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In-house vs outsourced SDR calculator

Salary, payroll taxes, hiring, ramp, turnover and management on one side. Agency fees, setup, commitment and meeting quality on the other. The cost per meeting of each, month by month, and the point where hiring wins.

Compare like with like

Your two options

Starting values are editable assumptions unless marked as sourced.

Starting point
Currency

Loads typical assumptions and the currency of that market. Everything stays editable.

The need

How many reps, and what one produces once ramped.

SDRs

Full-time reps in-house, or dedicated SDRs at the agency on a retainer.

per mo

Qualified meetings that actually take place, not just booked.

Work out your output per SDR

In-house

What an SDR on your payroll really costs.

$ / yr
$ / yr

Paid in line with output: partly during ramp, fully once ramped.

Sourced default
%

United States: 33% is the BLS benefits-to-wages ratio for sales occupations (June 2026). France: 40% from the official Urssaf simulator for a €44,000 salary.

$ / mo

Dialer and phone line, contact data, CRM seat, sequencing.

$ / mo
%

20% means one manager for five SDRs.

Hiring, ramp and turnover

The months you pay without the meetings.

$

Job boards, recruiter fee, interview time. Paid again for every replacement.

months
months

From the decision to the first day. Output grows in a straight line until then.

%
months

Share of SDRs who leave in a year.

Agency

How the agency bills, and what you actually get.

How the agency bills

A monthly fee per dedicated SDR, whatever the number of meetings.

$ / mo
per mo
%

Held, and inside your target. Ask the agency what counts as a billable meeting.

Agency launch and terms

Setup, commitment, ramp and your time.

$
months
months
months

Targeting, scripts, data, domains.

%

Weekly reviews, feedback on meetings, list approvals.

Results updated: in-house $1,280 per meeting, agency $966 per meeting.

The verdict

Over

In-house

$1,280

per meeting

$235,174 for 184 meetings

Agency

Cheaper

$966

per meeting

$162,300 for 168 meetings

Over 12 months, the agency costs 25% less per meeting than hiring.

Break-even point: each SDR must hold 15.9 meetings a month once ramped for hiring to win over 12 months. You entered 12.

Within 36 months, hiring never catches up with the agency on cost per meeting.

Highest agency price worth paying

Over 12 months, the agency is cheaper than hiring as long as its retainer stays below $8,195 per SDR per month. You entered $6,000.

Use it to read a quote in seconds, or as your ceiling in a negotiation.

Month by month

Average cost per meeting since the start, or total spent. The lines cross at the break-even month.

$0$1,000$2,000$3,000$4,000161218243036

Months since the decision

Hover or tap the chart to read any month.

In-houseAgency12 months

Cost per meeting, horizon by horizon

Everything paid from month 1, divided by the useful meetings obtained.

HorizonIn-houseAgencyCheaper
6 monthsIn-house $99,513 for 56 meetings, agency $81,900 for 72.$1,774$1,138Agency
12 monthsIn-house $235,174 for 184 meetings, agency $162,300 for 168.$1,280$966Agency
24 monthsIn-house $506,420 for 439 meetings, agency $323,100 for 360.$1,154$898Agency
Cruising speed (month 36, turnover included)$1,063$838Agency

Break-even point in meetings per month

Output per SDR, once ramped, above which hiring is cheaper per meeting.

Your SDRs · 12
AgencyIn-house

  • Over 6 months

    18.7

    per mo

  • Over 12 months

    15.9

    per mo

  • Over 24 months

    15.4

    per mo

  • At cruising speed

    15.2

    per mo

Usually, the longer you keep the team, the lower the bar: hiring, ramp and empty seats get spread over more meetings.

Need fewer than 15.9 meetings a month in total? Then even one SDR would sit partly idle and could not reach the bar over 12 months: buy meetings rather than a seat.

What if your assumptions are wrong?

Cost per meeting over 12 months when one assumption moves.

  • Your assumptions

    Agency
    In-house$1,280
    Agency$966

  • Your SDRs book 30% fewer meetings

    Agency
    In-house$1,828
    Agency$966

  • Your SDRs book 30% more meetings

    Even
    In-house$984
    Agency$966

  • Turnover doubles

    Agency
    In-house$1,412
    Agency$966

  • Hiring takes 1 month longer, ramp 3 months longer

    Agency
    In-house$1,634
    Agency$966

  • 20 points fewer useful agency meetings

    Even
    In-house$1,280
    Agency$1,288

The answer flips in at least one scenario: check that assumption first, ideally with a short test.

Beyond cost

What the numbers do not capture. Weigh each line for your situation.

  • Speed to first meetings

    Agency

    First meetings in month 3 in-house (full speed in month 6), month 2 with the agency (full speed in month 3).

  • Flexibility

    Depends

    Stopping the agency after month 1 still costs $74,900 (setup, 6 months of commitment and one month of your manager’s time). An employee costs notice and severance, and a new hire later.

  • Control of the pitch and quality

    In-house

    In-house, you hear every call, change the script in an hour and coach in real time. An agency rep works several clients and learns your offer secondhand.

  • Knowledge you keep

    In-house

    Objections, personas, call recordings and the playbook stay with you. With an agency, ask in writing for the call recordings and the data to come back to you.

  • Scaling up or down

    Agency

    An agency adds or removes capacity in weeks. In-house, every extra seat means another hiring and ramp cycle.

  • Turnover risk

    Agency

    On your assumptions, expect 1.5 departures in 24 months in-house. At an agency, a departure is their problem, though your account may change hands.

  • Brand and fit

    Depends

    Your SDRs speak as your company and grow into account executives. An agency is a neutral voice: fine for a test, riskier for a premium brand.

How the numbers are worked outTo check every figure by hand
  • One ramped SDR per month: (base + variable) ÷ 12 = $6,667 × (1 + 33%) + tools $300 + manager time $2,800 = $11,967.
  • Ramp: in month τ, an SDR produces min(1, τ ÷ (3 + 1)) of their ramped output. Variable pay follows the same curve.
  • Turnover: 35% a year is a 3.5% chance of leaving each month. The seat stays empty, then a new SDR starts at zero and a new cost per hire is paid. Results are expected values, not one random draw.
  • Agency per month: 2 SDRs × $6,000 + your manager’s time $1,400.
  • Useful meetings = billed meetings × 80%.
  • Cost per meeting over a horizon = everything paid from month 1 ÷ useful meetings obtained over the same months.
  • Break-even point: the ramped output per SDR at which both costs per meeting are equal, found by search.

Share or save

The link reopens the calculator with your inputs. The summary is ready to paste into an email or a budget memo.

Whichever you choose, the dialer decides the output. Skipcall is the outbound calling software used by in-house SDR teams and by prospecting agencies alike: power dialer, parallel dialer on up to four lines, call transcription and AI summaries, sequences, and sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Attio. More conversations per hour raise the output per SDR, which is the number that moves the break-even point.

Create an accountSee the parallel dialer

Your salaries and prices never leave your browser. The tool sends nothing and stores nothing. How to check

In-house

$1,280

Agency

$966

In-house or outsourced: the short answer

An agency is usually cheaper and faster over the first months: no hiring, no ramp, no empty seats, and meetings within a few weeks. An in-house team usually becomes cheaper per meeting later, once each SDR is ramped and the one-off costs are spread over enough meetings. The question is not “which is cheaper” but “from which month, and at what output per SDR”.

That is what the calculator gives you: the cost per useful meeting of each option over 6, 12 and 24 months, the month the lines cross, and the output each SDR must reach for hiring to win. Change the assumption you are least sure of and see if the answer holds.

Start with an agency

When you need meetings this quarter

Your message and target are not proven yet, the need is below one SDR’s output, or you want to test a market before hiring for it.

Hire in-house

When the motion is proven

Your pitch converts, you need several SDRs for at least 18 months, and the knowledge you build on every call is worth keeping.

Combine both

When you are scaling

The agency covers a new segment, country or peak while you hire. Many teams start outsourced and bring the proven playbook in-house.

What an in-house SDR really costs

The salary is the visible part. On the defaults of the calculator, it is a little over half of the monthly cost of a ramped SDR. The rest is easy to forget in a budget.

  • Payroll taxes and benefits

    In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts benefits for private-industry sales occupations at $8.86 an hour on top of $26.99 of wages (June 2026), about 33% on top of pay. Across all private industry, benefits are 30% of total compensation, about 43% on top of pay. Your health plan decides where you land.

  • Hiring, again and again

    Job boards, recruiter fees and interview hours are paid for the first hire and for every replacement. With yearly turnover above 30%, expect most seats to be refilled within two years.

  • Ramp and empty seats

    For the first months a new SDR costs nearly full price for a fraction of the meetings. Every departure adds an empty seat and a new ramp. This is where in-house loses most of its early months.

  • Tools

    A dialer and phone line, contact data, a CRM seat and a sequencing tool, for each rep. An agency usually brings its own.

  • Management

    Coaching, call reviews, pipeline meetings and hiring take a manager’s time. The calculator counts the share of a manager each SDR uses: 20% by default, one manager for five SDRs. Adjust it to your real span.

What appointment setting agencies charge

There is no official price index for outsourced SDR work. These are the published figures we could check, with what each one really is. Agencies’ own pages are rare; most ranges come from vendors’ blogs.

Treat the agency defaults of the calculator as placeholders. The only number that counts is the written quote you receive, converted into a cost per useful meeting: ask what is billed, what counts as a qualified meeting, and what happens to no-shows.

How to compare the two fairly

Most in-house vs agency comparisons are wrong because they compare a salary with a monthly fee. Compare the cost of a useful meeting, over the same period.

  1. 1

    Count only useful meetings

    A meeting that does not happen, or with someone outside your target, is not a result. Put your own held-and-qualified rate on the agency side, and use held meetings for your SDRs too.

  2. 2

    Load the salary fully

    Payroll taxes and benefits, tools, a share of a manager. Then add hiring and the months of ramp, which the cost per meeting calculator does not include.

  3. 3

    Pick the horizon you really commit to

    If you might stop in six months, look at six months. Hiring rarely pays back on a short horizon; an agency commitment can cost more than expected if you stop early.

  4. 4

    Stress the assumption you trust least

    Usually it is the output of a new SDR or the quality of agency meetings. The scenarios show whether the answer flips.

  5. 5

    Test before you decide

    Three months with an agency on a limited segment gives you a real cost per useful meeting and a proven script, both of which make a later hire safer.

Three thresholds: the month, the output, the price

The month

The break-even month is when the average cost per meeting of the in-house team, counted since the decision, falls below the agency’s and stays there. Before it, you are paying for hiring and ramp; after it, every month in-house widens the gap.

The output

The break-even output is the number of meetings each SDR must hold per month, once ramped, for hiring to cost less per meeting over the chosen horizon. If your SDRs cannot realistically reach it, no amount of patience will make hiring cheaper: improve the output first, or outsource.

The price

The highest agency price worth paying turns the same comparison around: it is the price per meeting, or the retainer per SDR, at which the agency costs exactly as much per useful meeting as your in-house team over the chosen horizon. Put each quote you receive next to it: above it, hiring is cheaper on your assumptions; below it, the agency wins, and the gap tells you how much room you have to negotiate.

The output per SDR is the lever that moves all three. More conversations per hour, a better list and tighter qualification raise it; that is where tooling earns its cost.

Questions to ask an agency before signing

  • What exactly is billed: a booked meeting, a held meeting, or a meeting that matches written criteria?
  • What happens with no-shows and meetings outside the target: replaced, credited, or billed?
  • How many clients does the SDR on my account work for at the same time?
  • Who owns the call recordings, the contact data and the scripts at the end of the contract?
  • What is the minimum commitment, the notice period, and the setup fee?
  • Which caller ID will prospects see, and on whose behalf will the SDR introduce themselves?
  • Can I listen to calls and see the activity, not only the meetings?

Common mistakes

  • Comparing a salary with a fee

    The agency fee includes their tools, management and turnover. The salary does not. Load the salary before you compare.

  • Forgetting the ramp

    Counting a new SDR at full output from day one makes hiring look cheaper than it is over the first year.

  • Counting booked meetings, not held ones

    Per-meeting pricing rewards volume. If a quarter of the meetings never happen or miss the target, the real price is a third higher.

  • Ignoring your own time

    An agency still needs feedback, list approvals and weekly reviews. Without it, quality drifts.

  • Hiring one SDR for a half-SDR need

    A rep is not divisible. If you need eight meetings a month and a ramped SDR delivers twelve, you pay for capacity you will not use, unless the rep also handles other work.

Go further

Calculators and guides that pick up where this one stops.

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To check: once the page has loaded, turn off your connection and change a value. The results keep updating.

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Frequently asked questions

Over the first months, outsourcing is usually cheaper per meeting, because you skip hiring, ramp and empty seats. Over 12 to 24 months, an in-house team often wins if each ramped SDR holds enough meetings. The calculator gives that threshold for your own salaries and quotes.
Published ranges run from about $2,000 to $5,000 a month on retainer and from under $100 to $750 or more per meeting on pay-per-appointment in the US, depending on the target and what counts as a meeting. These are vendor figures, not an official index: compare written quotes as a cost per useful meeting.
Salary and variable pay, plus payroll taxes and benefits (about 33% on top of pay for US sales occupations according to the BLS), plus tools, plus a share of a manager’s time. Hiring, ramp and turnover come on top over the year. The calculator shows the monthly cost of a ramped SDR in “How the numbers are worked out”.
It depends on time to hire, ramp, turnover and the agency price. The break-even month in the calculator is when the average in-house cost per meeting since the decision drops below the agency’s and stays there. With some assumptions it never happens within three years.
Per meeting is safer for a small or uncertain need and aligns the agency on results, but it rewards volume over fit and costs more per meeting. A retainer is cheaper per meeting at volume and gives the agency room to work a hard market, but you carry the risk of a slow month. A hybrid shares both.
The price at which the agency’s cost per useful meeting equals your in-house cost per meeting over the same period. The calculator works it out for the billing model you pick (price per meeting, retainer per SDR, or the per-meeting part of a hybrid deal) under “Highest agency price worth paying”. Above it, hiring is cheaper on your assumptions; below it, the agency is.
Whatever you write in the contract: a held meeting with a decision maker in your target, with a stated need or project. Agree on it before you start, and on what happens with no-shows. The useful share in the calculator is that definition, measured.
Yes, and many teams do: an agency opens a new segment or country while you hire, or absorbs peaks. Make sure the CRM, the call recordings and the scripts are shared, so the knowledge comes back in-house.
No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is stored. The share link carries your inputs in the address, and it is only created if you click “Copy link”.