CodeMagic vs in-house

A senior team this week, or a year of hiring?

Hiring in-house means months of recruiting, real salaries and overhead, and the risk that the role outlasts the work. CodeMagic gives you a senior product and growth team on flat monthly pricing, working in your tools from week one, with no headcount on your books and nothing to unwind when the project is done.

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30-minute call · no pitch deck · no obligation
At a glance

Time to start

CodeMagic

Days

In-house hire

2 to 4 months to hire

Monthly cost

CodeMagic

One flat fee

In-house hire

Salaries plus overhead

Breadth

CodeMagic

Build and growth in one team

In-house hire

One role per hire

Side by side

CodeMagic vs in-house hire

The honest comparison, including the rows where the other option wins.

Time to first output
UsWorking in your tools within days
In-house hireUsually 2 to 4 months to source, interview, and onboard
Cost structure
UsOne flat monthly fee, cancel anytime
In-house hireSalaries, payroll tax, benefits, equipment, software, and recruiting fees
Seniority of the work
UsSenior people do the actual work
In-house hireYou hire to a budget, and strong senior hires are expensive and hard to land
Breadth of skills
UsEngineering, design, and growth marketing in one team
In-house hireEach skill is a separate hire
Scaling up or down
UsChange scope month to month
In-house hireHiring and layoffs are slow, costly, and hard on the team
Management overhead
UsWe run ourselves and report weekly
In-house hireYou manage, mentor, and unblock people daily
Long-term capability
UsDocumented and handed over clean
In-house hireYou build a standing team and keep the people
Institutional knowledge
UsCaptured in docs you own
In-house hireStays inside the company permanently
Our edge

Where CodeMagic pulls ahead

Live in days, not quarters

No job posts, no interview loops, no notice periods. A senior pod is in your repo and your ad accounts within the first week.

One predictable bill

A single flat monthly fee covers the whole team. No payroll tax, benefits, equipment, software seats, or recruiter fees stacking up behind it.

A whole team, not one hire

Engineering, design, and growth marketing under one roof. The people who build the product also grow it, with no handoffs in between.

Scale with your roadmap

Dial scope up for a launch and back down after, month to month. No hiring sprint, no layoffs, no idle salaries between projects.

No management tax

We run ourselves, report progress weekly in your tools, and hand over clean. You get output, not another set of people to manage.

You own everything

Every line of code, every account, all the IP, with clear docs. Nothing is locked to us, and you can take it in-house whenever you like.

Straight talk

When hiring in-house is the right call

We would rather you pick the right option than the one that pays us. Here is when it is not us.

01

The work is permanent and core

If the role is full-time forever and central to the business, a dedicated hire who lives and breathes it will usually win over the long run. We will tell you when that is the case.

02

You want to build internal capability

If the goal is a standing team and institutional knowledge that compounds inside the company, hiring is how you get there. We are happy to help you build toward it.

03

You already have strong technical leadership

If you have a senior leader who can hire, mentor, and unblock people every day, the management overhead of a team is much less of a tax.

The bottom line

If you need a permanent, core team and you have the leadership to run it, hire. If you need senior work shipped now without the cost, lead time, and risk of building headcount, a flat monthly team is usually the faster and cheaper path. Plenty of our clients use us to move fast first, then hire in-house once the work proves out, and we hand everything over when they do.

FAQ

Questions, answered

For most teams, yes, once you count the full cost of a hire. One flat monthly fee replaces salaries, payroll tax, benefits, equipment, software seats, and recruiting fees, and you can pause or stop when the work is done instead of carrying a salary through the quiet months.

No. We work in your tools, your repo, and your accounts, and report progress every week. You own all the code, accounts, and IP, so you keep full control and can bring it in-house at any point.

It is all yours. Code, accounts, IP, and documentation are handed over clean, with no lock-in. Many clients use us to get moving, then transition to in-house hires once the direction is proven.

Often that is the best setup. We plug in to add senior capacity or skills you do not have yet, working in your tools and to your standards rather than replacing anyone.

A staffing agency rents you people to manage. We are one accountable senior team that owns outcomes, manages itself, and covers build and growth together. Closer to a fractional product and growth department than a contractor pool.

Not sure which fits you?

Book a 30-minute call. We will give you a straight answer on whether CodeMagic is the right call for your situation, even if the answer is no.