Alternatives
Five ways to get one AI workflow shipped, compared.
A vendor's deployment team, a consultancy, a talent marketplace, a full-time hire, or a ten-day Sprint. What each costs as published, how fast it ships, and who owns the work afterwards.
The comparison
| Approach | Who it fits | Cost, as published | Time to a first shipped workflow | Who owns it after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor deployment teams | Companies building on one vendor's models or cloud. OpenAI and Microsoft sell these as enterprise engagements; the Anthropic-backed services firm sells to mid-sized companies. | Not published by OpenAI, AWS, Microsoft or the Anthropic-backed firm. | Not published. OpenAI starts with a diagnostic, then a few priority workflows. Orq.ai, a platform vendor, states one agent in production in four weeks. | Built on the vendor's models, cloud or platform. AWS builds in your AWS account. |
| AI consultancies and services firms | Teams that want an outside team embedded for one to several months. Some aim higher up the market: Phos AI Labs at US companies with $5M+ revenue. | Brilliantech: pilots from $8,000, then $15,000 to $40,000 a month. Phos AI Labs: an audit from $10,000, then from $15,000 a month. Uvik: engagements from $25,000. 13 of the 18 consultancies in the dataset, not counting ours, publish no price. | Dinacode: a two-week audit, then a first agent in production in 4 to 8 weeks. Beetroot: a 1 to 2 week assessment, then a 1 to 3 month embed. | Set by each contract. Beetroot, for one, ends its embed with a handoff. |
| Talent marketplaces and freelancers | Teams with an engineering lead who has time to scope the work and direct an extra engineer. | A.Team: about $25,000 a month for a senior builder, fully loaded. Second Talent: from $29 an hour. | Not published for a shipped workflow. A shortlist arrives in 24 hours (Second Talent) to 3 to 5 business days (A.Team). | You. You direct the engineer and own the work. |
| Hiring a forward deployed engineer | Companies with a steady pipeline of AI work to justify a full-time salary. | A median posted base salary of $216,104 a year in US postings (the midpoint of each range), before equity. | Not in the dataset, which doesn't measure time to hire. | You. |
| The FDE Sprint, by Eupraxic | Founder-led B2B SaaS companies of 5 to 50 people with one workflow in mind. | $5,000 fixed for one workflow through the November 17 kickoff, then $7,500. Half on signing, half on Day 10. | Ten business days. A prototype on your data by Day 5, or a full refund. | Your team: a pull request your engineers review and merge, with no retainer to keep it running. |
Prices and terms are as each provider published them, checked on 14 October 2026, from a dataset of 34 FDE providers. The salary comes from 382 forward deployed engineer job postings collected on 12 October 2026. "Not published" means the provider lists no price. Both datasets are kept by our founder, and Eupraxic is one of the providers in the first.
How to choose
- You already build on one vendor's models or cloud
- Ask that vendor's deployment team first. Expect an enterprise engagement and no published price.
- You want a team embedded for months
- A consultancy. Before you sign, ask for the price, the handoff terms and who owns the code.
- You have an engineering lead with time to direct someone
- A talent marketplace. You get a person within days; scoping and review stay with your team.
- You have years of AI work ahead
- Hire, and budget for the salary above plus the time it takes to recruit.
- You have one workflow and want it shipped in ten business days
- The FDE Sprint: one workflow, a fixed price, and a full refund if there is no prototype on your data by Day 5.
When the Sprint is the wrong choice
- You want to "add AI" without a user and a trigger.
- You need a full AI transformation.
- Your data is not accessible yet.
- Nobody on your side can review during the ten days.
- You need guaranteed production deployment regardless of your infrastructure.
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