Index.dev
Every placement comes with a 30-day trial and a full refund
What is Index.dev?
Index.dev, legally Index Soft Limited, is a London talent platform that its job ads date to 2019. Its buying terms are the clearest of any network here: every placement carries a 30-day trial with a full refund if the match fails. You can contract one engineer, build a dedicated offshore team or hire someone directly. The main pool of more than 30,000 engineers sits in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, and a separate AI unit supplies Master's and PhD-level people for fine-tuning and retrieval work. Vetting runs through five stages with human reviewers.
Index.dev works primarily with clients in SaaS, Fintech, E-commerce, AI labs, Healthcare sectors. Its primary differentiator is: A refundable 30-day trial on every placement, plus direct hire.
Index.dev tech stack and services
| Service area |
|---|
| LLM Engineers |
| RAG & GenAI |
| ML Engineers |
| Trial Period |
| Direct Hire Option |
| Nearshore LatAm |
| Eastern Europe Talent |
Index.dev pricing
Short answer: Index.dev uses a monthly rate per engineer; direct-hire fee; 30-day refundable trial; rates on request pricing approach. Minimum engagement is not publicly disclosed; a discovery call is required.
| Engagement model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time dedicated | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Dedicated team | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Direct hire | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Trial period | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
Index.dev pros and cons
| Advantages | Things to consider |
|---|---|
| +A full refund in the first 30 days lowers the cost of a bad match | -Engineers are network members, not employees |
| +Contract and direct-hire routes from one provider | -Acceptance-rate figures are the company's own |
| +Talent in both U.S.-friendly and European time zones | -No published monthly rates |
Index.dev vs alternatives
How Index.dev compares to the other top AI Staff Augmentation providers.
| Company | Best for | Key difference | Rating | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tensorway | Starting small, testing fast and adjusting headcount every... | Full-time, part-time and two-week trial options from the same AI-only provider | 4.8 | Full comparison |
| Toptal | A few hours a week of senior AI... | Hourly or weekly booking of screened freelancers with a no-risk trial | 4.4 | Full comparison |
| deepsense.ai | Long monthly contracts with employed senior ML engineers. | Monthly access to about 120 employed AI specialists with production experience | 4.4 | Full comparison |
| Uvik Software | Knowing the rate band before the first sales... | A public rate band and squads that scale on 14 days' notice | 4.3 | Full comparison |
| Azumo | U.S. buyers who need the lowest published rate... | A $25–$49 Clutch band with engineers working U.S. hours | 4.3 | Full comparison |
| Quantiphi | Procurement teams that want a defined staffing product... | Elastic Staffing, a packaged staffing program built with AWS | 4.2 | Full comparison |
| Vstorm | Agent engineering bought at a known rate and... | Published rate and minimum for specialist agent engineers | 4.2 | Full comparison |
| Go Fractional | Startups that need a senior AI engineer for... | A marketplace built only around part-time professionals | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| Globant | Enterprises that want to buy AI delivery as... | Token-metered AI Pods subscription alongside conventional staffing | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| Neurons Lab | Financial firms that want flexible, short engagements with... | Network model that makes short and part-time engagements easy | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| Pento | U.S. teams that want a nearshore ML engineer... | Published mid-range rate with close U.S. Eastern overlap | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| InData Labs | A small dedicated computer vision or NLP team... | Dedicated AI teams with ten years of computer vision and NLP work | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Revelo | U.S. companies that want a Latin American AI... | No upfront fees, no long-term contract and published salary benchmarks | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Turing | Several remote AI engineers matched quickly. | Automated matching across a very large developer pool | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Tribe AI | Senior ML practitioners bought by the project. | Project and part-time access to senior practitioners | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Andela | Companies buying long-term remote engineers at lower cost,... | Monthly marketplace or managed-team buying with assessments from its Woven acquisition | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Folio3 | MLOps or vision work with a two-week trial... | Start within 48 hours plus a two-week trial | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| BairesDev | U.S. buyers who want AI and software engineers... | One contract for mixed AI and software teams in U.S. time zones | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Algoscale | Cost-focused buyers who need Python data and AI... | Onboarding within 48 hours at offshore rates | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| N-iX | Enterprises that want to move between augmentation and... | Three clearly separated engagement models with a large bench | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Svitla Systems | Coverage in both Americas and European hours under... | Two delivery regions under one staffing contract | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Data Science UA | Companies that want to choose between a recruiting... | Recruiting fee or monthly outstaffing from an AI-only recruiter | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| SciForce | Healthcare data teams buying a monthly NLP or... | Medical data science with a multi-year staffing reference | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| Brainpool AI | Academic ML depth for one defined project. | Project access to experts from leading UK universities | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| micro1 | Many contract contributors, with a short test before... | High-volume AI interviews and a one-week test | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| KORE1 | U.S. companies that want to convert a contract... | Contract-to-hire terms for AI roles in the U.S. | 3.6 | Full comparison |
| Mercor | AI labs buying short-term expert work in volume. | Volume contractor hiring with a percentage platform fee | 3.6 | Full comparison |
Index.dev FAQ
What is Index.dev?
Every placement comes with a 30-day trial and a full refund
How much does Index.dev charge?
Index.dev uses monthly rate per engineer; direct-hire fee; 30-day refundable trial; rates on request pricing. Minimum engagement is not publicly disclosed. A discovery call is required to get project-specific quotes.
What tech stack does Index.dev use?
Index.dev works with Python, PyTorch, LangChain, Hugging Face, OpenAI, AWS, Google Cloud. Primary industries served include SaaS, Fintech, E-commerce, AI labs, Healthcare.
Is Index.dev right for enterprise?
Startups that want their money back if the first month doesn't work. 30,000+ network team size. Key consideration: Engineers are network members, not employees.
What are the best Index.dev alternatives?
The best alternatives to Index.dev depend on your use case. Top options are:
- Tensorway: full-time, part-time and two-week trial options from the same ai-only provider
- Toptal: hourly or weekly booking of screened freelancers with a no-risk trial
- deepsense.ai: monthly access to about 120 employed ai specialists with production experience
Compare Index.dev with other AI Staff Augmentation providers
Verify all details directly with Index.dev before making a decision.