Disclosure: we're Ryz Labs, and we compete with the companies on this page. Here's why we think we're the right call for most teams, with sources for every fact about the others.
For most US engineering teams, Ryz Labs is the better choice. You get top 1% senior engineers who join your standups, your repos and your roadmap from week one, on US business hours. When you need AI built, you get an AI pod team that works in your cloud and ships to production. Before you sign, you see a scoped plan, a price, and the names of the people who would do the work. Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us for exactly this.
Howdy is an Austin-based nearshore partner that recruits Latin American engineers as dedicated members of client teams. It fits if you want dedicated engineers with local office access. If you want senior engineers on your team on New York hours, with AI pod teams when you need them, pick Ryz.
Senior engineers who become part of your team. Our engineers join your standups, your repos and your roadmap from week one. They work to your leads, in your process, so the code and the knowledge stay with your team.
Top 1% vetting you can see. We've interviewed tens of thousands of engineers, and only the top 1% make it. Recruiters source candidates, our in-house ARC system ranks the pipeline, and every candidate goes through a structured NTRVSTA AI interview. Recruiters review each candidate before and after that interview. AI scores are advisory, and people make the decisions. You get a recruiter-curated shortlist and run the final interview yourself. Our vetting process page walks through every step.
New York hours, stated plainly. Our engineers work on US business hours, so standups, pairing and code review happen the same day. Howdy describes its hours as "US-aligned" without a specific offset; we commit to New York hours.
AI pod teams that ship to production. This is the biggest structural difference. Our second business is dedicated pods of senior engineers that build AI systems in your cloud, repos and CI, in your standups, with weekly demos. A typical pod is about 7 people, including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers, working in AWS, Azure, GitHub, Postgres, and Anthropic and OpenAI models. Fraud detection for a global fleet company has scored 244K+ invoices in under 30 seconds each, with $5.94M in fraud confirmed by the client's own fraud team. A marketing-compliance system for a global capital management firm took review of 8,000+ documents from days to hours. An AI driver-support agent handles 218K driver questions a year in three languages. See our case studies.
You see the team before you commit. After a first conversation you get a scoped plan, a price, and the names of the people who would do the work. If you want to hire someone directly, we also run direct-hire placement and executive search.
Trusted by Fortune 500 engineering teams, across industries. We work with US enterprises in every industry, including financial services, and we bring decades of LatAm expertise. Our recruiting AI is governed under EU AI Act high-risk requirements, and we follow GDPR and CCPA/CPRA. We also place data, product, design, recruiting, sales and marketing people.
Howdy was founded in 2018 and is based in Austin, Texas. It recruits Latin American engineers who work as dedicated full-time members of client teams. Its all-inclusive quote covers recruiting, coaching, office access and equipment. Howdy runs 11 "Howdy Houses" offices across Latin American cities and Austin, and says a full hiring cycle typically takes 4-6 weeks.
Howdy doesn't publish a rate card; it gives an all-inclusive quote covering recruiting, coaching, office access and equipment. We didn't find a published trial period on Howdy's site.
Our typical cost is $7,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month (mid-level $7,000 to $10,000, senior $10,000 to $15,000, leads $15,000+ quoted per team), and every quote is scoped per team. With the quote you get a scoped plan, a price, and the names of the people who would do the work, before you sign anything. You're paying for top 1% senior engineers on New York hours, or an AI pod team that ships to production, and you know exactly who they are.
Still comparing? See our list of Howdy alternatives, our guide to nearshore developers for New York companies, and our guide to hiring LatAm engineers directly.
Howdy gives an all-inclusive quote; ours is typically $7,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month, scoped per team. Get a written quote for the same role from both and compare the total monthly cost. Ours comes with the names of the people who would do the work.
Howdy says shortlists arrive within 48 hours and a full cycle typically takes 4-6 weeks. We don't publish a standard timeline because it depends on the roles, but your scoped plan names your engineers, and they work in your repos from week one.
Howdy places dedicated engineers and offers managed services. Ryz has a dedicated AI pod team business with systems in production, from fraud detection that has confirmed $5.94M in fraud to an AI voice platform with 1M+ outbound calls.
Ryz engineers work on your team and report to your leads. Talk to us to scope your team.
Last checked October 2026. Pricing, trials and services move fast in this market, so verify the details with each vendor.
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