AskSami or a fractional CMO: which one for getting your first users?

What a fractional CMO is

A fractional CMO is a chief marketing officer who gives your company part of the week and other companies the rest, for a monthly fee. Practicus, a UK firm that places marketing leaders, sets the role apart from a consultant like this:

The same page says what the role is not: writing every social post, managing your email platform or handling the daily execution. The CMO sets the direction, and an existing team, agency or freelancers deliver against it.

Go Fractional's rate benchmark puts the typical scope at about 15 hours a week, and MarketerHire's cost guide says most fractional CMOs work 10 to 20 hours per week for each client.

What a fractional CMO costs, on four named pages

There is no one price and no official figure. These four firms publish numbers on their own sites, each read on 8 October 2026. The first two are prices you can buy at. The last two are firms that sell the service saying what the market charges.

• VCMO, a UK provider. VCMO's retainer pricing page shows £4,000 to £12,000 plus VAT per month, with a minimum 6 month term.
• Go Fractional, a marketplace that prices in US dollars. Its page for hiring a fractional CMO shows a monthly retainer starting at $5,000 per month for 5 to 10 hours a week, with no recruiting fees. Its rate benchmark gave an average of $176 an hour and a typical $7,500 to $12,000 per month at 15 hours a week, from 54 job posts and 836 candidate profiles over the last 90 days. It was last updated on 8 October 2026, and it moves.
• Practicus, in the UK. Its guide puts day rates at £700 to £1,400 and monthly retainers at £3,000 to £10,000, depending on the number of days committed.
• MarketerHire, a US marketplace. MarketerHire's pricing page lists no prices: after a call it matches you with a marketer at a budget you agreed to, with a two week refundable trial and month to month terms. Its guide gives the range:

These figures cannot be averaged. They are in two currencies, VCMO adds VAT, and one is a starting price where the others are ranges.

What AskSami is

AskSami is a marketing and distribution expert for founders who have launched a product and cannot get users or paying customers. It is software, not a person, and you talk to Sami in the chat. AskSami reads what you give it, all of it optional: your GitHub repository, up to 40 pages of your live site, and the screenshots, ad exports and payment exports. From that it writes an honest read of why the product does or does not sell, and a ranked plan of up to ten ways to get customers, free methods before paid ones.

AskSami never posts anywhere for you, never spends your money and never writes to your code. You do those things yourself. It leads nobody, hires nobody, manages no budget and answers to no board. Signing up is free, and so are your full honest read and your ranked plan. A plan gives you more of Sami. The paid plans are Starter $20, Growth $100 and Max $240 per month, paid a month at a time with no contract.

Side by side

When a fractional CMO is the better pick

When there is something to lead. VCMO puts the test in one line:

• You have revenue or funding. The two published prices start at £4,000 plus VAT a month for at least six months at VCMO, and at $5,000 a month at Go Fractional. Practicus says the model suits businesses at a growth inflection point, typically with £1m or more of revenue.
• You have people to direct, or need to hire them. A team, freelancers or an agency deliver against the direction the CMO sets. MarketerHire's guide describes a fractional CMO building a marketing function from zero, hiring the team included.
• You have a budget to manage. Planning spend by channel is part of the role as Practicus lists it, and VCMO's retainer covers governance over spend and suppliers.
• Someone has to answer for it. To a board or to investors. Preparing for investment, funding or exit is among the triggers Practicus sees most.

If you need the work done for you, that is a marketing agency. If you want to talk one problem through with a person on a call, that is a mentor marketplace such as GrowthMentor.

When AskSami is the better pick

• It is only you. No team, no freelancers, no agency. Whoever sets the strategy, the doing is yours.
• Nobody has paid yet. The first job is to find out why the product does not sell, and that is what the honest read is for. It scores the six things that decide whether a stranger pays.
• Your budget is nearer $20 a month than $3,500. MarketerHire's guide gives a rough figure for a fractional CMO advising a solo founder on channel strategy: $3,500 a month for 8 hours a week.

One limit: AskSami launched on 19 September 2026, so it has no results of its own to quote, where a fractional CMO has a career and references you can check.

Using both

They fit one after the other, not side by side. While it is only you, use AskSami: work the plan one channel at a time, and let the dated record of the numbers you bring back show which channel pays. When the product sells and there are people and a budget to lead, hire the fractional CMO and show them that record. By then AskSami is no longer the right tool: How AskSami works says it is for the builder who does the marketing alone, not for marketing teams.

Before you sign, ask what these pages show can differ: the minimum term, the hours a week, whether VAT comes on top, and who does the daily work.