In short: a senior outsourced CTO usually charges €600 to €1,000 a day in France. At 1 or 2 days a week, expect roughly €2,400 to €8,000 a month, on a monthly retainer or time and materials. Per day it costs more than an employee, but you only pay for the days you use.
How much does an outsourced CTO cost in 2026?
An outsourced CTO is a senior technical leader who works for your company a few days a week without being on the payroll. On the French market, this kind of profile generally charges between €600 and €1,000 a day, excluding VAT. The spread mostly comes down to real experience in technical leadership and to the sector: healthcare and the public sector demand more rigour on security and traceability, and that time is paid for. At 1 or 2 days a week, the monthly budget for a very senior profile usually lands between €4,000 and €8,000. That's the same range we give in our article on the fractional CTO, which describes the same practice. These amounts are market benchmarks: your actual figure will depend mostly on the pace you choose and the length of the engagement.
How does an outsourced CTO bill?
The day rate barely changes from one model to another. What changes is what you're buying: availability, a volume of days or a deliverable.
| Model | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Per day (day rate) | Days booked on demand and billed as used, for a one-off need: a decision, an architecture review, a hiring interview | No guaranteed availability between sessions |
| Monthly retainer | A fixed number of days each month, at a fixed price, with contact between sessions, for regular support | Carry-over of unused days and expected deliverables |
| Time and materials | The CTO joins your organisation and bills the time spent, often during an intense phase (fundraising, hiring, a rebuild) | The volume, to be tracked every month |
| Fixed-price engagement | A fixed price for a defined deliverable: audit, due diligence, scoping | The exact scope of the deliverable |
At the same day rate, two offers can therefore be worth very different amounts. Always ask how many days the price covers and what happens between sessions.
What does an outsourced CTO cover at 1, 2 or 3 days a week?
The pace changes the nature of the role as much as the budget. The table assumes about 4 billed days a month for 1 day a week (holidays and public holidays smoothed out) and a day rate of €600 to €1,000.
| Pace | Days per month | Monthly budget (excl. VAT) | The CTO's role |
|---|---|---|---|
| ½ day a week | ~2 | €1,200 – €2,000 | A regular second opinion: reviewing decisions, occasional calls |
| 1 day a week | ~4 | €2,400 – €4,000 | Technical direction: roadmap, architecture review, check-ins with management |
| 2 days a week | ~8 | €4,800 – €8,000 | Head of the team: management, hiring, delivery process |
| 3 days a week | ~12 | €7,200 – €12,000 | Near-daily steering of a major project |
Benchmarks calculated from French market day rates in 2026. They are not a quote: the right pace depends on your projects.
At 1 day a week, the CTO sets the course. They prepare the decisions that commit you (stack, vendors, priorities), review what the developers or the agency produce, and hold a regular check-in with management. This pace suits a startup that has its product built by a vendor, or an SME whose team already runs itself day to day.
At 2 days a week, they take responsibility for the tech team. They manage the developers, run hiring interviews, set up continuous integration and code review, and cost upcoming projects. It's the format for a growing in-house team that needs a lead but can't hire one yet.
At 3 days a week, you're getting close to a part-time job. This pace makes sense during an intense phase: fundraising, a rebuild, hiring several developers. If it becomes permanent, consider hiring, because the annual budget then approaches that of an in-house CTO.
Outsourced or in-house CTO: which costs less?
Per day, an in-house CTO generally costs less than an outsourced one. An independent's day rate has to cover periods without work, their social protection, their tools and their training. The maths flips as soon as you think in volume: an employee is paid every working day, whether or not there are technical decisions to make, while an outsourced CTO only bills the days agreed. To compare fairly, start from the gross salary you would have to offer and work out the total employer cost with the official Urssaf simulator (France). Add the time it takes to hire, the onboarding period and sometimes an equity stake. Then compare that total with the annual budget of an outsourced CTO. As long as your real need stays at or below two days a week, outsourcing generally remains the cheaper option.
Beyond cost, the two roles differ. An in-house CTO carries the technical culture day to day and commits for several years. An outsourced CTO brings experience from other contexts and an outside view of your choices. They can also prepare the arrival of their in-house successor, from the job description to the technical interviews.
Part-time or freelance CTO: is it the same price?
Give or take, yes. Outsourced CTO, part-time CTO, freelance CTO or fractional CTO: these terms almost always describe a senior technical leader who splits their time between several companies, and the €600 to €1,000 a day benchmarks apply to all of them. What sets offers apart is the setup more than the title. A freelance CTO found on a platform generally works alone: nobody covers for them during holidays, and you'll have to find the developers who carry out their decisions elsewhere. A studio can bring in a Tech Lead, senior developers or a second opinion as needed, with the same point of contact. Either way, check what the price covers: the number of days, availability between sessions and the handover at the end of the engagement.
Don't confuse technical leadership with extra hands, though. If what you mainly need is to ship code faster within an existing team, a Tech Lead to reinforce the team, at a senior developer's day rate (often €500 to €700 a day), will be a better fit than a CTO.
Which traps should you avoid before signing?
- Comparing day rates without looking at what they cover. Two CTOs at €800 a day don't deliver the same thing if one answers between sessions and the other doesn't. Ask what's included: asynchronous exchanges, written summaries, involvement in hiring.
- A monthly retainer must state the number of days, the expected deliverables and what happens to unused days. Without that, you pay for a presence whose impact nobody measures.
- A CTO who spends their days coding is selling you senior development at a technical-leadership price. Their time should go to decisions, scoping and the team.
- The exit is prepared from the day you sign. The code, access and documentation must belong to you, and the contract should provide for reasonable notice.
- Payment in equity only calls for caution. That arrangement can work for a genuine full-time co-founder. For someone working part-time, it mostly blurs what each side is committing to, and it does not replace a development budget.
Frequently asked questions about outsourced CTO rates
Can you start without committing for several months?
Yes. An engagement can start with a 3-to-5-day audit or scoping phase, sold at a fixed price, which delivers a diagnosis of the existing setup and a costed roadmap. You then decide whether regular support is justified, and at what pace.
Is the rate different for a startup or an SME?
The day rate barely varies with company size. The pace does: a startup working with a vendor often needs no more than one day a week, while an SME building an in-house team tends to need two. The monthly budget follows.
How soon do you see results?
The first structural decisions (stack, priorities, organisation) generally come within the first month. The effect on delivery speed and quality is better measured over a quarter, the time it takes for new practices to settle in.
What happens when the need shrinks?
You reduce the pace. Once the foundations are in place, half a day a week is sometimes enough to hold the course. When an in-house technical lead takes over, the outsourced CTO hands over the documentation, access and the history of past decisions.
And at Neodev?
We offer an outsourced CTO, remotely, from half a day to two days a week. Adrien Le Breton remains your single point of contact, every decision that commits you is documented, and the code, access and documentation belong to you. For an example of a long-running engagement, see the technical leadership at INTEGRALE (case study): roadmap, audits, industrialised delivery and team management, between Reunion Island and Madagascar.
We cost each engagement after a free first call, with a number of days per month and the expected deliverables. And if you're starting with no technical leadership at all, our article startup without a CTO walks through the options for your stage.
To go further: explore our part-time outsourced CTO offer, or tell us about your situation to get a proposed pace and budget.
Written by Adrien Le Breton, founder of Neodev. He has worked in software consulting and development since 2018, including more than two years in technical leadership.