Skip the 23-day hiring loop. Pick a stack, get four pre-vetted engineers on calls today, start shipping Monday. Weekly subscription. Cancel anytime.
Live preview · what booking looks like
142 engineers available now
Stack
Experience
Weekly rate
4 engineers match your filters · 30-min intro calls scheduled today
Powering teams atNORTHWINDAETHEROBSIDIANPRISM AILATTICEMERIDIAN
The flow
From requirement to shipping in under 72 hours.
01
Describe what you need
Stack, experience, vertical, weekly rate. 8 fields, two minutes.
02
AI assigns 4 engineers
Matched on stack, vertical experience, comms score, and your context.
03
30-min intro calls
Back-to-back today or tomorrow. You show up once. Pick up to two.
04
48 hours, free
Onboard, KT, ship a small thing. Convert one to weekly. Cancel the other.
Pricing
One weekly rate. No retainers. No notice periods.
40 hours per week, dedicated. Drop to 20 or 10 hours/day if you need part-time. Cancel or replace at the end of any week.
Junior
$500/ week
0–2 yrs · 40 hrs/week
AI-native, well-scoped tasks, needs guidance
Mid
$1000/ week
3–5 yrs · 40 hrs/week
Independent. Ships production code.
Most booked
Senior
$1500/ week
5–8 yrs · 40 hrs/week
Owns features end-to-end. Async-first.
Lead
$2000/ week
8+ yrs · 40 hrs/week
Architects, mentors. Fractional CTO energy.
48-hour free trial on every first booking. Don't like the engineer? Replace at zero cost.
No card charged until day 3
Why teams switch
They help you hire. Cadence lets you book.
Cadence
Toptal
Turing
Upwork
Time to engineer working
2 min → 24 hr
3–5 days
1–2 weeks
1–3 weeks
Free trial
48 hours
✗
2 weeks*
✗
Weekly billing
✓
Monthly
Monthly
Hourly
AI-native vetting
✓
✗
Partial
✗
Auto-replace on rating drop
✓
✗
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Cancel any week
✓
30-day
Monthly
✓
“Booked a senior React engineer Monday morning. They shipped a redesigned checkout by Friday. We never went back to recruiters.”
MO
Maya Okonkwo
CEO, Northwind
“The 48-hour trial is the unlock. I tried two engineers, kept one, fired one. No awkward conversations. Just better matching.”
DR
Daniel Reyes
CTO, Aether Health
Frequently asked
Common questions.
How is this different from Toptal or Turing?
Two things: speed and structure.
Toptal/Turing are recruiters. They source candidates and you run a hiring loop, interviews, negotiations, contracts, monthly minimums. Average time to a working engineer: 3-14 days.
Cadence is a booking platform. You describe the role, the system auto-matches 4 vetted engineers, you take 30-min intro calls today, pick one or more, and they start work in 48 hours. Weekly billing, cancel any week. No interviews, no contracts, no notice periods.
How does the matching work?
When you submit a booking, our algorithm scores every available engineer on five dimensions: skill overlap (40%), rate compatibility (20%), timezone fit (15%), past founder ratings (15%), and current utilization (10%). Vertical match (e.g. fintech, healthtech) adds a bonus.
We then schedule 4 × 30-min intro calls back-to-back at slots you picked, so you can decide on the same day.
What's the 48-hour free trial?
After intro calls you can pick one OR more engineers to start a 48-hour trial in parallel. They onboard, you observe how they work, ship something small. At the end of 48 hours you decide who to keep on weekly billing and who to release. You're not charged for any engineer you release.
Can I work with multiple engineers?
Yes. Pick more than one candidate after intro calls, each enters their own 48-hour trial in parallel. After the trial, keep any combination. Each engineer is on a separate weekly subscription so you can cancel them independently.
What happens if the engineer isn't a fit?
Two paths.
1. Mid-trial: release them with one click. No charge for trial work. We don't send another shortlist automatically, you can book a fresh request whenever.
2. Post-trial: hit "Replace at week-end" on the active engineer card. They wrap up at the end of the current week, and we shortlist 4 new engineers for intro calls tomorrow. The new engineer takes over Monday.
What does the engineer's day actually look like?
Async-first. Most engineers are in IST/EST/CET timezones; you set your preferred work hours during onboarding. They check in over Slack/Linear, attend a daily 15-min sync if you want one, and ship code. You give a 👍/👎 daily rating that takes 2 seconds. The data feeds the matching engine and engineer ratings.
Who are the engineers?
All engineers pass an AI-native voice interview (50% threshold) before they're matched to anyone. They self-report their stack, rate, and weekly availability. Top engineers (relevance score 90+) get priority on $1500–$2000/week tiers. We verify workspace, internet (200+ Mbps), and time-zone before activation.
How does pricing work?
Four tiers, $500 (Junior, 0-2 yrs), $1,000 (Mid, 3-5 yrs), $1,500 (Senior, 5-8 yrs), $2,000 (Lead, 8+ yrs) per week. 40 hours dedicated by default; you can drop to 10 or 20 hours/week. Engineer keeps 80% of the weekly rate; we keep 20%. If you came via a partner link, partner keeps 10% and we keep 10%.
Can I cancel any time?
Yes. Hit cancel on any active booking. Service ends at the end of the current week (we bill the partial week). You can also pause indefinitely without ending the engagement.
Do I sign a contract?
No long-term contract. Standard SaaS-style terms of service apply. Engineers operate as independent contractors via Cadence, IP belongs to your company, NDA is enforced through our platform terms, and we handle the contractor agreement on the engineer side.