Full disclosure: we're Ryz Labs, and we're one of the options on this page. So yes, we're biased. Here's what we'd actually tell a friend, including when you should hire someone else.
BairesDev is the best-known name in Latin American staff augmentation. They say they have 4,000+ engineers across 100+ technologies, and they sell staff augmentation, dedicated teams, full project outsourcing and AI development work (agentic systems, custom LLMs, ML) under one roof. People still look elsewhere for a few common reasons. Pricing isn't published. Some Clutch reviewers mention rate increases over time, early developer churn, and a thin bench in niche skills. And on the AI side, AI is one of their 100+ technologies rather than a dedicated practice. None of that makes BairesDev a bad choice. If you need a lot of engineers fast, they're hard to beat, and we say so below.
If you want senior engineers embedded in your own team on US hours, start with us. Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us for exactly this. Our engineers join your standups and your repos from week one, working within an hour of US time zones. Only the top 1% make it: recruiters source, our in-house ranking system and structured interviews narrow the pipeline, and a recruiter curates the shortlist before you run the final interview. You keep the person. If you came to BairesDev for AI work, we also run AI pod teams: dedicated pods of senior engineers (often around seven, with a tech lead and an ML engineer) that build AI systems inside your cloud and repos. You can read how we vet on our vetting process page.
Where we're not the right fit: if you want a full project outsourced to a vendor that owns delivery end to end, or engineers in Europe or Asia time zones, BairesDev or Globant is built for that. If you want published, self-serve pricing before a conversation, we don't offer it. For a head-to-head, see Ryz Labs vs BairesDev.
If the reason you picked BairesDev was scale, Globant is the one alternative with more of it. It's NYSE-listed, had about 28,800 employees at the end of 2025, and grew out of Buenos Aires. It sells traditional engineering programs plus "AI Pods," a subscription model where AI agents do the work under Globant expert supervision. The catch: it's a big-company engagement, and the AI Pods model buys you supervised agent output, not a named team of engineers sitting in your standups.
Revelo is a talent platform rather than a services firm. They say they have 400K+ vetted LatAm developers, that engineers work within two hours of US Eastern time, and they handle payroll, benefits, taxes and compliance in 18 countries. They publish a two-week risk-free trial ("pay only if you're happy," in their words) and month-to-month terms with no upfront contract. The catch: day-to-day technical management sits with you.
If BairesDev's opaque pricing is the sticking point, Howdy is unusually open: they say 85% of the fee goes to the professional and 15% to Howdy. That covers recruiting, employment, benefits, coaching, equipment and access to their "Howdy Houses" offices across LatAm cities. They claim 98% retention through two years. The catch: they say a full hiring cycle takes four to six weeks, and there's little independent review evidence yet.
Endava is NYSE-listed and has a dedicated payments practice. They claim "90% of largest payment companies count on us." Delivery comes from Latin America and Eastern Europe, so you get more time-zone range than an all-LatAm vendor. The catch: Eastern European teams overlap less with New York afternoons.
Nearsure, with 600+ experts across 18 LatAm countries, was acquired by Nortal in 2025. The combined company offers LatAm staff augmentation plus enterprise transformation work. It's a reasonable fit if you want staff augmentation and transformation work from one vendor. The catch: post-acquisition integrations take time, so ask who your account team will be.
Stay if scale is the job. Few vendors can staff several squads across 100+ technologies at once, and BairesDev says teams are ready in two to four weeks. Stay if you want staff augmentation, dedicated teams and full outsourcing under one contract, so you can shift models without changing vendors. Stay if your current engineers are working out: switching costs real time, and BairesDev's 4.9/5 Clutch rating (63 reviews on the profile we checked) suggests most clients are happy. And if your AI scope is well defined and your own team leads the architecture, their AI development services may be all you need.
Consider moving if rates have crept up without a matching change in seniority, if you've cycled through engineers early in the engagement, or if you want top 1% senior engineers embedded in your team and AI pod teams that ship to production. Our guide to Latin American staff augmentation companies compares the wider field.
Hard to say, because almost nobody here publishes rates. Howdy publishes its fee structure (15% on top of the engineer's cost), and Revelo gives quotes by calculator. Get written quotes for the same seniority and stack before you compare.
If you want individual AI engineers in your team, most firms here can staff them. If you want a dedicated team that builds and ships an AI system in your cloud, look at AI pod teams like ours, or at Globant's AI Pods if you prefer a metered subscription. See our nearshore AI engineering teams guide.
The LatAm-based firms (Ryz, Revelo, Howdy, Nortal) generally overlap well with US Eastern time. Globant and Endava deliver from several regions, so ask where your team sits.
Revelo and Howdy are built around full-time hires. We also do direct-hire placement. Ask any vendor about conversion terms before you start.
Everything here was checked against each company's own site and public sources in October 2026. Vendors change terms often, so confirm before you sign.