Pricing
Startup recruiting, priced by scope
Crucial Recruiting starts at $5,000 per month. That is a flat monthly fee set by the size of your search, not by salary and not per hire. No placement fees, no long-term contract. Three months to start, then month to month with 30 days notice.
Calculator
Work out what you would save
Set your hiring plan against a contingency fee. The defaults are six roles at a $150,000 average salary, a 25 percent agency fee and a six-month engagement.
Your tier is set by the number of roles: $5,000 for one to three, $7,500 for four to six, $10,000 for seven or more.
You save
$180,000
- Agency cost per hire
- $37,500
- Fixed per hire. Every extra hire adds another fee.
- Crucial cost per hire
- $7,500
- The fee never rises with the salary you offer and is never charged per hire.
At 6 roles and a $150,000 average salary, a 25% agency fee costs $225,000. 6 months of embedded recruiting at $7,500 per month costs $45,000.
Figures are illustrative. Final pricing is agreed on a call.
Build your hiring plan with us
Send the roles and the timeline and we will come back with a plan and a fee.
The tiers
How the flat fee is set
The fee is set by the scope of your search, then it holds. Three bands cover almost everyone:
1 to 3 roles
$5,000
per month
4 to 6 roles
$7,500
per month
7+ roles
$10,000
per month
Within a band the number does not move. It does not rise with the salary you offer, the seniority of the person, or how many searches run at once. That is the difference from a percentage model, where every extra hire and every extra dollar of salary adds cost.
Complexity sets where you land. Five sales development reps and five senior software engineers are not the same search, so a senior-heavy or niche slate can move the tier. We confirm the number on the first call, before anything starts.
The fee
What the monthly fee covers
What is covered?
The fee buys a recruiter and the whole hiring process around them, not a stream of resumes. In practice that means:
- Role scoping and written scorecards
- A market map of the realistic candidate pool
- Direct outreach sent from your domain
- Screening calls with written summaries
- Interview process design and coordination
- Offer strategy and closing
- A weekly pipeline report with funnel numbers
- Salary benchmarking, ATS setup or clean-up, career page
It also carries the 90-day replacement guarantee: if a hire leaves within 90 days of starting, we replace them free.
What is not included?
Anything priced per person. There is no fee on start, no rebate schedule to negotiate, and no commercial reason for us to push a candidate toward a higher salary.
Comparison
Flat monthly fee vs a 25% contingency fee
Using a $150,000 base salary and a 25 percent contingency fee, with the Crucial cost following the tier for that many active roles.
Scroll horizontally to compare
| Active roles / period | Agency at 25% of $150k | Crucial (tiered) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 role, 1 month | $37,500 | $5,000 | $32,500 |
| 2 roles, 3 months | $75,000 | $15,000 | $60,000 |
| 4 roles, 4 months | $150,000 | $30,000 | $120,000 |
| 6 roles, 6 months | $225,000 | $45,000 | $180,000 |
| 10 roles, 12 months | $375,000 | $120,000 | $255,000 |
The second, quieter difference is rebate risk. A contingency fee is a lump sum attached to one person. If that person leaves in month five, most rebate terms have already expired and you have paid $37,500 for a seat that is empty again. A monthly fee carries no lump sum, so there is nothing to claw back and nothing to lose.
Honest limits
When contingent hiring is the cheaper choice
When is contingent hiring the better deal?
When you are making one opportunistic hire and have no other roles opening this year, you pay nothing until someone starts. For that, use contingent hiring: 15 percent of first-year salary, paid on start, no monthly fee. It undercuts the 20 to 25 percent most agencies charge, and against a single seat it is a clean transaction.
A monthly fee only makes sense when there is enough work to fill the month. The same is true if your hiring is genuinely unpredictable: one role now, maybe another in eight months, maybe nothing. Paying monthly for capacity you are not using is worse than paying a single fee once.
Where is the break-even?
Roughly one hire per month. Below that, contingent hiring can win. At two or more roles in a quarter, the flat fee is cheaper and gets cheaper with every additional hire. We would rather tell you that on the first call than sign an engagement that does not pay for itself.
The cost of a fractional recruiter sets our pricing against the wider market.
By engagement
How each service is priced
Scroll horizontally to compare
| Engagement | Commercial model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded recruiting | Flat monthly fee, tiered by roles | From $5,000 per month |
| Fractional expert placement | Monthly, expert's rate plus our fee | Quoted per engagement |
| Contingent hiring | Contingency, paid on start | 15 percent of first-year salary |
Embedded is the default. Nothing here is a percentage of salary except the optional contingent hiring fee, and nothing is billed per hire on the monthly model.
Startup recruiting agency pricing FAQs
- How much does it cost?
- Embedded recruiting starts at $5,000 per month, a flat fee with no placement fees and no long-term contract. It is tiered by how many roles you are running: $5,000 for one to three, $7,500 for four to six, $10,000 for seven or more. The wider market runs $6,000 to $14,000 per month for fractional and embedded recruiters, and 20 to 30 percent of first-year salary for contingency agencies.
- Does the price change if we open more roles?
- Within your tier, no. Across tiers, yes: more concurrent roles moves you up a band. What it never does is rise with the salary you offer or add a fee per hire. A percentage agency works the opposite way, where every extra hire and every extra dollar of salary adds cost.
- What sets the tier?
- The number of active roles, adjusted for complexity. Five sales development reps and five senior software engineers are not the same search, so a senior or niche slate can move the number. We confirm it on the first call, before anything starts.
- Do you charge a placement fee on top?
- No. On the monthly model there is no fee per hire and no percentage of salary at any point. If you hire four people in a month, the fee is the same as if you hire none.
- Is there a minimum contract length?
- Three months to start, then month to month with 30 days notice. The initial term covers a real ramp, the infrastructure and the first searches, then you can pause when hiring pauses.
- When is contingent hiring cheaper than a monthly fee?
- When you are making one opportunistic hire with no other roles open. Contingent hiring is 15 percent of first-year salary, paid on start, so you pay nothing until someone joins. At two or more roles, the monthly fee costs less.
- Is there a guarantee?
- Yes. If a placement leaves within 90 days of starting, we replace them free. It holds for any placement and even after the engagement ends.
Get a fee for your hiring plan
Tell us the roles and the timeline and we will price it on the call. Pricing starts at $5,000 per month.