Boundev AI
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Boundev vs Upwork

Upwork is for finding people.
We're for shipping AI features.

Posting an AI engineering job on Upwork means 50+ proposals to sift, hourly tracking with screenshots, code review you do yourself, and quality that's a coin flip. Boundev replaces all of that with one flat monthly subscription. Submit a task in plain English, a senior AI engineer ships it as a clean GitHub PR within the week — tests, eval suite, deploy guide included.

No vetting cycles·No hourly tracking·First task free if > 7 days
0
Proposals to filter
5–7d
From task to PR
Top 3%
Senior bench, no marketplace
$3,500
/mo flat — Pilot tier
Why Upwork is rough for AI work

Marketplaces optimise for cheap hours, not shipped features.

For routine work, that's fine. For AI engineering — where the gap between a generic full-stack dev and a senior LLM engineer is 10× — it's a tax in time, money, and shipped quality.

01
50 proposals, half tagged "AI"
Most of them are generic full-stack devs who added "AI" to their profile last quarter. You'll spend three evenings filtering, two interviews, and still guess.
02
Hourly tracking is a 2010 model
Screenshots and time logs measure the wrong thing. You're paying for hours seated, not features shipped. Slow contractors cost you more, fast ones cost you less.
03
Code review is your job
Upwork takes its 20% off the top and ships you the result. Whether the code is mergeable, tested, or production-ready is your problem to police.
04
Ghosting is a real risk
Your top freelancer is juggling 3–5 clients. The good ones disappear for a better offer mid-task. You absorb the cost of context-switching to a new contractor.
Why a subscription wins

Six things you only get on a flat monthly bench.

Each of these costs you hours every week on Upwork. On Boundev they're the default — folded into the same monthly number.

BENCH
Senior, vetted, no marketplace
Average 8+ years. Ex-FAANG, ex-AI lab, deep SaaS background. Not 'anyone with an Upwork account' — a fixed bench we hire and pay full-time.
OUTPUT
Output, not hours
You describe a task; we ship it. No screenshots, no hourly logs, no negotiating scope creep. The unit of value is the GitHub PR, not the timer.
REVIEW
Engineering-lead code review on every PR
Every delivery passes a senior review against an internal AI-engineering checklist before it lands in your repo. Quality is included, not hoped for.
PROOF
Tests, eval suite, deploy guide — every task
Each PR ships with passing tests, an eval suite for the AI behaviour, and a short Markdown deploy guide. The code is mergeable, not just "working on my machine".
RISK
First task free if shipped > 7 days
We bet on our own delivery. If your first task isn't merge-ready in 7 business days, the entire month's subscription is refunded. No save offer.
EXIT
Cancel any month, code is yours
No annual contract, no termination fee, no escrow. All code, prompts, evals and IP are delivered to your repo and licensed to you. Walk away whenever.
Side-by-side

The honest comparison.

FEATUREBOUNDEVUPWORK
Pricing modelFlat monthly subscriptionHourly + 20% service fee
Typical cost for one AI task$3,500/mo (Pilot, one task)$4,000–$15,000+ variable
VettingSenior bench, FAANG/AI-lab backgroundAnyone can apply
Time from brief to first PR5–7 days (median 5.4d)1–2 weeks just to hire
Code reviewEngineering lead reviews every deliveryYour responsibility
Tests + eval suite + deploy guideAlways includedWhatever you negotiate
What you measureOutput (PR shipped, eval pass)Hours logged + screenshots
Ghosting / no-show riskZero — we backfill internallyCommon in marketplace work
Stack alignmentPython primary, TS when needed, your repoWhatever the freelancer prefers
AI-engineering specialisationRAG, MCP, agents, LLM, evals, costGeneric full-stack tagged "AI"
CancellationOne click, any monthHourly contract — easy to end, hard to replace
MSA / DPA / SOC 2 / HIPAAOn Scale + EnterpriseMarketplace-level only
If you're already on Upwork

Switch in three steps. Keep your Upwork open.

You don't need to commit. Run one task in parallel, see how the math actually works, then decide.

Start with the free first task →
01Day 0
Pick one task you'd post on Upwork

A real backlog item. RAG over your docs, an MCP server, a Claude integration, an LLM cost audit. The smaller and more specific, the better.

02Day 0–7
Submit it as your first Boundev task

20-minute scoping call confirms scope and tier. We Slack-invite you and assign a senior engineer within 24 hours. We open the PR within 7 business days.

03Day 7+
Compare like-for-like

Hold your Upwork posting open during the cycle. If our PR ships faster, cleaner, and at lower true cost, swap fully. If not — first task is free.

Pricing

One flat number, three cadences.

No hourly tracking. No service fees. Cancel any month. First task free if not shipped in 7 business days.

Pilot
$3,500/mo
  • ✓1 AI task / month
  • ✓Async Slack
  • ✓GitHub PR + 1 revision round
  • ✓Cancel anytime
Talk to sales · Pilot
POPULAR
Growth
$6,500/mo
  • ✓2–3 tasks / month
  • ✓Daily Slack updates
  • ✓Unlimited revisions
  • ✓Dedicated AI Ops Manager
Talk to sales · Growth
Scale
$12,000/mo
  • ✓Unlimited within capacity
  • ✓Dedicated engineer
  • ✓Private Slack channel
  • ✓Weekly stakeholder sync
Talk to sales · Scale
Need a custom MSA, SOC 2 / HIPAA workflows, or multi-team Enterprise? Talk to us →
Upwork-specific FAQ

The questions we get every week.

Sticker-price, no — Upwork's $30–$80/hr looks cheaper. True cost, almost always yes-Boundev-is-cheaper. Upwork costs are: hourly rate × hours × 1.20 service fee + your time vetting + failed hires + management overhead + code review + missed deadlines. Boundev is one number, output-priced, ships in 5–7 days. For task-based AI engineering, the math leans toward us above ~25 hours of effort per month.
Stop bidding. Start shipping.

Your next AI feature, shipped in a week.

Free 20-minute scoping call. We tell you if we're a fit, what tier you'd need, and how fast we can ship — whether you sign up or not. No pitch, no SOW, no kickoff call.

WHAT YOU GET ON THE CALL
  • ✓20-min call with our AI Ops Manager
  • ✓Verbal scope of your AI feature
  • ✓Written summary in your inbox in 4 hours
  • ✓Effort estimate + recommended tier
  • ✓Zero pitch deck. Zero SOW.
Next slotToday · 4:30pm PT