Compare your options
Fractional DevOps vs. hiring a DevOps engineer
If you have 5 to 40 engineers, you probably have real infrastructure work and not enough of it to justify a full-time platform team. These are the four usual ways to handle it.
| Fractional DevOps | Full-time hire | Consulting engagement | PaaS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Days, with senior expertise from day one | Months to recruit, then ramp time | Weeks to scope and staff a project | Immediate |
| Cost shape | Monthly buckets of hours; unused hours roll over | Roughly $200K–$300K fully loaded in year one | Fixed project fee | Usage-based; grows with your workload |
| Commitment | Month-to-month | Full-time headcount | Project contract | Your architecture is tied to the provider |
| Ongoing operation | Yes, we keep it running | Yes | No, it ends at handoff | Platform only; your team operates the rest |
| Where it runs | Your own AWS, GCP, or Azure accounts | Your own cloud | Your own cloud | The provider’s cloud |
| Knowledge retention | Codified in a platform and infrastructure-as-code | Depends on one person | Leaves with the consultant | Hidden inside the provider |
What is fractional DevOps?
Fractional DevOps is a managed service that sits between hiring someone and outsourcing to a consultant. You get a team of senior DevOps experts for the amount of time your stage actually needs, and they stay on to operate what they build. Ours is delivered through a dev platform that runs on your own cloud.
When a full-time hire is the right call
Above about 40 engineers, most teams have enough infrastructure work to justify a dedicated DevOps or platform engineer. Below that, a senior hire is expensive, slow to recruit, and leaves you dependent on one person. Many teams use fractional as the bridge until the hire makes sense, and hand that person codified infrastructure instead of a black box.
When consulting falls short
A consulting engagement ends with a handoff. Infrastructure doesn’t: Kubernetes needs upgrading, pipelines need maintaining, and compliance controls need to stay audit-ready. When the consultant leaves, the knowledge leaves too.
When a PaaS falls short
A PaaS gets you deployed quickly, but you give up control of your cloud. Teams that need SOC2, specific cloud services, or predictable cost at scale often outgrow it. With fractional DevOps you keep your own AWS, GCP, or Azure accounts without taking on the management burden.
Next step
See how pricing works, or read how it has played out for two teams.
Ready to take infrastructure off your plate?
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