A real comparison includes the loaded cost of an in-house hire, the recruitment fee, the ramp-up period and the risk of a bad hire. Answer five questions and see the 12-month total versus a Digital Signet tech-partnership retainer. The gap is usually bigger than people expect.
For most UK SMEs this is the highest-leverage decision you can make on the technology side: senior judgement, AI execution speed, and a predictable monthly cost.
This is a 60-second comparison based on typical UK loaded costs. Your real numbers may differ. Real engagements are scoped over a 20-minute conversation, free.
Loaded salary takes the base figure for the level you would hire, then multiplies by the loaded uplift (default 1.4x). That covers NI, pension, equipment, software licences and a share of overhead. It is what the hire actually costs your business per year, not the headline salary.
Recruitment cost is the agency fee (typically 20% of base) or, for a tough hire, 30% plus the cost of three months of wasted searching where roadmap work is blocked. The tough-hire scenario is what most UK SMEs actually experience hiring senior engineers in 2026.
Ramp-up assumes during the ramp period you pay 100% of loaded cost but get about 50% of full productivity. The loss is (ramp months / 12) × loaded × 0.5. A 3-month ramp on a £91k loaded engineer is roughly £11k of dead weight.
Tech partnership is £1,200 onboarding plus your chosen monthly tier for 12 months. No recruitment, no ramp-up, no payroll, no risk. See how the tech partnership works for the full model.
