You need a senior developer on hourly or part-time terms, without a full-time salary, agency retainer, or 40-hour minimum.
If this is not quite your situation, start with the path that matches what you need next.
Browse the separate developer directory when you already know the stack or specialty you need.
Set a realistic hourly budget before choosing between ad-hoc work and a weekly arrangement.
Start with the problem path when the immediate need is a broken system, not ongoing capacity.
Most growing companies do not need 40 hours of new development every single week. Yet the traditional hiring market forces binary choices: hire a full-time employee with $120,000+ in annual salary and benefits, or sign a locked-in agency contract with $10,000+ retainers.
Working directly with verified independent engineers provides two realistic alternatives that fit actual business rhythms.
The main fear with hourly hiring is runaway invoices. On ProofDevs, hourly engagements operate under strict, pre-approved weekly hour caps (for example, max 15 hours per week without prior written authorization).
Every hour billed corresponds to visible commits and pull requests in your repository, so you never pay for opaque agency overhead.
When you hire an agency, up to 60% of your billable rate subsidizes non-technical overhead: account managers, sales commissions, and bench time. With an independent senior developer ($45–$95/hr), 100% of your spend goes directly to the engineer writing your code.
Start with a one-off hourly task when the scope is narrow, a capped weekly arrangement when the backlog is ongoing, and a larger project plan only when the milestones are clear enough to estimate.
This keeps the working terms aligned with the problem. A production incident belongs in Fix, an abandoned codebase in Rescue, and an uncertain quote in Review.
Yes. There are no minimum contract lengths or minimum hour commitments. You can hire for a 5-hour task, a 20-hour milestone, or an ongoing part-time engagement.
You and the developer agree on a maximum number of hours per week (e.g. 15 hours). The engineer cannot exceed this cap without your prior written approval.
Yes. Engagements can be paused or concluded at the end of any sprint with zero termination penalties or notice lock-ins.
