Pricing guide
Fractional CTO pricing.
A fractional CTO is a senior engineering brain on retainer, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. The price ranges widely, here's how to think about it and what each tier actually delivers.
What you're actually paying for
Three things, in roughly this order: judgment (architecture decisions, build-vs-buy calls, vendor selection), oversight (code reviews on critical paths, security pass before launch, incident response), and selective hands-on (light unblocking code, embedded review when needed).
What you are not paying for: full-time availability, day-to-day implementation, or replacing a team. A fractional CTO multiplies the team you already have, it does not become the team.
Typical tiers
- · Advisor (low touch): from €3.000/month. Strategic-only, architecture reviews, vendor calls, build-vs-buy, occasional check-ins.
- · Aftercare (medium touch): higher monthly. Async oversight, PR reviews on critical paths, security pass before launch, scoped engineering judgment.
- · Hands-On (deeper): higher still. Embedded review, on-call, occasional implementation alongside your team, weekly cadence.
When the model makes sense
Post-launch, when the product is live but a single founder cannot also be the full senior engineering brain. Pre-Series-A, when hiring a full-time CTO is premature. During or after a rebuild, to keep the system from regressing.
It does not make sense if you actually need a full-time CTO co-founder, or if you have no engineering function to oversee.