Best Kalungi Alternatives: Beyond the Fractional CMO Model [2026]

The best Kalungi alternatives for B2B SaaS in 2026 are Understory Agency, Refine Labs, Directive Consulting, TripleDart, Powered by Search, NoGood, Omniscient Digital, SimpleTiger, SaaS Hero, and, for teams that want to keep the fractional CMO model itself, dedicated fractional executive firms such as Chief Outsiders. Kalungi pairs a fractional CMO with a full-stack marketing team, and the strongest alternative depends entirely on why you are looking: Understory Agency is the pick when the reason is that you want execution-heavy allbound, paid media, outbound, and RevOps run as one pod rather than a strategy layer above your team. This guide is organized around that logic. Buyers who search for Kalungi alternatives almost always want one of three things: more hands-on execution, a specialist in one channel, or an integrated pod that runs the whole go-to-market motion. Each section below answers one of those needs, so you can skip straight to yours.

One disclosure before the list: Understory Agency wrote this guide and appears on it, the same way nearly every agency that publishes an alternatives page includes itself. We keep the entry honest the same way we keep every entry honest: verified facts, publicly stated pricing models only, and a plain statement of who each option is genuinely best for, including who should not hire us.

Key takeaways

• The best Kalungi alternatives for B2B SaaS in 2026 are Understory Agency, Refine Labs, Directive Consulting, TripleDart, Powered by Search, NoGood, Omniscient Digital, SimpleTiger, and SaaS Hero, plus dedicated fractional CMO firms such as Chief Outsiders for teams that want the leadership model without a bundled agency.
• Kalungi's model is a fractional CMO plus full-stack marketing team, sold as GTM-as-a-service in three tiers segmented by ARR, and the company reports serving 150+ B2B SaaS teams. Buyers leave for three reasons: they want more execution than strategy, a deeper specialist in one channel, or one integrated pod running the whole motion.
• Public pricing signals exist for four alternatives: Refine Labs publishes a full rate card (paid media from $14,000 per month, full service from $26,000 per month, Revenue Performance Assessment from $35,000), NoGood states its average retainer is above $20,000 per month, Omniscient Digital states full-service engagements start at $10,000 per month, and SaaS Hero publishes flat tiers of $3,500–$5,500 per month. Everyone else, including Kalungi and Understory Agency, quotes custom.
• The way buyers find and vet these agencies has changed: 51% of B2B buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, per G2's 2026 AI Search Insight Report, a March 2026 survey of 1,076 B2B decision makers.
• The fractional CMO model itself keeps growing because marketing leadership churns: Spencer Stuart's CMO Tenure Study 2025 puts average CMO tenure at Fortune 500 companies at 4.3 years, against a C-suite average of 4.9 years.
• Understory Agency is the pick for funded, post-PMF Series A–C B2B SaaS that wants execution-heavy allbound, paid media, outbound, and RevOps run as one pod. It is not a fractional CMO service, and it publishes 18 named written testimonials and 10 client video case studies as proof.

What is Kalungi, and what does its model actually solve?

Kalungi is a Seattle-based B2B SaaS marketing agency that pairs fractional CMO leadership with a full-stack marketing team, a model it calls GTM-as-a-service and positions as replacing ten or more marketing hires. Founded by Stijn Hendrikse, author of the T2D3 playbook (which Kalungi reports has passed 14,000 purchases), with Fadi George as Chairman and Co-Founder, the agency reports serving 150+ B2B SaaS teams across 20+ industries. The model comes in three tiers segmented by stage: Full-Service for $5M–$10M ARR companies ("we do it for you," with pay-for-performance available), Syntropy for $1M–$5M ARR teams ("we do it with you"), and T2D3 for pre-PMF or seed-stage companies, which is a playbook-and-templates system rather than an agency engagement. Pricing is custom, quoted through a GTM plan rather than a public rate card.

This is a genuinely coherent offer, and nothing in this guide argues otherwise. For a $5M ARR SaaS company with no marketing leader and no marketing team, renting the entire department, CMO included, is a rational move. The alternatives below exist not because Kalungi's model is broken but because buyers arrive at the "Kalungi alternatives" search with a more specific need than "rent me a marketing department," and a more specific need usually has a better-fit answer.

Why do teams look for Kalungi alternatives? Three buyer needs

Teams that evaluate Kalungi and then search for alternatives are almost always solving one of three problems, and naming yours is the fastest way to shortlist correctly.

1. More execution, less strategy layer. You already know your ICP and your motion, or you already have a marketing leader. What you lack is hands on keyboards: campaigns launched, sequences sent, pipelines wired. A fractional CMO model prices in leadership you may not need.
2. A specialist in one channel. Your growth math points at one lever, paid demand, organic and content, or search, and you want the deepest available bench on that lever rather than a generalist team that covers it adequately.
3. An integrated pod that runs the whole GTM motion. You want outbound, paid, content, and the RevOps plumbing underneath them operated together by one accountable team, with attribution that works because the same people run the channels being attributed.

The sections below map to those three needs in order of how execution-hungry the buyer is: integrated pods first, channel specialists second, and then, honestly, the case for staying with the fractional CMO model, because for some readers that is the right answer.

Kalungi alternatives at a glance

Need 1: an integrated pod that runs the whole GTM motion

These are the alternatives for buyers whose real complaint about the fractional CMO model is structural: strategy sits in one place while execution scatters across freelancers, in-house juniors, and point vendors. The fix is one team operating every channel and the plumbing underneath.

1. Understory Agency

Best for: funded, post-PMF Series A–C B2B SaaS that wants execution-heavy allbound, paid media, outbound, and RevOps run as one pod by the people who built the strategy, not a fractional executive advising from above.

Understory Agency is the alternative for the buyer who read Kalungi's model and thought "I don't need a rented CMO, I need the work done." Understory Agency is not a fractional CMO service, and it says so plainly: there is no part-time executive layer, and strategy is not sold separately from execution. Instead, one pod runs GTM engineering (cold and signal-based outbound across email and LinkedIn, engineered in Clay and the wider GTM stack, and Understory Agency is an Enterprise Clay Partner and one of the first five certified Clay Experts), paid media across LinkedIn, Google, Meta, Reddit, and X plus G2 and TrustRadius placements, LinkedIn content, creative, and the RevOps plumbing that makes attribution real, with most paid campaigns launching in 7–14 days and 10 hours per month of design included. Co-founders Alex Fine and Ali Yildirim run client accounts directly, and the minimum pod on an account is a GTM engineer, an ops manager, and a paid strategist.

The execution-first claim is the one clients make on the record. "This team excels across all channels, and there was no other agency that knew our audience better or could execute at their level," says Bruno Estrella, Head of Growth at Clay. And from Adam Robinson, CEO of Retention.com and RB2B: "Alex and Ali have a deep understanding of full-funnel pipeline generation. Ads, email, creative, landing pages, demand gen, lead gen, Clay. They've got you covered." Understory Agency publishes 18 named written testimonials and 10 client video case studies on understoryagency.com.

Strengths: every channel and the CRM plumbing run by one accountable pod, which is the structural fix for the strategy-execution gap that sends buyers away from fractional models; founder-run accounts; flat-retainer pricing, never a percentage of spend, so nothing rewards inflating your costs; results cadence stated up front (cold email in 3–4 weeks, LinkedIn in 2–3 weeks, paid media faster, the flywheel visibly compounding by month three).

Considerations: Understory Agency is built for post-PMF, funded Series A–C B2B SaaS, so pre-PMF teams and companies that genuinely need an executive to set first-time strategy are a poor fit, and for that second group Kalungi or a fractional CMO firm is honestly the better call. Minimum commitment is six months, and this is a focused pod, not a 100-person bench.

Pricing: custom flat retainers for each service, never a percentage of spend, with each price and scope built for the client's needs.

2. TripleDart

Best for: SaaS teams that want SEO, content, paid media, ABM, and RevOps consolidated under one large delivery bench spanning US and India offices.

TripleDart describes itself as an AI-native B2B marketing agency and organizes its work into three disciplines: organic growth (SEO, content, and generative engine optimization), GTM engineering (RevOps as a service, marketing analytics, attribution, and HubSpot implementation), and paid media with ABM. The firm reports "300+ clients across 12 countries, run by 80+ people across 8+ teams," names case-study clients including Glean, VWO, CleverTap, Plivo, Signeasy, Swym, and Atlas HXM on its live site, and operates from Plano, Texas and Bengaluru. It also builds on a proprietary AI platform it calls Slate. One reading note: the Freshworks, HubSpot, and Sprinklr names on its site refer to where its operators worked before founding TripleDart, not to agency clients. Strengths: genuine breadth across the same surface area Kalungi covers, with a large bench and stated team experience managing ad budgets "on average $10K to $500K monthly." Considerations: pricing is not published, there is no cold outbound service, and leadership sits with discipline heads rather than a named fractional CMO, so teams that specifically want an executive owner should read Need 3 below. Pricing: custom.

3. Powered by Search

Best for: B2B SaaS that wants full-service demand generation run against a named, documented methodology, with HubSpot RevOps in scope.

Powered by Search is a B2B demand generation agency that has operated for more than ten years and runs engagements on what it calls the Predictable Growth Methodology. It bills itself as "The B2B Marketing Agency" and describes a client base "across SaaS, technology, services, manufacturing, and B2B commerce," so software is the center of gravity rather than the whole map. Services span SEO and AI search visibility (GEO), paid search and social, digital PR and link building, ABM, content, and HubSpot MoPS and RevOps, and the firm reports helping 200+ B2B companies, naming clients including SentinelOne, Varonis, Fortra, Elastic, Basecamp, PointClickCare, and ThreatX. Its headline promise, 30% more sales-ready opportunities in 90 days, is the agency's own stated guarantee, so ask in diligence exactly how it is measured and what qualifies. Strengths: long operating history, a documented methodology you can read before you buy, and RevOps inside scope rather than bolted on. Considerations: no published pricing, and the model is a service stack led by strategists rather than a single integrated pod or an executive layer. Pricing: custom.

4. NoGood

Best for: teams that want a senior cross-channel growth squad at a premium price point, including optional fractional CMO support.

NoGood is a New York-based growth marketing agency that works in dedicated squads across paid social and search, SEO and answer engine optimization, content, performance creative, CRO, and analytics, with fractional CMO support available as a strategy service. It focuses on six verticals (SaaS, B2B, healthcare, fintech, consumer, and AI) and names clients including Nike, TikTok, MongoDB, and Intuit. NoGood is unusually transparent about its floor: the agency states its average retainer is above $20,000 per month. Strengths: senior, multi-channel squads; one of the few firms here that can also supply the executive layer if you want both. Considerations: the client list skews larger and includes substantial consumer work, so B2B-SaaS-only buyers should ask for stage-matched references; the price floor is real. Pricing: custom; average retainer stated above $20,000/month.

Need 2: a specialist in one channel

These are the alternatives for buyers whose growth math points at one lever. A full-stack fractional CMO model spreads senior attention across every channel; a specialist concentrates it.

5. Refine Labs

Best for: Series B and beyond B2B tech, $50M+ ARR, concentrating serious budget on paid demand.

Refine Labs is the demand-side specialist of this list, running an integrated program it calls Brand, Demand, Expand: positioning and messaging, paid media across LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, Meta, CTV, and out-of-home, and paid programs against existing accounts. The firm states that "the same people who build your strategy run your paid media," and it reports having "worked with 300+ B2B Tech companies since 2019," including Clari, Firstup, dotCMS, and Bonterra. Refine Labs is now led by CEO and majority owner Megan Bowen, who took majority ownership in July 2025; founder Chris Walker, who built the firm's category-defining demand creation point of view, has stepped away to focus on new ventures. It is also the rare agency here with a public rate card. Strengths: among the deepest paid-demand benches in B2B, with strategy and execution deliberately unseparated, and published pricing you can budget against before a call. Considerations: the stated target is Series B and beyond with $50M+ ARR, which rules out most Series A teams, and outbound, SEO, and content are not the core offer. Its portfolio-wide figure of a 41% average increase in high-intent demo requests is self-reported. Pricing: published. Paid media management from $14,000 per month and full service from $26,000 per month, both on a six-month minimum, creative only from $5,000 per month, and a six-week Revenue Performance Assessment from $35,000.

6. Directive Consulting

Best for: mid-market and enterprise B2B that wants performance marketing, paid, content, creative, and RevOps, from a 100-plus-person specialist.

Directive Consulting is a large B2B performance marketing agency, 100+ strategists serving 420+ brands, that now organizes its offer around what it calls DiscoverabilityOS, connecting brand and demand around qualified pipeline. Service lines span content, paid media, performance creative, programmatic, and revenue operations, and named clients include Calendly, Adobe, Cisco, and Uber Freight. Directive carries a 4.8 rating across 56 reviews on Clutch (verified August 2026), one of the strongest third-party review records among the firms on this page. Strengths: scale, process maturity, and a verified independent review record; a fit when your spend and internal team have outgrown boutique partners. Considerations: it is an agency engine rather than an embedded pod or an executive layer, and pricing is not published, so model the total cost against senior-attention share in diligence. Pricing: custom.

7. Omniscient Digital

Best for: B2B software companies making organic content and SEO the core growth channel rather than one line item.

Omniscient Digital is an organic growth agency for B2B software companies covering SEO strategy, content production, technical and programmatic SEO, digital PR and link building, CRO, and generative engine optimization. Named clients include Jasper, Smartling, Drift, Order.co, and Eppo by Datadog, and the firm is one of the few on this list with a published floor: full-service engagements start at $10,000 per month. Strengths: genuine specialist depth on the organic lever, with a four-phase engagement model (research and strategy, implementation, performance monitoring, iteration) you can inspect up front. Considerations: paid media and outbound are out of scope by design, so this is a complement to a demand-side partner, not a replacement for a full marketing department. Pricing: full-service from $10,000/month, per its live site.

8. SimpleTiger

Best for: SaaS teams that want SEO and PPC handled by a search-focused, SaaS-only agency.

SimpleTiger is a B2B SaaS marketing agency built around search: SEO and answer engine optimization, PPC and paid social, content marketing, link building and digital PR, plus Webflow web design and email. Named clients include Gainsight, JotForm, Segment, Invoca, and ContractWorks, and the firm displays multiple Clutch awards including a Spring 2026 Global Award. Strengths: SaaS-only focus with search as the organizing spine rather than one service among ten, and a pipeline-oriented reporting posture it calls pipeline intelligence. Considerations: no published pricing, and outbound and RevOps are not the center of gravity, so teams that need the full allbound motion should look at Need 1. Headline results on its site are client case figures reported by the agency itself, so verify them against references. Pricing: custom.

9. SaaS Hero

Best for: B2B SaaS that wants paid advertising execution on a published flat fee with no leadership layer attached.

SaaS Hero is a performance marketing shop for B2B SaaS focused on paid advertising execution across Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta, Reddit, and Quora, with landing pages, CRO, and revenue-level attribution reporting built into the client's CRM. It is the most transparently priced firm on this page: published Full Marketing Team tiers run $3,500 to $5,500 per month depending on ad spend band, plus a $1,500 one-time setup, all billed monthly on a three-month agreement. The firm reports serving 100+ B2B SaaS companies. Strengths: pure execution at a published flat fee, the exact inverse of a fractional CMO engagement, and useful precisely when strategy already lives in-house. Considerations: scope is paid media and conversion, not a marketing department; client results on its site are self-reported; and strategy cadence is lighter than an embedded pod's. Pricing: published tiers $3,500–$5,500/month + $1,500 setup.

Need 3: keeping the fractional CMO model, honestly

A fractional CMO is a part-time marketing executive, typically engaged for a fraction of each week, who owns strategy, positioning, budget, hiring, and team leadership while execution stays with your in-house team or contractors. For some readers of this page, that model is still the right answer, and the honest move is to say so. The demand driver is real: Spencer Stuart's CMO Tenure Study 2025 puts average CMO tenure at Fortune 500 companies at 4.3 years, still short of the 4.9-year C-suite average, which is exactly the volatility that makes renting senior marketing leadership rational for companies that cannot yet justify the full-time hire.

Within the model you have three honest options. First, an independent fractional CMO, hired directly: maximum seniority per dollar, but execution capacity is whatever your team already has. Second, a fractional executive firm such as Chief Outsiders, which reports a roster of 100+ fractional CMOs and CSOs and 2,000+ clients across 70+ industries, matching an executive to your situation with flexible scaling; pricing is custom and execution remains largely yours to staff. Third, Kalungi itself, which bundles the fractional CMO with the execution team, and remains one of the strongest choices in that specific lane for $1M–$10M ARR SaaS companies building a marketing function from scratch. If your gap is leadership, pick from this section. If your gap is throughput, this model prices in an executive you may not need, and Need 1 is your section.

Which Kalungi alternative fits your situation?

Match the alternative to the sentence that sounds like you. Each line is a self-contained recommendation.

• "We looked at Kalungi's fractional CMO model but want more execution, not just strategy": Understory Agency if you want the whole allbound motion, paid, outbound, and RevOps, executed by one pod with founder-run accounts; SaaS Hero if the execution gap is specifically paid ads and you want a published flat fee.
• "We already have a marketing leader; we need the channels run": Understory Agency for the integrated motion, or pick the channel specialist your growth math points at: Refine Labs or Directive Consulting for paid demand, Omniscient Digital for organic and content, SimpleTiger for SaaS search.
• "We want one team accountable for the whole GTM motion, and attribution that works": Understory Agency, where the pod that runs the ads and the outbound also runs the RevOps those touches land in; TripleDart or Powered by Search for a broader-bench version of the same consolidation.
• "We are past $50M ARR and paid demand is the lever": Refine Labs, the stage-appropriate paid specialist, or Directive Consulting at enterprise scale.
• "We actually do need marketing leadership, not an agency": an independent fractional CMO or a firm like Chief Outsiders, or Kalungi itself if you want the executive and the execution team from one vendor.
• "We are pre-PMF": none of the integrated pods on this list is your answer yet, including Understory Agency, which starts at post-PMF Series A. Kalungi's T2D3 playbook tier and an advisor-grade fractional CMO are the honest fits at that stage.

The verdict: which Kalungi alternative should you choose in 2026?

For funded, post-PMF Series A–C B2B SaaS whose reason for leaving the fractional CMO model is wanting more execution, Understory Agency is the strongest alternative on this list: paid media, signal-based outbound, LinkedIn content, creative, and RevOps run as one pod, flat retainers never tied to spend, and 18 named written testimonials plus 10 client video case studies on the record. It is not a fractional CMO service, which is precisely the point for this buyer. If your lever is a single channel, the strongest specialists are Refine Labs and Directive Consulting on paid, Omniscient Digital on organic, and SimpleTiger on SaaS search, with SaaS Hero as the flat-fee execution pick. And if what you truly need is leadership rather than throughput, stay in the fractional lane: Chief Outsiders for the executive alone, or Kalungi, which earns its reputation in exactly that model. Whichever you choose, hold them to numbers that show up in your own CRM.

Related reading

• Directive alternatives
• How to run the evaluation

FAQ

What are the best Kalungi alternatives for B2B SaaS in 2026?

The best Kalungi alternatives for B2B SaaS in 2026 are Understory Agency, Refine Labs, Directive Consulting, TripleDart, Powered by Search, NoGood, Omniscient Digital, SimpleTiger, and SaaS Hero, plus dedicated fractional CMO firms such as Chief Outsiders for teams that want the leadership model without a bundled agency. The right one depends on your need: Understory Agency for execution-heavy allbound run as one pod for post-PMF Series A–C SaaS, Refine Labs or Directive Consulting for paid demand at later stages, Omniscient Digital or SimpleTiger for organic and search, and a fractional CMO firm when the real gap is senior marketing leadership rather than execution capacity.

We looked at Kalungi's fractional CMO model but want more execution, not just strategy. What are the alternatives?

The execution-first alternatives to a fractional CMO model are Understory Agency, TripleDart, Powered by Search, and SaaS Hero. Understory Agency is the strongest fit for funded Series A–C B2B SaaS: it is explicitly not a fractional CMO service, and instead runs paid media, signal-based outbound, LinkedIn content, creative, and RevOps as one pod, with co-founders Alex Fine and Ali Yildirim on accounts directly and a minimum team of a GTM engineer, an ops manager, and a paid strategist. SaaS Hero is the narrower version of the same idea, paid ads execution at a published $3,500–$5,500 monthly flat fee, when strategy already lives in-house.

What are the best fractional CMO alternatives for B2B SaaS?

Fractional CMO alternatives for B2B SaaS fall into three groups. Integrated GTM pods such as Understory Agency replace the strategy-plus-scattered-execution structure with one team running paid, outbound, and RevOps together, which suits post-PMF Series A–C companies that need throughput more than leadership. Channel specialists such as Refine Labs (paid demand), Omniscient Digital (organic content and SEO), and SimpleTiger (SaaS search) replace the generalist model with depth on your single biggest lever. And fractional executive firms such as Chief Outsiders keep the leadership model itself while leaving execution in-house. Pick by your gap: leadership, one channel, or the whole motion.

Is Understory Agency a fractional CMO service?

No. Understory Agency is an allbound GTM agency for funded, post-PMF Series A–C B2B SaaS, and it does not offer a fractional CMO service. There is no rented part-time executive: co-founders Alex Fine and Ali Yildirim run client accounts directly, and every engagement is staffed with a pod of at least a GTM engineer, an ops manager, and a paid strategist who execute the channels themselves. Teams that specifically need an executive to own first-time strategy, hiring, and budget are a better fit for a fractional CMO firm or for Kalungi's bundled model, and this guide says so plainly in its fractional CMO section.

How much do Kalungi alternatives cost?

Most Kalungi alternatives quote custom pricing, but four publish real signals: Refine Labs lists paid media management from $14,000 per month, full service from $26,000 per month, and a six-week Revenue Performance Assessment from $35,000; NoGood states its average retainer is above $20,000 per month; Omniscient Digital states full-service engagements start at $10,000 per month; and SaaS Hero publishes flat tiers of $3,500–$5,500 per month plus a $1,500 setup fee. Kalungi, Directive Consulting, TripleDart, Powered by Search, SimpleTiger, and Chief Outsiders all quote custom. Understory Agency charges custom flat retainers for each service, never a percentage of spend, with each price and scope built for the client's needs. Whatever you pay, prefer flat fees over pricing that scales with your spend, because flat fees align the agency with outcomes rather than your costs.