Andrew Nave
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Fractional, full-time, or agency?

A full-time marketing leader costs far more than their salary once you add benefits, taxes, and overhead. This calculator compares the real annual cost of three ways to get senior growth leadership, fractional, full-time, and agency, so you can sanity-check any option in seconds. No email, no signup.

Level of leadership you need
6 days/mo
Advanced assumptions
+30%
Fractional growth leadLowest for your inputs
$108,000
$9,000/mo equivalent · billed for days used

Senior ownership of strategy, execution, and reporting, scaled to the days you actually need. Embedded, month-to-month, no on-costs.

Full-time hireLowest for your inputs
$214,500
$17,875/mo · fully loaded (base + on-costs)

Full capacity and a dedicated owner, but you carry salary, benefits, equity, ramp time, and the risk of a mis-hire.

AgencyLowest for your inputs
$96,000
$8,000/mo · retainer

Execution capacity and breadth of specialists, but typically less embedded ownership of the whole funnel and your data.

Planning estimates based on typical 2026 US ranges and the assumptions above, not a quote. Real pricing depends on scope and seniority. See how fractional pricing actually works →

Get a real number for your situation → Read the full comparison

How the calculator works

The hard part of comparing these three options is that they're priced in completely different units, a salary, a day rate, and a monthly retainer, and the salary number hides a lot of cost. This tool puts all three on the same footing: fully-loaded annual cost.

Full-time hire

Base salary multiplied by an on-cost factor for benefits, payroll taxes, equity, software, and overhead, typically 25–40% on top of base. You can add first-year recruiting or severance under Advanced assumptions. The result is what the role actually costs your P&L, not the offer letter number.

Fractional growth lead

Days per month × a blended day rate × 12. Because you're billed for the days you use, the annual cost scales with how embedded the engagement is, light advisory and near-full-time leadership are very different commitments. There are no benefits or on-costs on top.

Agency

A monthly retainer × 12. Agencies bring breadth and execution capacity; the trade-off is usually less single-owner accountability across the whole funnel, and your tracking and data often live partly inside their stack.

The cheapest option isn't automatically the right one, capacity, ownership, and risk matter too. That's exactly the judgment call covered in Fractional CMO vs. Agency vs. Full-Time Hire, and what fractional growth leadership is built to solve.