Embedded engineers vs freelancers
A freelancer suits small, bounded work you can specify, such as a short specialist task or testing an idea. Miyagami engineers suit work that's ongoing, needs to be reviewed and owned, and can't stop when one person leaves.
How the two compare on what matters
The table covers the eight criteria buyers ask about most, from time to start to compliance.
| Miyagami engineers | Freelancers | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Five working days to a shortlist, three weeks to first commit | Days to weeks |
| All-in cost | €5,600 to €8,000 a month per engineer, no recruitment fee | Day rate, varies widely |
| Who vets the engineers | Two live assessments, AI off and on, scorecards shared | You, from a profile and a call |
| Who manages the work | Your lead, in your sprints | You |
| When it goes wrong | Replaced at our cost | Find someone else |
| Commitment | Three-month minimum | None |
| Compliance and IP | Employed by us, ISO 27001, IP yours on payment | Contractor status risk (DBA, IR35) |
| Best for | Senior capacity in your team for months or years | Short, well-defined tasks |
When freelancers fit better
Where freelancers do better
No minimum
A freelancer can take a few days of work with no commitment, which suits a quick experiment.
Rare specialists
For a narrow skill needed for a week, a specialist freelancer is often the fastest route.
Where embedded engineers do better
Continuity
Engineers are full-time on your work, and if one isn't the right fit we replace them at our cost.
Compliance
Our engineers are employees, so there's no false self-employment risk under the Dutch DBA law or IR35.
Questions about this comparison
You can read how we vet engineers, then compare the cost against a local hire.
How we vetWhen should I choose freelancers over embedded engineers?
A freelancer suits small, bounded work you can specify, such as a short specialist task or testing an idea. Miyagami engineers suit work that's ongoing, needs to be reviewed and owned, and can't stop when one person leaves.
How fast can embedded engineers start compared with freelancers?
You get a shortlist within five working days of your brief, and a first commit three weeks after that. Freelancers: days to weeks.
Who vets Miyagami engineers?
Miyagami engineers run two sixty-minute assessments in a real codebase, the first with AI tools off and the second with the candidate's own agents on, and you see both scorecards.
Embedded engineers vs
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A freelance platform suits short, self-contained work where you want to browse many profiles quickly.
CompareGet a shortlist within five working days
You share the roles and the stack in a short form or a thirty-minute call. Within five working days you get named senior engineers to review, each with both scorecards.
ISO 27001Certified