Pricing
How Selbytech Pricing Works
Fractional CTO engagements aren’t priced like a SaaS subscription — every business has a different shape, and the right engagement reflects that. Selbytech pricing is built on two simple levers: expected monthly hours and contract term.
The calculator below gives you a live rate based on your selections. Longer commitments and higher monthly hours both reduce the effective hourly rate — not as a sales tactic, but because longer engagements let us invest more deeply in the business, and higher-hour months reduce the per-hour overhead of context-switching.
If your engagement doesn’t fit a standard shape — a discrete project, a one-week sprint, a board-level advisory retainer — get in touch directly and we’ll scope it.
Fractional CTO Pricing
Choose expected monthly hours and contract term. Pricing updates instantly.
| Tier | Estimated Monthly Fee | Hours / Month | Contract Length | Typical Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Strategic CTO Advisory
Light-touch leadership & direction
|
|
|||
|
Fractional CTO (Core)
Hands-on executive leadership
|
|
|||
|
Project-Based Engagement
Defined-scope transformation work
|
|
|||
|
Fractional CTO + Platform
Leadership plus EmpireVault, for businesses without a technical leader
|
Custom quote | 20–80 hrs | 3–12 months |
|
What a Typical Engagement Looks Like
Four engagement shapes cover most of our work. Yours may not match exactly — these are illustrative, not menus.
20 hours / month — Strategic advisory
For founders or operators who need senior technical judgement on call. Architecture reviews, hiring input, vendor selection, board-deck technical sections, “should we build this?” conversations. Typically 4–6 hours per week split across scheduled calls and async work.
40 hours / month — Embedded leadership
For companies running real product engineering without a CTO. We attend standups, own architecture decisions, review pull requests, mentor engineers, and report into the leadership team like any other exec. Roughly 8–10 hours per week. This is the most common shape.
80 hours / month — Interim CTO
For acute situations: a CTO has just left, a critical platform migration is mid-flight, fundraising due diligence is imminent, or a major launch is 90 days out. Full ownership of the technology function for a defined window. Usually 3–6 months, then steps down to advisory.
3 to 12 months — Fractional CTO + Platform
For owner-led businesses with no technical leader. The leadership above, plus EmpireVault set up, migrated, and run with your team, included for the full term at no additional charge. Quoted after a free discovery call; as a guide, a six-month Operate engagement at about 40 hours a month runs around $8,200 a month. See the full offer →
After the engagement — Care Plan
For clients finishing a Fractional CTO + Platform engagement: the EmpireVault subscription plus a block of our hours each month for configuration changes, new automations, new users, and questions, a quarterly review, and a named person who answers. Typically around $1,200 a month including six hours. Priced per month.
All engagements include a written engagement letter, monthly written updates, and an honest “we should stop” conversation if the model isn’t producing value.
Pricing FAQ
What’s included in the hourly rate?
Strategic and execution time — architecture, code review, planning, hiring decisions, vendor calls, written documentation. Out-of-pocket expenses (cloud spend, third-party tools, travel) are passed through at cost with prior approval. There are no platform fees, retainer fees, or “discovery phase” charges.
Are you available for short-term or one-off work?
Yes — technical due diligence engagements are typically 2–3 weeks, board-level technology reviews 1–2 weeks, and architecture audits 1 week. Pricing for these is project-based rather than hourly; ask for a fixed quote in the contact form.
Do you require a minimum commitment?
The shortest standard contract is 3 months. Shorter engagements get scoped as projects (above) rather than retainer hours. The reason is practical: it takes the first month just to get genuinely useful on a new codebase and team.
How do you handle confidentiality and IP?
Every engagement starts with a mutual NDA before any technical detail is shared. Code, architecture, customer data, and strategic plans stay yours. For Fractional CTO + Platform engagements we set you up on EmpireVault, a platform we build: your data lives in your own isolated tenant, is exportable at any time at no charge, and is never copied into any Selbytech system. We use no third-party AI services that retain prompt data. If you require a specific compliance posture (SOC 2 vendor questionnaire, HIPAA BAA, etc.), say so up front.
What if the engagement isn’t working?
You can end the engagement on 30 days’ notice, written. We will too — if the business doesn’t need what we’re offering, we’d rather flag it than coast. The first month is also explicitly a mutual evaluation period; if either side doesn’t see a path to value, we part cleanly without a long-tail commitment.
Is software included?
Only in Fractional CTO + Platform engagements, which include EmpireVault, every module, for your whole team, for the full term, at no additional charge. Advisory, Core, and Project engagements are leadership only.
What does EmpireVault cost after the engagement?
$39 per seat per month, every module, price locked for twelve months from the day the engagement ends. Every user your team adds during the term is included; seats are counted once, at the handoff review sixty days before the end.
What is the Care Plan?
The middle ground between an engagement and a bare subscription: EmpireVault for your team plus a block of our hours each month, a quarterly review, and a named person who answers. Typically around $1,200 a month including six hours, priced per month. It is offered to every client sixty days before their engagement ends.
What is guaranteed?
A Fractional CTO + Platform engagement is complete when a written set of operational outcomes is true — leads answered automatically, customer email on the customer record, bookings self-serve, data migrated and signed off, your team working unaided — and we keep working at no additional charge until they are. We do not guarantee revenue, lead volume, or growth. Advisory, Core, and Project engagements carry the 30-day notice and first-month evaluation described above rather than milestone guarantees.