What it costs to list as a fractional executive
Most places that connect fractional executives with companies charge the executive. Some charge a subscription, some take a share of the engagement, most take both. Here is what that comes to on one real piece of work, with every figure taken from the published price page it comes from.
The engagement we are costing
£1,000 a day, 2 days a week, across 46 billable weeks. That is £92,000 of work, and it is an ordinary fractional CFO or CMO arrangement rather than a flattering one.
| Model | Subscription | Share of the engagement | The operator pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| getoperators | none | none | nothing |
| A subscription and success-fee marketplace | £400 a year | 10% | £9,618 |
| A traditional recruiter | none | 20% | £18,400usually billed to the company |
Where each number comes from
getoperators
Listing is free, there is no subscription, and nothing is taken from the engagement. Revenue comes from companies who ask us to run a search for them.
A subscription and success-fee marketplace
FindaFractional publishes £40 a month or £400 a year, £1.50 per prospect meeting, and 10 per cent of the engagement fee. The hiring business pays nothing; the executive pays all three. Their published pricing
A traditional recruiter
Typically 20 to 30 per cent of first-year value, usually billed to the company rather than the operator, which shows up in the rate the company is willing to agree.
Checked 15 September 2026. Pricing is somebody else’s to change, so check theirs before relying on ours.
Why we can do it for nothing
Because the money comes from somewhere else. Companies who cannot find what they need on the bench can pay us to go and run the search, and that is priced openly on the Operator Search page. It is the only thing we sell.
That single decision is why the rest of this site can exist in the shape it does. We can publish day rates because we do not take a cut of them. We can tell a company in the cost calculator to hire somebody full-time instead, because we are not paid on the engagement. And an operator’s rate is genuinely their own, because there is no arrangement in which part of it is ours.
Common questions
Does getoperators take a commission on the engagement?
No. Not a placement fee, not a success fee, not a percentage of the day rate. The company pays the operator directly and the operator keeps all of it. There is no arrangement in which we are owed anything by an operator.
Then how does getoperators make money?
From companies, and only when they ask us to run a search for them rather than browsing the bench themselves. That service is priced openly: a fee to run the search and a fee if they hire. An operator who is found through that search still pays nothing.
Will the free listing stay free?
Yes. It is the one thing the whole company is built around, and it is written into the published rules. If that ever changed it would change for new listings and be announced, not applied quietly to people already on the bench.
What is the catch?
That the bench is small and deliberately hard to get onto. Every profile is checked by hand against a LinkedIn and a CV before it appears, and applications are declined. If you are looking for volume rather than a vetted bench, a larger marketplace will suit you better.
Listing takes five minutes and costs nothing
You will want your LinkedIn and a CV to hand. Every listing is verified before it goes live, usually within a day. List yourself, or read the rules the bench runs on.