Priced by Engagement Model, Not by Project
Augmentation is a rate for a person’s time and judgement. Project work is a price for a deliverable. Training is a price for a workshop. All figures in US dollars and all indicative — the real number is confirmed after a conversation.
Indicative Monthly Rates, Per Developer
Full-time, one client, the agreed working window. Part-time is billed hourly at a premium over the equivalent monthly rate, covered further down.
Mid-level developer
$3,400–$4,600 / month
Indicative. Ships well-defined features independently, uses AI tools productively, and knows when to slow down and check the output by hand.
- Takes a ticket to a merged, reviewed pull request without supervision
- Cleared both vetting axes — fundamentals and AI-assisted work review
- Needs an architectural steer on anything genuinely new
- Best when someone senior on your side reviews the work too
Senior developer
$5,000–$6,800 / month
Indicative. Owns a feature area end to end, reviews other people’s output — human or AI-generated — and pushes back when a requirement or an AI suggestion is wrong.
- Designs before building, and says what they are not building yet
- Catches confident, plausible, subtly wrong AI output before it merges
- Raises the standard of the pull requests around them
- The right first hire when there is nobody senior on your own team
Lead or architect
$7,200–$9,400 / month
Indicative. Makes the decisions that are expensive to reverse, sets the standard for how AI tools are used across a team, and carries other developers alongside their own work.
- Owns architecture, data modelling and the AI-tool review standard
- Runs code review and technical direction for a small group
- Writes decisions down so the reasoning outlives the engagement
- Often better value part-time than full-time on a small team
These are indicative bands, not a quote. The figure for your role is confirmed once we understand the work, the hours, the overlap you need and how long the engagement is likely to run.
AI-Fluent Does Not Mean Cheaper
It is a reasonable assumption and a wrong one: that a developer who leans on AI tools should cost less, because the tool is doing some of the typing. It does not work that way here. The bands above sit in the same range as a solid traditional hire at the same seniority, because the value we sell is not a discount — it is the dual-skill screening that finds people who are genuinely strong at both halves of the job.
A developer who is fast with an AI assistant but weak on fundamentals is not a bargain; they are a liability that happens to ship quickly. A developer who is strong on fundamentals but never learned to review AI output critically is increasingly a liability too, just a quieter one. Both are easy to hire cheaply. Neither is what we sell, and neither prices below what a careful, judgement-checked developer costs.
Part-Time Rates, Billed Against a Log
Hourly work carries a premium over the monthly equivalent, for the same structural reasons as any part-time arrangement.
Mid-level
$27–$36 / hour
Indicative. Suits steady maintenance and well-specified features on a product that is not changing shape every week.
Senior
$37–$50 / hour
Indicative. The most common part-time arrangement, usually around twenty hours a week across most of the working week.
Lead or architect
$52–$70 / hour
Indicative. Frequently the best-value part-time hire: a day a week of senior review and AI-output scrutiny alongside your own team.
Where part-time is the right answer and where it is false economy is set out in detail on engagement models.
Fixed Scope, Priced as a Deliverable
The one part of this marketplace that carries a price rather than a rate. Quoted before work starts, staged, and delivered against a written definition of done.
Small, well-defined builds
A single feature, an integration, or a scoped rebuild of one part of a product. Indicative range: roughly $2,500 to $12,000, depending on size and how settled the requirements already are.
Priced against an agreed scope document, not a time estimate. If the scope changes materially once work has started, that is a new piece of scope with its own price, not a silent extension of the first one.
Larger or multi-phase projects
Quoted in phases rather than as one number, because nobody can price the whole of a substantial build honestly before seeing how the first phase actually goes. The first phase is small and definite: assess, agree the order of work, and confirm the estimate for the rest.
If a project keeps generating a second and third phase, it is often more efficient to convert to ongoing team augmentation with the same developer rather than re-scoping a project every few weeks — see engagement models for how that move works.
Priced Per Workshop or Per Engagement, Never Per Developer
Team training is not staffing, so it is not priced like staffing. You are paying for a session or a series, not for headcount.
A single workshop
Indicative range: roughly $1,200 to $3,000 per session, depending on length and how much preparation is needed to reflect your actual codebase and tooling. Priced flat for the session, regardless of how many developers on your side attend it.
A short series or ongoing coaching
Indicative range: roughly $4,000 to $15,000 for a multi-session series, or a monthly retainer for ongoing coaching alongside your team. Priced against the engagement as a whole, not multiplied by attendees or by the number of developers being coached.
Full detail on formats and what a session actually covers is on team training.
What the Rate Covers and What It Never Covers
The second list matters more than the first, because that is where surprise invoices come from at other suppliers.
The developer and everything behind them
- Their machine, connectivity and standard development tooling
- Our sourcing and dual-axis vetting overhead, and the shortlist itself
- Contract handling, invoicing and being the counterparty on the agreement
- The replacement guarantee inside the first two weeks, at no extra cost
Costs that are yours, passed through at cost if at all
- Licences and seats on your own client-side software — design tools, issue trackers, AI coding assistants you require
- Cloud, hosting and infrastructure costs, including anything spun up for your work
- Third-party API usage, paid data sources and transactional messaging
- Travel, accommodation and visa costs if you ever want somebody on site
Where we are asked to arrange something on the second list, it is passed through at cost with the receipt attached. No margin on your cloud bill, no setup fee, and no fee for a shortlist you decided against.
Invoicing, Currency and What Changes a Rate
Everything is invoiced in US dollars. Monthly augmentation is invoiced monthly; hourly part-time work is invoiced monthly in arrears with the hour log attached, so you see where the time went rather than taking a single figure on trust. Payment terms are agreed in the contract before the start date rather than appearing on the first invoice.
Project-based work is staged, typically part on signature and the remainder on delivery of the agreed milestone. Team training is invoiced per workshop, or against a schedule for a longer coaching engagement.
A rate does not change during an engagement without thirty days notice in writing, and in practice it changes for two reasons only: the role materially grows, or the engagement renews after a long run. Neither happens by surprise on an invoice.
Contracts and IPRates Are Confirmed After a Conversation, Not Before
Every figure above is indicative. It tells you whether we are in the same range as your budget, which is the only useful thing a public price can do. Your actual rate is confirmed after a conversation about the role, the stack, the hours, the overlap you need and how long the work is likely to run — and then it is written into a contract before anybody starts.
We will not send a fixed quote for a person or a project we have not been briefed on. If your budget sits below the bottom of these bands, say so early and we will tell you honestly whether fewer hours at the right seniority, or a smaller piece of project scope, would work better than stretching for a full-time hire at the wrong one.
Questions About Cost and Payment
Are AI-fluent developers cheaper than traditional hires?
No, and we would rather say that plainly than let you assume it. A developer who is fluent with AI tools and still applies sound engineering judgement is not a discount option — they are, if anything, harder to find, because most people are strong at one half of that and weak at the other. What you are paying for is the dual-skill screening that finds the ones who are genuinely good at both, not a lower rate for the same work.
Why is pricing organised by engagement model instead of by project?
Because two of the three hiring models are not projects at all. Augmentation sells a developer’s time and judgement, priced by seniority and hours, not by a deliverable. Project-based work is the one model that does carry a price rather than a rate, and it is broken out separately below. Team training is different again — priced per workshop or per engagement, never per developer, because nobody is being staffed.
What is included in a monthly augmentation rate?
The developer’s time for the agreed hours, their equipment and connectivity, our overhead for sourcing and dual-axis vetting, contract handling and invoicing, and the two-week replacement guarantee at no extra cost. There is no separate management fee, no setup fee and no fee for a shortlist you decide against.
What does the rate never include?
Anything that belongs on your side of the arrangement: licences and seats on your own client-side software, cloud and infrastructure bills, third-party API usage, and travel or visa costs if you ever want somebody on site. If we are asked to arrange any of it, it is passed through at cost with the receipt attached rather than marked up.
How does payment work?
Everything is invoiced in US dollars. Monthly augmentation is invoiced monthly; part-time hourly work is invoiced monthly in arrears with the hour log attached. Fixed-scope project work is staged, typically part on signature and the rest on delivery. Team training is invoiced per workshop or on the agreed schedule for a longer engagement. No rate changes mid-engagement without thirty days notice in writing.
Get a Real Number for Your Role
Tell us the work, the seniority and the hours. You get matched profiles within days and a confirmed rate alongside them.