A Fractional CISO owns your security program, compliance and customer trust posture part time. Rates, scope, and how to start, in one place.
A Fractional CISO, also sold as a vCISO, costs $250 to $500 per hour, or $3,000 to $20,000 per month on retainer. Advisory engagements of 5 to 8 hours run $3,000 to $5,000, standard retainers of 10 to 20 hours run $5,000 to $12,000, and SOC 2 or HIPAA heavy programs reach $12,000 to $20,000. A full-time CISO costs $250,000 to $565,000 a year in total compensation, so the fractional model saves 55 to 80 percent.
A prioritised plan tied to the risks that actually threaten the business.
SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001 and PCI readiness, run as a project with a date.
Documented risks, owners and accepted exceptions, in language the board understands.
Vendor reviews and contract security terms, so your supply chain stops being your weak point.
A tested plan, defined roles and the tabletop exercise that proves it works.
Training and policy your team will actually follow, plus oversight of security staff and vendors.
Security work is graded against a framework and a date. The first quarter gets you from no program to an auditable one, in the order that unblocks revenue fastest.
Enterprise buyers send a 200 line assessment and nobody owns the answer.
SOC 2 or HIPAA is now a customer requirement with a date attached.
Phishing, ransomware or a leaked credential showed you have no plan.
The retainer is sized to your audit date and your customer commitments, then scaled back to a maintenance cadence once certification lands.
5 to 8 hours a month of guidance, policy review and executive reporting.
10 to 20 hours a week owning the program, risk register, vendor reviews and questionnaires.
SOC 2, HIPAA or ISO 27001 programs run to an audit date, with evidence collection managed.
Hourly engagements run $250 to $500 per hour. Mid-career vCISOs with CISSP and compliance experience sit at $250 to $375, and senior CISOs from large enterprises or regulated industries reach $375 to $500 and above. Ranges reflect published 2026 US market data, not a Hey CMO rate card.
| Fractional CISO | Full-Time CISO | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $36,000 to $240,000 depending on scope | $250,000 to $565,000 in total compensation |
| Time | 5 hours a month to 20 hours a week | Full-time, always on |
| Best for | Companies under a few hundred staff, or a first program | Regulated enterprises with a security team to lead |
| Ramp | Weeks, with prior program templates | Months, plus a search |
| Risk | Shared attention across clients | Single point of failure if they leave |
Most growth-stage companies need a program and an accountable name for customers and auditors, not a full-time seat. Move to full-time when you have a security team large enough to need daily leadership.
Sell a security program with a named framework and an audit date, not open-ended advisory.
Anchor on a monthly retainer. The market pays $5,000 to $12,000 for a standard program.
Auditors, managed service providers and SaaS founders facing enterprise reviews are your referral engine.
Got Fractional pulls Fractional, interim and advisory security roles from company career pages, job boards and professional communities into one searchable feed. Access is included for active Hey CMO Fractional Network members.
A Fractional CISO owns your security program part time: the roadmap, policies, risk register, compliance readiness for frameworks such as SOC 2 and HIPAA, vendor and third-party risk, incident response planning, and the customer-facing answers to security questionnaires.
Expect $3,000 to $5,000 per month for advisory support, $5,000 to $12,000 for a standard retainer, and $12,000 to $20,000 for compliance-heavy programs. Hourly rates run $250 to $500. A full-time CISO costs $250,000 to $565,000 a year in total compensation.
In practice they are the same service under two names. Virtual CISO is more common in the managed security and compliance market, and Fractional CISO is more common when the person embeds with your leadership team. Compare scope and hours, not the label.
They run the program that gets you there: gap assessment, control design, policy set, evidence collection and auditor management. The certification itself comes from an independent auditor, and a fractional CISO is the person who keeps that project on a date.
Usually within weeks, because they arrive with policy templates, risk register formats and audit playbooks already built. That speed is the main reason companies facing a customer deadline choose fractional over a search.
Hey CMO connects business builders with vetted Fractional leaders, and gives Fractionals the systems to run the practice behind the role.
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