Ryz Labs vs Index.dev

Full disclosure: we're Ryz Labs, and Index.dev is one of the companies we compete with. So yes, we're biased. Here's how we'd explain the choice to a friend, with sources for every fact about Index.dev.

The short answer

For most US engineering teams, Ryz Labs is the better choice. You get top 1% senior engineers in Latin America who work on your team on US business hours, joining your standups and your repos. When you need AI built, an AI pod team of senior engineers builds it in your cloud and ships it to production. You see a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start. Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us for this.

Index.dev is a global remote hiring platform with offices in San Francisco, London and Chisinau. It says it has 30,000+ human-vetted engineers, matches candidates in 24-48 hours, and charges nothing until you hire. It fits if you want engineers from anywhere in the world, or AI-training specialists, fast. If you want every engineer on New York hours plus AI pods that ship, pick Ryz.

Side by side

Why Ryz is the better choice

One region, one set of hours. A global network gives you range, and range has a cost: your engineer might be eight hours ahead of your product manager. All of our engineers are in Latin America and work on US business hours, including New York hours. Pairing, incident calls and code review happen during your workday, not overnight.

AI pods that build in your stack. Index.dev offers AI specialists and can manage delivery. Our AI pod teams are dedicated pods of senior engineers, typically about 7 people including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers, working in your cloud (AWS or Azure), your GitHub and your CI, with weekly demos. The pod builds the system alongside your team, ships it, and then grows or hands the whole thing over.

Proof in production. Fraud detection for a global fleet company has confirmed $5.94M in fraud and scores each invoice in under 30 seconds. An AI driver-support agent covers about 218,000 driver calls a year in three languages, with about a 95% cut in per-call cost per the live case study. Read the case studies.

Vetting where people decide. Index.dev's identity checks are thorough, and we respect that. Our process puts recruiters on both sides of the AI step: recruiters source, our in-house ARC system ranks the pipeline, a structured NTRVSTA AI interview runs, and recruiters review every candidate before and after. AI scores are advisory. Only the top 1% of tens of thousands interviewed make it. See the vetting process.

Published price ranges. You can budget before you call us: $7,000-$15,000 per engineer per month for most mid-level and senior engineers.

How Index.dev works

You share your stack, skills and timeline. Index.dev searches its 30,000-person vetted network, plus a wider database of 2.5 million professionals, and sends candidates in 24-48 hours. It says hiring takes 2-7 days. You can add one Individual Expert, assemble a Managed Team of 5 to 50 engineers, or have Index.dev run AI-heavy delivery. Each engagement comes with a dedicated account manager, a 30-day guarantee and monthly terms with no long-term lock-in. Index.dev also lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 on its verification page.

When Index.dev might make sense

• You want engineers in Europe or Asia, or follow-the-sun coverage across regions.
• You're an AI lab that needs PhD-level evals, RLHF or data annotation specialists.
• You want a trial-style guarantee on a single hire before committing.

Pricing

Index.dev doesn't publish rates. Its site says there are no upfront costs and you pay only when you hire, and it claims savings of about 40% compared with US hires. Ask for a written monthly rate per role.

Ours are public. Typical Ryz cost is $7,000-$15,000 per engineer per month, mostly mid-level to senior. Mid-level (comparable to Amazon L5 / SDE II) is $7,000-$10,000. Senior (comparable to Amazon L6) is $10,000-$15,000. Leads are $15,000+, quoted per team. For an AI pod, the math is team size × duration × monthly rate. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start.

Who should pick which

• If you want every engineer on New York hours, pick Ryz.
• If you want top 1% senior engineers on your team, reporting to your leads, pick Ryz.
• If you want an AI pod team that ships a production system in your own cloud, pick Ryz.
• If you want published price ranges before the first call, pick Ryz.
• If you need engineers across many countries, or AI-training specialists for model work, Index.dev is built for that.

Related

• AI pod teams
• Companies to hire AI engineers
• Senior software engineer staff augmentation
• Ryz Labs vs Turing
• Turing alternatives

Questions

Is Index.dev cheaper than Ryz Labs?

Index.dev doesn't publish rates, so get a written quote for the same role and seniority. Our ranges are public. Compare the total monthly cost and the hours your engineer actually overlaps with your team.

Where are Index.dev engineers located?

Worldwide. Index.dev says it operates in 160+ countries. Ours are all in Latin America, on US business hours.

Which is better for building an AI system?

Ryz, if you want a dedicated pod of senior engineers that builds in your cloud and ships to production alongside your team. If you need evals or RLHF specialists to train a model, Index.dev offers that kind of talent.

How do Ryz engineers work with our team?

Ryz engineers work on your team, reporting to your leads. Talk to us to scope your team.

Sources

• Index.dev: index.dev
• Index.dev: index.dev / how index works
• Index.dev: index.dev / how we verify
• Index.dev: index.dev / about

We checked Index.dev's site in October 2026. Services and terms change, so confirm them with Index.dev before you sign.