12 May 2026
It is almost always the first question on the phone: "how much do fractional CIO services cost?" The honest answer fits in one sentence. It depends on the number of decisions to be made each month, not on the size of your IT estate.
Here is enough to build a serious order of magnitude before talking to anyone.
The model: days per month, not a subscription
Fractional IT leadership is almost always billed in days of intervention per month. On the French market, the daily rate for a profile able to steer an SME's information system generally sits between €600 and €1,200, depending on experience, region and the complexity of your environment.
In practice, three tiers come up again and again:
- 1 to 2 days per month to stay on course: tracking suppliers, contracts and main risks, one monthly governance checkpoint. Roughly €1,000 to €2,500 per month.
- 2 to 4 days per month for active steering: roadmap, budget, ongoing projects, regular committees. Roughly €2,500 to €5,000 per month.
- Beyond that, a structuring project is under way (ERP replacement, new site, major incident). The pace rises temporarily, then comes back down.
The comparison that puts things in perspective
An experienced full-time IT director costs between €90,000 and €130,000 a year including charges. That is assuming you manage to recruit one, then keep them busy full time. Most SMEs with 20 to 250 employees have neither the budget nor the volume of decisions to justify the position.
That is precisely the point of part-time IT leadership: director-level judgement, prorated to the real need.
What moves the price
Four factors weigh more than all the others:
- The number of suppliers to coordinate. Three counterparts are quickly managed; eight require real conductor's work.
- The state of the documentation. If everything lives in one person's head, the first months are spent rebuilding the knowledge.
- Projects under way or about to start. A business tool replacement easily doubles the pace for a few months.
- Your sector's obligations. Health data, traceability, client audits: every requirement adds follow-up.
The traps to avoid in proposals
Two signals should alert you. First, the vague package: "management of your IT" with no number of days and no list of responsibilities is a guarantee of painful conversations at the first disagreement. Second, organised dependency: if every access, contract and document stays with the provider, the real price of the service will be paid the day you want to change.
Demand three things in any proposal: an explicit volume of days, named deliverables (roadmap, consolidated budget, risk register) and clear ownership of your documentation.
Where to start
The simplest move is to have the pace estimated on facts: how many suppliers, which projects in the next twelve months, which deadlines. In a thirty-minute conversation, a serious professional can tell you whether your situation calls for one day a month or four, and justify it.