I am a fractional Head of Digital, so I have a stake in this question, and you should read the answer with that in mind. I built this to show the full cost of a hire and the point where hiring full-time is the better buy. Every figure is editable, and the maths is explained at the bottom of the page.
Full-time hire
Employer National Insurance defaults are the UK rates for the 2026/27 tax year: 15% above a secondary threshold of £5,000 a year. Change them if your situation differs, or if you are outside the UK.
Fractional
Use the quote you have. The day rate is treated as excluding VAT.
What each option costs
Cash spent from the day you decide: the hire's salary and on-costs only start after the time to hire, plus the recruiter fee. Fractional starts after its start weeks.
A fractional leader delivers fewer hours each week, so being up to speed sooner is not the same as getting the same output sooner.
How the full-time figure is built
| Base salary | -- |
|---|---|
| Employer National Insurance | -- |
| Employer pension | -- |
| Benefits and overheads | -- |
| Annual cost | -- |
| Recruiter fee (once) | -- |
| Weeks of salary in the first 12 months | -- |
| First 12 months from today | -- |
How this works
Full-time: annual cost is salary, plus employer National Insurance on the salary above the threshold, plus employer pension, plus one figure for benefits and overheads. The recruiter fee is a percentage of salary and is added to the first year only. Cost per working day is the annual cost divided by the working days you enter.
Fractional: annual cost is the day rate multiplied by days per month and by twelve. The day rate is treated as excluding VAT; if you cannot reclaim VAT, add it yourself. The IR35 box is optional and off by default. The per-day comparison is the point to look at: a fractional day costs more than a day of the salaried hire, and the saving comes entirely from buying fewer days.
Break-even: the annual cost of the hire divided by (12 x day rate). Above that many days a month, the hire is cheaper. If the figure is higher than the working days in a month, the hire's days cannot beat fractional on cost at that day rate. The first-12-month break-even uses the same idea on the cash spent in the first 12 months from today.
First 12 months from today: for the hire, the annual cost for the weeks left after the time to hire (52 minus those weeks, over 52), plus the recruiter fee if the hire starts inside the year. For fractional, the annual cost for the weeks after its start time. With the defaults that is £119,250 x 40/52 + £19,000 = £110,731.
Time to up to speed: calendar time until someone is in post and up to speed. For the hire, time to hire plus ramp-up (months converted at 52 weeks over 12 months). For fractional, start time plus ramp-up. A fractional leader delivers fewer hours each week, so these two figures are not a like-for-like measure of output. Both are your estimates, not predictions.
Statutory figures: employer National Insurance is 15% above a secondary threshold of £5,000 a year, the rates for the 2026/27 tax year (GOV.UK, rates and thresholds for employers). Both are editable. The calculator ignores the Employment Allowance, which can reduce employer National Insurance for some employers, and any reduced rates for particular employees.
What it leaves out: the cost of a bad hire or a bad fractional fit, bonus, salary growth, redundancy risk, the management time either option needs from you, and the cost of a vacancy while you wait. Class 1A National Insurance on benefits is a small omission. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
IR35 and flexibility: for a medium or large client, the client decides the contractor's employment status. If the engagement is judged to be inside IR35, the client owes employer National Insurance and other costs on the fees, and this tool does not model that unless you tick the box. The box is a rough guide: it adds employer National Insurance at the rate you entered to the full fee, with no threshold and no Employment Allowance, and it ignores any other costs. On the other side, a short notice period is a real benefit of fractional: you can scale back or stop in weeks, where ending a hire takes months and costs more.
When full-time is the right choice:
- You need someone for more days a month than the break-even above. At that point you are paying a premium day rate for days a salary would cover more cheaply.
- The role needs daily line management of a large team, or someone in the room most days.
- The work is a steady, long-term programme, not a build, a fix or a stretch of direction-setting.
- You want the knowledge to live inside the business and grow with it.
- You can hire well and have time to wait for it. A rushed hire is the most expensive option of all.
When fractional tends to fit: you need senior judgement but not five days a week, you cannot wait for a hiring process, or you want to test what the role should be before committing to a salary.
