Disclosure: we're Ryz Labs, and we compete with the companies on this page. Read it with that in mind. We've flagged every case where we'd send you elsewhere.
Choose Ryz Labs if you're a US enterprise and you want senior Latin American engineers working inside your team, in your standups and repos, within one hour (±1h) of US time zones. We're trusted by Fortune 500 engineering teams, and only the top 1% make it through our vetting. We also run AI pod teams that build AI systems inside your stack. Choose Howdy if you're building a long-term, full-time LatAm team and want a published fee split, benefits, coaching and local offices handled for you.
A transparent fee model. Howdy publishes how its price splits: 85% goes to the professional and 15% to Howdy's management fee, which covers recruiting, EOR, benefits, coaching, office access and equipment. That kind of openness is rare in this category, and we don't match it. We give a custom quote instead.
Physical offices and a retention focus. Howdy runs what it calls Howdy Houses in Latin American cities (11 including Austin, by its count), plus benefits and coaching for its engineers. Howdy says it sees 98% retention through two years. That is a company-reported figure, but the offices, benefits and coaching are part of the model. If your biggest worry is engineers leaving after a year, Howdy has built its model around that problem.
Psychologist-led screening. Howdy says it has 31 full-time psychologists trained as recruiters, who screen for soft skills and culture fit alongside live coding interviews. If communication and team fit are your top concern, that's a distinctive approach.
Employment handled end to end. Because Howdy employs engineers through EOR, payroll, benefits and equipment are all part of one fee. You don't need a local entity.
Top 1% vetting you can see. 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. Only the top 1% make it, out of tens of thousands of engineers interviewed. Then you get a recruiter-curated shortlist and run the final interview yourself. You keep the person. Our vetting and placement page walks through it.
Embedded in your team on New York hours. Our engineers work within one hour of US time zones, so standups, pairing and code review happen the same day. They join your standups, your repos and your roadmap from week one, as part of your team. Howdy says its engineers work US-aligned hours but doesn't state a specific offset.
AI pod teams that build inside your cloud and ship to production. This is the biggest structural difference. Our second business is dedicated pods of senior engineers (a typical shape is about 7 people, including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers) that work inside your cloud, repos and CI, in your standups, with weekly demos. They work in AWS, Azure, GitHub, Postgres, and Anthropic and OpenAI models. When the system is done you can add people or disciplines, or have the whole system handed over to your team. Our case studies show this in production: fraud detection for a global fleet company that 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 that took review of 8,000+ documents from days to hours; and an AI voice platform with 1M+ outbound calls. Client names aren't public, so ask us for references.
Trusted by US enterprises across industries. We're trusted by Fortune 500 engineering teams and work with US enterprises across industries, including financial services. Our recruiting AI is governed under EU AI Act high-risk requirements, and we follow GDPR and CCPA/CPRA. That matters when your security and procurement teams ask how candidates were screened.
More than engineers. We also place data, product, design, recruiting, sales and marketing people, and run direct-hire placement and executive search for remote or on-site roles.
Howdy doesn't publish a rate card, but it does publish its fee structure: an all-inclusive quote where 85% goes to the professional and 15% is Howdy's management fee. We didn't find a trial period on Howdy's site. Howdy says a full recruitment cycle typically takes 4-6 weeks, with curated shortlists within 48 hours.
Our pricing is a custom quote, scoped per team. 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 know the fee structure before you talk to anyone, Howdy gives you more up front.
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.
We can't say for sure. Howdy publishes a 15% management fee on top of the engineer's cost; we quote per team. Get a written quote for the same role from both and compare the total monthly cost.
Not much for either of us. Howdy's Clutch profile showed no reviews as of October 2026, and we have few public reviews too. Ask both for client references you can call.
Howdy says shortlists arrive within 48 hours and a full cycle typically takes 4-6 weeks. We don't publish a standard timeline; your scoped plan includes a start date and the names of the people.
With us, yes. You can add people or disciplines, or add an AI pod when you're ready. Talk to us to scope it.
Last checked October 2026. Pricing, trials and services move fast in this market, so verify the details with each vendor.