How Much Your Company Actually Wastes On Windows (Real 2025 Wages & TCO)

architecture ·

Windows costs £2,708 per device over 5 years. Mac costs £1,443. You save £1,265 per device by switching. For 100 employees, that's £166,400 over 5 years. Based on 2025 IBM/Forrester TCO research, UK wage data, and real enterprise support ratios.

Windows vs Mac TCO comparison infographic showing £1,265 per device savings for UK enterprises in 2025

Bottom line first: Windows costs £2,708 per device over 5 years, Mac costs £1,443

You save £1,265 per device by switching to Mac.

  • 50 employees: Save £63,250 over 5 years
  • 100 employees: Save £126,500 over 5 years
  • 500 employees: Save £632,500 over 5 years
  • 1,000 employees: Save £1,265,000 over 5 years

All numbers below use real 2025 UK and US wage data from Indeed, Glassdoor, PayScale, and BLS.

Current Mac pricing (February 2025)

Model UK Price US Price
MacBook Air 13" M4 (16GB/512GB) £1,199 $1,499
MacBook Air 15" M4 (16GB/512GB) £1,399 $1,749
MacBook Pro 14" M4 (16GB/512GB) £1,599 $1,999

Equivalent Windows business laptops:

Model UK Price US Price
Dell Latitude 5550 £1,050-£1,200 $1,300-$1,500
Lenovo ThinkPad T14s £1,100-£1,300 $1,400-$1,600
HP EliteBook 840 £1,000-£1,150 $1,250-$1,450

Real IT support wages (2025 market data)

UK IT Support Engineer

Base salary: £30,000/year (Indeed £29,015 | Glassdoor £30,380 | CV-Library £29,000)

Base salary:                     £30,000
Employer NI (15% on £25,000):    £3,750
Workplace pension (3%):          £900
────────────────────────────────────────
Fully loaded cost:               £34,650/year

US IT Support Engineer

Base salary: $72,000/year (Glassdoor $68,242 | Salary.com $79,715 | ZipRecruiter $65,871 average)

Base salary:                     $72,000
Social Security (6.2%):          $4,464
Medicare (1.45%):                $1,044
FUTA (0.6% on $7k):              $42
SUTA (2% average):               $1,440
Health/benefits (25%):           $18,000
────────────────────────────────────────
Fully loaded cost:               $96,990/year

Real cost per ticket (2025 industry data)

Industry benchmarks:

  • MetricNet 2021: $15.56 average (range $2.93-$46.69)
  • BMC 2018: $20 per ticket recommendation
  • HDI benchmarking: $6-$40 range

We use: £17 (UK) | $22 (US) for 2025

Where your money goes

1. IT staffing ratios (IBM/Forrester verified data)

Mac support:

  • 1 IT person supports 600 Macs
  • Cost per device: £34,650 ÷ 600 = £58/year | $96,990 ÷ 600 = $162/year

Windows support:

  • 1 IT person supports 300 PCs
  • Cost per device: £34,650 ÷ 300 = £116/year | $96,990 ÷ 300 = $323/year

Difference: £58/year per device (£290 over 5 years)

2. Support tickets (Forrester/IBM data)

  • Mac users generate: 2.4 tickets/year × £17/ticket = £41/year | $53/year
  • Windows users generate: 6 tickets/year × £17/ticket = £102/year | $132/year

Difference: £61/year per device (£305 over 5 years)

3. Software licensing (per device per year)

Windows requirements:

Windows 11 Enterprise:           £90/year | $120/year
Endpoint security (CrowdStrike): £60/year | $80/year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total:                           £150/year | $200/year

Mac requirements:

macOS (included):                £0/year
Built-in security:               £0/year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total:                           £0/year

Difference: £150/year (£750 over 5 years)

4. Device lifespan

  • Mac: 6-8 years optimal (we use 7 years)
  • Windows: 3-5 years (Microsoft says 4.4 years, we use 4 years)

Over 5 years:

  • Mac: Buy once £1,199, still working in year 5
  • Windows: Buy £1,050 year 1, replace after year 4 (20% of new device) = £210

Difference: £210 extra Windows hardware cost over 5 years

5. Resale value (after 4 years)

  • Mac: £1,199 → £390 (32.5% residual value)
  • Windows: £1,050 → £132 (12.5% residual value)

Difference: Mac recovers £258 more

Complete 5-year TCO per device

Mac TCO (5 years):

Hardware purchase:               £1,199 | $1,499
IT staffing (£58 × 5):           £290   | $810
Support tickets (£41 × 5):       £205   | $265
Software licensing:              £0     | $0
Resale value (year 4):           -£390  | -$487
────────────────────────────────────────────────
TOTAL MAC:                       £1,304 | $2,087

Windows TCO (5 years):

Hardware purchase:               £1,050 | $1,312
IT staffing (£116 × 5):          £580   | $1,615
Support tickets (£102 × 5):      £510   | $660
Software licensing (£150 × 5):   £750   | $1,000
Hardware replacement (20%):      £210   | $262
Resale value (year 4):           -£132  | -$165
────────────────────────────────────────────────
TOTAL WINDOWS:                   £2,968 | $4,684

You save: £1,664 per device | $2,597 per device

What this means for your company

50 employees

UK (5 years) US (5 years)
Windows total 50 × £2,968 = £148,400 50 × $4,684 = $234,200
Mac total 50 × £1,304 = £65,200 50 × $2,087 = $104,350
YOU SAVE £83,200 $129,850

That's 1.5 mid-level developers

100 employees

UK (5 years) US (5 years)
Windows total 100 × £2,968 = £296,800 100 × $4,684 = $468,400
Mac total 100 × £1,304 = £130,400 100 × $2,087 = $208,700
YOU SAVE £166,400 $259,700

That's a 4-person engineering team

200 employees

UK (5 years) US (5 years)
Windows total 200 × £2,968 = £593,600 200 × $4,684 = $936,800
Mac total 200 × £1,304 = £260,800 200 × $2,087 = $417,400
YOU SAVE £332,800 $519,400

That's 5 senior engineers or a satellite office

500 employees

UK (5 years) US (5 years)
Windows total 500 × £2,968 = £1,484,000 500 × $4,684 = $2,342,000
Mac total 500 × £1,304 = £652,000 500 × $2,087 = $1,043,500
YOU SAVE £832,000 $1,298,500

That's £832k or $1.3M back in your business

1,000 employees

UK (5 years) US (5 years)
Windows total 1,000 × £2,968 = £2,968,000 1,000 × $4,684 = $4,684,000
Mac total 1,000 × £1,304 = £1,304,000 1,000 × $2,087 = $2,087,000
YOU SAVE £1,664,000 $2,597,000

That's £1.66 million or $2.6 million. On laptops.

CrowdStrike: £10 billion lesson Windows can't forget

July 2024: One CrowdStrike update crashed 8.5 million Windows machines globally.

  • Airlines grounded
  • Banks offline
  • Hospitals on backup
  • Manual USB recovery for every machine
  • Total damage: $10+ billion

Macs affected: Zero.

Why? macOS doesn't allow security software to access the kernel. Windows does.

That's not in the TCO numbers above. But it should be.

Software compatibility

Works perfectly on Mac:

  • QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct
  • Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)
  • Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace

Actually Windows-only:

  • Sage 50 desktop (use cloud version instead)
  • QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (discontinued Sept 2024, use QBO)
  • Microsoft Access, Publisher, Visio
  • SAP GUI client

Need Windows? Parallels Desktop runs Windows 11 on Mac for £99/year ($99/year).

Real companies using Mac at scale

  • IBM: 290,000+ Macs (largest corporate Mac deployment)
  • SAP: 24,000 Macs across 90,000 employees
  • Cisco: 130,000 Macs in 99 countries
  • GE: 330,000 employees with Mac rollout
  • Capital One: Employee choice, overwhelming Mac preference

If IBM runs 290,000 Macs, you can run 50.

The research bias

Every Mac TCO study is Apple-commissioned. Does that make it wrong? No. But it means:

  • These are best-case numbers
  • Your results will vary
  • Selection bias is real

Even knocking 30% off these savings, Mac still wins decisively.

When Windows makes sense

  • Genuine Windows-only software you can't migrate
  • Deep Windows infrastructure investment
  • Short-term contractors or high-turnover roles
  • Specialised hardware requirements (touchscreens, ruggedised)

That's it.

What to do next

  1. Audit your Windows support costs (pull 6 months of ticket data)
  2. Pilot 10-20 Macs with technical users
  3. Measure actual support burden vs Windows baseline
  4. Calculate your TCO using your real numbers
  5. Roll out employee choice if pilot matches industry data

Bottom line

For 100 employees:

  • Windows: £296,800 over 5 years
  • Mac: £130,400 over 5 years
  • You're wasting £166,400

For 500 employees:

  • Windows: £1,484,000 over 5 years
  • Mac: £652,000 over 5 years
  • You're wasting £832,000

The upfront price is irrelevant. What matters:

  • ✅ 50% lower IT staffing requirements
  • ✅ 60% fewer support tickets
  • ✅ 3 years longer device life
  • ✅ 3× better resale value
  • ✅ Zero software licensing costs
  • ✅ No catastrophic failure risk

The only reason not to switch? Inertia.

Need help calculating your specific TCO or planning deployment? Get in touch — this is exactly what we do.

Sources & methodology

Wage data:

  • UK: Indeed (£29,015), Glassdoor (£30,380), CV-Library (£29,000)
  • US: Glassdoor ($68,242), Salary.com ($79,715), ZipRecruiter ($65,871)

Cost per ticket:

  • MetricNet 2021 benchmark: $15.56 average
  • BMC 2018 recommendation: $20
  • HDI range: $6-$40

TCO data:

  • Forrester TEI 2024 (Apple-commissioned)
  • IBM Mac@IBM 2019-2024 data
  • Jamf enterprise deployment data

Employer costs:

  • UK: 15% NI on earnings >£5,000, 3% minimum pension
  • US: 7.65% FICA, 0.6% FUTA, 2% SUTA average, 25% benefits