Free engineering leadership tool
Fractional CTO vs. full-time hire cost calculator
Compare the modeled first-year cost of a full-time CTO, a fractional CTO, and a senior contractor. Defaults use current US data, with an EU benefits preset. Change every assumption to match your situation.
Your assumptions
All figures are editable. This calculator uses USD and a 12-month comparison period. If you pay in euros or pounds, convert to USD first.
Full-time CTO
Fractional CTO
Senior contractor
Modeled 12-month comparison
Full-time CTO
$376,340 salary, benefits, and recruiting + $50,000 cost of delay
$426,340
Fractional CTO
$1,615 per day × 8.7 days a month = $13,997 per month
$167,960
Senior contractor
$200 per hour × 20 hours × 48 weeks
$192,000
What this comparison does not measure
These options provide different capacity, accountability, availability, and continuity. A lower number does not automatically mean a better fit. Use the result to frame a decision, not to replace technical and organizational due diligence.
Assumptions and sources
Salary: the $238,000 default is the average Series B CTO base salary in Kruze Consulting's 2026 C-Suite Salary Guide, which uses payroll records from US venture-backed startups. Kruze reports CTO averages of $155,000 at Seed and $196,000 at Series A, and an overall median of $166,000. The growth-stage preset is the low end of Berkeley Search Consultants' 2026 range for CTOs at Series C to pre-IPO or PE-backed companies ($265,000 to $360,000). Its seed-to-Series B range is $190,000 to $265,000. All figures are base salary only, with no bonus or equity.
Benefits, US: the 43% default comes from BLS data for June 2026. Private-industry wages averaged $32.82 per hour worked and benefits $14.07, so benefits added about 43% on top of wages (30.0% of total compensation). These are averages across all private-industry workers, so adjust for your executive package.
Benefits, EU: Eurostat reports that non-wage costs were 24.8% of total labour costs in the EU in 2025, roughly 33% on top of wages. Countries vary widely, from 4.8% of labour costs in Romania to 32.3% in France (about 48% on top of wages), so set the slider for your country.
Recruiting: the $36,000 default rounds SHRM's 2025 average executive cost-per-hire of $35,879. SHRM's 2026 brief reports that executive cost-per-hire has increased substantially since then.
Hiring delay: your estimate of what postponed decisions, delivery, risk reduction, or fundraising readiness costs each month. It is shown separately because it is not a payroll expense. The model counts a full year of salary and adds the delay on top, which leans toward overstating the first calendar year.
Fractional CTO: the $1,615 default is the average US fractional CTO day rate listed by Fractionus, based on 79 operator-submitted rates, as of October 2026. Go Fractional lists an average of $210 per hour. These are marketplace figures, not independent surveys. Monthly cost is day rate × days per week × 4.33 weeks.
Contractor: the annual model uses 48 working weeks. The hourly rate is a user-controlled estimate, not a market benchmark.
- Kruze Consulting: Startup C-Suite Salary Guide 2026 (payroll data, August 2026)
- Berkeley Search Consultants: Technology Executive Salary Guide 2026 (PDF)
- BLS: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (release PDF via FRASER)
- Eurostat: EU hourly labour costs, 2025
- SHRM: 2025 Benchmarking Reports
- SHRM: 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking
- Fractionus: Fractional CTO Cost & Rates
- Go Fractional: The Fractional Work Report 2026
The numbers are only the start of the decision.
Read the companion guide for US and European cost data, the trade-offs behind each model, the questions to ask, and when each option fits.
Read the cost comparison guideAre you a fractional CTO? Work out your own day rate, clients needed, and leads per month with the fractional CTO rate and pipeline calculator.
This calculator provides planning estimates, not financial or hiring advice.