A senior developer hire costs $180k/year. You'll have a product in 18 months. Or you can ship in 12 weeks.
In-house development is the right long-term answer for products that require continuous engineering investment. For a defined-scope first version, the economics and speed of a fixed-price partner are dramatically better than the hiring path.
You're deciding between hiring your first developer and contracting a development partner for the initial build. You want to understand the true cost and timeline difference.
The build-vs-hire decision for early-stage companies is frequently framed as a binary: either you hire a developer or you don't build software. The correct frame is different. The hire is appropriate for continuous, ongoing engineering work. The fixed-price partner is appropriate for defined-scope delivery. Most early-stage products start as defined-scope builds before they become ongoing engineering requirements.
The hiring timeline is the underappreciated variable. A senior developer hire takes 3–6 months to recruit (job posting, interviews, negotiation), 1–3 months to onboard (ramp-up time to be productive on the specific domain), and 3–6 months to produce a first version of the product independently. Total: 7–15 months from decision to production application. At a $180k fully-loaded cost, this is an $85k–$225k investment before you have a product.
The fixed-price alternative: a defined-scope build delivered in 8–12 weeks for $25k–$65k. If the product validates, you hire the developer — now with a codebase to extend rather than a blank page to start from. If the product doesn't validate, you've spent $25k–$65k to learn that, rather than $100k+ and a year.
A clear comparison of the total cost, timeline, and risk profile of hiring an in-house developer versus using a fixed-price development partner for a defined-scope project.
Time to production
Hiring: 7–15 months. RCB Software: 8–12 weeks. For a time-sensitive competitive window, the 12-week path is the only viable option.
Total cost to first version
Hiring: $85k–$225k (6-12 months at $180k/year). RCB Software: $25k–$65k fixed-price.
Risk profile
Hiring: if the product doesn't work out, you have an employee to manage and a hiring mistake to unwind. RCB Software: if the product doesn't work out, the contract ends. No severance, no ongoing cost, no HR complexity.
Appropriate for
Hiring: products that require continuous, ongoing engineering investment after the initial build. RCB Software: defined-scope first versions and subsequent defined-scope extensions.
What you get at the end
Hiring: a developer who knows the codebase deeply. RCB Software: a documented codebase that any developer can extend, including a future in-house hire.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A clear comparison of the total cost, timeline, and risk profile of hiring an in-house developer versus using a fixed-price development partner for a defined-scope project.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
The comparison makes the most sense when the build is defined-scope. A fixed-price engagement has a defined cost and a defined delivery date — both of which a hire cannot match.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
No — the codebase is built on a standard modern stack (Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres) that any qualified developer can extend. Architecture documentation and a handoff session are included. A future in-house hire inherits a clean, documented codebase rather than a blank page.
Most products do require ongoing engineering after the initial build. The question is what form it takes: continuous feature development (which benefits from in-house talent) or periodic defined-scope additions (which work well as a series of fixed-price scopes). The right answer depends on the velocity of product development you expect post-launch.
Ask them to walk through a technical decision they've made on a previous project — the specific trade-off, what they chose, and why. Ask them how they'd approach the specific architecture problem your product presents. Senior developers have specific opinions and can articulate trade-offs; intermediate developers describe what they've done without being able to reason about why.
A production first-version web application with auth, core features, and Stripe integration typically runs $25k–$65k. Fixed-price. The codebase is handed off with documentation for a future in-house developer to extend.
Post-build additions and improvements are scoped as fixed-price extensions. Ongoing support for production issues is available. This typically transitions to in-house management as the team grows.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.