Guide · Technology leadership
Fractional CTO, IT support company or an in-house hire: which does a small business need?
What each one actually does, what it costs, and how to tell which gap you've got.
When the tech starts getting in the way, most business owners reach for one of three answers. Ring an IT support company. Hire someone. Or, if they've been reading LinkedIn, get a fractional CTO.
All three are perfectly good answers. They're just answers to different questions, and picking the wrong one is how businesses end up paying for help that doesn't touch the actual problem. Here's what each one really does, what it costs, and how to work out which gap you've got.
Option oneWhat does an IT support company actually do?
An IT support company (sometimes called a managed service provider, or MSP) looks after the desk. Laptops, printers, Wi-Fi, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace accounts, password resets, antivirus, Windows updates, and setting up the new starter's computer on a Monday morning.
The good ones are very good at it. They have a help desk, a ticket system, and someone who'll drive round when the server in the cupboard starts beeping. Most charge per user per month, from about £30 to over £100 a user depending on what's included (Compare the Cloud's UK breakdown). For a 20-person firm that's roughly £7,000 to £25,000 a year.
What they usually don't do: build or change software, look after the custom system your business runs on, sort out the developer who's stopped answering emails, or tell the board whether the new ERP is worth buying. When you need any of that, they'll refer you on. That's not a failing. It's just a different job.
What does a fractional CTO do?
A fractional CTO is a senior technology person you rent a few days a month. They sit in on the leadership meetings, set the technical direction, choose suppliers, review contracts, and make the big calls: build or buy, which platform, how to get through a security audit, whether the development agency is any good.
Rates vary a lot. Expect around £800 to £1,600 a day, with London at the top of that range, often sold as a monthly retainer of two to four days (Fractional Quest, 2026). So somewhere around £1,600 to £6,400 a month.
The catch is in the word "thinking". Most fractional CTOs decide, they don't do. They'll tell you the backups need sorting and the servers need moving, and then you need someone to sort the backups and move the servers. If you have a development team already, that's ideal. If you don't, you've bought a very well-informed opinion and a to-do list. There's more in what is a fractional CTO?
What does an in-house hire give you?
One person, in your building, who knows your business, your people and your systems. That's worth a lot. They're there when someone can't print the payroll, they learn how things really work rather than how the documentation says they work, and they care, because it's their job.
They also cost about £55,000 a year all in for a salary of around £45,000. We break that number down, with sources, in what an IT department costs. And you get one set of skills. A brilliant desk-support person usually isn't a developer. A brilliant developer usually doesn't want to fix the printer. Almost nobody is good at both plus security, servers and supplier management, and if you find them, they're expensive and they'll get headhunted.
Then there's holiday, sickness, and the day they hand in their notice. When the only person who knows how everything works leaves, the business finds out very quickly how much was in their head. We've written about that too: our developer has left, what now?
The three compared
| IT support company | Fractional CTO | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical cost a year (20 people) | £7,000 to £25,000 | £19,000 to £77,000 | About £55,000 |
| Laptops, printers, accounts | Yes | No | Usually |
| Servers, cloud and hosting | Office servers, sometimes cloud | Advises | Depends on the person |
| Security and Cyber Essentials | Often helps | Advises | Depends on the person |
| Building or changing software | No | Advises, rarely builds | Only if you hired a developer |
| Strategy and board-level advice | Rarely | Yes | Rarely, at that salary |
| Holiday and sickness cover | Yes | Limited | No |
| Getting out of it | Contract term, often 12 to 36 months | Usually monthly | Notice periods and HR |
The figures are rough and the ranges are wide, because all three markets are. But the shape is right: each option covers some of the job well and leaves a hole somewhere else.
How do you tell which gap you've got?
Ask what's actually going wrong, and be specific about it. Then match the problem to the job.
- "Laptops are slow, the Wi-Fi drops, nobody knows who to ring when the printer jams." That's desk support. An IT support company is the answer, and it's the cheapest one here.
- "We don't know whether to buy the new system, and every supplier tells us something different." That's a decisions gap. A fractional CTO, or anyone senior and independent, will help.
- "Half the business runs on a spreadsheet and three systems that don't talk to each other." That's a building gap. You need developers, and someone to look after what they build.
- "The server is ancient, we're not sure the backups work, and a customer wants Cyber Essentials." That's a systems and security gap. Someone has to own it and do the work, not just recommend it.
- "All of the above." Very common. Read on.
What most businesses of 10 to 100 people actually need
In our experience, two things. Somebody to look after the desk, and somebody who owns everything behind it: the systems, the security, the software and the suppliers. The first is a well-understood, competitive market and you can buy it cheaply. The second is where the trouble usually is, because it doesn't fit neatly into any of the three boxes above.
The cheapest way we know to get both is a local IT support company for the desk, plus an outsourced technical team for the rest. That team needs to do the work, not just advise, and it needs to be able to build software as well as run servers, because most small-business problems are a bit of both.
A software house can be the right call for one big, well-defined build, especially if you have people to run it afterwards. We still work that way for plenty of clients. Where it gets harder is the year after launch, when hosting, security and a steady list of changes all need an owner.
That's what Your tech department is for, so add the usual pinch of salt. It covers planning, custom software, servers, security and backups as one team. We don't do desk support. We help you choose a good IT support company for that, write their brief and keep them on track. It's one option among several, and for some businesses one of the three above on its own will be the right call.
What we'd do in your shoes
- Under 10 people: skip all three. Get a decent IT support company or a reliable freelancer on call, turn on two-factor login everywhere, and make sure your backups restore.
- 10 to 50 people: IT support company for the desk. Then decide who owns the systems, security and software side, and write their name down. If the honest answer is "the office manager, sort of", that's your gap.
- 50 to 100 people: an in-house IT person often starts to make sense here, for the day to day. Give them outside help for development, infrastructure and security, so they aren't expected to be six people at once.
- Any size, about to spend a lot on a new system: get independent advice before you sign. A few days of a fractional CTO's time costs far less than a bad platform choice.
And whatever you choose, put it in writing: who does what, who you ring, and who's responsible when something falls between two suppliers. Most of the messes we're called in to clear up happened in exactly that gap.
Common questions
IT support companies fix the desk: laptops, printers, email and accounts. A fractional CTO is a part-time senior person who sets technical direction and makes the big decisions, but usually doesn't do the hands-on work.
Typically £800 to £1,600 a day, with London at the top of that range, often sold as a monthly retainer of a few days. For two days a month that's roughly £1,600 to £3,200 a month.
Under about 50 people, outsourcing is usually cheaper and covers more skills, with holiday cover built in. Above that, an in-house person for the day to day plus outside specialists for development, infrastructure and security tends to work best.
Usually not. Most IT support companies look after hardware, accounts and standard software, and refer you to a software house or developer when you need something built or changed.
Work out which gap you've got
Tell us what's going wrong and we'll tell you what kind of help fits.
If the answer is an IT support company or a hire rather than us, we'll say so.
Rather talk now? Book a call or ring 01474 639 089.
We reply within one working day.
