Comparison

Hire an AI engineer, or prove it first?

Hire in-house when AI is your product and you need it every day. Before that, a $5–10k fixed build proves which workflow is worth automating, and gives your future hire working code to start from.

What the in-house route really involves

Months of recruiting, then onboarding to your code and business.
A six-figure fully loaded cost before the first feature ships. Use your own salary numbers.
One person covering models, integration, infrastructure and on-call.

	Renga build	In-house hire
Time to first live system	Typically 2–6 weeks	Hiring time + build time
Year-one cost	$4,997–$9,997 per build	Salary + benefits + recruiting
Risk if it doesn't work	Full refund against written criteria	You carry it
Knowledge after	Code, docs and handover in your repo	Lives with one person

Choose Renga if…

You need to validate the payoff first, you don't have months to hire, and you want working code your future hire can extend.

Hire in-house if…

AI is already proven core to your product, you'll run many AI systems at once, and you have the runway to hire well.

The sequence we recommend

Build one, measure it, then decide whether to hire. We'll help write the job spec if you do.

Book a scoping call

30 minutes, with the founder.

All comparisons

Start a project

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