WHAT YOU'RE COMPARING — HONESTLYA production
A production
studio against an agency, freelance and hiring.
A CTO is weighing us, a premium agency, freelance and hiring in-house all at once. Below are 21 criteria in one table. Nothing dressed up in our favour.
01 · FOUR ARCHETYPES
Who we're comparing.
Studio-vs-studio is too narrow: a CTO has four different options on the table.
[US]
inreallab
A production studio. Four products of our own. Zero critical findings.
A compact team plus contractors at peak. One stack. One process. Russian jurisdiction.
examples: 4 products of our own · open audit
[AGENCY]
Premium agency
Large production agencies from the top of the rankings.
50–500 people. Account managers, designers and developers kept separate. Client case studies.
examples: tenders, above-the-line campaigns, 50+ people on a project
[INDIE]
Indie / freelance
A single developer or a small team from a marketplace or a chat.
1–3 people. Often no registered company. A contract agreed verbally or in a chat.
examples: freelance boards, gig marketplaces, Telegram
[INHOUSE]
In-house hire
Hire a CTO and 3–5 developers. Build the product yourself.
Four people on staff and up. 4–6 months of hiring. Payroll, taxes, servers, churn.
examples: When the product is the core business
02 · THE MATRIX
Twenty-one criteria.
The inreallab column is highlighted — but there are no ✓✓✓ against ×××. Everywhere you get specific numbers, timelines and wording.
| CRITERION | inreallab | PREMIUM AGENCY | INDIE / FREELANCE | IN-HOUSE HIRE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 //TIME | ||||
| First meeting → signature | 1–3 days · the audit can start next week | 2–4 weeks · discovery, RFP, legal | hours · a contract in a chat | 4–6 months · hiring a CTO and a team |
| Time to MVP | 6–8 weeks | 3–6 months | unpredictable · 1–12 months | 6 months+ (hiring) plus the build |
| Changing course mid-flight | No re-selling. A new scope agreed in a chat within a day. | A new scope document. +15–25% of budget. | Yes, but quality drops. | Internally — but slowly (priorities) |
| Reply to a message in chat | Within 2 hours in working time · a project Telegram channel | 1–2 business days · through the account manager | Depends on the developer | Minutes — but only in working hours |
| 02 //MONEY | ||||
| Entry point | from $3,700 · a 2-day audit | Discovery from $6,300 · credited back | A test task · $65–$650 | — |
| MVP price | from $19,000 | $62,500–$375,000 | $3,800–$12,500 | $37,500–$75,000 (including 6 months of payroll) |
| Development hour | $75/hr · senior | $100–$190/hr · mixed seniority | $20–$65/hr · varies | ≈$60/hr (payroll ÷ hours) |
| Monthly retainer | from $6,000 / 80 hrs · fixed | from $10,000 · usually with VAT complications | Negotiated every time | Payroll + taxes · ≈$7,500 per senior |
| Hidden costs | None | Account manager, PM, legal, change requests | Management, risk of collapse, rework | HR, recruiters, a team lead, servers, relocation |
| 03 //CODE | ||||
| Production-grade from commit one | Yes · the stack standard is proven on 4 products | Yes · but projects are delivered “in stages” | Depends on the individual | Yes, if there's a senior |
| Stack | Next.js 16 + React 19 + Supabase + Tailwind v4 · one standard | Per client · differs by project | Whatever the person knows | Whatever you hired |
| Repository ownership | Yours · from day one | Handed over at finalisation | Yours | Yours |
| Technical debt after 6 months | Low · same stack, same approach | Medium-high · a different team fixes it | Unpredictable · often a rewrite | Grows with staff churn |
| Documentation | Markdown in the repo · architecture.md is mandatory | Depends on the project · often .docx | Rarely | If someone writes it |
| 04 //TRUST | ||||
| Case studies you can check yourself | 4 products of our own · open to sign up | Client case studies · often under NDA | A portfolio · screenshots | Internal · can't be shown |
| Open security audit | Yes · 4 OWASP rounds · 0/0/0/0 critical | Closed · ISO certificates on paper | No | Depends on the culture |
| Russian jurisdiction | Registered in Russia · data law baked in · no VPN | Varies · some projects GDPR-first | Varies · often no registered company | By default |
| The person you talk to writes the code | Yes · the founder is an engineer | No · account manager ↔ developer via a PM | Yes | Depends |
| 05 //AFTER LAUNCH | ||||
| Support | 60 days included · a retainer after that | An SLA contract · a separate budget | Negotiated · they often disappear | In-house · 24/7 if it's set up |
| Security updates | Automatic · our servers watch for CVEs | Manual · on the client's request | You have to remember and ask | In-house · if there's a DevOps engineer |
| New features | 1–2 weeks for a mid-size epic · the same stack | A new scope, 2–3 months | Unpredictable | The team already exists · priorities |
| Bus factor | At least 2 people know every product | High — a large team | 1 (a risk) | Grows over time |
→ The figures are real. The agency hourly rate is taken from tenderkit.ru for May 2026. In-house payroll is from hh.ru, senior backend, Moscow. If yours differ — send them and we'll add the cut.
03 · WHEN WE'RE NOT THE BEST CHOICE
When to choose someone else.
Four scenarios where we'll be the first to recommend a different contractor. Better to turn down a contract than to take on an expectation we won't meet.
→ Premium agency
When you need 50+ people on the team and a big name for the board.
examples: A state corporation. Banking enterprise. A brand with a mandatory above-the-line campaign.
→ Indie / freelance
When the job is one page on a site builder and the budget is under $1,300.
examples: A landing page for an event. A weekend MVP sketch. A design refresh.
→ In-house hire
When the product is the core business and you need 5+ engineers on staff for years.
examples: Fintech with its own payment processing. A game studio. A marketplace doing hundreds of SKUs a day.
→ Any contractor
When the regulator demands “a 100 m² office and 30 people on staff”.
examples: A tender with physical requirements. State secrets. Product certification by the state regulator.
04 · WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE
A concrete example.
The same request — four different answers.
compare 'B2B MVP in 8 weeks, budget $25,000'─── inreallab ─────────── 6–8 weeks · $22,500 · senior · fixed─── Premium agency ───── discovery 4 wks + 12 wks build · $75,000+─── Indie/freelance ──── 4–14 weeks · $7,500–$17,500 · quality ?─── In-house hire ────── 4 mo hiring + 3 mo build · $44,000→ for this budget and deadline, the studio is the only option that adds up