The verdict in three sentences
Serious managed hosting with monitoring costs between 120,000 and 500,000 FCFA/month in 2026, plus 24/7 on-call (+30 to 60 %) and a tested DR plan (+25 to 40 %). The figure that matters is not the advertised percentage but its translation into hours: 99.9 % = 8.7 h downtime/year, 99.95 % = 4.4 h, 99.99 % = 53 min. An SLA with no contractual penalties or defined RTO/RPO is just a marketing promise.
What managed hosting costs in 2026
Price depends on service level and application criticality. Here are the 2026 ranges.
| Service level | Monthly cost (FCFA) | What is covered |
|---|---|---|
| Standard managed | 120,000 - 250,000 | Supervision, patches, backups |
| Managed + 24/7 monitoring | 250,000 - 400,000 | + alerting, dashboards |
| Managed + 24/7 on-call | +30 to 60 % | Out-of-hours intervention |
| Tested DR (RTO/RPO) | +25 to 40 % | Validated failover and restore |
| Full critical managed | 400,000 - 500,000+ | All-inclusive, enhanced SLA |
24/7 monitoring is more than graphs: it includes alerting, trigger thresholds and an escalation channel, otherwise no one reacts at 3 a.m.
Translating uptime into hours and commitments
An uptime percentage only means something once converted into tolerated downtime and contractual commitments.
| SLA | Max downtime/year | Max downtime/month | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99.0 % | 3.65 days | 7.3 h | Non-critical internal app |
| 99.9 % | 8.77 h | 43.8 min | Standard business app |
| 99.95 % | 4.38 h | 21.9 min | E-commerce, client SaaS |
| 99.99 % | 52.6 min | 4.4 min | Payment, critical service |
| 99.999 % | 5.26 min | 26 s | Ultra-critical infrastructure |
Each additional level roughly doubles the cost of on-call and redundancy: targeting 99.99 % when 99.9 % suffices blows up the bill for no real benefit.
Mini case study
Sophie, head of a logistics platform in Montreal, wants to guarantee the availability of her fleet-tracking application. She moves from standard hosting (180,000 FCFA/month) to full critical managed with 24/7 monitoring, on-call and tested DR: 380,000 FCFA/month, i.e. 4.56 M FCFA/year. Her target SLA rises from 99.9 % (8.7 h/year) to 99.95 % (4.4 h/year). Each hour of outage cost her about 250,000 FCFA in client penalties and disputes: cutting downtime by 4.3 hours/year saves 1.07 M FCFA/year, nearly a quarter of the premium already covered by fewer incidents alone.
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
FAQ
What does a 99.9 % SLA concretely mean?
About 8.77 hours of tolerated downtime per year, i.e. 43.8 minutes per month. For a standard business app that's acceptable; for e-commerce or a payment service, target 99.95 % or 99.99 %.
Is monitoring included in managed hosting?
Not always. Standard managed hosting supervises and patches, but 24/7 monitoring with alerting and escalation is often an option adding 100,000 to 150,000 FCFA/month. Without alerting, a nighttime outage is only handled in the morning.
What are RTO and RPO?
RTO is the maximum time to restore service after an incident; RPO is the maximum amount of data you accept losing. They must be defined at tender stage and validated by a tested DR plan, otherwise they are worthless.
Is an SLA without penalties worth anything?
Little. Contractual penalties (rebates, credits) are what truly commit the provider. An advertised SLA with no penalty clause or objective uptime measurement remains a marketing promise.
Should you always target the highest uptime level?
No. Each extra notch roughly doubles the cost of on-call and redundancy. Size the SLA on the real cost of one hour of downtime for your business, not on the most impressive figure.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your application, the cost of one hour of downtime for your business and your target SLA: we cost managed hosting with fitting monitoring, on-call and DR. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
