External Data Protection Officer Costs: Plans, Billing and Scope
Our EU Data Protection Officer Growth plan starts at €249 per month with annual billing, paid as €2,988 per year. Compare the full payment schedule, included work, and support capacity before choosing a plan.
What the advertised monthly price actually means
An annual subscription and a monthly subscription have different payment schedules. For our EU Growth plan, €249 is the monthly equivalent of the annual price: €2,988 is paid upfront for the year. The monthly-billed option is €498 per month. Neither figure should be mistaken for the other when comparing providers.
The Growth tier is intended for businesses with fewer than 10 employees. A larger company should compare the appropriate size tier, then check whether its processing activities and expected support demands fit that plan. An advertised entry price is useful for an initial budget, but it does not establish that the smallest package will be suitable for every organisation.
Our EU Data Protection Officer prices
The table below shows the service prices, company-size bands, case allowances, and response targets used for our EU Data Protection Officer packages. A response target describes when the service responds; it is not a promise that a complex incident or investigation will be resolved within that time. Statutory deadlines must still be assessed separately.
Plans and inclusions
EU Data Protection Officer: pricing and service scope
Compare the subscription total, payment schedule, and included capacity before choosing your plan. All amounts are in EUR.
- Independent DPO appointment
- GDPR advice and monitoring
- DPIA support
- EU authority contact point
Setup fee: none. The first subscription payment follows the billing schedule you select.
| Company size | Annual billing | Monthly billing | Included capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth< 10 employees | €249/month €2,988 billed annually Choose annual | €498/month Billed monthly Choose monthly | 2 cases / year Response target: 3 business days |
| Small10–49 employees | €449/month €5,388 billed annually Choose annual | €898/month Billed monthly Choose monthly | 6 cases / year Response target: 2 business days |
| Medium50–249 employees | €899/month €10,788 billed annually Choose annual | €1,798/month Billed monthly Choose monthly | 18 cases / year Response target: 1 business day |
| Large250–749 employees | €1,690/month €20,280 billed annually Choose annual | €3,380/month Billed monthly Choose monthly | 60 cases / year Response target: Priority response |
| Enterprise750+ employees | Custom pricing Discuss Enterprise | Custom case volume Response target: Dedicated SLA | |
Annual prices show the monthly equivalent of an upfront annual subscription. Response targets describe the service response, not a guaranteed resolution time or an extension of a legal deadline. Suitability, taxes, engagement terms, and additional work are confirmed during checkout and onboarding.
Before the appointment starts
Confirm your legal entity, processing activities, jurisdictions, contacts, and open deadlines. Agree the mandate and access arrangements, then establish the contact and reporting route for the selected service.
When additional work is needed
Tell us about expected case volumes and any implementation, urgent incident, or specialist project. Work beyond the selected plan is agreed separately; the subscription does not provide unlimited professional time.
Compare the work behind the price
Two retainers with similar prices can buy different levels of support. Ask the provider to describe what happens during a normal month and during a difficult one. A named contact without access to management, systems, or processing information may not provide a workable DPO function. Equally, a broad service description does not automatically include unlimited implementation work.
Start with your actual workload: planned DPIAs, product releases, supplier reviews, recurring rights requests, management meetings, and unresolved findings. Agree how this work is prioritised and how additional projects are authorised. Keep the commercial capacity discussion separate from the legal assessment of whether the appointment meets the DPO requirements.
| Compare | Ask before signing |
|---|---|
| DPO appointment | Who holds the mandate, receives reports, and covers absence? |
| Case allowance | What counts as one case, and how is a complex or reopened matter handled? |
| Response target | Which business hours, contact channels, and escalation arrangements apply? |
| DPIA and incident support | What advice is included, and which investigation or implementation work is separate? |
| Reporting | What written advice, action tracking, and management reporting will you receive? |
| Exit and continuity | How will open matters, documents, and contact details be handed over? |
A practical annual budget example
Consider a hypothetical six-person software business assessing the EU Growth package. Its subscription budget is €2,988 with annual billing, with no setup fee for this product. Choosing monthly billing instead means €498 per month; twelve unchanged monthly payments would total €5,976. This comparison is an illustration of the published billing options, not an assumption about renewal or cancellation rights.
Suppose the same business also plans a major data migration and a complex impact assessment. Those projects must be discussed before relying on the entry plan. Add any separately agreed work and applicable taxes to the subscription budget, then reserve internal staff time for gathering information and carrying out actions. A retainer buys the stated service, not the staff time required inside your own business.
What can change the amount of work required?
Employee count is a convenient way to compare our published tiers, but the privacy workload also depends on what the organisation does. A small platform monitoring people continuously can require more specialist attention than a larger organisation with simpler processing. Multiple legal entities, new markets, sensitive information, and frequent system changes all deserve an early conversation.
The condition of your existing records matters too. If policies, vendor information, and processing inventories disagree, time is needed to establish the facts before advice can be useful. Providing a coherent starting pack helps the provider distinguish an initial implementation project from recurring DPO advice and monitoring.
- The number of entities and jurisdictions within the proposed mandate.
- Processing scale, sensitivity, monitoring, and the people affected.
- Expected rights requests, incidents, and authority correspondence.
- Upcoming product changes, impact assessments, and supplier migrations.
- Availability of an internal owner who can implement agreed actions.
An EU representative is a different purchase
An Article 27 representative provides an EU contact route for certain organisations outside the Union. A Data Protection Officer provides the independent advice and monitoring function described in Articles 37–39. One price should not be used as a substitute for the other role simply because both relate to GDPR.
Where both questions arise, assess the requirements and keep the mandates distinct. The EDPB treats the representative function as incompatible with the external DPO role for the same organisation. UK representation and Swiss or Turkish appointments require their own assessment; an EU DPO subscription does not automatically appoint every role across those markets.
Before you choose a plan
Ask for the selected product, legal entity, payment schedule, setup charge if any, included capacity, escalation route, and exclusions to be stated together. Confirm the service start arrangements rather than assuming payment alone completes a formal appointment. Review the engagement and renewal terms before proceeding.
For a custom proposal, give the provider the same workload information you use to compare other offers. That makes the comparison fair and helps avoid choosing a low headline price that excludes the work you actually need. The right commercial package is one whose capacity and operating arrangements fit the assessed role.
Frequently asked questions
How much does your external EU Data Protection Officer cost?
The Growth tier for fewer than 10 employees is €249 per month equivalent with annual billing, paid as €2,988 per year. The monthly-billed option is €498 per month. Larger tiers and their capacity are shown in the pricing table.
Is there an EU DPO setup fee?
The EU Data Protection Officer product has no setup fee. Other products may have different charges, and separate projects are agreed within their own scope.
Does the subscription include unlimited advice?
No. Published packages have defined case allowances and response targets. Professional time, additional projects, urgent work, and any extension of scope should be agreed before relying on the service.
Is the annual price paid every month?
No. The monthly figure shown for annual billing is an equivalent amount. The full displayed annual subscription is paid on the annual schedule.
Can a small company need a larger package?
Yes. Company size is only one factor. Processing risk, entity coverage, open matters, and expected workload may require a different or custom scope.
Keep researching
Related resources
A practical next step
Make the next privacy decision clearer
Bring your organisation, processing, jurisdictions, current documents, internal owners, and deadline. We can help identify the right scope before an appointment or wider workstream begins.
This guide provides general information, not legal advice or a conclusion that a particular organisation is required to appoint a role. Final scope, responsibilities, capacity, and deliverables should be confirmed against the organisation's facts.
Sources: EUR-Lex: General Data Protection Regulation, ICO: Data protection officers, EDPB: Guidelines 3/2018 on territorial scope