Freelancer, agency, fractional CTO or senior product team?

No CTO, and the roadmap is waiting. Four models come forward, plus hiring itself. The same six criteria for everyone, ours included, with what it can’t do.

The six criteria

• Specialization: Does this model redo products every day, or once in a while?

• Fixed price or time and materials: A price written down in advance, or a meter that keeps running as long as it lasts?

• Team size: How many people, and what happens the day one of them leaves?

• Entry price: What you need to put on the table to get started, excluding subscriptions and hosting.

• Code ownership: Who owns the code, the access and the data, and from when?

• Maintenance: Who answers, how fast and at what price, six months after delivery?

What each one does, and doesn’t do

Hiring a CTO

One full-time person who carries the technology. Expect three to five months of recruiting before they produce anything.

• Specialization: Their own, chosen at hiring

• Fixed price or time and materials: Employment contract, sometimes equity

• Team size: One person, then the team they hire

• Entry price: €85k to €130k fully loaded per year

• Code ownership: In-house, by design

• Maintenance: In-house, as long as the person is there

When it’s the right choice

• A product that already runs and a team to manage day to day.

• Funding that can carry a full-time position for several years.

• A technology that is your number one success factor.

What this model doesn’t do

• Three to five months of recruiting during which the product doesn’t move.

• If the person leaves, everything stops.

Check before you sign

• You’ve been searching for over six months and the roadmap is stalled.

• The position depends on a funding round that isn’t signed.

• Nobody in-house can evaluate a technical profile.

The fractional CTO

An experienced profile, a few days a month, to make decisions, coach and recruit, without writing the code themselves.

• Specialization: Steering, not production

• Fixed price or time and materials: Monthly subscription, in days

• Team size: One person, shared time

• Entry price: Range not collected by us

• Code ownership: Depends on who writes the code

• Maintenance: Out of scope

When it’s the right choice

• A technical team already exists and needs direction.

• A call to make: repair or rebuild, migrate or stay.

• A technical hire to prepare and evaluate.

What this model doesn’t do

• They decide, they don’t build: you still need someone to write the code.

• The pace of the product becomes the pace of their calendar.

Check before you sign

• The contract doesn’t say who writes the code.

• You pay for steering before there is anything to steer.

• The decisions made are written down nowhere.

The freelancer

One person, a short contract, a start within a few days. This is the model that built most of the V1s we’re asked to take over.

• Specialization: The person’s own, to check case by case

• Fixed price or time and materials: By the day, or a short fixed-price job

• Team size: One person

• Entry price: Depends on the profile

• Code ownership: To be written into the contract, with the access

• Maintenance: Depends on their availability

When it’s the right choice

• A defined, written, short job.

• Extra hands on a team that already exists.

• Moving a product forward while a hire is in progress.

What this model doesn’t do

• Everything rests on one person: vacation, illness, a more interesting assignment elsewhere.

• Nobody reviews the code that gets written.

Check before you sign

• The code lives on their account, not yours.

• No documentation is planned in the quote.

• One person holds the access to hosting and payments.

The large agency

Several dozen people, established teams, and a project manager between you and the people who write the code.

• Specialization: Generalist: product, brand, advertising

• Fixed price or time and materials: Time and materials, after 2 to 4 weeks of scoping

• Team size: Established teams, internal replacement

• Entry price: Range not collected by us

• Code ownership: Depends on the contract

• Maintenance: Separate contract, negotiated after delivery

When it’s the right choice

• Several workstreams to run in parallel, across several disciplines.

• An organization that already has someone in-house to hold the technical direction.

• A need to cover brand, advertising and product in one place.

What this model doesn’t do

• Scoping is billed before you’ve seen a single screen.

• You talk to a project manager, not to the people who write the code.

Check before you sign

• The quote doesn’t name the people who will code.

• The price is time and materials, with no written cap.

• Code ownership lives in an email, not in the contract.

The senior product team (us)

A senior team founded by an engineer, which takes over and redesigns SaaS products and apps. The people who talk to you are the people who code.

• Specialization: SaaS takeover and redesign. Nothing else

• Fixed price or time and materials: Fixed price, three milestones: 30 / 40 / 30

• Team size: A senior founder, surrounded by trusted specialists

• Entry price: Online estimate, fixed price in the quote

• Code ownership: On your GitHub repository from day one

• Maintenance: 3 to 20 days a month, as a flat plan

When it’s the right choice

• A V1 that still holds up but is slowing growth.

• An app to take over without its original developer.

• A founder without a CTO who wants a contact who codes.

Our limits, said out loud

• A small senior team. Not ten, not thirty.

• No showcase sites, no e-commerce, no games: we recommend someone good and stay on our own craft.

• We don’t recruit your in-house team.

• The audit is billed separately: it isn’t deducted from the redesign price.

When it isn’t us

• You need five developers in parallel next month: that isn’t us.

• Your project is an online store: that isn’t us.

• You want a firm quote before the audit: we can’t do that honestly.

How to combine them

• Steering on one side, building on the other: A fractional CTO who makes the calls and a team that builds is a healthy combination, as long as it’s written in black and white who decides what, and who delivers what.

• Build during the hiring: A hire takes three to five months. Nothing forces you to leave the product stalled in the meantime, then hand it over: the code is yours, documented, on a technology that any developer can pick up.

• The freelancer on the day-to-day, the senior team on the foundations: Everyday fixes and rebuilding the foundations don’t call for the same pace or the same commitment. Separating them often costs less than entrusting everything to one place.

• The audit before choosing: Five days of audit tell you what to keep and what to redo. It’s the only document that lets you compare quotes that aren’t about the same work.

Where the numbers come from

• The cost of a hired CTO (€85k to €130k fully loaded per year) and the hiring time (three to five months) are the ranges we use in our own conversations with founders.

• Our simulator gives a range after a few questions; the fixed price is written in the quote.

• We don’t publish any price range we haven’t collected ourselves: it would be more convenient, and dishonest.

• No company is named in this comparison. This isn’t a legal precaution: a brand name says nothing about what happens once the quote is signed, a way of working does.