We'll say this up front: Ryz Labs wrote this page, and we're one of the companies on it. When another option is the better call, we say so plainly.
If you want Latin American engineers for the long term, the deciding question is: who should employ them? If you want to hire the person yourself, you need a recruiting partner for direct hire. If you want them working inside your team without becoming the employer, embedded staff augmentation is simpler. If you want to be the employer in a country where you have no entity, you need an EOR partner. We do the first two. We don't offer EOR.
Hiring a contractor for six months and hiring a team member for five years are different decisions. For the long-term version, three things matter more than speed: who the person's legal employer is, what the fee actually covers, and what happens if the hire doesn't work out.
The fee models vary a lot. Some partners charge a one-time recruiting fee and step away. Some charge an ongoing markup and handle payroll, benefits, and equipment. Some embed the engineer in your team and handle the relationship for you. Comparing a monthly markup to a one-time fee is apples to oranges, so work out the cost over two years.
Finally, ask who the engineer feels they work for. Retention depends on it. An engineer who sits in your standups, ships in your repos, and gets feedback from your leads is far more likely to stay than one who feels like a vendor's resource.
We give you two routes. With direct-hire placement, we run the search, interviews, and screening, and you hire the person outright, remote or on-site. With embedded staff augmentation, senior Latin American engineers work inside your team: same standups, same repos, same roadmap from week one. You sign one contract with us. Our engineers work with us as independent contractors, and we handle paying them, so there's no entity, payroll, or employment admin on your side. A lot of companies come to us for exactly that: they want the engineer, and they want someone else to handle the contracts and payments. Either way, you run the final interview.
Why we rank first for direct hire: the hard part of long-term hiring is finding someone senior enough to keep for years. Our recruiters source, our in-house ARC system ranks the pipeline, candidates go through structured NTRVSTA AI interviews, and recruiters review everyone before and after. AI scores are advisory; people decide. Only the top 1% of the tens of thousands we've interviewed make it. We can also place data, product, and design people, and run executive search.
Where we're not the right fit: we don't offer EOR, and we don't publish a fee percentage or a replacement guarantee. Our embedded engineers are independent contractors, not employees. If you want them as employees with local benefits, or you want to be the legal employer in a given country, an EOR partner like Howdy, Revelo, or South is built for that. And if you want published terms before you talk to anyone, Howdy and Near are more transparent up front.
Howdy employs engineers through EOR and places them as dedicated members of your team. Its fee is published: 85% goes to the engineer and 15% to Howdy, covering recruiting, EOR, benefits, coaching, office access, and equipment. It claims 98% retention through two years.
Why it fits: the most transparent fee model in this category. The catch: Howdy says a full cycle takes four to six weeks, and we found no trial. See Ryz Labs vs Howdy.
Revelo says it handles "payroll, benefits, taxes & compliance" in 18 countries, with month-to-month terms and a 14-day risk-free trial. It says most developers are onboarded and shipping within 14 days.
Why it fits: low commitment and broad country coverage. The catch: day-to-day management is yours. See Revelo alternatives.
Near offers either a one-time recruiting fee or a monthly staffing model, and claims a 180-day replacement guarantee.
Why it fits: the longest guarantee we found, and a choice of fee model. The catch: fee amounts aren't published, so get the two-year cost of each option in writing.
South handles contracts, payroll, and compliance after the hire, and it's free to interview.
Why it fits: no cost to explore. The catch: managing the engineer is on you once they start.
Tecla offers direct hire via EOR or staff augmentation, with what it calls "one scoped rate per hire."
Why it fits: one rate, two models. The catch: we found less public detail on what the rate includes, so ask.
If you want to hire directly, or embed senior engineers without becoming the employer, our pick is Ryz Labs. We're trusted by Fortune 500 engineering teams, and we find senior engineers from the top 1%, within an hour of US time zones. Hire them outright through direct-hire placement, or have them join your standups and repos from week one as embedded engineers. And if you later need to build AI systems, our AI pod teams can do that too.
If you need an EOR (we don't offer one), Howdy for published fees.
If you want month-to-month terms and a trial, Revelo.
If a replacement guarantee matters most, Near.
For a broader view of vendors, see our guide to the best LatAm staff augmentation companies.
An employer of record legally employs someone on your behalf in a country where you don't have an entity. It runs payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance. You direct the person's work.
With an EOR, the engineer is a legal employee of the EOR, with payroll taxes and benefits handled in their country. Contracting through a partner like us means the engineer is an independent contractor: you sign one contract with the partner, and the partner handles paying them. It's simpler and usually lighter on admin, but the engineer isn't an employee.
Often, over a long time, but you take on the employment admin yourself. Compare the 24-month total, not the headline number.
Ask each partner. Terms vary, and some charge conversion fees. We offer direct-hire placement as its own service.
Howdy says four to six weeks for a full cycle. Revelo says most developers are shipping within 14 days. Your own interview loop is often the slowest step.
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.