Fractional CTO: what it is, when to bring one in, and how to choose
A product taking off, a small team, and no one to arbitrate the technical choices that will shape the next five years. A fractional CTO fills that gap without the cost of a full-time hire. When to bring one in, what they really do, how much it costs.
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A fractional CTO is an experienced technical leader who splits their time between several companies, a few days a week or a month for each. They make the technical decisions for a company that does not need a full-time CTO, or cannot yet afford one.
You will come across other names for the same model: part-time CTO, freelance CTO, outsourced CTO. The principle does not change: a senior profile, paid for the time they give you, with no employment contract.
This guide is for founders, often non-technical, and small business owners wondering whether they need one. It answers four questions: what they will do, what they will cost, when they are enough, and how to choose one. The figures are sourced and dated. When we have no source, we say so.
What a fractional CTO actually does
A fractional CTO only has a few days a month with you. They spend them on what no one else can decide. Here are the five missions you can give them.
They choose the architecture
Which database, which hosting, which building blocks to buy rather than build, how to split the product. These are the most expensive choices to undo later. They make them, write them down and explain why, so the next team does not start from scratch.
They own the technical roadmap
They turn what you want to sell into technical work, in a realistic order. They give an order of magnitude for the effort and tell you what fits in the quarter. You keep the product decision. They give you what you need to make it.
They hire the first developers
They write the job description, run the technical interview and give a reasoned opinion on every candidate, employee or freelancer. For a non-technical founder, this is the hardest mission to carry alone: you cannot judge code you cannot read.
They review the providers' work
Agency, freelancer or subscription: they review the quotes, the architecture choices and part of the delivered code. They check that the repository, the hosting and the accounts are in your name. They do not redo the work. They tell you whether it is done right.
They prepare the technical due diligence before a fundraise
Before investing, a fund may have your product audited: security, technical debt, dependency on a single person, code ownership. The fractional CTO prepares the answers, fixes what can be fixed before the audit and answers the auditor's questions.
Technical debt is often the first topic put to them. To know what to repair, repay or replace, read our article on when to rebuild and when to evolve.
If what you lack is code volume rather than decisions, a CTO is not what you need. Look at senior technical reinforcement instead.
How much a fractional CTO costs
They bill in two ways. A day rate, for each day spent on your company. Or a monthly retainer, built on the same calculation: a planned number of days, multiplied by their day rate, paid every month. The retainer gives you a fixed budget. The day rate leaves you more flexibility.
The most precise public data we found comes from Free-Work, which publishes the rates declared by freelance CTOs in France: €813 a day on average for a direct engagement, €829 through an intermediary. The rate rises with experience: €920 beyond fifteen years in the Paris region, €798 in other cities. The co-cto collective, which places fractional CTOs, quotes €800 to €1,200 a day based on its own engagements. These are declared rates, not a statistical study: ask every candidate for theirs, and compare.
| Pace | Days per month | Monthly budget |
|---|---|---|
| Occasional review | 2 days | €1,626 |
| One day a week | 4 days | €3,252 |
| Two days a week | 8 days | €6,504 |
Which pace is most common? No independent study measures it. Providers most often quote between two and eight days a month (Quai des Balises), or one to three days a week (co-cto). Start from your need: two days a month to have choices reviewed, one day a week to follow a team, two to lead hiring or prepare a fundraise.
For comparison, an employed CTO earns €76,000 gross a year on average according to Free-Work, before employer contributions. A senior employed developer costs the company around €6,000 a month, employer contributions included. An experienced freelancer charges €575 a day on average, more than €10,000 for a full month. The detail of these last two figures is in our article on how much a developer costs. At one day a week, a fractional CTO therefore costs a little over half of a senior employed developer. But they produce no code: their budget comes on top of the team that delivers.
Figures checked on 22 September 2026 (Malt, Urssaf) and 10 October 2026 (Free-Work, co-cto, Quai des Balises). Sources: rates declared by freelance CTOs (Free-Work), salaries declared by employed CTOs (Free-Work), Malt rate barometer (tech), Urssaf employer cost simulator.
The budget of the team that delivers does not stop at launch: fixes, updates and evolutions go on as long as the product has users. What that upkeep costs, depending on the contract, is detailed in the real cost of application maintenance.
When a fractional CTO is enough, and when it no longer is
The answer depends less on the size of your company than on its situation. Here are five cases, with our answer for each.
| Your situation | Our answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| No product yet | No, not yet | There is nothing to lead. A few hours of advice are enough to validate the scope and avoid a bad starting choice. |
| An MVP to build | Combine with a team that codes | They choose the stack, cut the scope and review. Next to them, you need a freelancer, an agency or a subscription to build. |
| A product in production, no team | Combine with a team that maintains | They do not fix the bugs themselves. If decisions are rare, the maintaining team can be enough on its own, with an occasional technical review. |
| Several developers to lead | Yes, as long as the team can wait for their day | They set the standards, review and arbitrate. When the team waits for their decisions every day, you need an in-house CTO or tech lead, whom they can help hire. |
| A fundraise ahead | Yes | They prepare the technical due diligence and answer the auditor. Plan team time to fix what they find. |
Two neighbouring formats, so you do not mix them up. An interim CTO takes the job full time for a limited period, through a crisis or a replacement. A technical audit is a one-off engagement that ends with a report. The fractional CTO leads your technology over time, at reduced hours.
Fractional CTO, in-house CTO, agency or subscription: the comparison
These four options do not fill the same gap. The table puts them side by side, criterion by criterion. The subscription is Figue's: we describe it as it is, including what it does not do.
| Criterion | Fractional CTO | In-house CTO | Agency | Figue subscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Planned days × day rate: €3,252 for 4 days at €813 | Around €6,300 gross a month on average, before contributions, plus hiring | Quoted, project by project | €1,990 ex VAT a month |
| Who decides | They do, on technology; you do, on product | They do, day to day | You, on the quote; the agency, on execution | You order the queue; our engineers choose the approach for each request |
| Who codes | Not them: your team or a provider | Partly them, then the team they hire | The agency | Our engineers, one active request at a time per slot |
| Commitment | The contract's: term and notice to negotiate | An employment contract | The signed project | No commitment, cancel from your client space |
| For whom | A company that needs technical decisions a few days a month | A team that waits for decisions every day | A project with a closed scope and a date | A product that evolves continuously, with no in-house tech team |
The last column describes the unlimited web agency model: a queue of requests with no cap, handled one request at a time per slot.
Figue is not a CTO. Our engineers scope, build and check every request. You have a dedicated contact and two product calls a month to review priorities. The subscription does not include a technical leadership engagement (audit, fundraise preparation), nor on-call cover at night or on weekends. €1,990 ex VAT a month, with no commitment.
The two combine well: the fractional CTO decides, the subscription delivers. They set the architecture and the order of the work, our engineers deliver the requests in that order, and they review what is shipped. You pay for a few days of decisions and a delivery capacity, not two full-time hires.
A fractional CTO makes the technical calls, but someone still has to build. A product studio puts product thinking and engineers in the same team.
A studio is not the only option: building is the role of an outsourced tech team, which comes in five forms.
How it works, the slot and the prices are on the unlimited development page.
How to choose your fractional CTO
You hand them precisely the decisions you cannot judge. The choice deserves more than a good impression in an interview. Here are the questions to ask, the warning signs, what the contract must cover and what to expect from the first month.
Where to find one? In your network first: investors, your incubator, founders who have already worked with one. Then on LinkedIn, on freelance platforms such as Malt or Free-Work, and in fractional CTO collectives. A recommendation from a founder who has seen them at work is worth more than a well-written profile.
One month is not enough to judge a whole engagement, but it is enough to judge a method. If they have written nothing after four weeks, the rest will look like the first month.
The same eye helps you assess the providers they will review: see the questions to ask a technical partner.
