Denion · 3 February 2026
Fractional Team Versus In-House Versus Agency
Three ways to run marketing, and what actually differs between them.
Most growing brands choose between three models, and rarely compare them on the same terms.
An in-house hire is a fixed cost taken on before the work has proven out: recruiting time, onboarding, and one person's judgement covering a function that usually needs several disciplines at once.
A traditional agency roster changes: the team pitching an account is rarely the team running it a year later, and pricing is scoped project by project rather than published.
A fractional team, Denion's Plans, is a named group, a strategist, a designer, a developer, a media buyer, engaged as one function at a published monthly price, with a founding partner reviewing the work rather than a rotating account manager.
The right model depends on scale. A single-market startup is usually better served by Launch, applying and running an identity that already exists. A brand running several functions at once is where Growth, at one price for all nine modules, starts to cost less than buying three or more separately.