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The Toptal Alternative
For US Product Teams
A Remote Dedicated Developer
A remote mid-to-senior developer who works only on your product, 160 to 172 hours a month, on one flat monthly fee instead of a premium hourly rate. Two hours of live overlap with your Eastern morning, a written handover before your day starts, W-8BEN-E provided, and a 7-day risk-free trial.
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Empiric Infotech vs Toptal
Toptal lists premium US contractors at $60 to $150 per hour. At 160 hours a month that is $9,600 to $24,000 for one person, and a year of product work adds up to $115K to $290K. Empiric Infotech is the Toptal alternative for US SaaS companies and agencies that want the same full-time capacity on a monthly invoice: one mid-to-senior developer, or a small dedicated team, working only on your product in your GitHub and your cloud account. The trade-off is where the developer sits. Toptal lists onshore contractors who share your hours. Our developers work from India, with 2 hours of live overlap from 8:00 to 10:00 AM ET (1 hour November to March) and a project manager until 1:30 PM ET, and we have a US office in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. For a short, specialised sprint that needs someone on US hours all day, Toptal fits. For a 6 to 18 month roadmap, the numbers favor a dedicated developer. You pay one invoice a month in USD by ACH, wire or card, the W-8BEN-E is provided, the NDA and IP assignment are signed before work starts, and you can stop with seven days' notice.
Empiric Infotech vs Toptal vs a US in-house hire
| Empiric Infotech (dedicated, monthly) | Toptal / Arc.dev premium | Upwork hourly | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost for 160 hours | One flat monthly fee per developer | $9,600 - $24,000 ($60 - $150 / hr) | Variable hourly | Median US software developer pay of $135,980 a year (BLS, May 2025), plus benefits and payroll tax |
| How you are billed | One USD invoice a month by ACH, wire or card | Hourly, at a premium rate | Hourly contract or milestone escrow | Payroll |
| US tax paperwork | W-8BEN-E provided | 1099/W-9 (US contractors) | Per contractor | W-2 employee (full payroll tax) |
| Hours with your team | 2 hours live, 8:00 to 10:00 AM ET (1 hour November to March); PM until 1:30 PM ET | Onshore contractors on US hours | Variable | Your hours |
| Capacity | 160 to 172 hours a month, exclusive to you | Capped by hourly cap | Capped by the hours you fund | 160 hours, minus PTO and US holidays |
| Commitment | Monthly; seven days' notice to stop | Premium hourly rate | Project / hourly | Permanent, plus severance |
| Trial | 7-day risk-free trial, full refund | 2-week trial period | Milestone partial | 90-day probation |
| Time to start | 48 hours | 1-2 weeks | 1-30 days | 3 to 5 months to hire |
| If the fit is wrong | Free replacement | Manual rematch | Re-post job | Re-recruit and re-onboard |
US time zone overlap for your developer
Our team works 09:30 AM - 07:30 PM IST and a project manager is on call 07:30 AM - 11:00 PM IST, Monday to Friday. Here is exactly when that lands for clients in the US, Europe and Australia, your region first.
US Eastern (New York, Boston, Atlanta) - full team online 12:00 AM - 10:00 AM, project manager 10:00 PM - 1:30 PM (next day).Live cover across the edges of your day, your morning and your evening, with a project manager who replies the same business day.
US Pacific (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle) - full team online 9:00 PM - 7:00 AM (next day), project manager 7:00 PM - 10:30 AM (next day).We are online through your evening and overnight, and your project manager sets live calls in your morning so you are never blocked.
UK & Ireland (London, Dublin) - full team online 5:00 AM - 3:00 PM, project manager 3:00 AM - 6:30 PM.
Central Europe (Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid) - full team online 6:00 AM - 4:00 PM, project manager 4:00 AM - 7:30 PM.
Australia East (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) - full team online 3:00 PM - 1:00 AM (next day), project manager 1:00 PM - 4:30 AM (next day).
Want it to the half-hour in your own time? Slide through your day and book a slot below.
When a US team should choose a dedicated developer over Toptal
Toptal's model works well for a short, specialised piece of work: a contractor on US hours, found fast, for a few weeks of focused effort. The cost grows with the hours. A full-time month at $60 to $150 per hour is $9,600 to $24,000, so a contractor who stays for a year of releases costs $115K to $290K, and the meter runs through every meeting and code review.
Hiring in-house solves continuity but not the cost or the wait. A US software developer's median pay is $135,980 a year (BLS, May 2025) before benefits and payroll tax, and the search takes three to five months while you compete with funded startups for the same engineers.
A dedicated developer from Empiric Infotech sits between the two. One mid-to-senior engineer works only on your product, joins the standup in your Eastern morning, works your backlog for the rest of the day and leaves a written handover before you start. Central teams overlap an hour from 8:00 AM CT outside November to March, and West Coast teams run the standup with the project manager and work from the handover.
The paperwork is the same as for any vendor: one invoice a month in USD by ACH, wire or card, a W-8BEN-E for your accounts team, and an NDA and IP assignment signed before work starts, so the code, the repository and the cloud account are yours from day one. There is no annual contract, and stopping takes seven days' notice.
Our US work includes Roamate, a travel companion app built by a single dedicated developer and rated 4.6/5 in the app stores, EndoDNA, a HIPAA-compliant clinic platform built by a single dedicated developer, and Superintelligence, an AI assistant built by a two-developer team. Most US engagements run 6 to 18 months with one or two developers.
See how the in-house figure is calculated in our Software Development Cost Benchmark 2026.
Real client engagements, including US product teams
Superintelligence (United States, AI assistant)
An AI-driven personal digital assistant that writes human-like text for school, business, health and social use. Built by a two-developer team across the AI layer, the back end and the front end.
Read case studyRoamate (United States, travel)
Personality-based matching, real-time messaging and a community feed for travelers. Built by a single dedicated developer; live on the App Store and Google Play with a 4.6/5 rating.
Read case studyEndoDNA (United States, healthcare SaaS)
A HIPAA-compliant, multi-tenant platform that brings lab results, genetic data and an AI health assistant together for clinics, with Stripe subscription billing. Built by a single dedicated developer.
Read case study“Great developers - very dedicated and solid technical skills. Good in timely communication and managing the project progress. Would definitely work him again.”
- Makarand Bhatamrekar, USA
Compare a Toptal quote with a dedicated developer
Tell us the role, the stack and the hours you have been quoted. Within 24 hours we send a short written scope and introduce one developer who fits; you meet them in your morning, and they can start within 48 hours on a 7-day risk-free trial. One USD invoice a month, by ACH, wire or card.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A dedicated developer billed monthly. For product work that runs 6 to 18 months, one mid-to-senior engineer who works only on your product gives you the same full-time hours as a Toptal engagement on a single monthly fee. Empiric Infotech adds a 7-day risk-free trial, a free replacement guarantee and a live overlap with your Eastern morning.
Toptal lists premium contractors at $60 to $150 per hour, which is $9,600 to $24,000 for 160 hours a month and $115K to $290K over a year. Empiric Infotech charges one flat monthly fee per developer for 160 to 172 hours of full-time work, a fraction of that figure; the current rate is shown above.
For a roadmap longer than a few months, a dedicated developer. Toptal suits a short, specialised sprint with an onshore contractor at a premium hourly rate, and Upwork suits one-off tasks billed hourly or by milestone. A dedicated developer suits product work that needs the same engineer every week for 6 to 18 months, on one monthly invoice.
Two hours of live overlap with the US East Coast, 8:00 to 10:00 AM ET (1 hour November to March), and the project manager is available until 1:30 PM ET. Your developer joins the morning standup, works the rest of the day on your backlog, and leaves a written handover that is waiting when your team starts.
One invoice a month in USD, paid by ACH, wire or card. The W-8BEN-E is provided on day one for your accounts team, and the engagement is a vendor contract, so there is no payroll to run.
Meet the developer in a working session before anything starts, then use the first 7 days as a risk-free trial with a full refund if the fit is wrong; Toptal's equivalent is a 2-week trial period. After that, a senior team lead reviews and tests every release, and a replacement developer is free if you ever need one.
You do, fully. The NDA and IP assignment are signed before work starts, and your developer commits to your GitHub organization and deploys to your cloud account, so the code and the accounts stay yours.
Yes. You are billed monthly upfront, a second developer can start within 48 hours when the roadmap needs one, and you can stop with seven days' notice. There is no annual contract and no minimum term.
Yes. US engagements include Roamate, a travel app built by a single dedicated developer, EndoDNA, a HIPAA-compliant clinic platform built by a single dedicated developer, and Superintelligence and Velvet Passport, each built by a two-developer team. Most run 6 to 18 months.
