Build your engineering team in 7 days.
Senior engineers (6–10+ years) embedded in your team. CTO-led delivery. No visas, no HR overhead, no Toptal-style churn. Replace engineers anytime.
- 7d
- 6–10y
- 500+
- Replace
Every layer of the stack, every major platform.
We field senior engineers across the full modern web and mobile stack. If a technology isn’t listed, ask us — coverage is broader than this list.
How we compare.
The staff augmentation market is crowded. Here’s a straightforward look at how Squash Apps differs from the most commonly evaluated alternatives — based on publicly available information and client feedback across review platforms.
Toptal
Freelancer marketplace claiming the top 3% of applicants.
- ✗Toptal rates run $60–200+/hr per engineer — costs compound fast with no ceiling.
- ✗Individual contractors: no sprint management, no QA, no delivery structure.
- ✗You manage the engineers directly — Toptal provides no technical oversight.
- ✗No CTO-level review of architecture decisions or code quality.
- ✗Replacing a poor-fit contractor means restarting the marketplace search from scratch.
Squash Apps: managed pod with CTO oversight, QA included, sprint rhythm handled, replace anytime — from $10k/month.
Turing.com
AI-matched remote engineers, predominantly at $35–90/hr.
- ✗AI matching optimises for résumé keywords, not demonstrated delivery quality.
- ✗Rates of $35–90/hr look attractive but still leave you managing each engineer individually.
- ✗Inconsistent quality is a recurring theme in independent reviews on Reddit and Clutch.
- ✗No bundled QA — testing is a separate cost and coordination burden on your team.
- ✗No architecture oversight: you inherit whatever technical decisions the contractor makes.
Squash Apps: every engineer is live-reviewed and CTO-approved before they touch your codebase. Consistent quality, not algorithmic luck.
BairesDev
LatAm-focused body-shop with account managers running engagements.
- ✗Account managers are non-technical — escalations travel through people who cannot evaluate code.
- ✗The widely-cited "top 1%" claim is contradicted by numerous client reviews on Clutch and G2.
- ✗Engagement model is staff augmentation only — no managed delivery, no sprint ownership.
- ✗Timezone overlap with US teams is better than IST, but delivery accountability is still the client's burden.
- ✗Scaling the team means navigating account manager layers, not direct access to talent.
Squash Apps: the founder personally reviews technical decisions. You talk to engineers, not account managers.
Local recruitment agency
Traditional staffing firms placing permanent or contract hires locally.
- ✗Fully-loaded contractor rates of $150–250/hr are standard in most Western markets.
- ✗Time-to-hire is typically 4–8 weeks even for contract roles, longer for permanent.
- ✗Senior full-stack talent is genuinely scarce in many markets outside major tech hubs.
- ✗Permanent hires add payroll, benefits, office costs, and significant termination risk.
- ✗Agencies rarely provide technical vetting — they screen CVs, not code quality.
Squash Apps: dedicated senior engineers onboarded in 7 days, CTO-reviewed, no payroll or benefits overhead.
Sample team structures.
These are representative pod configurations based on common client needs. Your team will be designed around your specific product, stack, and timeline — not a template. All costs are indicative.
Early-stage SaaS
MVP-grade pod. Ship a working product in 10 weeks.
- Fullstack EngineerSenior (7y)
- Frontend EngineerMid-Senior (5y)
- QA EngineerMid (4y)
- →Pre-seed or seed startups validating a product hypothesis
- →MVPs targeting App Store / Play Store launch in under 12 weeks
- →Founders who need a team but can't yet afford a full-time engineering hire
- ✓Working MVP in 8–10 weeks
- ✓Test-covered codebase ready for investor demos
- ✓CI/CD pipeline set up from day one
Growth product team
Full cross-functional pod for post-PMF velocity.
- Tech Lead / ArchitectSenior (9y)
- Backend Engineer × 2Senior (7y)
- Frontend Engineer × 2Senior (6y)
- QA EngineerSenior (5y)
- DevOps EngineerPart-time
- →Series A/B companies scaling from MVP to multi-tenant platform
- →Products handling rapid user growth requiring infra hardening
- →Teams that need to ship features weekly without accumulating tech debt
- ✓4× shipping velocity vs. a typical offshore team
- ✓Automated test coverage above 70% within 60 days
- ✓Architecture designed for 10× load without full rewrite
Enterprise augmentation
Large-scale embedded pod for complex, regulated, or high-traffic products.
- Architecture LeadPrincipal (12y+)
- Backend Engineers3–6 × Senior
- Frontend Engineers2–4 × Senior
- Mobile Engineers1–2 × Senior
- QA Engineers2 × Senior
- DevOps / SREDedicated
- Security LeadPart-time
- →Enterprise products with SOC 2, HIPAA, or PCI compliance requirements
- →Platforms handling millions of monthly active users
- →Companies augmenting an existing in-house team with specialised capability
- ✓Enterprise-grade architecture and documentation from week one
- ✓Full compliance readiness (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR) built into the delivery process
- ✓Dedicated SRE function targeting 99.95%+ uptime SLA
Our vetting process.
Résumé + GitHub screen
CV and public code history reviewed manually. We look for consistent production delivery — not just employer names.
Technical assessment
Take-home assignment calibrated to claimed seniority. We evaluate code quality, decision rationale, and documentation habits.
Live code review
Walk-through of their submission with a senior engineer, plus a follow-up problem they haven't seen before.
CTO approval
Every engineer is personally reviewed by our founding team before joining the talent pool. No one skips this.
The engineers you meet have cleared four independent evaluations — résumé, technical assignment, live review, and CTO sign-off.
20+ years shipping production software. Built Kuyil AI (our AI assistant platform) and Garuda (clinic management SaaS) — along with 500+ client projects across SaaS, HealthTech, FinTech, Logistics and eCommerce.
Personally reviews every engagement’s first sprint: architecture, code quality, delivery discipline. Not a sales handoff. The CTO stays in the room.
Demonstrating Kuyil AI · Dubai Tech Summit
How it works
- Step 1Discovery call
We learn your product, tech stack, roadmap.
- Step 2Team design
We propose the right mix of backend, frontend, mobile, QA, DevOps.
- Step 3Onboarding (14d)
Engineers join your standups, repos, tools, sprint structure.
- Step 4Managed delivery
Sprints, code reviews, weekly demos, QA — we handle the rhythm.
- Step 5Scale confidently
Add engineers as the product grows — without hiring bottlenecks.
Pod pricing — indicative
1 senior engineer (6–10y). Best for augmenting your existing team.
Get a quote8+ engineers, architect, DevOps, dedicated QA and security lead.
Talk to SrijithPricing varies by stack, seniority and engagement type. Final quote on the call.
Real outcomes
Scaling delivery velocity for a HealthTech SaaS platform
Clinic & patient records SaaS stuck at 2 engineers. We added a pod, rebuilt CI/CD, and quadrupled shipping speed.
Sports data & gaming platform — engineering scale for peak season
Real-time predictions, live scores, community features. We owned mobile + backend through three peak sports seasons.
Share your goals.
We'll propose an ideal pod within 24 hours. No spam, no sales pressure. NDA available on request.
- 1Tell us your requirementsStack, team size, timezone needs, and what you're building.
- 2Pod proposal in 24hWe send a written team structure with seniority breakdown and monthly cost.
- 32-week trial sprintLow-commitment trial before any ongoing contract. See the team quality first.
- 4Full onboarding in 7 daysEngineers join your standups, repos, and sprint structure.
- ✓ No sales pressure✓ Reply in 24h✓ NDA available
Staff-augmentation engagements, in practice.
Scaling delivery velocity for a HealthTech SaaS platform
Clinic & patient records SaaS stuck at 2 engineers. We added a pod, rebuilt CI/CD, and quadrupled shipping speed.
Building a pilot software development team for an oil & gas manufacturer
Staff augmentation engagement to build a 6–10 person pilot software development team for Premium Oilfield Technologies in Houston. Delivered skilled engineers with strength across core development areas.
Dedicated QA pod for a US B2B SaaS — automated regression in 6 weeks
A US B2B SaaS company hit a release-velocity wall. We embedded a 3-person QA pod (1 senior + 2 mid) running Playwright automation alongside the in-house engineers. Six weeks later regression coverage went from 12% to 71% and weekly release fear stopped owning the founders.
Senior engineers, by the technology you're scaling.
Frequently asked questions
How fast can you onboard?
Full pods in 7 days. Individual engineers can start in 48–72 hours for urgent needs.
Are engineers fully dedicated to us?
Yes — full-time on your product, not shared across clients. You'll know every engineer's name and GitHub handle.
Who manages the developers day-to-day?
We handle sprint management, code reviews and delivery rhythm. You own product prioritization — what to build and in what order.
What time zones do you cover?
Primary delivery from IST (UTC+5:30). We provide overlapping hours for US EST/PST, UAE/GCC (GST), UK and Europe. For US West Coast clients we run hybrid async + one daily sync.
Do you handle QA and DevOps?
Yes — most pods include QA engineers and DevOps support for a complete delivery flow. CI/CD, staging environments, deployment pipelines — we set it up and maintain it.
Can we start with just one engineer?
Yes. Our smallest engagement is a single senior engineer at $10k/month. Most clients start small, validate quality, then scale the team.
Can we replace an engineer who isn't a good fit?
Anytime. No contractual friction. We'll have a replacement onboarded within a week. This has happened fewer than 10 times in 10 years — but the policy exists and is unconditional.
What's the minimum commitment?
No contractual minimum. We recommend a 3-month initial term to see meaningful output, but you can exit with 2 weeks' notice.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. Standard before any technical discussion. We can also work under your form of NDA.
How do code reviews work?
Every PR goes through peer review by a team member and a weekly architecture/quality review by the founder or a senior lead. You have full access to the review history.