Alternatives · Staff augmentation and body leasing
A staff augmentation alternative: a delivery stream instead of rented people.
Staff augmentation places external developers in your team at a daily or hourly rate. You get people fast and keep full control, and you also keep all of the work: specification, management, integration and the result. Ship in Hours adds capacity differently: a scope delivered at a fixed price as tested packages, without adding anyone to manage.
Two ways to buy
Augmentation adds people. A delivery stream adds output.
Both are ways to avoid permanent hiring. Augmentation keeps the project inside your team; a delivery stream takes a defined part of it out and brings back tested code.
External developers in your team, billed by time
Staff augmentation, body leasing and consultant marketplaces share one structure: a provider supplies individuals with a given skill profile, the client directs their work, and the client pays a daily or hourly rate for as long as the engagement lasts. Onboarding, tooling, access, management and the result remain the client's responsibility.
- Individuals supplied by a provider, directed by the client
- Daily or hourly rate for the duration; cost grows with time
- Client onboards, equips, manages and integrates
- Client owns architecture, quality and the outcome
A defined scope at a fixed price, delivered as tested code packages
AIPOS OÜ sells a result, not people or hours. The architecture and specification are designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ and agreed with you in writing; a multi-agent system then builds, tests and documents production code around the clock. Twenty-four hours of its work equals four to eight weeks of a small software company, measured on AIPOS OÜ's own production systems.
- A written scope description before any money changes hands
- A trial build: a real piece of your plan, delivered within 72 hours of written confirmation, for a fixed 9,900 euros
- The full scope at one fixed price, quoted in writing after the trial; the trial price deducted in full
- Architecture and specification by AIPOS OÜ, agreed with you before any code is written; the multi-agent system builds, tests and documents 24/7
- Every change tested and reviewed by an independent review agent before you see it; delivered as a tested package at every milestone
- Full intellectual property to you; remote only; all communication in writing
24/7 from sign-off
Your project starts. It never stops.
Whichever route you compare it with, the delivery model is the same: from the moment your scope is signed off, an autonomous development system works on it 24/7 — no nights off, no weekends, no handovers. Months of team output, delivered in days.
Starts within hours
Work begins within hours of your written scope sign-off. No recruiting, no onboarding, no waiting for a sprint to open.
Runs around the clock
Autonomous and continuous until delivery: no nights off, no weekends, no handovers, no pauses.
Progress you can see daily
Every change is tested and committed in AIPOS OÜ's own secure development environment. You receive a written progress report every day, and tested code of your product is delivered at agreed milestones — in full after final payment.
Architecture agreed first
The architecture and specification are designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ and agreed with you in writing before any code is written.
Choose this if you need serious development capacity fast, without hiring a team.
Side by side
Staff augmentation versus a fixed-price delivery stream.
The comparison is structural on purpose: it describes how each model works, not how good any individual provider is. Prices and durations on the other side vary by provider and market, so they are stated only where published.
| Dimension | Staff augmentation | Ordering from Ship in Hours |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | People with a skill profile, for a period. | A defined scope delivered as tested, documented code packages. |
| Price | Daily or hourly rate times duration; open-ended. | One fixed price per confirmed scope, known before work starts. |
| Onboarding | Access, tooling, codebase walkthrough, team rituals, per person. | None. You confirm a written scope; the system works in its own isolated environment and never connects to your systems. |
| Management | Your leads direct the augmented staff daily. | All communication in writing; you read the daily report and accept against the criteria. |
| Architecture | Yours; the augmented staff implement it. | Designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ and agreed with you in writing before any code is built. |
| Quality control | Your review process, under your deadline pressure. | Test suite plus an independent review agent before every merge; every outgoing change scanned. |
| Working hours | Contracted hours; time zones and holidays apply. | Continuous 24/7 cycles with automatic continuation and a self-healing watchdog. |
| Scaling | Add people; coordination cost grows with each one. | Add scopes; each is specified and priced separately. |
| When it ends | Notice periods; knowledge leaves with the people. | Code, tests, documentation and IP have been delivered to you. |
Where each route fits
When each option is the better choice.
Most large organisations end up using both. The question is which parts of the plan go where.
You need people embedded in your organisation
- Roles that require presence in meetings, on-call duty or customer contact
- Work that cannot be specified in advance and is steered daily
- Filling a specific seat in an existing team for a period
- Regulatory settings that require named individuals on site
You need a part of the plan delivered
- Modules, subsystems or migrations that can be specified and tested independently
- A fixed budget per scope rather than a monthly run rate
- No management bandwidth for more people
- A deadline that a staffing pipeline cannot meet
The process
What switching to a fixed-price build looks like.
There is nothing to onboard and nobody to interview. The sequence is identical for every project and every country.
Describe the project
Send the project description, technology, approximate scope and deadline through the form. You receive a written scope description for a trial build.
Trial build, 72 hours
After your written confirmation, a real piece of your plan is delivered within 72 hours as tested, documented code with full IP. Fixed price 9,900 euros.
Fixed quote for the full scope
You judge the result on the preview link and in the delivered package. If you continue, you receive one fixed price for the whole scope; the trial price is deducted in full.
Continuous delivery
The system builds, tests, reviews and documents in 24/7 cycles until the scope is complete. Scope changes are agreed in writing before they are built.
Trust & delivery standards
Your systems stay untouched. Your product arrives tested.
All development happens in AIPOS OÜ's own secure environment. We never connect to your code hosting, servers, cloud accounts or development environment, so no outside party enters your systems and your supplier and security risk stays small. You receive tested code as a clean package, not half-finished changes in your main branch, and you follow progress every day without watching any technical tools.
How the code is built and handed over
- Tests and independent review. Every change passes the automated test suite and an independent review agent before it is merged.
- Documentation, tests, history. You receive the documentation, the tests and the complete git history of your product's code.
- No dependency on our tools. Code and intellectual property transfer to you without any dependency on AIPOS OÜ's tooling: the product builds, tests and runs from the delivered package with publicly available tools.
- 30 days of free fixes. Defects found within 30 days of hand-over are fixed free of charge, within the written scope description.
How you verify the work without seeing our environment
- Specification first. A written specification with measurable acceptance criteria, prepared by AIPOS OÜ and confirmed by you before development starts.
- A written report every day. By e-mail: what was done, which tests passed, where the work stands against the criteria, the next step, and whether anything needs your answer.
- Preview at every milestone. A password-protected preview link where you try your product working, at every milestone.
- Code you can audit. At every milestone, a test report and the product's code at that point as a file package: run it yourself or have an independent developer audit it. The complete code follows final payment.
- Written acceptance. You accept in writing against the agreed criteria. 50% is paid on scope confirmation and 50% only after acceptance; then 30 days of free defect fixing within the written scope. All communication is by e-mail.
Company details, security, warranty, payment and VAT terms in one place: Trust & delivery standards. The binding wording is in the terms of service.
Prices
Two steps, both at a fixed price.
You see the price before any work starts. There is no hourly billing and no staff rental. The trial build is a real piece of your plan, and its price comes off the main project in full.
A real part of your development plan, delivered within 72 hours of your written scope confirmation as a preview link, a test report and a code package. Full intellectual property to you. 50% on sign-off, 50% after written acceptance; 30 days of free defect fixing. Deducted in full from the main project.
The first three clients receive the trial build for 4,900 euros in exchange for a public reference once the work is delivered.
The whole scope at one fixed price, delivered in days and weeks. Every change is tested and committed. Every project is built on a software architecture and technical specification designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ — reviewed and agreed with you in writing before development begins.
Questions
Questions from engineering leaders who use augmentation today.
Is Ship in Hours staff augmentation under another name?
No. Staff augmentation adds people to your team, billed by time, and you manage them. We deliver a defined scope at a fixed price, in writing, with the architecture and specification designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ and agreed with you in writing. There is nobody to onboard and nobody to manage.
Can a delivery stream run next to our augmented team?
Yes. Scopes are separated in writing so streams do not collide. You receive tested packages at every milestone and your team, including augmented staff, reviews and integrates them through the normal process.
How do we keep architectural control?
The architecture and specification for each scope are designed in-house by AIPOS OÜ and shared with you in writing before any code is built. You review and confirm them. Your own architects keep ownership of the overall system.
What about knowledge transfer when the scope ends?
The deliverable includes documentation, tests and the full git history, so the knowledge is in the delivered package rather than in a departing contractor's head.
How is capacity measured if not in people?
In delivered scope. Twenty-four hours of the system's work equals four to eight weeks of a small software company, measured on AIPOS OÜ's own production systems; the trial build measures it on your own project within 72 hours. We do not publish other throughput figures.
Why is there no named competitor on this page?
Staff augmentation is a model offered by many providers with similar terms. Comparing the model is fairer and more useful than singling out one company.
Read before you decide
Guides for this decision
Alternatives to hiring developers for a large project
Six ways to add capacity compared on speed to start, cost structure, management load, quality, ownership and what is left when the project ends.
Read the guideHow to keep shipping after developer layoffs
Triage the roadmap, protect the remaining team, decide which work to buy as fixed-price scopes, and avoid paying twice for the same capacity.
Read the guideCode ownership and IP when outsourcing development
Assignment versus licence, possession of the code at every milestone, third-party components, vendor platform lock-in, and the questions to ask before signing.
Read the guideHand over the scope your augmented team cannot reach.
Describe the subsystem in the form. You receive a written scope description for a trial build, delivered within 72 hours of confirmation at a fixed price.