Heads up: we're Ryz Labs, so we have skin in this game. This is the case we make to buyers on calls. Facts about other providers come from their own published information, linked at the end.
Somewhere, formerly Support Shepherd, is a remote hiring service that recruits, vets and places talent from the Philippines, Latin America and South Africa. It says it has served 5,000+ companies, hired 11,000+ candidates and saved clients $400M, and its most popular category is executive and virtual assistants. You can hire through Direct Hire, with a one-time fee based on first-year salary and a refundable deposit, or Talent On-Demand, priced monthly. Its pricing pages describe a 6-month guarantee with a free replacement. Buyers look at Somewhere alternatives for structural reasons: they need senior engineers rather than assistants, they want everyone on US business hours, or they need a team that builds and ships a system rather than individual hires. 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 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. 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. 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 and CI with weekly demos. Pods have shipped fraud detection that has confirmed $5.94M in fraud for a global fleet company and an AI voice platform with 1M+ outbound calls. See our case studies.
Our prices are published. 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. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start. For the head-to-head, see Ryz Labs vs Somewhere.
Where we're not the right fit: you're hiring an executive assistant or bookkeeper, you want a self-serve marketplace, or you need people on European or Asian hours.
Hire With Near is a staffing and recruiting agency based in Austin and Buenos Aires that helps US companies hire Latin American talent across all departments, from SDRs and accountants to engineers. It says 950+ US companies have hired through it, its AI scans 160,000+ pre-vetted candidates, shortlists arrive in under five days, and placements carry a 180-day replacement guarantee. It's the closest like-for-like to Somewhere if you want everyone in Latin America. See Ryz Labs vs Hire With Near.
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 and month-to-month billing, and technical management of each hire stays with you. See Ryz Labs vs Revelo.
Athyna is a platform for hiring global talent across marketing, design, operations, tech and finance. 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 Somewhere, it covers many functions and many countries. See Ryz Labs vs Athyna.
For senior engineers who work on your team on US business hours, or an AI pod team that ships a system to production, we'd pick Ryz Labs. For a large self-serve developer pool with a trial, look at Revelo.
Hire With Near and Athyna both cover non-engineering roles. We don't place assistants.
Yes. Support Shepherd rebranded as Somewhere, at somewhere.com.
Somewhere charges a refundable deposit and a one-time fee tied to first-year salary for Direct Hire, or a monthly quote for On-Demand. Ryz publishes an all-in range of $7,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month. Compare the seniority of the engineer and the hours they work, not just the fee. Our nearshore software development companies guide compares more options.
We checked these facts in October 2026. Fees and guarantees change, so confirm the details with each firm before you sign.
Thanks — your message has been sent. We’ll get back to you soon.
Something went wrong while sending your message. Please try again or email info@ryzlabs.com.