At this burn rate, I’ll likely be spending $8,000 month,” he added. “And you know what? I’m not even mad about it. I’m locked in.”
For that price, why not just hire a developer full-time? For nearly $100k/year, you could find a very good intermediate or even senior developer (depending on region).
There’s a lot of other expenses with an employee (like payroll taxes, benefits, retirement plans, health plan if they’re in the USA, etc), but you could find a self-employed freelancer for example.
Or just get an employee anyways because you’ll still likely have a positive ROI. A good developer will take your abstract list of vague requirements and produce something useful and maintainable.
Most of those expenses are mitigated by the fact that companies buy them in bulk on huge plans.
There’s no bulk rate on payroll taxes or retirement benefits (pensions or employer 401k match). There can be some discounts on health insurance, but is not very much and those are at orders of magnitude. So company with 500 employees will pay the same rates as 900. You get partial discounts if you have something like 10,000 employees.
If you’re earning $100k gross as an employee, your employer is spending $125k to $140k for their total costs (your $100k gross pay is included in that number).
For that price, why not just hire a developer full-time? For nearly $100k/year, you could find a very good intermediate or even senior developer (depending on region).
Corporations: “Employees are too expensive!”
Also, corporations: “$100k/yr for a bot? Sure.”
Bots don’t need healthcare
There’s a lot of other expenses with an employee (like payroll taxes, benefits, retirement plans, health plan if they’re in the USA, etc), but you could find a self-employed freelancer for example.
Or just get an employee anyways because you’ll still likely have a positive ROI. A good developer will take your abstract list of vague requirements and produce something useful and maintainable.
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There’s no bulk rate on payroll taxes or retirement benefits (pensions or employer 401k match). There can be some discounts on health insurance, but is not very much and those are at orders of magnitude. So company with 500 employees will pay the same rates as 900. You get partial discounts if you have something like 10,000 employees.
If you’re earning $100k gross as an employee, your employer is spending $125k to $140k for their total costs (your $100k gross pay is included in that number).
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the employee also gets to eat and have a place to live
which is nice
These comparisons assume equal capability, which I find troubling.
Like, a person who doesn’t understand singing nor are able to learn it can not perform adequately in a musical. It doesn’t matter if they are cheaper.
They could hire on a contractor and eschew all those costs.
I’ve done contract work before, this seems a good fit (defined problem plus budget, unknown timeline, clear requirements)
That’s what I meant by hiring a self-employed freelancer. I don’t know a lot about contracting so maybe I used the wrong phrase.