What hiring costs
What a fractional COO costs, and how to compare it with a hire or a team
What a fractional COO costs depends on the hours the role takes and who provides it. To compare fairly, set a fractional COO, a full-time hire and a team side by side on the same work: what you pay, what you manage yourself and what is left undone. We found no rate we could check, so this page shows no rate.
Written for service business owners who do $500,000 or more a year and are weighing what help costs.
Looking for fractional COO work, or checking pay for your own rate? This page is for owners comparing cost. It lists no work and no pay rates.
No single number
Why there is no single number
A fractional COO is not priced like a product. The cost depends on the hours the role takes, what the work includes and who provides it.
If you see a figure elsewhere, ask where it came from and which year it describes.
Four questions
Four questions to ask of every option
- What do you pay? Include fees, subscriptions and anything billed on top.
- What do you manage yourself? Recruiting, briefing, checking and joining the pieces all take your time.
- What is left undone? An option that covers one job leaves the others where they were.
- What happens when the person leaves? If the work lives with one person, it leaves with them.
Your numbers
A worksheet from your own numbers
- List every job you want covered.
- Beside each job, write who does it today: you, your team or nobody.
- Add the hours each job takes in a week.
- For each option, write who would do those hours and what you would pay.
Your own hours and your own costs are the only figures that count here.
Counting a hire
How to count the cost of a hire
A hire costs pay plus the extras that come with employing someone. List both, then add your own time to recruit, train and manage.
While you recruit, the work waits.
This page shows no hire figure. Hiring cost figures for seven roles at the low end of pay, each with its source, sit on the Pricing page.
Your options
What each cost line leaves out
- A hire: a salary plus the extras, and your own time to recruit, train and manage.
- A freelancer: paid by the job or the hour, and you manage and connect the pieces.
- An agency: usually a fee for one area, and the rest may sit outside it.
- A fractional executive: paid for senior time, and the doing may sit outside what you pay for.
- An AI tool: often a subscription, and checking the output is up to you.
- Susanoo: a monthly price for all six departments, with the plans and what is included on the Pricing page.
This comparison is our own view, based on public information about each kind of option, last reviewed October 2026. It is not a survey of every provider, and your situation may differ.
The price
A team covering six departments is priced differently
Susanoo charges a monthly price that covers all six departments. The Pricing page shows the plans, the setup fee and what is included.
One account manager and six specialists run your marketing, sales, operations, automation, AI and software.