Stacklane vs Hiring in-house: the 12-month math.
Building an in-house engineering team is the right answer for a lot of companies. It's also slow, expensive, and risky in the first 12 months. Here's the honest comparison across cost, time, and outcome.
TL;DR
Stacklane
Flat €6,000/month. AI-native, production-grade engineering shipping from day 5. Pause with 7 days notice. No recruiter fees, no notice period, no onboarding tax.
Hiring in-house
Senior engineer: €120k to €180k fully loaded per year. 4 to 6 months to hire, 2 to 3 months to ramp. Permanent capacity.
How Stacklane compares to Hiring in-house, line by line.
| Dimension | Stacklane | Hiring in-house |
|---|---|---|
| 12-month cost | €72,000 flat (one subscription, all-in). | €120,000 to €180,000 per senior engineer (salary + 30 to 50% loaded). |
| Recruiter fees | None. | €15,000 to €30,000 per hire (20 to 25% of first-year salary). |
| Time to first commit | 5 business days from contract. | 4 to 6 months: recruit (3 to 4) + onboard + ramp (2 to 3). |
| Notice period | 7 days. Pause or cancel anytime. | 1 to 3 months (Dutch employment law). Plus severance risk. |
| Capacity flex | Scale month-to-month. Pause when work slows. | Hire and fire is slow, expensive, and culturally costly. |
| Coverage | Engineering + design + brand + motion in one subscription. | One discipline per hire. Building each discipline takes years. |
| Senior depth | 8 to 10+ years per engineer, every engagement. | Variable. The senior market in NL is tight, most teams skew mid-level. |
| Long-term equity | None. You don't own the team. | Yes. Builds your permanent engineering org and IP velocity. |
| Best for | Shipping the next 12 months, scaling capacity flexibly. | Building a permanent engineering org for the next 5+ years. |
Three places Hiring in-house is the better pick.
Where in-house hiring is the right answer. The cost math flips at long horizons and when you need permanent leadership.
- 01
You need permanent engineering leadership
A CTO, VP Engineering, principal IC, or staff engineer who owns the architecture for 3+ years. Stacklane doesn't replace permanent leadership. We work alongside it.
- 02
The engineering team IS the moat
Your product depends on deep, accumulated, proprietary engineering knowledge that compounds over 5+ years. The cost math flips at long horizons. Permanent equity wins.
- 03
You're scaling past 3 to 4 engineers
Managing one in-house team is operationally simpler than juggling multiple subscriptions. At small-team scale, Stacklane wins on speed and cost. At full-team scale, in-house wins on operational simplicity.
What we ship in the first 12 months.
Run the numbers
Plug in your salary range. See the 12-month difference.
Compare Stacklane against the rest of the shortlist.
Want the cost analysis for your shape?
30 minutes with the founder. We compare your real situation honestly. If hiring is the better answer, we'll say so.
Book a Free Call