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Fractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO: When to Choose Each
Choose a fractional CTO when your business is $2M–$20M revenue, needs strategic technical leadership but not 5 days/week, and wants to avoid the $350k–$500k annual cost of a full-time hire. Transition to full-time when technical decisions require daily attention and your revenue supports the salary without strain.
The question isn't whether you need technical leadership. If you're reading this, you do. The question is how much, and in what format.
A full-time CTO makes sense when technology is your core product, when you have 10+ engineers who need daily architectural guidance, when you're raising Series B+ and investors expect a named technical leader, or when your revenue comfortably supports a $350k–$500k total package.
A fractional CTO makes sense when technology supports your business but isn't the product itself, when you need senior guidance 1–3 days/week, when you're making critical decisions (platform, vendor, architecture) but don't need someone full-time to maintain them, or when your budget is $5k–$20k/month rather than $30k–$40k/month.
The transition point typically arrives when: technical decisions require daily attention (not weekly), your engineering team exceeds 8–10 people, you're deploying multiple times per day, or your fractional CTO is consistently billing 4+ days per week for 3+ months.
Common mistake: hiring a full-time CTO too early, before there's enough technical work to fill 5 days/week. The result is an expensive hire who spends half their time on work a senior developer could handle. Fractional fills the gap until the role is genuinely full-time.
Frequently Asked Questions
A fractional CTO typically costs A$5k–$20k/month (1–3 days/week). A full-time CTO costs A$350k–$500k/year including salary, super, equity, and benefits, equivalent to A$29k–$42k/month. Fractional is 50–85% cheaper for equivalent strategic input.
Yes, but differently. A fractional CTO sets architectural standards, reviews critical decisions, mentors senior engineers, and handles vendor/stakeholder communication. Day-to-day sprint management is better handled by a tech lead or engineering manager.
A structured onboarding (architecture audit, codebase review, team interviews) takes 1–2 weeks. An experienced fractional CTO has seen dozens of tech stacks and can identify patterns and risks faster than someone learning your specific context for the first time.
Sources
- Gartner: The CTO Role Is Evolving(accessed 2026-02-08)
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