When startups think about building their product, the first instinct is often: “Let’s hire developers.” It sounds simple — but the reality is much more complicated.
The cost of bringing developers in-house goes far beyond salaries. In fact, U.S. startups often spend 3–6 months and thousands of dollars before a single feature is shipped.
Here are the hidden costs most founders don’t see until it’s too late.
💵 1. Salary + Overhead (The Obvious Cost)
Hiring developers in the U.S. usually means $120K–$180K per year per developer.
But salaries are just the start. Add:
- Benefits and insurance
- Office costs (if hybrid)
- Training and onboarding time
The real cost of a single developer is often 25–30% higher than salary alone.
⏳ 2. Recruiting & Hiring Delays
Hiring isn’t fast. Between job postings, interviews, technical tests, and negotiations, startups lose 3–6 months before the right person joins.
During that time:
- Your roadmap is stalled
- Your burn rate keeps climbing
- Competitors may already launch
Momentum is one of the hardest things to regain once it’s lost.
📉 3. Turnover & Retention Risks
Even after months of recruiting, there’s no guarantee your new hire will stay.
- Developers leave for better offers
- Cultural or skill mismatches appear
- Retention costs (raises, perks) pile up
Each restart means repeating the cycle — and losing even more time.
🤯 4. Management Overhead
Hiring isn’t just about writing code. Someone has to:
- Manage tasks
- Clarify scope
- Review pull requests
- Align dev work with business goals
For early-stage founders, this often means losing focus on customers and growth to manage a dev team instead.
🚀 A Smarter Alternative: SDaaS (Software Development as a Service)
At Codex Central, we designed SDaaS to remove these hidden costs. Instead of long hiring cycles and unpredictable overhead, you get:
✅ Flat, predictable monthly pricing
✅ Requests managed through our StackBoard platform
✅ Features, fixes, and builds delivered by senior developers
✅ Flexibility to pause, resume, or scale anytime
🔑 Key Takeaway
Hiring in-house isn’t just expensive — it’s unpredictable. Between overhead, delays, and retention risks, most startups burn through cash long before they launch.
With SDaaS, you can start shipping this week, with a model built for founder flexibility and startup speed.
👉 Discover how it works here: codexcentral.com/hiw
