---
title: "Staff Augmentation Agency vs Managed Delivery | Azendo"
description: "Comparing a staff augmentation agency against a marketplace or a managed delivery partner? Here is what each model actually gives you, and what it costs."
url: "https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/staff-augmentation-agency/"
---

[Newsroom](https://azendo.co/newsroom/) [Engagement models](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/) 

# Choosing a staff augmentation agency? Compare all three options first.

An agency of this kind is one of three ways to add outside engineering capacity. The other two get less airtime and one is probably a better fit for what you are describing. Ten minutes here is cheaper than twelve months in the wrong agreement.

By Mikkel Schmidt  18 September 2026 

Three ways to buy capacity, and only one of them absorbs the management.

## What each model actually gives you

**A [staff augmentation](https://azendo.co/staff-augmentation/) agency**Sources and employs a specialist who then works under your direction. Fast, flexible, and the management is yours.

**A freelance marketplace**You contract an individual directly. Cheapest on paper, with nobody standing behind quality or continuity.

**A managed delivery partner**The provider runs the work and answers for it. Slower to start, and it does not add to your management load.

| Compared                            | Augmentation agency | Marketplace         | Managed delivery            |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------- | --------------------------- |
| Who manages daily                   | You                 | You                 | The provider                |
| Product knowledge if someone leaves | Lost                | Lost                | Held by the provider’s team |
| Answers for output                  | You                 | You                 | The provider                |
| Speed to start                      | Days to weeks       | Days                | 4–6 weeks                   |
| Best fit                            | Defined short gap   | Small low-risk task | Continuous work             |

## Five questions worth asking before you sign

Who manages this person day to day, and whose week does that come out of? If the work is late, who is accountable? What happens to the knowledge if they leave in month eight? Am I paying for hours or for output? And if my scope grows, does the agreement change or does the capacity?

The answers separate the three models faster than any price comparison.

Agencies selling the first model usually market it as [IT staff augmentation services](https://azendo.co/it-staff-augmentation-services/), and the commercial terms are worth reading side by side with a managed agreement before you sign either. Where the work is continuous rather than a contained gap, a [dedicated development team](https://azendo.co/services/dedicated-development-team/) is the arrangement the questions above tend to point towards.

## An agency arrangement against an assigned team.

What an agency covers, what it leaves with you, and how the coordination load grows as you add people.

What the monthly fee actually covers Both models solve the employment problem. Only one of them solves the delivery problem, and the gap is where the hourly rate difference goes. 

| Covered by the provider                   | Staff augmentation agency | Azendo managed service |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| Recruitment and selection                 | Yes                       | Yes                    |
| Employment, payroll and local compliance  | Yes                       | Yes                    |
| Office, equipment and network             | Yes                       | Yes                    |
| Sprint planning and day-to-day management | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Quality gates and code review standards   | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Training and development                  | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Performance management                    | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Knowledge retained if a specialist leaves | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Accountability for what ships             | No — stays with you       | Yes                    |
| Total covered                             | 3 of 9                    | 9 of 9                 |

Coordination hours a week falling on the client As the assigned team grows, staff augmentation agency transfers the hiring problem and keeps the management one. Azendo's estimate from our own engagements, at the midpoint of four to eight hours per specialist per week. 

__Client coordination hours per week, by team size__
| Team size     | Staff augmentation agency | Azendo managed service |
| ------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| 1 specialist  | 6 hours                   | 2 hours                |
| 3 specialists | 18 hours                  | 2.5 hours              |
| 5 specialists | 30 hours                  | 3 hours                |
| 8 specialists | 48 hours                  | 4 hours                |

## Questions people ask.

Is Azendo a staff augmentation agency? 

No. We assign specialists but keep management and accountability on our side, which is the defining difference from an agency arrangement.

Which model is cheapest? 

Marketplace on rate, agency in the middle, managed delivery highest per hour and frequently lowest per outcome. It depends entirely on whether you have management capacity to spend.

## Tell us what the roadmap needs and we will tell you what it takes.

A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[Get in touch](https://azendo.co/get-in-touch/) [How it works](https://azendo.co/how-it-works/) 

## Not sure which engagement model fits your roadmap.