What does it really cost to hire?
Salary is roughly two-thirds of what an engineer actually costs. Put in your own numbers and see the full figure next to a monthly subscription — including the cases where hiring wins.
What a hire costs you
Every figure below is an editable assumption, not a fixed rate. The defaults are conservative US averages — change any of them to your own.
Before any employer on-costs
US employers: FICA 7.65% plus unemployment
Health cover, retirement match, paid leave
Laptop, licences, tooling, desk — per year
Placement fee as a share of salary. Year one only — set it to 0 if you hire direct
Offer accepted to first useful work. Shown as time — never added to the cost
Compare against
A small team, several things at once · $5,995/mo
Ongoing annual cost
Year two onward, with the one-off recruiting fee removed. The fairer long-run comparison.
That is a difference of $114,060 a year, every year — and $142,060 in year one, once the recruiting fee is counted.
Where year one goes
- Salary
- $140,000
- Payroll tax
- $14,000
- Benefits
- $28,000
- Equipment & software
- $4,000
- Recruiting fee
- $28,000
- Total
- $214,000
What this comparison leaves out
- An employee is yours. They accumulate context nobody can hand over in a document, and that compounds for as long as they stay.
- Full-time is full-time. A subscription buys senior capacity, not a person sitting in your stand-up every morning.
- Cost is not the only question. If the work is permanent, central to the product and needs someone in the room, hire. We are the better answer when the work is varied, urgent, or not yet permanent enough to justify a seat.
Want this checked against your actual roadmap? We will tell you honestly if hiring is the better call.
30-minute call, no pitch deck, no obligation.Conservative US averages: payroll tax covers FICA at 7.65% plus unemployment, benefits cover health cover, a retirement match and paid leave, and the recruiting fee is a typical agency placement rate. They are starting points, not claims — change any of them to your own figures, and the comparison updates.
Because it would be counted twice. The salary paid during those weeks is already inside the salary line, so adding it again as a separate cost would inflate the answer. It is shown as time instead, which is what it actually is. For reference, our first deliverable lands within five business days of kickoff or the first week is refunded.
Not exactly, and the difference runs both ways. A full-time hire is dedicated to you and accumulates context that compounds. A subscription gives you senior capacity across engineering and design without a permanent seat, and stops when you stop. Set the headcount to match what you would actually hire, and read the caveats under the result.
Then the tool says so, and you should hire. That happens at lower salaries, in lower-cost markets, or against our larger plans. We would rather you find that out here than three months into an engagement.