Quick summary
Fractional CTO services: a senior technology leader who works for you part time, usually a few days a month, to set the technical plan, choose tools and vendors, review the code and help hire developers. Most direct and check the work rather than write it.
What it costs: published guides put most fractional CTO retainers at $9,000 to $22,000 a month and hourly rates at $150 to $500. A full-time US technology manager's median salary is $175,140, before benefits.
When you need one: when developers or an agency are already building and nobody on your side can judge their decisions. If nobody is building yet, hire someone who writes the code first.
Fractional CTO Services at a Glance
| Option | What it costs | Who writes the code | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advisory fractional CTO (10 to 15 hours a month) | $4,000 to $10,000 a month (A.Team) | Your developers or agency | A second opinion on the roadmap, the stack and vendors |
| Active fractional CTO (20 to 40 hours a month) | $10,000 to $25,000 a month (A.Team) | Your developers, with some hands-on help | Leading a small team, hiring, architecture |
| Interim CTO (40+ hours a month) | $20,000 to $40,000 a month (A.Team) | The team they lead | Covering a gap, a launch or due diligence |
| Full-time CTO | A median $175,140 salary for the BLS group that includes CTOs, before benefits | The team they lead | A product with a team of engineers to run |
| Development subscription | A flat monthly fee | A senior developer, who also makes the technical calls | A steady list of features and fixes to ship |
Before you sign, ask every fractional CTO these three questions:
- Question 1, "Will you write code, or direct the people who do?" Both are fine, but you need to know which you are paying for. With a few days a month, most fractional CTOs direct.
- Question 2, "What will I have after 90 days?" A good answer names things you can keep: a written roadmap, notes on how the system is built, a hiring plan, a review of your vendor's code.
- Question 3, "Do you earn anything from the developers or agency you recommend?" The person who checks the work should not be paid by the people doing it.
Then start with a short, paid first month with a written list of what it should deliver.
Need it built, not just planned?
A senior developer on subscription: $2,995 a month, as many requests as you like, each shipped within 2 business days, and your money back if the first 14 days don’t prove it.
In this article
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
This guide is for founders without a technical cofounder who are wondering whether they need a CTO, and what a part-time one actually does. It is written for non-technical readers. If you are still looking for a cofounder, see our guide on how to find a technical cofounder. If you already know you need a developer, see how to hire a software developer.
What Fractional CTO Services Include
A CTO, or chief technology officer, is the person who owns the technical side of a company: what gets built, how, by whom and at what cost. A fractional CTO does that job for a share of the week or month, often for several companies at once. The work usually falls into six areas.
A technical roadmap
Turning your business plan into an order of work: what to build first, what can wait and what each step needs. Our guide to writing software requirements covers the founder's side of this.
Architecture and stack choices
Deciding how the product is put together and which languages, frameworks and hosting it runs on. Choices made early here are expensive to change later.
Reviewing the code and the people writing it
Checking that your developers or agency are building something that will hold up, and telling you plainly when they are not. This is often the main reason non-technical founders hire one.
Hiring and managing developers
Writing job descriptions, running technical interviews, choosing between freelancers and agencies, and setting up how the team works.
Security and investor due diligence
Making sure logins, data and payments are handled safely, and answering the technical questions investors or buyers ask before a deal.
Budgets and vendors
Keeping hosting and software costs under control, and choosing or replacing the outside firms you depend on.
What is usually missing from that list is writing the product. With 10 to 40 hours a month, there is little time left to build features once the decisions, reviews and meetings are done.
Fractional, Part Time, Interim or Virtual CTO: What the Names Mean
You will see several names for similar services. They overlap, and providers use them loosely.
- Fractional CTO: a set share of a senior person's time, such as two days a month, usually on a monthly retainer and often alongside other clients.
- Part time CTO: the same idea. It can also mean someone who works only for you, on reduced hours.
- Interim CTO: close to full time for a fixed period, for example between one CTO leaving and the next starting, or through a launch or an acquisition.
- Virtual CTO: a fractional CTO who works remotely. The name stresses where they work, not how much.
- CTO as a service: the umbrella term firms use for selling any of the above, often from a consultancy that also sells development.
What matters more than the label is how many hours you get, whether they write code, and who else pays them.
What a Fractional CTO Costs
Most fractional CTOs sell a monthly retainer for a set amount of time rather than billing by the hour. Here is how published guides price that time.
| Time each month | Published price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 15 hours (advisory) | $4,000 to $10,000 a month | A.Team |
| 20 to 40 hours (active) | $10,000 to $25,000 a month | A.Team |
| 40+ hours (interim or near full time) | $20,000 to $40,000 a month | A.Team |
| 1 day a week | $8,000 to $12,000 a month | MentorCruise |
| 2 days a week | $12,000 to $18,000 a month | MentorCruise |
| 3+ days a week | $18,000 to $25,000 a month | MentorCruise |
| Hourly, senior fractional CTO | $250 to $500 an hour | Fractionus |
All of these come from companies that sell fractional work, and their ranges do not match exactly, so treat them as a guide to the market rather than a price list. Toptal also places CTOs on an hourly, part-time or full-time basis, but does not publish its rates.
The full-time comparison works like this. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts CTOs among computer and information systems managers, whose median wage was $175,140 in May 2025. Benefits made up 30% of private employers' compensation costs in June 2026, so that salary comes to roughly $250,000 a year in total by our estimate, before recruiting and any equity.
So a fractional CTO two days a week, at MentorCruise's $12,000 to $18,000 a month, comes to $144,000 to $216,000 a year: more than half of that full-time total for 40% of the time. That is reasonable when you need senior judgment and nothing else, and poor value when what you really need is code written.
Do You Need a Fractional CTO?
You probably need one if
- Developers or an agency are building and nobody on your side can judge their work
- You are about to pick a vendor, a stack or a rebuild and cannot tell which option is right
- A developer is leaving and someone has to take over their code
- Investors or a buyer are about to ask technical questions
- You are hiring your first engineers and cannot interview them
You probably don't yet if
- Nobody is building anything yet
- What you need is a list of features and fixes shipped
- You have one small, clear job, such as a landing page or a bug
- Your budget would cover a strategist or a developer, but not both
- You want someone to take the work off your plate, not more meetings
The most common mistake is buying advice when the real problem is that nothing is getting built. A roadmap from a fractional CTO is useful only if someone turns it into working software. If you have no developer, the first hire is someone who writes code, and a few hours of senior review can come later.
Fractional CTO vs a Developer Who Builds
A fractional CTO and a developer solve different problems, and many founders searching for one need the other.
- A fractional CTO decides and checks. You pay for judgment: what to build, what to avoid, and whether the people building it are doing it well. You still need someone to write the code.
- A developer builds. You pay for working software. A senior developer also makes technical decisions every day, such as how to structure the data or which service to use, and a good one explains them in plain English.
If you have a team or an agency, and nobody to keep them honest, a fractional CTO fills a real gap. If you have a product and a backlog, and nobody to build it, a senior developer who makes and explains the technical calls as they go covers most of what an early-stage founder needs a CTO for. Our guide to software development for startups compares the ways to get that.
Where to Find Fractional CTO Services
Freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork
Many people list themselves as fractional CTOs, at a wide range of hourly rates. You do the vetting, and the title alone tells you little, so check what they have actually built and led. Our comparison of Toptal vs Upwork covers how the two platforms differ.
Vetted networks, such as Toptal
Toptal says it places CTOs on an hourly, part-time or full-time basis, typically within about 48 hours, that fewer than 3% of applicants are accepted, and that each engagement starts with a trial of up to two weeks you pay for only if satisfied. It does not publish rates. See Toptal alternatives for other networks.
Fractional executive platforms
Platforms such as Fractionus, GoFractional and MentorCruise list part-time executives, including CTOs, and publish rate guides. They suit founders who want leadership rather than a developer.
Consultancies and development agencies
Many agencies sell "CTO as a service" alongside their development work. The advice can be good, but the person checking the work is paid by the firm doing it. If you go this way, have someone independent review the code once in a while. Our guide to code audit services covers what that review should include.
Referrals
Investors, accelerators and other founders often know a fractional CTO who has worked with companies like yours. Ask what the person actually delivered, not just whether they were pleasant to work with.
How to Choose a Fractional CTO
You do not need to be technical to tell a strong fractional CTO from a weak one. Ask about specifics, and listen for plain answers.
Questions to ask a fractional CTO
- "Which products have you led that are still running, and what was your part?"
- "How many hours a month do I get, how are they counted, and what happens when I need more?"
- "Will you write code, or direct the people who do?"
- "What written things will I have after 90 days?" Listen for a roadmap, system notes and a hiring plan, not just calls.
- "Do you earn referral fees from the developers, agencies or tools you recommend?"
- "Explain one technical decision you made recently as if I were a customer." If you cannot follow it, you will not follow their advice either.
Red Flags When You Hire a Fractional CTO
- Strategy with no outputs. Months of calls and nothing written down you could hand to the next person.
- A rebuild before reading the code. Recommending a full rewrite before looking at what exists is guessing.
- Accounts in their name. The code repository, hosting, domain and app store accounts should belong to your company.
- Only big-company experience. Running a 200-person engineering team is a different job from getting a startup's first product right.
- Advice that always points to one vendor. Especially when that vendor is their own firm.
- No idea who builds. A plan that does not say who will write the code is not a plan yet.
Which Option Should You Choose?
A few hours a month of senior judgment, at a fraction of a full-time salary. Choose one who is independent of whoever builds.
More hours and more hands-on leadership, at a price closer to a senior salary. Agree the outputs up front.
A senior developer who writes the code and explains each technical decision, for a flat monthly fee. Add a fractional CTO later if you build a team.
Someone who owns the technical side every day. Budget for the salary, benefits, equity and the months it takes to hire.
A long-term partner, not a service. See how to find a technical cofounder.
How StackTie Fits
StackTie is not a fractional CTO service. It is a development subscription for founders who have a web app and more to build than people to build it. You add requests in plain English to your own Trello board, they are worked one at a time in the order you set, and every request comes back within 2 business days as a pull request with a plain-English summary of what changed and why. That summary is where the technical decisions get explained, so you can follow them without reading code. Big projects are split into smaller requests that each ship on their own. One senior developer, Michael, leads every build, so you always know who is writing your code. Everything we build belongs to your company and lives in your own accounts, there is no contract, and there is a money-back guarantee if it is not a fit. If you need someone to manage an in-house engineering team or sit in board meetings, a fractional CTO is the better choice; StackTie is not a whole team working in parallel, and it does not build native iOS or Android apps. The price and what is included are on the homepage.
