A cohesive dedicated development team in CET timezone — a managed alternative to matching individual engineers from a global talent network.
Andela built its reputation on a bold idea: brilliance is evenly distributed around the world, and a global talent network can connect it to companies anywhere. As a way to source vetted individual engineers across Africa, Latin America, and beyond, the network model works — and at global scale.
The question is what happens after the match. Every placement from a talent network arrives as an individual: their own contract, their own rate, their own timezone, their own working habits. If what you actually need is a product team — people who plan together, review each other's code, and hold a roadmap collectively — the network hands you excellent parts and leaves the assembly to you.
StepTo starts where the network model stops. We are a software company in Serbia whose engineers are salaried colleagues, not matched contractors. We assign them to you as a dedicated, exclusively-yours team for a fixed $15K-25K/month (3 developers), onboarded in 2-3 weeks, working a single CET day alongside your EU, UK, or US East Coast hours. Below is an honest comparison of the two models.
Model differences, not marketing — based on publicly known characteristics of the talent-network approach
| Factor | Andela (global talent network) | StepTo (dedicated team) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-engineer billing through the network; each placement is priced individually by seniority and region | One fixed monthly invoice — $15K-25K/month for a 3-developer team, management and equipment included |
| Engagement model | Global talent network: Andela matches your open roles with vetted engineers from its worldwide community | Dedicated team: StepTo employees assigned exclusively to you, working as one coordinated unit |
| Vetting process | Network-side vetting — engineers are assessed when they join the Andela network, then matched to client roles | Per-engagement vetting: technical screening, live code review, your own interview, and a 2-week trial with free replacement |
| Team continuity | Matched engineers are independent placements; when a contract ends they may move to another client | Same engineers stay on your product — 95% retention, 2.5+ year average tenure |
| Timezone | Distributed across Africa, Latin America, and other regions; overlap depends on where each match is based | Everyone in one office timezone: CET/CEST, full EU overlap and 6+ hours with US East Coast |
| Minimum engagement | Typically structured around full-time, per-role placements | Start with one augmented engineer from $4,500/month, or a full team from $13,500/month |
Descriptions of Andela reflect the publicly documented talent-network model as of mid-2026; specific terms vary by engagement. We compare structures, not confidential rates.
We would rather you choose the right model than choose us for the wrong reasons.
Andela's defining strength is geographic breadth. If the skill you need is rare and you do not care where the person sits, a worldwide network searches a bigger haystack than any single-country provider can.
Companies with mature async processes, strong internal EMs, and experience managing remote individual contributors get the most from a matching model — they supply the glue the model leaves out.
Filling a defined role for a defined period is exactly what a placement network is built for. It is when the work is an evolving product needing a durable team that the model starts to strain.
Per-engineer sourcing has a cost that never appears on an invoice: integration. Each matched engineer needs onboarding, norms, review culture, and coordination — supplied by your senior people, whose time is usually the scarcest resource you have. Add a second and third placement, possibly in different hemispheres, and the coordination load grows faster than headcount.
There is also a budgeting asymmetry. Network placements are priced individually, so your engineering spend is the sum of separately negotiated rates that can move at each renewal. A StepTo dedicated team inverts this: one fixed monthly fee — $15K-25K for a 3-developer team — that already covers delivery management, HR, equipment, and replacements. Growth is priced the same way: adding a fourth developer is a known increment, not a fresh negotiation.
Finally, continuity. When placements roll off between engagements, the product knowledge they carried resets to zero. Because StepTo developers are long-tenured employees (95% retention, 2.5+ years average), the knowledge your team builds in year one is still compounding in year three. See our dedicated development team page and pricing for the full model.
Four structural differences from per-role global matching
With individually matched engineers, every placement is its own relationship to manage. StepTo gives you a single agreement, a single delivery manager, and a team whose performance we answer for collectively.
Per-engineer pricing means every hire reopens a rate negotiation and every quarter brings utilization math. A fixed $15K-25K/month for a 3-dev team turns engineering capacity into a predictable line item.
Our developers already share standards, code review culture, and standup discipline before they meet you. You onboard a functioning unit in 2-3 weeks instead of assembling one placement at a time.
Serbia sits in the heart of European working hours and business culture. For EU and UK companies that means same-calendar collaboration; for US East Coast teams, a long shared afternoon every day.
Andela operates a global talent network: it vets engineers into its community and matches them individually to client roles, with each placement priced and managed as its own engagement. StepTo is a Serbian software company that assigns its own employees to you as a cohesive dedicated team at a fixed monthly rate ($15K-25K/month for 3 developers), with delivery management, HR, and equipment included. In short: Andela sells access to matched individuals from a worldwide pool; StepTo sells a managed team in a single European timezone.
Choose a global talent network when your need is a specific individual skill rather than a team, when you have internal engineering managers ready to direct and integrate each contractor, and when worldwide sourcing breadth matters more to you than timezone alignment. Andela's network model is genuinely strong for role-by-role hiring at global scale. StepTo is the better fit when you want an accountable, pre-cohesive team, fixed monthly budgeting, and daily real-time overlap with European or US East Coast hours.
The models differ more than the numbers. Network placements are priced per engineer, so total cost scales with each hire's seniority and rate, and your own management time sits on top. StepTo charges a fixed monthly fee — $15,000-25,000/month for a 3-developer team, or staff augmentation from $4,500/month per engineer — that already includes team management, HR, equipment, and replacement guarantees. Clients switching from per-engineer models typically report 40-60% lower total cost at equivalent seniority once management overhead is counted.
Deliberately not — and that is the point. A worldwide network can place engineers in almost any timezone, which suits follow-the-sun setups. StepTo concentrates everyone in CET/CEST: full-day overlap with the EU and UK, and 6+ working hours shared with the US East Coast. Companies choose us precisely because they want their whole team in one timezone, in one office culture, rather than coverage spread across continents.
The first two weeks of every engagement are a structured trial: if you are unsatisfied for any reason, we replace the developer at no cost. After that, our retention economics work in your favor — StepTo developers are salaried employees with career paths, not gig-matched contractors, which is why 95% stay and average tenure exceeds 2.5 years. If a replacement is ever needed, we handle the knowledge transfer inside the same team rather than restarting a matching process.
Services, comparisons, and guides for building your engineering team
Tell us what you are building and we will propose a concrete team composition, a fixed monthly price, and a 2-3 week onboarding plan — side by side with what your current per-engineer setup costs. If the network model still fits you better, we will say so.
Tell us what you're building and we'll get back to you within one business day with a no-obligation assessment.
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Work with accountable, English-fluent professionals who communicate clearly, protect quality, and deliver with a steady operating rhythm. Cost efficiency matters, but performance is why clients stay with us.
