 365 Enterprise (E3/E5) undergoes structural and pricing shifts (of between 5% and 33%), has been met with some concern by the MSP community, judging by the sentiment online.
However, it’s also given MSPs a chance to truly evaluate their email security vendors from a protection and profitability point of view too.
MSPs know that offering great cybersecurity services to customers is the way to build strong relationships.
But cybersecurity services also have to make commercial sense.
A vendor increasing prices has a knock on effect for MSPs and their customers. No one relishes the difficult conversations that follow.
And MSPs are forced between two choices.
Either absorb the additional cost and reduce your own profitability, or increase your customer pricing at renewal time. Neither option leads to sustainable growth.
At Topsec, we’re committed to keeping all the inboxes we look after safe. However, we’re also committed to helping our MSPs become more profitable.
We offer our MSPs:
The only constant is change, and nowhere is this cliche more evident than in the commercial environment MSPs find themselves in.
Cyber threats are increasing in sophistication and volume. Software costs are increasing yearly. And customers expect more value to keep their organisations safe.
MSPs are in a position to overcome these challenges and build strong, profitable businesses. However, MSPs have to evaluate their vendor partners strategically if they wish to succeed.
MSPs who partner with Topsec receive three guarantees:
Book a call to find out more. It could be the start of building repeatable, recurring revenue!
