Founding Engineer + workshop, or another full-time hire?
Day rate says nothing about delivery model, scaling and what you keep at the end.
A low day rate can look attractive. On a critical project, the real cost includes delays, technical debt and your management time. AEP isn't disguised human time — it's a reproducible pipeline.
| Criterion | Freelancer (~€400/day) | Senior employee | JST6 workshop (AEP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Human time | Human time | undefined |
| Scaling | 1 client / dev | 1 product / senior | undefined |
| Quality | Variable | High | undefined |
| AI in production | Prototype / vibe coding | Variable | undefined |
| Cloud & deployment | Often out of scope | Separate DevOps | undefined |
| Cost over 10 months | ~€80,000 + management | €120–150k | undefined |
When a €400/day freelancer may be enough
- •Isolated tasks, very detailed spec, no production stakes
- •You already have a CTO owning architecture
- •Ultra-tight budget, disposable deliverable accepted
When the iASSET workshop makes the difference
- MVP or rebuild with production requirements (security, compliance, scale)
- AI integration without technical debt — agents under control
- Need parallelized delivery without hiring 3 seniors