Midnyte

Answers

Last updated 30 September 2026

Questions people ask before hiring a technical lead or commissioning a build. Every figure on these pages carries its source, its date and, where the sample is small enough to matter, its size — because most of what is published on these subjects carries none of the three.

• What does a fractional CTO cost in the UK?UK contract day rates, what a two-day-a-week retainer works out at, and what the full-time alternative costs. Sourced and dated, because nobody else publishes this for Britain.
• Fractional CTO vs a full-time hire, with the actual numbersEvery comparison of these two declines to price it. This one puts a first-year and a year-two figure on both sides, and says when hiring is the right answer.
• When you need a fractional CTO — and when you do notSix signals that say you need technical leadership, four that say you need something cheaper, and the two-day piece of work worth buying before any retainer.
• How long does it take to build an MVP?Published timelines disagree threefold because almost none of them states the team size. Here it is as a function of team size, plus what actually causes the slip.