In short: a fractional CTO is an experienced tech leader who works part-time (often 1 to 2 days a week) to set your architecture, stack choices, roadmap and team structure. You get senior CTO expertise for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
What is a fractional CTO?
A fractional CTO is a senior tech leader who puts their expertise at a company's service on a defined, part-time basis. The word fractional is a little misleading: they don't work lightly, they work intensely, but on a fraction of the week. In practice, they lay the technical foundations of your product, make the architecture decisions that are expensive to fix later, and level up your team.
In France you'll also see the terms outsourced CTO, shared-time CTO or CTO as a Service. They cover the same idea: getting access to a level of seniority you couldn't (or wouldn't yet want to) afford full-time.
What does a fractional CTO actually do?
Their role is strategic before it is operational. Depending on the context, they work on:
- Architecture and stack choices: laying a technical foundation that holds up and can grow, without over-engineering.
- The technical roadmap: arbitrating between speed and debt, deciding what to build now and what to defer.
- Hiring and team structure: defining the profiles, framing the first developers, sometimes recruiting their own successor.
- Process and quality: putting in place what makes delivery predictable (code review, CI/CD, tests), without bureaucracy.
- Talking to leadership and investors: translating tech into business decisions, and the other way around.
When do you need a fractional CTO?
A few signals that come up often:
- You're a non-technical founder and you have to make structural tech decisions (stack, vendors, hires) with no one you trust to guide you.
- You have a team of developers, but no one to set the technical direction or arbitrate.
- You're preparing a fundraising round and investors want to see real technical rigor.
- You don't have the volume (or budget) to justify a full-time CTO, yet the need for expertise is very real.
Fractional CTO, employee, freelancer or agency: which to choose?
| Option | For whom | Indicative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CTO | Startup / SME needing senior tech strategy, not a full-time role | A few thousand €/month depending on the pace |
| Full-time CTO | Company whose tech is core and whose volume justifies a full-time role | Senior salary + payroll costs, ongoing |
| Freelance developer | Need for execution on a defined scope, not strategic steering | A day rate, but without the tech-leadership hat |
| Agency / consultancy | Outsourcing development capacity, external team | Fixed price or time-and-materials, often pricier per unit |
These options aren't mutually exclusive: a fractional CTO often steers freelancers or an in-house team. One frames, the others execute.
How much does a fractional CTO cost?
Billing is usually per day or as a monthly retainer. On the French market, a very senior profile often sits around €600 to €1,000 per day. At 1 to 2 days a week, the monthly budget frequently lands between €4,000 and €8,000, depending on the pace and level of involvement. These are indicative ranges: the real figure depends on your context, the length of the engagement and what you expect from the CTO.
The point isn't only the lower cost versus a full-timer: it's also the absence of a long commitment and the flexibility. You bring in the expertise when you need it, and you scale it down once the foundations are set.
And at Neodev?
It's exactly one of the things we do. We offer outsourced technical leadership to frame your architecture, stack choices and roadmap, remotely and at the right pace. Adrien stays your single point of contact, and we bring in the collective when execution is needed.
To go further: explore our tech leadership & fractional CTO offer, our team augmentation, or read how much an MVP costs in 2026.