We'll say this up front: we're Ryz Labs, and we compete with Hire With Near (most people just call it Near) when the role is an engineer. So we're biased, and we'll still tell you when Near or another firm is the better fit. Facts about each company come from its own site, linked at the end.
Near is a staffing and recruiting agency based in Austin and Buenos Aires that helps US companies hire Latin American talent "across all industries and all departments," from SDRs and accountants to engineers. It says 950+ US companies have hired through it and that it has placed 3,500+ professionals. Its AI scans 160,000+ pre-vetted candidates, recruiters review every match, shortlists arrive in under five days, and most hires take about three weeks. Interviews are free, you pay only if you hire, and placements carry a 180-day replacement guarantee. Buyers hiring engineers look at Near alternatives for structural reasons: engineering is one department among many, technical assessments run through a partner network, Near recruits individuals rather than teams that ship, and its fee isn't published. For senior engineers and AI pods, our pick is Ryz Labs.
Engineering is our whole business, and Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us with it. Only the top 1% of the tens of thousands of engineers we've interviewed make it. They work on your team in Latin America, on US business hours including New York hours, joining your standups, repos and roadmap from week one, so code review happens the same day.
The vetting is built for engineers, in-house. Recruiters source, our in-house ARC system ranks the pipeline, every candidate goes through a structured NTRVSTA AI interview, and recruiters review each one before and after. AI scores are advisory; people decide. That's the main contrast with a generalist agency that runs technical assessments through partners. Read our vetting process.
When you need more than a hire, we bring an AI pod team: about seven senior engineers, including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers, building in your cloud, your GitHub and your CI, with weekly demos. Pods have shipped fraud detection that has confirmed $5.94M in fraud for a global fleet company and an AI real-estate agent that runs 24/7. See our case studies. If you'd rather hire someone directly, we also run direct-hire placement and executive search, remote or on-site.
Unlike Near, we publish our prices. Mid-level engineers (comparable to Amazon L5 / SDE II) are $7,000 to $10,000 a month, seniors (comparable to Amazon L6) $10,000 to $15,000, and leads are quoted per team. One senior engineer for a year is 12 × $10,000 to $15,000, or $120,000 to $180,000. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start. For the head-to-head, see Ryz Labs vs Hire With Near.
Where we're not the right fit: you want a self-serve marketplace or a trial before talking to anyone, or you need people on European or Asian hours.
Hire South, founded in 2022 by a US-Argentine duo, is the closest like-for-like to Near here: it recruits across South and Central America for engineering roles (full-stack, mobile, DevOps, data, AI/ML) and for sales ops, legal support, marketing, support and logistics. It says every engagement is founder-led, it presents 2 to 5 candidates, most hires close in 10 days, and contracts come with a 90-day replacement guarantee. Unlike Near, it publishes a direct-hire fee: 20% of estimated first-year salary. It also offers Build-Operate-Transfer. See our Hire South alternatives.
Revelo is a nearshore talent platform focused on developers. It says it has 400K+ vetted developers across 18 Latin American countries, who work within 2 hours of US Eastern, and that shortlists arrive in 48 to 72 hours. It offers a two-week risk-free trial, no upfront contract and month-to-month billing. Technical management of each hire stays with you. It fits teams that want an engineering-only pool bigger than a generalist agency's. See Ryz Labs vs Revelo.
Athyna is a platform for hiring global talent across marketing, design, operations, tech and finance, with talent from Buenos Aires to Lagos. It says it matches people in 5 days or less, you pay only for the talent you hire, and its homepage shows sample profiles such as a full-stack developer in Lima at $40 an hour. Like Near, it covers many departments, and it adds Athyna Intelligence, LatAm PhDs and domain experts for AI training and evals. See Ryz Labs vs Athyna.
If the role is a senior engineer or an AI team that ships, talk to us. Our guide to Latin American staff augmentation companies compares engineering-focused firms, and our guide to hiring LatAm engineers directly covers direct-hire routes.
Ryz Labs, for US teams that want top 1% senior engineers on their team on New York hours, plus AI pod teams that ship. You see the plan, the price and the people before you start.
Yes. This page covers Hire With Near, at hirewithnear.com, which most people call Near. It's a different company from Nearsure, which now operates as Nortal.
Hire South publishes a 20% direct-hire fee, and Athyna shows sample hourly rates. We publish $7,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month. Revelo quotes through a calculator.
Ryz engineers work on your team, reporting to your leads. Talk to us to scope your team, or read our page on hiring LatAm developers.
We checked these facts in October 2026. Fees and guarantees change, so confirm the details with each firm before you sign.
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