--- title: "An Agency, a Marketplace or a Managed Dev Team? | Azendo" description: "How to vet an agency, the red flags to watch for, and when a managed offshore software team beats an agency or a marketplace. Compare all three before you hire." url: "https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/staff-augmentation-agency/" --- 1. [Home](https://azendo.co/) 2. [Newsroom](https://azendo.co/newsroom/) 3. [Engagement models](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/) 4. An agency, a marketplace or a managed dev team? # An agency, a marketplace or a managed team: three ways to add engineers. A placement agency finds and employs specialists who join your team and work under your direction. It's one of three ways to add outside engineering capacity. The other two are a freelance marketplace and a managed offshore team. An agency suits a skill gap your own leads have time to manage. A managed offshore team suits ongoing work where you want the provider to manage the people for you. By [Mikkel Schmidt](https://azendo.co/about/mikkel-schmidt/) Published 18 September 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026 Three ways to add capacity, and one of them includes the management. ## What a placement agency does An agency of this kind runs three steps for you. It sources candidates for the role you describe, checks their skills and employs the one you choose. From then on that person works inside your team, on your tasks, under your direction. The agency invoices you for their time and handles their contract, salary and payroll. It’s a recruiting and employment service with a monthly invoice attached. That’s useful when you know exactly what you need, you have someone to direct the work, and you want to skip a long hiring process. An agency doesn’t manage the work, take responsibility for the output or keep the knowledge when the person moves on. ## Four kinds of provider you’ll meet **Local IT staffing agencies.** Specialists in your own country, often contractors. They work your hours under your country’s law, and you pay close to a local salary plus a margin. **Offshore staffing agencies.** Engineers employed in a lower-cost country and placed with clients abroad. The rate is lower, and quality varies widely with how the agency selects and supports its people. Our guide to [offshore staffing](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/offshore-staffing/) covers what changes when the people sit in another country. **Niche agencies.** Agencies that cover one area, such as data, security or a single language ecosystem. Deep candidate pools, narrow scope. **Talent marketplaces.** Platforms that match you with independent freelancers. Fastest and cheapest, with vetting, continuity and management all on your side. Agencies usually market their offer as [IT staff augmentation services](https://azendo.co/services/it-staff-augmentation-services/). The label varies more than the model. ## How to vet an agency Five areas tell you most of what you need to know. **Selection.** How candidates are tested, by whom, and how many pass. An agency that can’t give you a number usually doesn’t track one. **Bench or recruiting.** Whether the candidates already work for the agency or are recruited for your request. A bench starts faster. Recruiting fits your stack more closely. **Retention.** How long people stay with the agency on average. Every departure costs you weeks of ramp-up for the next person. **Replacement terms.** What happens when someone leaves or doesn’t fit: how fast a new person arrives, and who pays for the weeks of onboarding. **Workplace and security.** Whether specialists work from the agency’s office on managed equipment, from a co-working space or from home. ## Red flags when choosing an agency * The proposed candidate is also interviewing with other clients for the same start date. * The rate drops sharply after you push back, with no change in who you get. * The agency can’t say who employs the person or where they will work. * Replacement is “best effort”, with no time limit in the contract. * Fees for hiring the person directly are high enough to lock you in. * Every question about management gets the same answer: that’s up to you. ## An agency, a marketplace or a managed team Scroll the table sideways to see every column. | Compared | Placement agency | Marketplace | Managed offshore team | | ------------------------------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------- | --------------------------------- | | Who manages day to day | You | You | The provider | | Product knowledge when someone leaves | Leaves with them | Leaves with them | Stays with the team | | Who follows up on performance | You | You | The provider | | Time to get people | Days to weeks | Days | Four weeks to hire | | Best fit | A defined, short gap | A small, low-risk task | Ongoing work on a growing product | If an agency offers you a whole group of engineers, the choice becomes [team augmentation vs managed team](https://azendo.co/blog/engagement-models/staff-augmentation-vs-managed-services/), and the same rows decide it. ## Five questions to ask before you sign 1. Who manages this person day to day, and whose week does that come out of? 2. If the work is late, who is accountable? 3. What happens to the knowledge if they leave in month eight? 4. Am I paying for hours or for output? 5. If my scope grows, does the agreement change or only the capacity? The answers point you to the right model faster than any price comparison. A short, defined gap with a lead who has time points to an agency. Ongoing work on a growing product, with leads who are already stretched, points to a [dedicated development team for hire](https://azendo.co/hire-a-dedicated-development-team-in-thailand/) from a managed provider. ## When to choose a managed team over an agency We built Azendo for the second case. You get augmentation for tech roles with the management included. The engineers are ours, each assigned full time to one client. They work from our offices in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, on equipment we provide. A service delivery manager meets you every two weeks to go through the deliveries, and steps in with training when something needs correcting. Every specialist has a Talent Success manager, a development plan that is rebuilt each quarter and coaching to match. They stay with Azendo for 3.3 years on average. Companies use this model to hire remote developers without adding to their management load. If you need several roles at once, a [dedicated development team](https://azendo.co/services/dedicated-software-development-team/) brings them together. Developers, testers and DevOps engineers work under a single agreement, for one fixed monthly fee. Send us a message Tell us what you want to build. We come back with the team we would assign and what it costs. ## A placement agency compared with a managed team. What an agency covers, what it leaves with you, and how the coordination load grows as you add people. What the monthly fee covers Both models handle employment. A managed team also handles delivery, and that is what the fuller fee pays for. | Covered by the provider | Placement agency | Azendo managed service | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------ | ---------------------- | | Recruitment and selection | Yes | Yes | | Employment, payroll and local compliance | Yes | Yes | | Office, equipment and network | Yes | Yes | | Day-to-day management of the people | No, stays with you | Yes | | Check-ins on delivery every two weeks | 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 the service | No, stays with you | Yes | | Total covered | 3 of 9 | 9 of 9 | Coordination hours a week falling on the client As the team grows, placement agency takes on the hiring and leaves the management with you. Azendo's estimate from our engagements, at the midpoint of four to eight hours per specialist per week. __Client coordination hours per week, by team size__ | Team size | Placement 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 about agencies, marketplaces and managed teams. Is Azendo an agency? Not in the usual sense. An agency places a person and leaves the managing to you. We offer augmentation for tech roles with the managing included. The people we assign work on your product alone, and a service delivery manager follows up on delivery with you. Training, the workplace, HR and payroll are our job too. Which option is cheapest? A marketplace is cheapest on rate, an agency sits in the middle, and a managed team is highest per hour and often lowest per outcome. The answer depends on how much management time you can spare. Our estimate is four to eight hours a week for each person you manage yourself. How do agencies vet candidates? Most run a technical interview or a take-home test, and some add a live coding session and reference checks. Ask for the steps and the pass rate. At Azendo very few candidates get through the technical, problem-solving and communication stages, and culture fit and mindset count as much as hard skills. Should we use a local or an offshore agency? A local agency shares your working day and costs close to local salaries. An offshore agency costs less and needs more planning around time zones and management. If you go offshore, the provider's own offices, equipment and local management matter more than the rate, because they decide quality and continuity. ## Tell us what you want to build and we will tell you what it takes. A service delivery manager replies with the roles 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 business.