What questions should I ask before hiring an MSP?

Five questions separate professional MSPs from the rest. First: 'Who owns our accounts, licenses, domain, and passwords?' The only right answer is you, the business — documented and accessible. Providers who hold your credentials hostage make leaving painful, and that's by design.

Second: 'Where are your technicians physically located, and will you come on-site?' Plenty of providers ranking in Asheville search results dispatch from Greenville, Durham, or Charlotte. That's fine until a server dies or a network needs hands-on work. Third: 'What's excluded from the monthly fee?' — see the pricing question above; the exclusions are where surprise invoices live.

Fourth: 'What happens in the first hour after you detect ransomware on our network?' A real MSP has a rehearsed answer involving isolation, containment, and communication. Vague answers here are disqualifying. Fifth: 'If we leave in two years, what does offboarding look like?' A confident provider describes a clean handoff, because they keep clients through service, not lock-in.