SDR cost calculator: in-house against outsourced
Updated 24 September 2026 // by Mark Glazer, ReplyLead
- $140,332modeled year-one cost of one in-house SDR at the defaults
- 32.8%employer cost on top of wages, BLS June 2026
- $1,559in-house cost per held, accepted meeting at the defaults
- 3 monthsdefault ramp before first meetings
The short answer: estimate first-year SDR payroll, employer costs and sending infrastructure using your assumptions. The $80,000 OTE default is illustrative; the 32.8% employer-cost default is the BLS benefits share for private-industry sales occupations (2026 Q2). Monthly meeting volume is for your whole team after ramp; increasing headcount does not automatically increase it. The infrastructure-only comparison excludes agency service fees and revenue share. With the defaults, one SDR models to $140,332 in year one ($80,000 on-target earnings, 32.8% employer cost and $34,092 of sending infrastructure), about $1,559 per held, accepted meeting at 10 meetings a month after a 3-month ramp.
Your numbers
The arithmetic. Year-one cost = ($80,000 + $26,240) x 1 + $34,092 = $140,332. Ramp payroll = $106,240 / 12 x 3 = $26,560, already included. Productive months = 12 - 3 = 9; meetings = 10 x 9 = 90. Cost per meeting = $140,332 / 90 ~ $1,559. Expected customers = 90 x 20% = 18; modeled contract value = 18 x $25,000 = $450,000; cost per customer ~ $7,796. Contract value is not profit or cash collected during year one.
What the defaults are, and which of them are measured
Most cost comparisons in this category quote a single fully-loaded figure and never show the assumption underneath it. These are the four that move the answer most, and each is labelled by what kind of number it is.
| Input | Default | Kind | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR on-target earnings | $80,000 | Illustrative | Replace with your planned compensation; not a sourced salary benchmark. |
| Infrastructure at 50,000 emails | $2,841/month | Published price | ReplyLead published infrastructure tier; not an independent market cost survey. |
| Held, accepted meetings per productive month | Your input | Your estimate | Whole-team assumption multiplied by months remaining after ramp; no email-to-meeting forecast. |
| Employer cost on top of OTE | 32.8% | Government data | BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 2026 Q2: for private-industry sales and related occupations, wages were 75.3% of total compensation, so benefits add 24.7 / 75.3 = 32.8% on top of wages. Equipment and software are not included, and the rate varies by country and company. US and Canadian wage data |
| Ramp before first meetings | 3 months | Judgement | Directional, not measured by us; adjust it to your own hiring experience |
The number this calculator cannot give you
The calculator estimates cost per held, accepted meeting and customer using your own inputs. It cannot verify conversion, qualification, sales-cycle timing or contract value. Fractional expected customers are mathematical scenario values, not a count of actual customers. Zero meetings or zero closes makes the corresponding unit cost uncalculable.
Run conservative and stronger scenarios using a comparable cohort from your CRM. The separate reply research measures responses, including automatic replies; it is not a meeting or revenue forecast. This calculator does not use historical reply counts to infer your sales outcomes.
What the calculator deliberately leaves out
- Management time. An SDR needs coaching, pipeline review and someone to escalate to. That cost is real and we do not model it because it varies too much to guess.
- Attrition. SDR tenure is short, and a replacement restarts the ramp clock. Model it by running the calculator twice if you expect turnover inside a year.
- Profit and timing. ACV is your input. Delivery costs, gross margin, customer retention and the timing of revenue collection are not modeled. Expected contract value is not profit.
- Agency fees. The second output is infrastructure only, deliberately, so you can add whatever commercial model you are being quoted and compare like for like. Ours is on pricing.
How to read the result
Compare the complete operating scope, staffing, management effort and delivery obligations. The ramp slider reduces productive months; payroll continues throughout the year. The model assumes full production begins after ramp, rather than gradually increasing. Infrastructure is charged for the full year and shared across the entered team volume. Add the actual agency quote before comparing with outsourced delivery.
Compare providers. Put real quotes into the calculator from the outsourced SDR companies and the appointment setting companies we compare.
When this page does not apply
- You need an outsourced agency's total price. The second output is infrastructure only; add the agency's full quote (service fee, revenue share, setup) before comparing, as the page says.
- Your SDRs are outside the US. The 32.8% employer-cost default is a US private-industry figure; Canadian and other employer costs differ, so replace it with your own.
- You need a meeting or revenue forecast. Meetings, close rate and contract value are your inputs; the calculator divides them, it does not predict them.
- You want ReplyLead's fee, not infrastructure. ReplyLead runs cold email and LinkedIn outbound on published infrastructure tiers plus an agreed revenue share; the share is not in this calculator, see pricing.
How this page was built and checked
Year-one cost = (on-target earnings + employer cost) x SDRs + 12 months of the published infrastructure tier for the entered email volume; ramp payroll is included, not added. Productive months = 12 - ramp; meetings = monthly meetings x productive months. The 32.8% default comes from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (Table 4): for private-industry sales and related occupations, wages were 75.3% of total compensation, so benefits add 24.7 / 75.3 = 32.8% on top of wages. The $80,000 on-target earnings and the 3-month ramp are illustrative defaults, not measurements. The infrastructure tier is ReplyLead's published price. Last checked 24 September 2026.
Common questions
What does an in-house SDR really cost per year?
At $80,000 on-target plus 32.8% employer cost (the BLS benefits share for private-industry sales occupations (2026 Q2)) and $2,841 a month in sending infrastructure, about $140,000 in year one. Three months of ramp accounts for roughly $26,600 of that before a single meeting is booked.
How many qualified meetings should 50,000 emails a month produce?
Sending volume alone does not determine held, accepted meetings. Enter your own whole-team monthly expectation after ramp. The model multiplies it by productive months in year one and does not infer it from a historical ReplyLead campaign.
Does this include the agency fee?
No, deliberately. The outsourced figure here is infrastructure only, so you can add whatever commercial model you are quoted and compare like for like.
How is cost per closed deal calculated?
Cost per customer is shown using your entered meeting-to-customer close rate. It is uncalculable when modeled meetings or closes are zero. The result is an assumption-based estimate, not observed revenue or profitability.
How much does an SDR cost?
With this calculator's defaults, one in-house SDR models to $140,332 in year one: $80,000 on-target earnings, $26,240 of employer cost (32.8%, the BLS June 2026 benefits share for private-industry sales and related occupations) and $34,092 of sending infrastructure (ReplyLead's published tier at 50,000 emails a month). At 10 held, accepted meetings a month after a 3-month ramp, that is about $1,559 per meeting. Replace every default with your own figures.
What is an SDR calculator?
A calculator that turns an SDR hiring plan into year-one cost, cost per held meeting and cost per closed deal, so the in-house option can be compared with an outsourced quote on the same basis. This one takes your compensation, employer cost, email volume, ramp, headcount, monthly meetings, close rate and contract value, and shows the arithmetic under the result.
Sources and check dates
ReplyLead's own pages behind the defaults:
- ReplyLead pricing: the seven published infrastructure tiers, from $2,023 a month.
- Cold email agency cost: the infrastructure fee table by sending volume, including $2,841 a month at 50,000 emails.
- In-house sales cost model (US and Canada): the wage data linked from this calculator.
- Alternatives to hiring an SDR: the year-one comparison with an agency.
Outside primary sources, each read on the date shown:
- BLS: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 4 (private industry by occupational group): sales and related occupations: wages and salaries $26.99 of $35.85 total compensation an hour, 75.3%, the basis of the 32.8% employer-cost default. checked 24 September 2026 in a browser fetch; bls.gov answers 403 to scripted requests.
- BLS: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation - June 2026 (news release, 9 September 2026): the release the table belongs to. checked 24 September 2026 in a browser fetch; bls.gov answers 403 to scripted requests.
- BLS: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation programme: what ECEC measures: average employer cost per employee hour worked for total compensation, wages and salaries, and benefits. checked 24 September 2026 in a browser fetch; bls.gov answers 403 to scripted requests.
- BLS: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS): the US occupational wage estimates behind the in-house cost model linked from this page. checked 24 September 2026 in a browser fetch; bls.gov answers 403 to scripted requests.
- Government of Canada: Job Bank: the Canadian wage data behind the in-house cost model linked from this page. checked 24 September 2026.
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