Quick note before we start: Ryz Labs wrote this page, and we're one of the options on it. We believe we're the stronger pick for most US engineering teams. Facts about other providers come from public sources, listed below.
Toptal and Arc are both vetted networks that match you with individual developers you then manage. The real difference is price transparency and the full-time path: Arc publishes freelance rates ($15-$110+/hr) and a 20% fee for full-time hires, while Toptal quotes rates per freelancer and charges a $79 monthly matching subscription.
For most US teams that want senior engineers inside their own team on US hours, or an AI pod team that builds and ships AI systems, the better choice is Ryz Labs. You get top 1% senior engineers in your standups and repos from week one, and a scoped plan, a price and the names of your engineers before you sign.
Toptal, founded in 2010, is a fully remote network of vetted freelancers. It says it has served 35,000+ clients in 140+ countries and that average time to match is under 24 hours. Its screening covers a communication interview, a skill review, live screening by domain experts and a 1-3 week test project. Rates are per freelancer and not published. Toptal lists a $79 monthly matching subscription, a trial of up to two weeks with up to three candidates per position, and says full-time conversion is possible "for the most part."
Arc launched in 2019 as the rebrand of CodementorX and is a sister brand to Codementor. It matches companies with individual freelance or full-time remote developers, using a vetted network, its HireAI matching tool and human recruiters. Arc says it has 450,000 talent in 190 countries. It publishes freelance rates of $15-$110+/hr, billed hourly or as a weekly retainer, and charges 20% of annual salary for full-time hires, with "$0 until you hire." It offers a trial of up to two weeks on freelance hires and a 3-month replacement guarantee on full-time hires, and works with EOR partners for global hires.
A team, not individual placements. Toptal and Arc both match you with individuals you then direct. Our senior engineers join your standups, your repos and your roadmap from week one, work to your leads, and own parts of your system. You sign one contract with Ryz. Our engineers work with us as independent contractors, and we handle paying them.
Top 1% vetting with people in the loop. We've interviewed tens of thousands of engineers, and only the top 1% make it. Recruiters source candidates, our in-house ranking system (called ARC, no relation to Arc the company) ranks the pipeline, every candidate takes a structured NTRVSTA AI interview, and recruiters review each one before and after. AI scores are advisory, and people decide. You get a recruiter-curated shortlist and run the final interview yourself. See our vetting process.
New York hours, built in. On both networks, overlap depends on the person you pick. Our engineers work within one hour of US time zones, so standups, pairing and code review happen the same day.
AI pod teams that ship to production. When you need AI built, we bring a dedicated pod of senior engineers (typically about 7, including a tech lead, an ML engineer and backend engineers) inside your cloud, repos and CI, with weekly demos, in AWS, Azure, GitHub, Postgres, and Anthropic and OpenAI models. Our case studies include an AI real-estate agent that works 24/7, an AI voice platform with 1M+ outbound calls, and fraud detection that has scored 244K+ invoices in under 30 seconds each, with $5.94M in fraud confirmed.
Named people and a price before you sign. Fortune 500 engineering teams trust us across industries, including financial services. Before you commit, you get a scoped plan, a price, and the names of the people who would do the work. When you want to hire someone outright, we also run direct-hire placement and executive search.
Comparing more options? See Ryz Labs vs Arc, Ryz Labs vs Toptal and our list of Toptal alternatives.
Arc publishes $15-$110+/hr and charges no subscription. Toptal doesn't publish rates; Clutch lists $100-$149/hr, plus a $79 monthly fee. Ryz gives you a scoped plan, a price and named engineers for the whole team before you sign. See Arc pricing and Toptal pricing.
Both run multi-step processes with technical interviews and a project. Toptal says fewer than 3% are accepted, Arc says "Top 2%." At Ryz, only the top 1% make it, with recruiters reviewing every candidate and people making every decision.
Arc publishes a 20% placement fee, and Toptal says conversion is possible "for the most part." Ryz offers direct-hire placement and executive search, and if you want senior engineers embedded in your team instead, talk to us.
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.