Alternatives to a fractional CTO: what Dutch companies can do instead

A fractional CTO has become the default answer for companies that need senior technical leadership but cannot justify a full-time hire. Often it is the right answer. It is not the only one, and companies that reach for it by default sometimes end up paying for a part-time strategist when what they actually needed was a manager, a fixed-term fix, or simply a second opinion.

This guide lays out the alternatives, what each one actually owns, and how to tell which one your situation calls for.

First, what a fractional CTO is

A fractional CTO is a senior technology leader who works with a company part-time on an ongoing basis — typically one to three days a week. In the Netherlands, published prices for the service typically range from €2,000 to €8,000 a month, depending on scope and how many days are involved.

What a fractional CTO owns is technical direction: the architecture, the build-versus-buy calls, the vendor and model choices, and the decisions that are expensive to reverse. What they do not own is the day-to-day running of a team. That distinction is where most of the alternatives below come from.

The alternatives

1. An interim CTO

An interim CTO works full-time for a fixed period. The European interim model describes the role as "an over-qualified executive, available at short notice, engaged on a specific mission with a defined objective and deadline". Where fractional work runs on retainers or a few contracted days, interim work is invoiced as a full-time day rate for the duration of the mandate — Germany's all-function average was €1,840 a day in 2024.

Choose it when there is a deadline or a crisis: a CTO has left without a successor, an acquisition needs technical due diligence and integration, or a migration has to land by a fixed date. Interim management exists precisely for missions with an end.

Avoid it when the need is ongoing. Paying a full-time day rate for open-ended work is the most expensive way to buy leadership.

2. A full-time CTO

The permanent hire is the most expensive option and the slowest to put in place, and for some companies it is still the only correct one. The role of a CTO changes a great deal with company stage, from writing much of the code to running an engineering organisation.

Choose it when technology is the product and the problems are daily and cumulative: hiring, one-to-ones, performance, and a delivery culture that has to be built rather than advised on. The habits that make engineering teams work — what DORA calls a generative organisational culture — are built day by day, by someone who is there every day.

Avoid it when you mainly need a handful of good decisions made. A full-time executive with too little to decide either creates work to fill the week or leaves.

3. A technical advisor

An advisor spends a few hours a month reviewing decisions rather than making them. There is no ownership and no day-to-day involvement.

Choose it when you already have a capable team and a person making the technical calls, and you want a second opinion on specific ones: an architecture proposal, a vendor contract, an investor's technical questions.

Avoid it when nobody is making the decisions in the first place. An advisor sharpens judgment that exists; they cannot supply it at a few hours a month.

4. Promoting a senior engineer to tech lead

The cheapest option on paper, and it keeps knowledge inside the company. The risk is that a strong engineer is not automatically a strong leader, and in a small company there may be nobody for them to learn the leadership part from.

Choose it when you have an engineer who is already the person everyone asks, and you can pair the promotion with support — an advisor, or a fractional CTO for the first months — rather than leaving them to work it out alone.

Avoid it when the promotion is really a way to avoid a hiring decision. Losing your best engineer to a management role they did not want is an expensive way to save a salary.

5. An outside development team

A software consultancy or agency — a firm like ours — builds a defined piece of work for you. What you buy is delivery capacity for a scope, not leadership.

Choose it when the gap is execution: you know what needs building and lack the people to build it in time.

Avoid it when you need someone to own your technical direction over years. An outside team owns the project it was hired for. It does not own your roadmap, and it should not be the only place your architecture decisions live.

The options side by side

A Dutch point that affects the choice

A fractional or interim CTO is almost always a contractor, and in the Netherlands that relationship is assessed against the rules on false self-employment. The government's guidance on assessing the work relationship between client and contractor covers how the Wet DBA is enforced, and notes that the Tax Administration no longer accepts new model agreements; existing ones can be used until 31 December 2029.

In practice, a "fractional" CTO who works fixed days inside your management structure, with no end date, starts to look a lot like an employee. Scoping the engagement around outcomes and a defined period is good practice anyway, and it keeps the relationship on the right side of that line. This is general information, not legal advice.

How to choose

The quickest test is whether your bottleneck is decisions or people. Decisions are low-frequency and high-consequence, which suits a fractional CTO or an advisor. People problems — hiring, performance, a team that has stopped shipping — accumulate daily and need someone who is there daily, which means a full-time hire or, for a fixed period, an interim one. Dario Mory's comparison of a fractional CTO versus a full-time VP of Engineering works through that split in more detail.

If what is missing is capacity rather than leadership, none of the executive options will fix it. More leadership does not ship more code; more people building a clear scope does.

Most companies end up combining two of these rather than choosing one: a promoted tech lead with an advisor behind them, or a fractional CTO setting direction while an outside team builds. The mistake is not picking the wrong option. It is picking one by default, before being clear about which of those two bottlenecks you actually have.