In-house team or agency?Here’s the real math.
Hiring a growth pod feels safer — until you count what it truly costs and how long it takes to produce. Here’s an honest, line-by-line comparison, including the cases where building in-house is genuinely the right call.
- Producing in week one — not month six
- A whole specialist team for less than one senior hire
- We’ll tell you when in-house is the better move
Eight dimensions that actually decide it.
The same work, judged the way a CFO would judge it: cost, speed, breadth, seniority and risk.
Numbers are directional US-market estimates, not a quote. Ask for the honest math on your team →
One hire is rarely one cost.
The salary is the sticker price. The fully-loaded cost — benefits, tooling, management and the months before output — is where in-house budgets quietly double. And a single hire still can’t cover every discipline a growth program needs.
Compare it to a retainer- Senior specialist (salary)$120k–160k
One lead — SEO, paid or dev. You need several disciplines.
- Benefits, tax & overhead+30–40%
Healthcare, payroll tax, equipment, office, PTO.
- Enterprise tooling$24k+/yr
Rank tracking, crawlers, audit and reporting stacks.
- Management & ramp3–6 months
Hiring, onboarding and the ramp before real output lands.
Sometimes an agency is the wrong answer.
We only want clients we’re genuinely right for. Build in-house when all three of these are true.
You need someone in every standup, deep inside the product and company context.
The work is continuous, full-time and core to how the business runs.
You have the budget and patience to hire senior and retain long-term.
Not all three? A specialist team is almost always faster and cheaper. Let’s pressure-test it together →
The best of both
Keep your team. Add ours.
The strongest setup for many companies is a lean in-house owner with a senior specialist team behind them.
Embed alongside your team
We slot in next to your in-house marketer or engineer and cover the specialisms they can’t — you keep ownership, we add horsepower.
Senior specialists, on tap
SEO, paid, content, links, dev and AI — the exact discipline a task needs, without hiring a head for each one.
Built to hand over
Docs, dashboards and playbooks are yours. Bring it in-house later against a proven playbook we helped you write.
Common questions
What buyers ask before deciding
Straight answers on cost, control and bringing it in-house later.
Rarely, once you count the full cost: salary, benefits, tools, management time, and the 3–6 months before a new hire produces. And a single hire can’t match the breadth of a specialist team. In-house wins when the work is genuinely full-time and core — we’ll tell you honestly when that’s you.
Still have questions? Talk to a specialist
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